A Study of Peter Chelčický's Life and a Translation from Czech of Part I of His Net of Faith (1947)/Part 2/Section 4b
CHAPTER XV
THE POPE'S GUILT IN THE TRANSACTION CALLED "DONATIO CONSTANTINI"
We shall consider every one of the wicked hordes separately, about how they offend the law of God, in what particular way distinctive from the technique of other hordes they rend the net of faith. But first of all let us look at the two mighty whales which have done the greatest damage to the net of faith and which still keep on tearing it, namely, the chief spiritual lord1 and the chief earthly lord.2
First, consider the spiritual lord, how he has pressed himself into the affairs of this earth and into the pagan play of power, presuming withal to follow the apostolic faith or the apostolic office, while actually desiring to rule over both the world and the faith.The Pope's First Offense This High Priest offended the law of Christ for the first time when he abandoned the honesty and innocence of the apostolic state which he was bound by faith to maintain till death, that is, to remain in poverty and to continue working, preaching, and in any other service appertaining to the apostolic vocation. Therefore, to abandon this laboriousness, simplicity, poverty, and humility, is no easy transgression of the law of God and the apostolic state. He could not have offended the divine law and the apostolic state so profoundly had he not at the same time been sitting in the place of the apostles, carrying out their office.
Furthermore, he could not have offended the law of God by giving up simplicity, poverty, humility and work, had he not been bound to keep these qualities till death by the law of God. To abandon the law of God, to do things reprehensible to it that is insulting it! We find it clearly written in the Gospel that the apostolic man is bound to poverty, humility, and work, in imitation of the example of Christ and his apostles to whom he said: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."3 They accepted the words of Christ and kept them till their death, not owning any business, estate or temporal fief. They kept his commandment. Sylvester was duty bound to keep it, too. And he is guilty of transgression because he did not abide by his obligation.
The High Priest has offended the law of Christ and the apostolic office for the second time when he brought distasteful additions into the apostolic state;The Pope's Second Offense he thinks to increase the dignity of the apostolic office by accepting imperial domains and worldly honors superior to the Emperor. He is burdened with a monstrous pride, enjoying it when people kneel and fall before him as if he were God, and he is busy with the administration of his domains4 and with physical pleasures.
And with all this he imagines himself a worthy successor of the apostles when, in truth, he desecrated his priesthood and corrupted his office by these revolting privileges.Papacy Grafted
on the Tree of
Imperialism The more he holds to things contrary to apostolic teaching, the more he defiles his office in which he calls himself vicar. He has the office but does very little officiating: he seldom celebrates mass, he never preaches, and he never works; that is, the only work which he instituted for himself is the blessing of those he loves and the excommunication of those he does not love. And so he lies in luxuries and gorges himself like a hog wallowing in a sty. It is true that Sylvester himself did not live such a debauched life, but it is he who introduced all this paganism by accepting pagan ways of ruling and worldly emperor-like honors; all that evil he planted in the throne which they call the See of Saint Peter (no one has ever seen Peter sitting on so proud a seat!).
He was grafted by the Emperor onto the tree of pagan rule in order to enjoy the most exalted priesthood, and everything stemming from the grafting of this tree is supposed to be more worthy of respect. Pope
MelchiadesPope Melchiades5 confesses about the imperial grafting of that See that Constantine, the first Emperor who accepted faith, granted a general permission to all people everywhere in his realm not only to become Christians, but also to build churches and to found church endowments. The same Emperor showered great gifts on the Church and erected the first basilica of Saint Peter. Thus, having left his imperial see, he gave it to Saint Peter and his successors. In this way a deep root was planted, strong and full of poison; from it grew a bush full of all sorts of poisonous fruits. And the world has been poisoned to death by it.
1 the Pope.
2 the Emperor.
