Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/245

 opinion the authority of the canon law, as well as the Fathers, from whom he quotes many passages, extracted especially from Nicholas Lyra and Saint Augustin. In the last chapters, Huss inveighs energetically against the abuse of excommunication, suspensions, and interdicts.

“One ought not to be excommunicated,” continues Huss, “but on account of a mortal sin which separates from the grace of God. The major excommunication is pronounced against a public sinner, and it is that which was pronounced against myself; but blessed be God, who has not given to this excommunication the power of taking away justice and virtue from a just man, and of making him become a sinner I am more afraid of the greatest of all excommunications, viz. that by which the Sovereign Pontiff, in presence of angels and men, will eternally excommunicate the wicked from all participation in eternal beatitude It is on that One, that he who judges should reflect, through fear of excommunicating unjustly; for whoever shall excommunicate a man from temporal interest or pride, or in order to revenge himself of some injury, and against his conscience, excommunicates himself.

“As to suspension, it is God who pronounces it against every bad priest who lives scandalously and criminally.