A Study of Peter Chelčický's Life and a Translation from Czech of Part I of His Net of Faith (1947)/Part 2/Section 4c
CHAPTER XIX
THE "DONATION OF CONSTANTINE" – EMPEROR'S GUILT IN THIS TRANSACTION
The second whale which has invaded and enormously torn the net of faith is the Emperor with his pagan rule and offices with pagan rights and laws.The Second
Big Whale He is the root of paganism into which Christianity has turned; it is he who opened the wound from which pours the blood that is spilled among all Christians – even here – and all blood that shall ever be shed. When he entered the net of faith with these evils, he despoiled the innocence and purity of those who were in the net in accordance with the apostolic establishment.
As mentioned in the beginning, the churches of God converted to the faith of Christ from the Gentiles and Jews were scattered throughout all countries, regions, and speaking all the languages of the Gentiles for over three hundred years.The First Christians They were abiding only by the will of God and paid honor only to the gracious laws of Christ's Gospel, without any addition of either papal or imperial laws, not having among themselves any kings with sovereign rights. They were servants among the pagans and their lords, subject to them only corporeally, paying their taxes and performing other physical services until the days of Constantine.
When Emperor Constantine was received into the fold of faith with his pagan rule and rights and offices, then the innocence of the true Christians was saddened and defiled.The Donation
of Constantine It was as if ruffians and abductors established friendship with honest and chaste maidens, got themselves invited into their house overnight, introducing their own ruffian laws and declaring that they would protect the maidens' chastity by virtue of their laws. The honest and chaste maidens would soon be very much disappointed upon discovering that they could not defend for long – and with great difficulty at that – their purity and faithfulness which they took upon themselves. . . to keep till death. They could not preserve it among these ruffians who live domestically with them, who rule over them and who can even order them how to preserve to God their purity very few true maidens would remain there indeed!
It was similar when the Emperor slipped under the skin of faith with his pagan rule, rights and offices,Fusion of Things
Spiritual and
Temporal and obtained full membership rights of participation with the Christians in their faith and in all things pertaining to God. Having been thus united, they shared among themselves: he their Christian things and they his pagan things. Sylvester who wanted him to join the faith did not insist that the Emperor give up everything pagan if he desired to become a Christian; no, instead he was admitted with all that poison among the Christians.
Even though he became a Christian, he still ruled over the pagans, for, although there was a true congregation of Christians in Rome, there were also all kinds of pagans.Caesar Corrupts
the Church He held courts and discharged other offices and duties among the pagans, through the authority of compulsion in accordance with pagan right and law. Later he gave freedom to all of them to be come Christian if they so desired, with the promise that he would not persecute them as he had before. So: first he came to the Christian religion with pagan rule, offices and laws, then he continued in that practice, and many others after him, taking part in Christian spiritual matters. And there can be no doubt but that he made them partake of pagan features with which he came to them. . .
Here is the proof of pagandeeds: let him who wants to read reckon the number of the beast,1 and seeking he shall find nothing (in the beast) that is of Christ. Concerning Caesar's fusion of faith with paganism it is written: "Today the poison has been poured into the Church of Christ."2
1 Cf. Rev. 13:18. With Irenaeus and many others, Chelc̄icky̍ interprets the beast to stand for the power of Rome.
2 See Chapter XXII,
CHAPTER XX
THE EMPEROR'S GUILT (CONTINUED)
These imperial and pagan contributions with which he came to the Christians did not become christianized then nor later. Just as his rule was pagan and of pagan origin then, so it is now.Christ Did
Not Affect
Caesar All these foreign additions brought in this manner into the Christian religion are not part of the true faith; they are a deceitful lie, a trap disguised in letters with which to offend and seduce the people away from God. The Emperor made them partakers of pagan customs; he accepted, by the fact of his becoming a Christian, to rule over the Christians, but he laid upon them the burden of royal authority as if it were an article of faith. And today toe Roman Church confirms all this as being the true faith once given to the saints by the apostles.
