are they that go back from Thy commands.[1] In reference to my contention Jerome saith to Rusticus, Bishop of Narbonne:[2] Let none of the bishops henceforth be moved to envy (which is a temptation of the devil) or be angry, if the presbyters occasionally exhort the people or preach in churches, or give their blessing, as hath been said, to the people: for when a man is refusing me these things I should say to him, “He that doth not wish the presbyters to do what is commanded of God should tell us who is greater than Christ.”[3] Item, Bede on this text:[4] You shall find an ass tied and a colt with her: loose them and bring them to me. And if any man shall say anything to you, say ye that the Lord hath need of them; saith: In this passage He mystically instructs doctors not to refrain from preaching, if they meet with opposition or are hindered from loosing sinners from their snares and bringing them to the Lord by confession of the faith. Rather should they constantly be hinting that the Lord hath need of such for the building up of His church. But who could write down all the sayings of the saints which, without exception, teach obedience to God rather than to men? Tyrants set over against these sayings that in Matt. xxiii.: Whatsoever they say to you,
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 21. Quoted also in The Defence of the Articles of Wyclif (1412), Mon. i. 113a.
- ↑ From Gratian, Pars i. dist. 95, C. 6. Judging by the readings, Hus would seem to have taken it from the Collectio Canonum of Anselm of Lucca. The epistle De Septum gradibus ecclesiæ is not by Jerome, though usually attributed to him. This passage is quoted also by Hus in Mon. i. 112b, Defence of the Articles of Wyclif.
- ↑ P.: dicat, quod majus est, Xto; read with Gratian and Anselm of Lucca: dicat, quis major est Christo.
- ↑ A mere paraphrase of Bede’s In Matt. Evang. c . xxi. in loc. (ed. Cologne, 1612, vol. v. p. 61; also eds. Migne and Giles). Quoted also in The Defence of the Articles of Wyclif (Mon. i. 112a).