4 In defending the papal viewpoint, Cappello writes: "Princeps sine territorio non datur." Summa Juris Publici, p.489.
5 Pope Melchiades – or Miltiades – (regnabat A.D.311–313) was the first Pope to live in the Lateran Palace donated to him by Fausta, Constantine's wife, and the last one to be buried in the Catacombs. John Farrow, Pageant of the Popes, p.23. London: Sheed & Ward, 1943. – About the time of his elevation to papacy, an Edict of Toleration signed by the Emperors Galerius, Licinius, and Constantine, put an end to the great persecution of the Christians, and they were permitted to reconstruct their places of worship. (Cf. Eusebius, Hist.Eccl., VIII, xvii; Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum, xxxiv). The Emperor gave Pope Melchiades in Rome the right to receive back, through the prefect of the city, all ecclesiastical buildings and possessions which had been confiscated during the persecutions. Later, after the victory at the Milvian Bridge (Oct. 27, A.D.312), the Emperor presented the Roman Church with the Lateran Palace belonging to Empress Fausta, and it then became the residence of the Popes. The basilica which ad joined the palace or was afterwards built there became the principal church of Rome. The Catholic Encyclopaedia, "Melchiades," New York: Appleton, 1911.
CHAPTER XVI
THE POPE'S GUILT (CONTINUED)
The aforesaid as well as other evidences show clearly that the Highest Priest has been grafted by the Emperor onto the tree of worldly dominion. He has accepted a most exalted priesthood through imperial authority in such a manner that not only did he attach sovereignty to his own person, but also everything else had to stem from his power: no people or nation could have priests except by his authority and sanction.Apostolic Succession He could disestablish priests, even the best of them, if they dared to speak up against his exalted throne. They must have the same intentions and the same spirit as he, accept churches as he, contribute to his throne in order to remain everywhere in his favor, and exalt his power above that of Christ.
The priest has inflicted an incurable wound on Christ's faith. And the people do not feel his pain, they are dead and insensible to all these damages in which souls perish. That great priest is the fountain from which flows priestly power to all people, and not only priestly power but even full salvation for all flows from that fountain, (a salvation) contrary to Christ. By the Emperor himself he is counted among the highest princes; the Pope trains his priests to honor him in the same way; (thus) the clergy of Christ is taught in the servitude of a faith stemming from the Emperor and founded on earthly things, which is a faith of an alien spirit, contrary and remote from the spirit of Christ, agreeing instead with the spirit of the Antichrist.
These things enter into the apostolic and Christian faith by the power of the highest priest; who, therefore, dares speak of the corruption of the faith which is like a great fountain out of which there swims a great horde of obnoxious priests?Parasitic Priests They are all drawn to titled honors because of temporal benefits and a satiated and empty life and because being of the nobility they can evade the labors of those who earn their bread in heavy toil. Those knaves who have ascended to nobility do not bother caring for human souls.
A corpse was added to the churches; and it is ravens alone which are drawn to a corpse. Where there ought to be witnesses of Christ's sufferings, there are but Judases who betray Christ and sell his truth and corrupt the people with the poison of many errors. All this is maintained by and borne of the great priest who has arrogated to himself power over Christians, and who alone through his authority selects priests for them. Who shall dare say that through him faith is corrupted? For everybody can see for himself that there is no more faith; that a villainy planted by Caesar was let loose to kill faith in the world.
Where there was faith before it has been extinguished. Thus the sin of the head has spread Into all the members of the body.
CHAPTER XVII
THE POPE'S GUILT (CONTINUED)
The third feature with which the great priest has defiled faith and the Saviour consists in the fact that with the rich and haughty princely investiture he has arrogated to himself divine power, nay, the power of the Saviour himself, the power to forgive sins which is God's prerogative.The Pope's Third Offense He alone forgives all people, pardoning their iniquities1; and Christ the Son of God died for the se iniquities. The witness of faith says that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world2 – he alone has the right to forgive the sins of the world because he is both God and man. He died in the fashion of man, for sins, and gave himself up as a sacrifice to God, on the cross. Through himself and his pains he has bought forgiveness of sins for the world. Thus he alone has the right and power to forgive sins. Therefore the high priest, exalting himself in his monstrous pride above all that is called God,3 has seized Christ's prerogative by robbery. And this he manages lucratively, initiating a pilgrimage to Rome from all countries faithful to his banner, and proclaiming to all pilgrims forgiveness of all sins and suspension of punishments. A person may be burdened with the greatest and most evil sins; yet all he has to do is to take them to Rome and he will be made as pure as if he were just new-born! At least this is being said, and the promises are given as it were to fools benumbed by great drinking bouts. And thus large benumbed crowds from all countries stream (to Rome) and he, the father of all evils, gets ready for the ceremony: he puts pearled gloves and, standing high (on the balcony), gives his benediction to all the throng, with the forgiveness of all sins and remission of suffering.Urbi
et
Orbi Whatever post-mortal tortures were supposed to come to them in the purgatory, these are rescinded for them whom he has blessed he forgives everything! Yea, he has the power to abolish hell as well as purgatory because, when he forgives everybody his sins, there is no one therefore (left) to go to hell. And there is supposedly only one purpose of the purgatory: whoever does not repent enough here for his sins, has to make up the difference by suffering in purgatory in order to satisfy God. The Great Priest forgives all these sufferings – and no one will go to hell or to purgatory.