Here it might be said: but what about the Christians who were in Rome or elsewhere, under the jurisdiction of Constantine in the days when he was still a pagan?What About
Christians
Under Pagan
Dominion? Were they not, then, subject to his pagan sovereignty? Were they not carrying the burden of his royal authority? Why should his pagan rule be harmful when he became one of them, a Christian? Or, why should the burden of royal authority be felt as more harmful after his conversion than before?
Of course, this is right, insofar as we speak of royal authority; before, as well as afterwards, they were standing under that authority.Christians
and State
Authority As long as they were in his realm or used his utilities and lived among pagans as servants and outcasts offensive to them, they submitted themselves to this pagan power in obedience in all matters of taxation and corporeal services as the apostles had taught them. In such passive submission they would keep the laws of God and also, they would not cause the pagans to be incited against them (which they would if they refused their duty in matters where it was expected of them). However, they never availed themselves of either their laws or offices or courts or other rights. For their innocence (firmly grounded in them through their Christian faith)Christians
Take no Part
in Politics stood without accusation or blemish before God and even before the pagans and had no need to be improved upon by the justice of heathen offices or courts. Through the sincerity and truth of their faith, their innocence was made clearly manifest so that it shone in its brilliance much brighter than justice imposed by imperial power and authority; it was as a clear day compared with night. Therefore the Christians, even though under imperial power, did not mix these distinctive marks of paganism in their daily life. But when the Emperor joined the faith, together with pagan rule and statutes and administration, all these pagan peculiarities were added to the faith and the Christians obeyed them as pertaining to faith. And this caused their corruption. The things for which the early Christians suffered under pagan authority, the se same things Christians of today follow as of faith. They are the peculiarities with which Constantine defiled the faith, pagan peculiarities begotten by heathens, he made them part of Christendom. At first these additions were almost unnoticeable, but with the progression of time they devoured the faith of the Christians, and it is faith that is today unnoticeable and lethargic. . .
Indeed, there is a great difference between the first Christians who, while under pagan rule, remained aloof from their peculiarities (an aloofness for which they sometimes suffered great oppression and even death), and the present Christians who have adopted immoderately the ways of their former lords; today they do not have to suffer for faith any more: they have adopted as faith the way of the lords; they have grown to ignore God and to know nothing of true faith, having respect only for the laws of the greatly multiplied pagan lords.
CHAPTER XXI
THE EMPEROR'S GUILT (CONTINUED)
There are so many different kinds of pagan peculiarities . . . that it would take too long to dwell on each one of them. But in speaking about some of themThe Emperor's
First Offense (I would like to say a few words) as regards the respect and honor of the chief lord (Emperor) who purports to rule justly and honestly over the Christians, for the sake of their improvement and for good example. (For the Christians should excell, by virtue of their vocation, in their holy intercourse above all Gentiles and Jews).
The corruption of the original honesty being brought about by Constantine and his successors who, desiring to be Christian as well as the most important lords among the fellow Christians,Characteristics
of the Ruling
Class are bound to be honored by the highest divine respect especially by the Christians themselves; at the same time, they stand in their midst with greatest licentiousness and with the utmost contrariness against God, to the profound detriment of faith. (The Emperor) keeps in his company courtiers and servants of a life most depraved, and distasteful to a Christian, of most wicked thievery, dishonest, shameless, full of haughtiness and cruelty, who want to possess anything upon which their eyes may glance, full of mischiefs, worldly clever, habitually inventing new costumes (uniforms) and preoccupied by superficial matters, empty-headed, avaricious by habit, of vulgar speech, shameless in their bearing, of a choleric, cocky and impudent character, holding in derision and despising all people. When we speak about honesty as pertaining to Christians and to the Christian rulers and their servants – what a farce! They are really a dead corpse brought by Constantine into the midst of the Christians from the pagans. It is a corpse which can torture to sickness with its stench, and those who smell it will become contaminated with the scandalous inflictions and hurtful woes, which have already brought about a great deterioration of morals among the Christians.
