Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/117



the poor. For whatsoever God doth give to us more than we have need of, he doth not give it us specially for ourselves; but doth send it us to be bestowed upon others by our hands: if we do not give it, we invade another man's possessions."

Thus much writeth St. Augustine, and it is repeated in the 16 question, 1. "Decimæ."

Also St. Jerome in an epistle, and it is put in the sixteenth question, chap. ii. "Quiquid." " Whatsoever the clergy have, it is the goods of the poor."

Also St. Augustine in his thirty-third epistle to Boniface; and it is alleged in the first question, and 12.

Also in the twenty-third question, 7. "If we do possess any things privately which do suffice us, they are not ours, but the goods of the poor, whose stewards we are, except we do challenge to ourselves a property by some damnable usurpation." The Gloss upon that part of the twenty-third question, 7. saith, "The prelates are only the stewards of the church-goods, and not lords thereof."

St. Ambrose, also, upon this saying of the gospel (Luke xvi.), "Give account of your bailiship or stewardship:" "Hereby then do we learn, that they are not lords, but rather stewards and bailiffs of other men's substance."

And St. Jerome, writing to Nepotianus, saith, "How can they be of the clergy, who are commanded to contemn and despise their own substance? To take away from a friend is theft; to deceive the church is sacrilege, and to take away that which should be given unto the poor."

And St. Bernard, in his sermon upon these words, "Simon Peter said unto Jesus" (John xix.), said "Truly, the goods of the church, are the patrimony of the poor: and whatsoever thing the ministers and stewards of the same, not lords or possessors, do take unto themselves more than sufficient for a competent living, the same is taken away from the poor by a sacrilegious cruelty."

And Eusebius, in his treatise upon the pilgrimage of St. Jerome, writeth thus: "If thou dost possess a garment, or any other thing more than extreme necessity doth require, and dost not help the needy, thou art a thief and a robber. Wherefore, dearly beloved children, let us be stewards of our temporalties, and not possessors."

And Isidore, in his treatise, "De summo bono," chap, xlii., saith, "Let the bishop know that he is the servant of the people, and not lord over them."

Also in the fifth book of Decretals, "Extra de donationibus," sub auctoritate Alexandri tertii, episcopi Parisiensis.' He saith, "We believe that it is not unknown unto your brotherhood, that a bishop, and every other prelate, is but a steward of the church-goods, and not lord thereof." By these sayings of these holy men it is evidently declared, that not only tithes, but also all other substance which the clergy have by gift or work of mercy, are pure alms, which, after the necessity of the clergy is once satisfied, ought to be transported unto the poor.

Secondly, it is declared how the clergy are not lords and possessors of those goods, but ministers and stewards thereof.

Thirdly, it is showed, that if the clergy do abuse the same, they are thieves, robbers, and sacrilegious persons, and, except they do repent, by the just judgment of God they are to be condemned.

And thus, hitherto, I may peradventure seem to have made sufficiently long recital out of John Huss, but so notwithstanding, that the commodity of those things may abundantly recompense the prolixity thereof. Wherefore, if I shall seem unto any man, in the rehearsal of this disputation, to have passed very far the bounds of the history, let him think thus of me, that at what time I took in hand to write of these ecclesiastical matters, I could not omit these things which were so straitly joined with the cause of the church. Not that I