Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/222

170 learned than they was the thief, who, hanging on the cross, bare witness to Christ, saying: "This man hath done nothing amiss," Luke 23:41.

And, so far as the chief purpose of the doctors goes, who intend that the pope ought to be the judge of all cases and that whoso does not obey him ought to die the death of the body, these doctors ought to be reverenced for their apish and cruel comparison [that is, to those who put Christ to death], especially as our Lord Jesus Christ, priest of both Testaments, neither wished to pronounce civil judgment nor to condemn the disobedient to bodily death. For, so far as the first goes, he said: "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?" Luke 12:14. And so far as the second, he said to the woman taken in adultery, whom the Pharisees pronounced worthy of death according to the law: "Neither do I condemn thee; go thy way; from henceforth sin no more," John 8: 11.

But, perhaps it may be said by the doctors that this is not to the point, that the law says: "He who does presumptuously, not willing to obey the rule of the priest." See, I will give a case in form—for, Christ said: "If thy brother sin against thee, go show him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother, but if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established; and if he refuse to hear them, tell it to the church: and if he refuse to hear the church let him be unto thee as the gentile and the publican," Matt. 18: 15–17. See, to whom the supreme lord of the law and the supreme pontiff speaks? Certainly to Peter, the future Roman pontiff, next after himself, that he might kindly correct the erring and convince the disobedient person before witnesses, and if he remained hardened in disobedience he spoke to the church, that is, he announced to the multitude, not to put to death the perverse and disobedient with corporal death, but to avoid him