his claim to nobility, to ask him to leave his wife and to follow Jesus. He did not order him to defend the church by the sword lest she be blown down by a contrary wind…
[ This story about John and the soldiers ] was not written for the purpose of showing Christians that … they need military service for the defense of faith or of faithful people. [ It only asks everyone to be faithful to his profession, to his faith. ] And the Christians must be faithful to the teaching of their Jesus … who taught them to turn the other cheek if anyone struck them on the right cheek,[413] not to return evil for evil, and to love their enemies.
What will the knights with their sword do about this? That ‘pillar’ who supports the Church in her bloody business is afraid lest Christian discipline should hasten condemning war, and (in doing so) he justifies war in the Christian religion on Jewish kings and their law, and even on pagan kings.[414] The Church teaches the Christian kings to defend her by war against external enemies and by exterminating heretics (who are the domestic enemies) … by virtue of the example of Jewish kings…
CHAPTER 42
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2
Now we shall struggle with the words of Saint Paul who says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
The ruling princes of the Christian secular power find in these words their crowning witness, concluding that this text was given by Saint Paul to the Christians of Rome and that all princes are thereby established in their authority. And the doctors desire that this be accepted as faith by all Christians. As it was said to me by a doctor of the Prague University, namely, that I should believe it this way; that I am a heretic if I do not believe it.[415]
Now we must be very careful to understand the words of Saint Paul, to see what he meant. He wrote to a small group of Christians in Rome, which was a pagan city ruled by pagan kings… Paul makes a great distinction: he asks the Christians to be humbly subjected to pagan rulers in all temporal matters. But it is quite another matter to ask them to elevate a ruler from their own Christian ranks and to defend their rights by force. It is one thing to teach Christians to be subject to foreign powers in reasonable matters, and it is another thing to rule and to appoint princes contrary to other princes.
[ The princes are committing a great sin if they twist the teaching of Jesus and his apostles in order to perpetuate pagan evils, ] to persecute the Christians for faith, to keep them in prison for faith, and to execute them in the name of faith. [ Some of the executed men were saints, and often the princes – executioners – were the worst criminals. ]
