Session
15—6 July 1415
Sentence condemning 260 articles Wyclif [31]
The books and pamphlets of John Wyclif, of cursed memory, were carefully examined by
the doctors and masters of Oxford university. They collected 260 unacceptable articles
from these books and pamphlets and condemned them in scholastic form. This most holy
general synod of Constance, representing the catholic church, legitimately assembled in
the holy Spirit for the purpose of extirpating schism, errors and heresies, has had all
these articles examined many times by many most reverend fathers, cardinals of the Roman
church, bishops, abbots, masters of theology, doctors of both laws, and very many other
notable persons from various universities. It was found that some, indeed many, of the
articles thus examined were and are notoriously heretical and have already been condemned
by holy fathers, some are offensive to the ears of the devout and some are rash and
seditious. This holy synod, therefore, in the name of our lord Jesus Christ, repudiates
and condemns, by this perpetual decree, the aforesaid articles and each one of them in
particular; and it forbids each and every Catholic henceforth, under pain of anathema, to
preach, teach, or hold the said articles or any one of them. The said holy synod orders
local ordinaries and inquisitors of heresy to be vigilant in carrying out these things and
duly observing them, insofar as each one is responsible, in accordance with the law and
canonical sanctions. Let anyone who rashly violates the aforesaid decrees and sentences of
this sacred council be punished, after due warning, by the local ordinaries on the
authority of this sacred council, notwithstanding any privilege. [32]
Articles of John Wyclif selected from the 260
1. Just as Christ is God and man at the same time, so the consecrated host is at the
same time the body of Christ and true bread. For it is Christ's body at least in figure
and true bread in nature; or, which comes to the same thing, it is true bread naturally
and Christ's body figuratively.
2. Since heretical falsehood about the consecrated host is the most important point in
individual heresies, I therefore declare to modern heretics, in order that this falsehood
may be eradicated from the church, that they cannot explain or understand an accident
without a subject. And therefore all these heretical sects belong to the number of those
who ignore the fourth chapter of John: We worship what we know.
3. I boldly foretell to all these sects and their accomplices that even by the time
Christ and all the church triumphant come at the final judgment riding at the trumpet
blast of the angel Gabriel, they shall still not have proved to the faithful that the
sacrament is an accident without a subject.
4. Just as John was Elias in a figurative sense and not in person, so the bread on the
altar is Christ's body in a figurative sense. And the words, This is my body, are
unambiguously figurative, just like the statement "John is Elias".
5. The fruit of this madness whereby it is pretended that there can be an accident
without a subject is to blaspheme against God, to scandalise the saints and to deceive the
church by means of false doctrines about accidents.
6. Those who claim that the children of the faithful dying without sacramental baptism
will not be saved, are stupid and presumptuous in saying this.
7. The slight and short confirmation by bishops, with whatever extra solemnised rites,
was introduced at the devil's suggestion so that the people might be deluded in the
church's faith and the solemnity and necessity of bishops might be believed in the more.
8. As for the oil with which bishops anoint boys and the linen cloth which goes around
the head, it seems that this is a trivial rite which is unfounded in scripture; and that
this confirmation, which was introduced after the apostles, blasphemes against God.
9. Oral confession to a priest, introduced by Innocent [33], is not as necessary to
people as he claimed. For if anyone offends his brother in thought, word or deed, then it
suffices to repent in thought, word or deed.
10. It is a grave and unsupported practice for a priest to hear the confessions of the
people in the way that the Latins use.
11. In these words, You are clean, but not all are, the devil has laid a snare of the
unfaithful ones in order to catch the Christian's foot. For he introduced private
confession, which cannot be justified, and after the person's malice has been revealed to
the confessor, as he decreed in the law, it is not revealed to the people.
12. It is a probable conjecture that a person who lives rightly is a deacon or a
priest. For just as I infer that this person is John, so I recognise by a probable
conjecture that this person, by his holy life, has been placed by God in such an office or
state.
13. The probable evidence for such a state is to be taken from proof provided by the
person's deeds and not from the testimony of the person ordaining him. For God can place
someone in such a state without the need of an instrument of this kind, no matter whether
the instrument is worthy or unworthy. There is no more probable evidence than the person's
life. Therefore if there is present a holy life and catholic doctrine, this suffices for
the church militant. (Error at the beginning and at the end.)
14. The bad life of a prelate means that his subjects do not receive orders and the
other sacraments. They can receive them from such persons, however, when there is urgent
need, if they devoutly beseech God to supply on behalf of his diabolical ministers the
actions and purpose of the office to which they have bound themselves by oath.
