Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/18

xiv However, among the militant churches the Roman church is the principal one."

The church is not inerrant. One of the proofs given is that the church chose Agnes, a woman, pope and consented to be ruled over by her. Indeed, the Roman church with the pope and cardinals may be transformed into Sodom, but against the Church of Christ the gates of hell cannot prevail.

Pope and prelates are not necessarily in authority by reason of appointment or election to office. They only are true officials, and only the authority of those prelates is to be acknowledged, whose lives are in accordance with Christ's precepts. The standard of judgment is found in the words, "by their fruits ye shall know them," a passage Huss quoted again and again.

All these assertions make straight in the direction of the rights of private judgment. On that principle Huss justified his refusal to obey the Roman pontiff and other ecclesiastical superiors.

2. The Papacy. The Roman pontiff is not the head of the church on earth. Christ is the head. Not by delegated authority does Christ's promise, "Lo, I am with you alway," become effective. Every predestinate person is immediately joined to him and receives from him grace and religious power even as the body receives sensation and guidance from the head. Were this not the case, the church would have many times been acephalous, without a head, as in the interims between the death of one pontiff and the election of his successor. The pope, so the doctors affirmed, is the head of the whole militant church, its heart, its navel, its unfailing fountain, and its all-sufficient refuge—caput, cor,