Now to go further, he not only initiates such lucrative pilgrimages to Rome from all countries, but he even sends to those countries letters containing the forgiveness of sins and sufferings; (he tells them) not to incommode themselves with a long journey to him, that he will forgive them everything provided they pay for it in golden ducats;Indulgences that the sinner is free to, specify what sins he wants to have forgiven and that, if he pays for it, he (the Pope) will grant him in a letter a freedom to sin for as many years as are paid for, even till a man's death is fo desired. Any priest can absolve all sins at a deathbed by the power of the Pope. And the people buy from that Great Priest their freedom to sin.
The se things, therefore, are evident: Christ has the divine right to forgive the sins of the world. Does he have, then, an official in his service to whom he has given his full powers?Papacy at
War With
a Kingdom What is intrinsic to the Lord, the servant has arrogated to himself, usurping also all honors pertaining to his Lord; he increases his wealth in worldly ways, enriching himself by the sale of indulgences and prebends, by endowments and wars; he intrigues with kings and sells indulgences in various countries in order to secure money for his warfare. This was shown in the days when Boniface4 was at war with the King of Naples; he invoked anathema upon him and with him he excommunicated the whole country so that they could not even bury their dead. Such a disciple of Christ made naught of the teachings of his Master and trampled them in the dust.
Of what use is Christ to us, indeed, if the great priest, his vicar, can forgive all our sins and remit all sufferings, and sanctify us, make us just? What more can Jesus add to this? For it is only our sins that are in our way to salvation. And if the high priest forgives these, what is left to poor Jesus Christ? Why does the world neglect him and why does it not seek salvation from him? Only because this great priest has overshadowed him with his great pomp and glory received from the world, generously giving salvation in a way in which the world desires it. Wherefore the crucified Jesus is made into a laughing-stock before the world, while only the great priest is on the lips of the world which in him alone seeks salvation, believing to find it there.
4 Chelc̄icky̍ has the names confused; it was not Boniface but John XXIII (Baldassare Cossa, regnabat 1410–1419) who promised indulgence to all who would take part in his crusade against King Ladislaus of Naples. Chelc̄icky̍ was probably thinking of Boniface IX (regnabat 1389–1404).
CHAPTER XVIII
THE POPE'S GUILT (CONTINUED)
The fourth feature of the great priest with which he has defiled faith consists in the fact that he has greatly increased the number of laws contrary to the law of God and His faith;The Pope's Fourth Offense behind these laws the people have forgotten the true law of God, and they do not even suspect that there exists another faith but that which is presented by the laws of the great priest. All visible worship conducted by the ecclesiastical hordes is done in accordance with his rules. He prescribes the ways and manners of worship, and they are carried out in the sacraments, in religious services, in prayers, in masses. The caesarean priesthood is unable to pray or to serve mass otherwise than by mumbling out of the Books of Hours of which there have been written many at his behest. They regard it as prayers when one priest responds to another priest, when they chase one another with words and verses. They bless and fast and go through rituals and bowings, and all this is done in accordance with the law which the great priest gave them. The people are therefore ignorant of the law of God and have strayed from it, and the Christians have known nothing about it for many centuries. In its ignorance the people take for granted as Christian faith the regulations of the Pope and the practices of worship carried on under the name of God. . . They have never heard anything else concerning religion excepting (the requirement) to take a glance at God in church and not to plough their field on Sundays, they do not know that there exists any other form. . .