15. People of former times would copulate with each other out of desire for temporal
gain or for mutual help or to relieve concupiscence, even when they had no hope of
offspring; for they were truly copulating as married persons. [34]
16. The words, I will take you as wife, are more suitable for the marriage contract
than, I take you as wife. And the first words ought not to be annulled by the second words
about the present, when someone contracts with one wife in the words referring to the
future and afterwards with another wife in those referring to the present.
17. The pope, who falsely calls himself the servant of God's servants, has no status in
the work of the gospel but only in the work of the world. If he has any rank, it is in the
order of demons, of those who serve God rather in a blameworthy way.
18. The pope does not dispense from simony or from a rash vow, since he is the chief
simoniac who rashly vows to preserve, to his damnation, his status here on the way. (Error
at the end.)
19. That the pope is supreme pontiff is ridiculous. Christ approved such a dignity
neither in Peter nor in anyone else.
20. The pope is antichrist made manifest. Not only this particular person but also the
multitude of popes, from the time of the endowment of the church, of cardinals, of bishops
and of their other accomplices, make up the composite, monstrous person of antichrist.
This is not altered by the fact that Gregory and other popes, who did many good and
fruitful things in their lives, finally repented.
21. Peter and Clement, together with the other helpers in the faith, were not popes but
God's helpers in the work of building up the church of our lord Jesus Christ.
22. To say that papal pre-eminence originated with the faith of the gospel is as false
as to say that every error arose from the original truth.
23. There are twelve procurators and disciples of antichrist: the pope, cardinals,
patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, officials, deans, monks, canons with their
two-peaked hats, the recently introduced pseudo-friars, and pardoners.
24. It is clear that whoever is the humbler, of greater service to the church, and the
more fervent in Christ's love towards his church, is the greater in the church militant
and to be reckoned the most immediate vicar of Christ.
25. Whoever holds any of God's goods unjustly, is taking the things of others by
rapine, theft or robbery.
26. Neither the depositions of witnesses, nor a judge's sentence, nor physical
possession, nor inheritance, nor an exchange between persons, nor a gift, nor all such
things taken together, confer dominion or a right to anything upon a person without grace.
(An error, if it is understood as referring to sanctifying grace.)
27. Unless the interior law of charity is present, nobody has more or less authority or
righteousness on account of charters or bulls. We ought not to lend or give anything to a
sinner so long as we know that he is such, for thus we would be assisting a traitor of our
God.
28. Just as a prince or a lord does not keep the title of his office while he is in
mortal sin, except in name and equivocally, so it is with a pope, bishop or priest while
he has fallen into mortal sin.
29. Everyone habitually in mortal sin lacks dominion of any kind and the licit use of
an action, even if it be good in its kind.
30. It is known from the principles of the faith that a person in mortal sin, sins
mortally in every action.
31. In order to have true secular dominion, the lord must be in a state of
righteousness. Therefore nobody in mortal sin is lord of anything.
32. All modern religious necessarily become marked as hypocrites. For their profession
demands that they fast, act and clothe themselves in a particular way, and thus they
observe everything differently from other people.
33. All private religion as such savours of imperfection and sin whereby a person is
indisposed to serve God freely.
34. A private religious order or rule savours of a blasphemous and arrogant presumption
towards God. And the religious of such orders dare to exalt themselves above the apostles
by the hypocrisy of defending their religion.
35. Christ does not teach in scripture about any kind of religious order in
antichrist's chapter. Therefore it is not his good pleasure that there should be such
orders. The chapter is composed, however, of the following twelve types: the pope,
cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, officials, deans, monks, canons,
friars of the four orders, and pardoners.
36. I infer as evident from the faith and works of the four sects—which are the
caesarean clergy, the various monks, the various canons, and the friars-that nobody
belonging to them is a member of Christ in the catalogue of the saints, unless he forsakes
in the end the sect which he stupidly embraced.
37. Paul was once a Pharisee but abandoned the sect for the better sect of Christ, with
his permission. This is the reason why cloistered persons, of whatever sect or rule, or by
whatever stupid vow they may be bound, ought freely to cast off these chains, at Christ's
command, and freely join the sect of Christ.
38. It is sufficient for the laity that at some times they give tithes of their produce
to God's servants. In this way they are always giving to the church, even if not always to
the caesarean clergy deputed by the pope or by his dependents.
39. The powers that are claimed by the pope and the other four new sects are pretended
and were diabolically introduced in order to seduce subjects; such are excommunications by
caesarean prelates, citations, imprisoning, and the sale of money rents.
40. Many simple priests surpass prelates in such power. Indeed, it appears to the
faithful that greatness of spiritual power belongs more to a son who imitates Christ in
his way of life than to a prelate who has been elected by cardinals and similar apostates.