And every place is full of these courtly companies which contaminate faith with unreasoning anger far more dangerously than any other evil ensnaring Christians.Double Ethic The courtly companies excell all others by their temptations and evils. And all this has been smuggled into faith with the pagan rule, like an evil smelling corpse, to the great defilement of faith. And yet, the priests and masters exonerate them for all these things. . . saying, "This is as it should be, in order; the courtiers have to be that way: gay, free and courteous – but not pious." It must be so as their masters command, and they hide themselves behind (their authority).
But we are concerned here about faith which does not depend upon the foolishness of the courtly people but upon the truth of Christ; we deplore the paganized evil-doers who were brought in and made partakers of faith – they who can truly fellowship with devils only!
CHAPTER XXII
THE EMPEROR'S GUILT (CONTINUED)
The second peculiarity with which Constantine defiled the true faith and imitation of God among the first Christians was shown when he joined faith with pagan dominion, assuming power over the Christians when he became one of their members.The Emperor's Second Offense And I consider this a serious matter: having become one of them he did not take into consideration that the condition of the Christians bound them so firmly to obedience to God that they could not deviate in any way from His law, that a Christian must obey God only,1 not turning to any other law which would only swerve him from the divine statutes and obedience to them. Constantine who entered the fold of faith. . . subjected the Christians to pagan law and procedure in order that they conduct their affairs in accordance with pagan civil laws (which affairs they conducted before in accordance with divine commandments). Whenever there was filed a suit or any other injustice committed, they had to go with their complaints to pagan officials in court in order that the injustices be settled through pagan authority and law. And they became accustomed not only to that, but they began to seek help from the Emperor whenever injustice was done to them, to protect them and to carry out revenge against the guilty, thus doing a wrong to their property or life. And, having accomplished these things through the power of the Emperor and his officials, they began to give to him their trust which was due to God alone. And they became as wicked as the pagans, trusting in man and giving him honor which belongs to God only. Had they trusted solely in God, they would have settled all their differences by His law and suffered injustices rather than returning evil for evil.2 (Having not this trust) they defend themselves by means of pagan power, securing redress for injustices through trials in courts, thus departing from God and His law. They have become accustomed to this way and now their conscience is not bothered on that account. They have been thus changed by Constantine who, having entered their ranks, partook of their faith and imposed on them their participation in pagan ways. Even today the priests and masters propound this to the Christians saying that they should not become lured by a strange teaching. Yet this in itself is a strange teaching introduced through power.
Therefore, says the Master Adversary,3 whenever man gives preference to human institutions and statutes rather than to the law of God, he chooses for himself other and foreign gods;Wyclif whatever man loves, he loves in preference to Christ Jesus, and that is his god. Thus, when man chooses to obey the imperial statutes for the love of his possessions (that is, to regain them or to protect them by the authority of the Emperor and by abandoning the law of Christ) he chooses at the same time a strange god in the form of the Emperor and his law.
This became so commonplace among the Christians that not only are they not conscious of it, but they boldly refuse to listen to or to believe anything that is said against it. And somewhere else the Master Adversary says4 that there is no doubt that it would become superfluous and useless to obey the imperial and civil laws and statutes if all mankind obeyed the law and rule of love. The farther mankind strays from the gospel of Christ, the more it needs to obey and abide by these imperial and civil laws. It is as if the people were fed by poison,5 for they accept human statutes as just and reject the law of the gospel of Christ as impractical.
