Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/200

148 words. Therefore, it happens when a pastor walks along steep places, the flock follows him to the precipice"; because, when laymen have learned the sayings of prelates, they are perverted by their works. "Hence, it is written by the prophet: 'Wicked priests are the cause of the people's downfall,' and of these the Lord said through the prophet: 'They are made to be a stumbling-block of iniquity to the house of Israel' [ Hosea 5:8]. For indeed no one does more injury in the church than he who acts perversely and yet has the name and order of sanctity. For no one dares to oppose and refute such a delinquent, and his guilt is greatly extended, becoming an example, when the sinner is honored on account of the reverence paid to his order. For the unworthy would flee the dangers of such a burden of guilt if they would carefully consider the meaning of the truth, namely, 'Whoso shall cause one of these little ones who believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hung about his neck, and he should be sunk in the depth of the sea,' Matt. 18:6. By 'a great millstone' is meant the treadmill and sorrow of the secular life; and by the 'depth of the sea' is meant utmost damnation. He, therefore, who, led along by the appearance of sanctity, destroys others either by word or example, would truly be far better off if his worldly acts under an external cloak bound such an one to death, rather than that the ministries of his sacred office performed in guilt should show to others that he was changeable, because, doubtless, if he was the only one to fall, a more tolerable pain of hell would torment him."

That Holy Pope knew the conditions and dangers incident to a prelate's life and especially incident to the position of the Roman pontiff, inasmuch as his sin of commission and omission would be a scandal to the whole Christian people. For it is said goodness in a pope is like salt for all, and badness in him inures to the damnation of persons without number, Dist. 40, Si Papa [Friedberg, 1: 146]. If, therefore,