41. The people may withhold tithes, offerings and other private alms from unworthy
disciples of Christ, since God's law requires this. The curse or censure imposed by
antichrist's disciples is not to be feared but rather is to be received with joy. The lord
pope and bishops and all religious or simple clerics, with titles to perpetual possession,
ought to renounce them into the hands of the secular arm. If they stubbornly refuse, they
ought to be compelled to do so by the secular lords.
42. There is no greater heretic or antichrist than the cleric who teaches that it is
lawful for priests and Levites of the law of grace to be endowed with temporal
possessions. The clerics who teach this are heretics or blasphemers if ever there were
any.
43. Temporal lords not only can take away goods of fortune from a church that is
habitually sinning, nor is it only lawful for them to do so, but indeed they are obliged
to do so under pain of eternal damnation.
44. God does not approve that anyone be judged or condemned by civil law.
45. If an objection is made against those who oppose endowments for the church, by
pointing to Benedict, Gregory and Bernard, who possessed few temporal goods in poverty, it
may be said in reply that they repented at the end. If you object further that I merely
pretend that these saints finally repented of their falling away from God's law in this
way, then you may teach that they are saints and I will teach that they repented at the
end.
46. If we ought to believe in sacred scripture and in reason, it is clear that Christ's
disciples do not have the authority to exact temporal goods by means of censures, and
those who attempt this are sons of Eli and of Belial.
47. Each essence has one suppositum, following which another suppositum, equal to the
first, is produced. This is the most perfect immanent action possible to nature.
48. Each essence, whether corporeal or incorporeal, is common to three supposita; and
the properties, the accidents and the operations inhere in common in all of them.
49. God cannot annihilate anything, nor increase or diminish the world, but he can
create souls up to a certain number, and not beyond it.
50. It is impossible for two corporeal substances to be co-extensive, the one
continuously at rest in a place and the other continuously penetrating the body of Christ
at rest.
51. Any continuous mathematical line is composed of two, three or four contiguous
points, or of only a simply finite number of points; and time is, was and will be composed
of contiguous instants. It is not possible that time and a line, if they exist, are
composed of in this way. (The first part is a philosophical error, the last part is an
error with regard to God's power.)
52. It must be supposed that one corporeal substance was formed at its beginning as
composed of indivisibles, and that it occupies every possible place.
53. Every person is God.
54. Every creature is God.
55. Every being is everywhere, since every being is God.
56. All things that happen, happen from absolute necessity.
57. A baptised child foreknown as damned will necessarily live long enough to sin in
the holy Spirit, wherefore it will merit to be condemned for ever. Thus no fire can burn
the child until that time or instant.
58. I assert as a matter of faith that everything that will happen, will happen of
necessity. Thus if Paul is foreknown as damned, he cannot truly repent; that is, he cannot
cancel the sin of final impenitence by contrition, or be under the obligation not to have
the sin.
Sentence against John Hus
The most holy general council of Constance, divinely assembled and representing the
Catholic church, for an everlasting record. Since a bad tree is wont to bear bad fruit, as
truth itself testifies, so it is that John Wyclif, of cursed memory, by his deadly
teaching, like a poisonous root, has brought forth many noxious sons, not in Christ Jesus
through the gospel, as once the holy fathers brought forth faithful sons, but rather
contrary to the saving faith of Christ, and he has left these sons as successors to his
perverse teaching. This holy synod of Constance is compelled to act against these men as
against spurious and illegitimate sons, and to cut away their errors from the Lord's field
as if they were harmful briars, by means of vigilant care and the knife of ecclesiastical
authority, lest they spread as a cancer to destroy others. Although, therefore, it was
decreed at the sacred general council recently held at Rome [35] that the teaching of John
Wyclif, of cursed memory, should be condemned and the books of his containing this
teaching should be burnt as heretical; although his teaching was in fact condemned and his
books burnt as containing false and dangerous doctrine; and although a decree of this kind
was approved by the authority of this present sacred council [36] ; nevertheless a certain
John Hus, here present in person at this sacred council, who is a disciple not of Christ
but rather of the heresiarch John Wyclif, boldly and rashly contravening the condemnation
and the decree after their enactment, has taught, asserted and preached many errors and
heresies of John Wyclif which have been condemned both by God's church and by other
reverend fathers in Christ, lord archbishops and bishops of various kingdoms, and masters
in theology at many places of study. He has done this especially by publicly resisting in
the schools and in sermons, together with his accomplices, the condemnation in scholastic
form of the said articles of John Wyclif which has been made many times at the university
of Prague, and he has declared the said John Wyclif to be a catholic man and an
evangelical doctor, thus supporting his teaching, before a multitude of clergy and people.