(Wyclif certainly speaks wisely when he says, "there is no doubt. . ." For if there were many who would correctly abide by the law of love, imperial and civil laws would be come superfluous; the law of love would be sufficient. . . The civil law is, therefore, necessary – as a bitter vinegar, so to speak – for those who transgress the law of love.6 From sin sprang the necessity of royal offices and civil laws; they are here as punishment for disobeying God. He does not say that this is the proper thing for mankind to do; it is there to support it only, let it (mankind) fall. Having gone astray from God the people have only their physical life which is tired and everywhere limping. Unable to stand nor walk they have to lean against these laws. When hurt by injustice they run to authorities with a complaint, and the authority orders a session of the court; both parties are compelled to attend the session and the court hands them the verdict. Punishment meted out by civil laws does not really fit the crime. It only assuages passions in the same way in which a gnawed bone pacifies a dog. If this sinful generation had no laws by which to abide, revenge would kill one party after another without end, till the whole of mankind would perish. But it lives on, tottering and burdened with evil, because it leans against laws.
However, those who live by the laws of love have a healthy and strong spiritual life. In times of iniquity, temptations and tribulations they can stand firm, suffering injustice and not returning evil for evil. They have no need of Judges and courts of appeal to carry them through difficult days of tension.
The Master Adversary says also: It can easily happen to the people nurtured by poison that it will accept as right only human edicts and statutes, rejecting the law of Christ as impractical. That is to say, the confused Christian people have so many imperial, civil and pagan statutes and laws that they have become (saturated) with them as with poison. The true inner life perishes after the use of this poison and strays from God and His grace. They have become accustomed to eat and drink this poison in all human institutions and laws, and having been fattened by this poisonous food of errors, they intend to stick to these laws as if they were just or given by od, and to profit temporal gains in glory. For in doing this they enjoy their freedom of will and body, eschewing the tribulations of the cross of Christ, defending themselves at courts, not abstaining from corpore al goods and being free to mete out revenge and to return evil for evil. He who feeds on this poison enjoys freedom in evil things and can say nothing about such a pagan order except that it is good and just.7
It is no wonder that people poisoned by this venomous food defile and reject the gospel of Christ as impractical. On the contrary, his law saddens and disturbs them while the poisonous law pleases them."Be Practical!"
vs.the Pacifist
Ethic The law of the gospel requires that they suffer blows on the cheek and that, if anyone should sue them and take their coat, they let him have their cloak as well8 thus adding self-injury to injury. Therefore the people living on a diet of poison – which has been poured also into the holy Church – corrupt Christ's law with the saliva of garlic and insult from the wise magistrates; their civil service wisdom smells like garlic eaten after a fast they know how wisely to defame the simplicity of the gospel of Christ, sufficient and vigorous.
Well then, to return to where we began, what do we say about the Emperor entering faith with pagan rule and statutes and offices?Caesar Has
Poisoned
the Church It is clear that – as has then been said – this was "the poison which is poured today into the holy Church."9 It was not poured in without purpose, but that all people drink it, that all countries and nations be poisoned to death with this corporeal and worldly wisdom. And this wisdom is the foundation of the power of the Emperor and his laws; and drinking this poison through his laws (the people) turn their whole mind to caring about comfort, licentious freedom, temporal goods, to obtain these things through cunning, to increase their profits through weal or woe, to gain privileges from kings or to win these privileges back if lost. For all this they invent clever defenses and fortifications for warfare. . .
This law has converted Christians into pagans. And now, satiated with the poison of the worldly and physical wisdom, they despise the law of Christ. They consider it a ridiculous foolishness which only exposes their fat bellies. And so they not only scorn it as useless, but are even ready to oppose any one who dares to parade the uncomfortable law of Christ before their noses. You would think it were arsenic!
The poison of worldly wisdom is best revealed in that it leaves people wounded and turned away from God, hateful and scheming how to rise up against truth. They whose veins are filled with the earthly poison consider truth their worst enemy. . . Yea, when the Emperor joined Christian faith with pagan lordship he has planted a seed which grew and bore multitudes of transgressors, who prospered and produced such a terrible number of evils that not even the devil himself could invent them all. All these wicked and pious hordes, coated with a veneer of specious holiness have so discredited faith that very few are willing to follow it. They turned the rest of the crowd to paganism.