Therefore, even though the se laws are resplendent in a great institution, through religiosity reverence, respect to God, they are only for form's and fool's sake.Christians
Sitting on
the Fence But the truth is that there is no middle way here: either deny God and be a dissenter, or cling to Him with your whole heart. Either step is hard to take by the people; for man is not as bad as to want to deny God and relinquish Him; on the other hand you will find very few who want to cling to God with their whole heart. It is this ac cursed middle way which offers a relaxation to both parties. Fallible and fortuitous are all the advantages hidden in the laws of the Pope who glitters with great orders and outward forms and ceremonies of worship.
Papal laws are very welcome to them that have never experienced God; they are the means whereby they can cunningly stand in the fold of faith and confess God with their lips only, honor and worship Him only outwardly, and debase their bodies by mortification according to the decrees of the great priest. This brought about an ignorance of God and His laws to such an extent that not even the devil could have invented it. He would not be able to produce a trick whereby men, deprived of their true goodness (consisting of obedience to God's laws), would be made to adhere to a false and fallacious goodness glorying in the laws of the great priest and adorned by divine Scriptures (in order to give the impression that they are being fulfilled – but this is only glorious lying underneath the veneer of letters).
It is obvious how much the laws of the Pope contradict those of God: they assume the coloring of the divine law, lacerating it worse than lion's teeth. Yea, the Pope has greatly defiled the laws of God, by multiplying his own laws contrary to those of God, and even rescinding those of divine origin. He regulates faith forasmuch as he is its ruler. In Basel his servants have declared concerning the cup of God that the holy Church can change and abolish the commandment of Christ which says that the common people should drink Christ's blood from the cup; that the holy Church can abolish what the law (of God) commands as well as pass amendments contrary to it. Being the rulers over faith and God's law, (the churchmen) abolish what they do not like and add what they like, and others must accept what they decide. They keep silent about the fact that many members (of the church) are the worst enemies of the law of God, and men are tortured on that account. The Emperor, the kings and the lords have exalted over the Christians this high priest, endowing him with power and domains; now in his pride he rules even over kings. In investing him they were seduced by the proud devil, and through this error they render him service: they raised a lord to the destruction of faith, and now he rules and changes and fabricates laws full of poison and pest, with which to vitiate and wound the people.
The Donation (of Constantine) is no trifling matter: today poison is running in the holy Church.1 When the poison was poured into the Church in the beginning, it increased and spread throughout the whole world by means of this wealthy priest, successful in the world, through his corrupt laws. The world became swollen and distended with gross iniquities. Its body became bigswoln with anger, with prodigality, profligacy, and with a lethargy caused by the loss of life in God, it sneers at all things divine and grows out of the poisons of the great harlot.2 Thinking of these things, Saint Paul could not have condemned him more than by saying that he was a man of lawlessness and a son of perdition.3 Christ Jesus the man of virtue came to conquer sins – this man of sin came to multiply it. With all his acts he set the world on the highway of sin, giving it freedom and incentive to sin, easily removing sins from the people by benediction, without repentance, without changing the evil intention, without improving life; he always forgives and the people are not conscious of sinning either before or after. Thus sins are no more sins because human conscience has been separated from sinning; and if there be some who have a sinful conscience, it will be assuaged for money. Thus, he is the Father of Sins, be getting sins with his offices and services and removing the people from the law of God. . .
This Whale has so torn the net of faith that it has been rendered useless for catching fishes. And if somebody should laboriously mend it in fear and try to 'fish' people unto salvation, he forfeits his neck, for (the Pope) hates the faith which is the net of Peter. That is why he invaded the net; he did not rend it without reason, for it bothered him and harrassed him no end. For, wanting to have a wide way, he sundered the net of faith so that it would not hinder him and his freedom of movement. And he cannot tolerate anyone to fish with the whole net, for, in doing so, the (fisher) would reveal him naked and destroy his work, forasmuch as a complete net would mean shame to his face and death to his pride and luxury. Desiring to continue in his exalted rule and to be given dominions and honors greater then the Emperor, he is bound to make room for himself and to destroy the net; he can endure only its tatters. Where its gaps would reveal his shameful nakedness he mends them with patches. . .
So, wherever he can fish out some material gain with the net of faith, he uses some rags and tatters, turning masses and other sacraments into money, using the power of the Keys at the highest market price, excommunicating the innocent and exercising through them his revenge against those who would dare to 'fish' with the whole net.