CHAPTER 39
THE EVILS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME – LUKE 3:14
[ Here Chelčický begins a new section. In the preceding chapters he analyzed the evils of the temporal power. In the following chapters he will look closer to the evils of the Church of Rome. ]
The things that we have said heretofore are a laughing matter and a blasphemy and a cause of anger … to the great men of the Church of Rome…
The Church of Rome … intoxicated as it is by poison, wants to lead wars, to squeeze blood out of men, and to render evil for evil; for all this it needs the strong secular power.
[ It misinterprets the Scriptures in order to justify its warfare. The Church misinterprets even the answer that St. John gave to the soldiers who asked him, “What shall we do?” “Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”[406] The next chapters will deal with the interpretation of this text. ]
CHAPTER 40
INTERPRETATION OF LUKE 3:14
REFUTATION OF ST. AUGUSTINE’S
ARGUMENT ON PERMISSIBLE WARFARE
[ The temporal power, bad as it is, could not of itself sharpen so many swords for the Christians. ] But that ‘great pillar’ of the Church of Rome, who supports it strongly so that it may not fall, gave to the gospel a spirit of a sharp sword when he said, “If Christian discipline were to disparage war completely, this should be found in the gospel ordering us to put down arms and give up soldiering; however, it is satisfied with the admonition not to exact too much and to be content with wages. It does not attack the calling of the soldier.”[407] This ‘great pillar’ has thus extracted blood instead of milk out of the gospel. If our faith were founded on such acts of bloodiness (sic) – and how much blood there was spilled by the soldiers because of this teaching – then it would be correct. But our faith obliges us to bind wounds, not to make blood run…
And he says about the Christian discipline that when the soldiers came to John to be baptized saying, “And we, what must we do?” John should he have given them another answer: “Throw your weapons away, give up war service, wound and kill no one.”[408] According to these arguments, it would seem necessary
