Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/500

 thief and robber.' Then the bishops and cardinals, looking one upon another, said, that he was a true pope, and laughed John Huss to scorn.

The fifth article: 'The pope is not, neither ought to be called, according unto his office. Most holy; for then the king ought also to be called Most holy, according to his office. Also the tormentors, lictors, and devils, ought also to be called Holy.' Answer. My words are otherwise placed, in this manner: 'So ought a feigner to say, that if any man be a most holy father, then he doth most holily observe and keep his fatherliness: and if he be a naughty and wicked father, then doth he most wickedly keep the same. Likewise, if the bishop be most holy, then is he also most good; and when he saith that he is pope, it is the name of his office.' Whereupon it followeth, that 'the man who is pope, being an evil and reprobate man, is a most holy man; and consequently by that his office he is most good.' And forasmuch as no man can be good by his office, except he do exercise and use the same his office very well; it followeth, that 'if the pope be an evil and reprobate man, he cannot exercise or use his office well: forasmuch as he cannot use the office well, except he be morally good [Matt, xii.], How can you speak good things, when you yourselves are evil? 'And immediately after it followeth, 'If the pope, by reason of his office, be called Most holy, wherefore should not the king of Romans be called Most holy, by reason of his office and dignity? when the king, according to St. Augustine's mind, representeth the Deity and Godhead of Christ, and the priest representeth only his humanity. Wherefore, also, should not judges, yea, even tormentors, be called Holy, forasmuch as they have their office by ministering unto the church of Christ?' 'These things are more at large discoursed in my book; but I cannot find or know,' saith John Huss, 'any foundation whereby I should call the pope Most holy, when this is only spoken of Christ: Thou only art most holy: thou only art the Lord, &c. Should I then truly call the pope Most holy?'

The sixth article: 'If the pope live contrary unto Christ, albeit he be lawfully and canonically elected and chosen, according to human election, yet doth he ascend and come in another way than by Christ.' Answer. The text is thus: 'If the pope live contrary to Christ, in pride and avarice, how then doth he not ascend and come in another way into the sheepfold, than by the lowly and meek door, our Lord Jesus Christ?' But admit, as you say, that he did ascend by lawful election (which I call an election principally made of God, and not according to the common and vulgar constitution and ordinance of men), yet for all that, it is affirmed and proved, that he should ascend and come in another way: for Judas Iscariot was truly and lawfully chosen of the Lord Jesus Christ unto his bishopric, as Christ saith in John vi., And yet he came in another way into the sheepfold, and was a thief, and a devil, and the son of perdition. Did he not come in another way when our Saviour spake thus of him, He that eateth bread with me, shall lift up his heel against me? The same also is proved by St. Bernard unto pope Eugenius. Then said Paletz: 'Behold the fury and madness of this man; for what more furious or mad thing can there be, than to say, Judas is chosen by Christ, and notwithstanding he did ascend another way, and not by Christ? 'John Huss answered: 'Verily both parts are true, that he was elected and chosen by Christ, and also that he did ascend, and came in another way; for he was a thief, a devil, and the son of perdition.' Then said Paletz: 'Cannot a man be truly and lawfully chosen pope, or bishop, and afterwards live contrary to Christ? And that, notwithstanding, he doth not ascend by any other ways.' 'But I,' said John Huss, 'do say, that whosoever doth enter into any bishopric, or like office, by simony, not to the intent to labour and travail in the church of God, but rather to live delicately, voluptuously, and unrighteously, and to the intent to advance himself with all kind of pride, every such man ascendeth and cometh up by another way, and, according unto the gospel, he is a thief and a robber.'

The seventh article: 'The condemnation of the forty-five articles of John Wickliff made by the doctors, is unreasonable and wicked, and the cause by them alleged is feigned and untrue; that is to say, that none of those articles are catholic, but that every of them be either heretical, erroneous or offensive.' Answer: 'I have written it thus in my treatise: The forty-five articles are condemned for this cause, that none of those forty-five is a catholic article, but each of them is either heretical, erroneous or offensive. O Master Doctor!