Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/319

Rh and examine the proceedings, whether they are just or unjust, and to advise others, when the emergency arises, whether processes ought to be admitted and held or whether they ought not be admitted and held; or whether it is lawful to take appeal from them. This is clear, because the doctors have irrationally shut themselves off on both sides from a reasonable judgment.

But how the processes fulminated against me are null and erroneous, the Venerable Master John de Jesenicz, doctor of canon law, showed most clearly by a public discussion and in a decision in the university of Bologna. And because, as I have said, processes of this kind chiefly enjoin excommunication, suspension and interdict, for that reason I will say something about them briefly.

Let it be first noted that excommunication means placing outside of communication, 11: 3, Nihil. and ''cap. Canonica [Friedberg, 1: 653, 674]; 29: 1, Viduas [Friedberg, 1: 1091]; 24: 3 [Friedberg, 1: 988]; 11: 3, Omnis Christianus'' [Friedberg, 1: 653], and the chapter following. And, because excommunication is better understood through its opposite, namely, communication or communion—inasmuch as by the opposite of what is good everything good is understood, so also of evil and its opposite—therefore it is to be noted that communication or good communion is threefold. The first is the participation of divine grace, which makes gracious. This the apostle wishes for the Corinthians, when he says: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communication of the Holy Spirit be with you all," II Cor. 13:13. This communication is the communion of the saints, who are Christ's mystical body, the body of which Christ is the head, and this communion we believe when we say: "I believe the communion of saints." The second communication or communion is the participation in the sacraments. "There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism," Eph. 4:5. It is especially taken, however, for the partici-