Only that can sprout and grow which has been planted. The Emperor has been planted with his authority into the Christian soil,Dictatorship? he grew strongly and having grown, blossomed and produced seed which, planted, multiplied and spread paganism everywhere with its authority, laws, and administration. For, it being in the nature of paganism to deny all faith and all the gospel of Christ, and to ridicule it, authority is of necessity driven back to check it cruelly, while it prospers on arrogant pride, and on godless villainy without comparison. Authority is necessarily driven to check it (the Gospel) cruelly, to torture, to tear, to plunder, to imprison. . . and all this in order to tame the uncircumcised mind of the evildoers and to put them in their proper place.
This course is not the way of faith and salvation; it is good only for the taming of unjust people in their physical lives and temporal goods and for preventing their fall and end on account of their excessive stupidity and temper.
4 De Civili Dominio, Chap. XVIII.
5 Possible reference to the story of Mithridates who trained himself to drink poison. (Cf. Pliny, Natural History, XXIV, ii).
6 ". . .supposito lapsu humani generis et cecitate proclivi bonis sensibilibus precipue innitendi, necesse fuit leges vel ordinaciones humanas statuere, ne quilibet lapsus de bonis fortune caperet cuantumcunque voluntas indebite inclinaret." De Civili Dominio, XVIII, 41-D.
7 An interesting similarity of argument is found in another treatise on passive resistance, Etienne de la Boe̍tie's Discours sur la Servitude Volontaire, publ. by the Columbia University Press in 1942 under the title Anti-Dictator; "We learn to swallow, and not to find bitter, the venom of servitude. It cannot be denied that nature influential in shaping us to her will and making us reveal our rich or meager endowment; yet it must be admitted that she has less power over us than custom, for the reason that native endowment, no matter how good, is dissipated unless encouraged. . . Fruit trees retain their own particular quality if permitted to grow undisturbed, but lose it promptly and bear strange fruit not their own when ingrafted." (P.20f).
9 This passage shows a definite Waldensian influence. It represents an echo of the Waldensian version of the legend of Donatio Constantini. Among the Austrian Waldenses the legend took on the following shape: The "manager" of the Church of God in the days of the rule of Emperor Constantine was "a certain Sylvester of Rome" who, being persecuted, led a miserable life "with his people on Mount Sirachia." Moved by a dream which he had had one night the Emperor asked to be baptized.by Sylvester. Once baptized, the Emperor was miraculously cured from leprosy. The Emperor, overjoyed by his recovery, stopped persecuting the Christians and their leader Sylvester; he even gave Sylvester "the imperial crown and dignity." Sylvester accepted the "donation" but his companions protested saying that "they have a commandment from the Lord, not to possess any land." On the night of the day in which the split occurred a voice from heaven was heard saying: "Today poison has been poured into the Church of God." The Christians departed from "Sylvester the arch-heretic upon hearing this voice" and continued to lead a life of poverty and renunciation. However, the greater part of the Church followed Sylvester and the hatred of these "pseudo-Christians" caused the persecution of the true "pauperes Christi" for many generations as if they were heathens or Jews. These persecuted remnants finally gathered around the person of Peter Waldo who simply "corrected their order" (i.e. he did not found it!); he also studied the Scripture and inspired them to action "in accordance with the way of poverty." Hence the origin of the Waldensians. By this legend the Waldensians wanted to justify their separation from the Church of Rome and their continuity as true descendants of the original "pure" Church. Chelcicky is much closer to this Waldensian interpretation of the Donation than to Wyclif's; on it he bases his logic of separation of "Christ" and "Caesar." Cf. Rudolf Holinka, Trakta̍ty Petra Chelc̄icke̍ho: O troji̍m lidu – O ci̍rkvi svate̍, Prague, Melantrich, 1940, p.30f.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE EMPEROR'S GUILT (CONTINUED)
The third feature with which the Emperor has defiled the faith of the followers of Christ. . . (consists in the fact) that he uses pagan power arbitrarily and wilfully, with plenty of haughtiness and arrogance,The Emperor's Third Offense paying ho heed to the circumstance that he is a Christian and that he uses authority over Christians who were redeemed by the blood of Christ and who are, therefore, servants subject to the authority of the highest Lord of lords; the Emperor himself wants to rule over them, to dicatate to them and to administer them. O, the arrogant pride of the emperors, kings and other lords! If they would ever remember (that they are Christians) they should never dare rule over people so wilfully, just to suit their whims. They would respect and stand in awe before the Lord of this people...; they would know that if they rule wilfully in whatever manner over the people, against the Highest Lord, they and their rule would fall under His judgment. . .
