Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/206

154 reason, Paul truly and humbly made this confession concerning himself: "I am least of all the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle," I Cor. 15:9. On this account, therefore, the Roman pontiff would not make such a profession if the imperial dignity were not in the way. Wherefore, the conclusion holds that from God direct and not from a man—who is not God—or from a mere man, does the pope hold the excellency of his rank. But he should make himself deserving of that rank by an humble demeanor and without pomp. And if Cæsar's dignity exalts the pope in the eyes of the world when he is without humility and a holy life, how can this exaltation fit in with the life and glory of Christ, when antichrist is exalted in the same worldly way?

As for the second point—the subjection of the kingdoms—it is said that at first it was rendered without the pope's seeking, but arose out of fear of the emperor's command, according to which all peoples did not owe subjection to him, that he should have secular rule over them, and therefore that subjection does not argue for the necessity that a Roman pontiff and his cardinals govern until the end of time.

Thirdly, concerning the testimony of the doctors who treat of the pope's power, it is alleged, that all who thus magnify the pope's power and say that he can do without guilt whatsoever he wills and that nobody has the right to ask why he does this or that—all these are mendacious rhetoricians, leading the people of our Lord Jesus Christ astray. Nor ought such to be believed except as their words are founded in Scripture. For thus the great doctor, Augustine, often asserted of himself that he ought to be believed only so far as he had grounded himself in Scripture. It is evident, that God may give other successors of the apostles than the pope and the cardinals, just as he was able to give others in the place of the pontiffs of the old law, the scribes and the Pharisees with their traditions. And to these, who did not