Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/338

286 his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who when he was reviled, reviled not again, and when he suffered, threatened not," I Peter 2:21-23. And Paul traversing the same path, said: "Bless them that persecute you; bless and curse not," Romans 12:14. This doctrine the other saints also followed, who, in the time of persecution did not fulminate excommunication or suspension or impose the interdict, but when more serious persecution came, the more urgent were they in performing divine ministries.

But after the thousand years, when Satan was loosed and the clergy was fat with the refuse of this world and lifted up in pleasure, pride, and ease, the interdict had its origin. For Pope Hadrian, who began to reign 1153, for a wound which one cardinal had received, placed all Rome under the interdict. Oh, how patient under trial was that pope — not, indeed, as Christ, Peter, or Paul, or the apostle Andrew! Later Alexander III also, who began to rule 1159, placed the interdict on the kingdom of England, de Sponsalibus, cap. 2, Non est vobisBoniface VIII, Innocent IV and Clement V imposed interdicts of this kind, in the Liber Sextus and the Clementines [Friedberg, 2: 937 sqq.]. And in this way many such interdicts have been multiplied, while the clergy were inflamed with avarice, the pomp of this world and restless ambition.