I am not too much concerned about the corpore al wrong-doings which they inflict upon the people, such as the collecting of taxes and the imposition of week work and boon work.The Feudal System These corporeal servitudes are the cause of impoverishment and of a fatiguing burden on their serfdom; still, if the people endured them in humility, these (impositions) would not harm their consciences.
However, a much greater concern should be given to the fact that this power and system is so vicious and devoid of good when judged from the point of view of faith.Baronial and
Agnostic Warfare — Conscription In this matter the lords want to do nothing regarding their consciences or the conscience of those over whom they rule. They are all Christian and at least some of them have, on account of faith, a bad conscience when they kill, do violence to others, and rob them of their property. But (on the whole) they do not hold these things to be sinful. Driven by pride they fight for goods and chattles, for worldly honor, and if someone touches their property, immediately they declare war, round up the people like cattle and drive them to war where all murder and rob one another. How can it not be dangerous, therefore, for good Christians, to live under such powers which force them to do evil and to trespass the divine commandments! And what I esteem more cruel, they drive Christian men to war and there are Christians on both sides with orders to kill and rob others. A brother will go against a brother to do violence to him; he who by faith should lay down his life for him goes to kill and despoil his brother, simply because he is compelled to do so by the ignoble authority.1 He does not have so much sense or love as to be willing to be killed by his overlord rather than to commit such an evil thing.Passive Resistance An arrogant authority is, indeed, a trap for good Christians; it compels its subjects to go and do every evil it can think of.
But the greatest iniquity and crime which the authority has committed, running into the worst form of pagan hypocrisy is revealed – when already so contrary to Christ as it is – it even kills righteous Christians for their faith, spilling their blood.State Religion For the apostles of the Antichrist have wound themselves around the heart of authority and use it now to their own advantage and for their own purposes. They have betrayed true Christianity to the powers-that-be, defaming it with heresy. And authority which of itself does not know what faith is likewise knows not heresy. But spiritual hounds who hate the servants of Christ and of his law whisper their insinuations into the ear of authority, inciting it to exterminate those heresies with a pious ruthlessness. That authority is therefore the strength of the Antichrist aimed at Christ and his chosen ones. And the Antichrist, with all his hatred and secret guiles, could not press so hard against Christ, if he had not a great ally in the strong temporal power. To what end has grown this authority which has branched out its roots (planted by Constantine) among the Christians? It has brought about everything that is abominable to Christ, all sorrows and all temptations to his saints. The hatred of the Antichrist is incited to flaming anger against Christ and his followers and it strikes the chosen ones of Christ through temporal authority (which authority the Anti-Christ praises to high heaven saying that through it the loly Church stands in its firmness and goodness).
1 Erasmus of Rotterdam writes similarly in his essay Dulce Bellum Inexpertis: "We war continually, city with city, prince with prince, people with people, yea, and (it that the heathen confess to be a wicked thing) cousin with cousin, alliance with alliance, brother with brother, the son with the father, yea, and that I esteem more cruel than all these things, a Christian man against another man; and yet furthermore, I will say that I am very loath to do, which is a thing most cruel of all, one Christian man with another Christian man." (Erasmus, Against War, J.W. Mackail, ed., Boston: Merrymount Press, 1918, p. 23f.)