CHAPTER XXI
CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH OBEDIENCE IS TO BE RENDERED TO PRELATES
Now as to the authorities which the doctors have adduced to emphasize the necessity of human obedience, the following is briefly to be said. For, in the first place, they say: "The Roman church and prelates are to be obeyed by inferiors in all things, according to the Saviour's statement, 'All things whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe,' Matt. 23:2.[1] Here I wonder why the doctors openly cut off the Saviour's previous words, for they do not quote: "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat." Nor did they add the later words, "Do not ye according to their works," but they only quote the intervening words: "All things whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe." Here it seems to me that they have so done because the pope and other prelates of the church do not wish to be compared with scribes and Pharisees, and if anything is said of their evil works they are indignant; and because also the doctors and masters are flattered by such things, and so the former heap up to themselves masters having itching ears who turn away from the truth and the masters are flattered. Therefore, the apostle's prophecy is fulfilled in both particulars, for he adjures Timothy saying: "I charge thee in the sight of God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season;
- ↑ The exegesis of this passage, upon which so much stress is laid, Huss takes up again at length, ad octo Doctores, Mon., 1: 408.
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