Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/248

 asked to explain their conduct, it is likely they would be embarrassed to assign a good reason for it; and as I should not myself have known how to answer a similar inquiry, I have never, on that account, dared to act in this manner, however great might have been the crimes committed against the Church. Nevertheless, if God has revealed to you that this may be done with justice, I shall not despise your youth, and your little experience of the weight of episcopacy. Behold me, then, an old man, and for many years a bishop, ready to learn from a young man, my colleague a year since only, how I should justify myself before God and men, if I inflicted a spiritual punishment on innocent souls for the sins of others.”

John Huss, after supporting his argument by the imposing authority of St Augustin, energetically addresses the doctors, his adversaries, and asks them if they believe in their conscience that it is an unimportant thing, keeping the middle path between good and evil, to deprive the innocent of the sacraments, and of sepulture—to prohibit divine service, and give rise, in consequence, to so much scandal, calumny, and hatred. “O doctors!” he exclaims, “to what church belongs this language? Is it that of an apostolical church? Say whether it be the language of an apostle, or of a saint. Assuredly it is not that of Jesus Christ, of the Chief of the Holy Church,