He has asserted and published certain articles listed below and many others, which are
condemned and which are, as is well known, contained in the books and pamphlets of the
said John Hus. Full information has been obtained about the aforesaid matters, and there
has been careful deliberation by the most reverend fathers in Christ, lord cardinals of
the holy Roman church, patriarchs archbishops, bishops and other prelates and doctors of
holy scripture and of both laws, in large numbers. This most holy synod of Constance
therefore declares and defines that the articles listed below, which have been found on
examination, by many masters in sacred scripture, to be contained in his books and
pamphlets written in his own hand, and which the same John Hus at a public hearing, before
the fathers and prelates of this sacred council, has confessed to be contained in his
books and pamphlets, are not catholic and should not be taught to be such but rather many
of them are erroneous, others scandalous, others offensive to the ears of the devout, many
of them are rash and seditious, and some of them are notoriously heretical and have long
ago been rejected and condemned by holy fathers and by general councils, and it strictly
forbids them to be preached, taught or in any way approved. Moreover, since the articles
listed below are explicitly contained in his books or treatises, namely in the book
entitled De ecclesia and in his other pamphlets, this most holy synod therefore reproves
and condemns the aforesaid books and his teaching, as well as the other treatises and
pamphlets written by him in Latin or in Czech, or translated by one or more other persons
into any other language, and it decrees and determines that they should be publicly and
solemnly burnt in the presence of the clergy and people in the city of Constance and
elsewhere. On account of the above, moreover, all his teaching is and shall be deservedly
suspect regarding the faith and is to be avoided by all of Christ's faithful. In order
that this pernicious teaching may be eliminated from the midst of the church, this holy
synod also orders that local ordinaries make careful inquiry about treatises and pamphlets
of this kind, using the church's censures and even if necessary the punishment due for
supporting heresy, and that they be publicly burnt when they have been found. This same
holy synod decrees that local ordinaries and inquisitors of heresy are to proceed against
any who violate or defy this sentence and decree as if they were persons suspected of
heresy.
Sentence of degradation against J. Hus
Moreover, the acts and deliberations of the inquiry into heresy against the aforesaid
John Hus have been examined. There was first a faithful and full account made by the
commissioners deputed for the case and by other masters of theology and doctors of both
laws, concerning the acts and deliberations and the depositions of very many trustworthy
witnesses. These depositions were openly and publicly read out to the said John Hus before
the fathers and prelates of this sacred council. It is very clearly established from the
depositions of these witnesses that the said John has taught many evil, scandalous and
seditious things, and dangerous heresies, and has publicly preached them during many
years. This most holy synod of Constance, invoking Christ's name and having God alone
before its eyes, therefore pronounces, decrees and defines by this definitive sentence,
which is here written down, that the said John Hus was and is a true and manifest heretic
and has taught and publicly preached, to the great offence of the divine Majesty, to the
scandal of the universal church and to the detriment of the catholic faith, errors and
heresies that have long ago been condemned by God's church and many things that are
scandalous, offensive to the ears of the devout, rash and seditious, and that he has even
despised the keys of the church and ecclesiastical censures. He has persisted in these
things for many years with a hardened heart. He has greatly scandalised Christ's faithful
by his obstinacy since, bypassing the church's intermediaries, he has made appeal directly
to our lord Jesus Christ, as to the supreme judge, in which he has introduced many false,
harmful and scandalous things to the contempt of the apostolic see, ecclesiastical
censures and the keys. This holy synod therefore pronounces the said John Hus, on account
of the aforesaid and many other matters, to have been a heretic and it judges him to be
considered and condemned as a heretic, and it hereby condemns him. It rejects the said
appeal of his as harmful and scandalous and offensive to the church's jurisdiction. It
declares that the said John Hus seduced the Christian people, especially in the kingdom of
Bohemia, in his public sermons and in his writings; and that he was not a true preacher of
Christ's gospel to the same Christian people, according to the exposition of the holy
doctors, but rather was a seducer. Since this most holy synod has learnt from what it has
seen and heard, that the said John Hus is obstinate and incorrigible and as such does not
desire to return to the bosom of holy mother the church, and is unwilling to abjure the
heresies and errors which he has publicly defended and preached, this holy synod of
Constance therefore declares and decrees that the same John Hus is to be deposed and
degraded from the order of the priesthood and from the other orders held by him. It
charges the reverend fathers in Christ, the archbishop of Milan and the bishops of Feltre
Asti, Alessandria, Bangor and Lavour with duly carrying out the degradation in the
presence of this most holy synod, in accordance with the procedure required by law.
Sentence condemning J. Hus to the stake
This holy synod of Constance, seeing that God's church has nothing more that it can do,
relinquishes John Hus to the judgment of the secular authority and decrees that he is to
be relinquished to the secular court.
Condemned articles of J. Hus
1. There is only one holy universal church, which is the total number of those
predestined to salvation. It therefore follows that the universal holy church is only one,
inasmuch as there is only one number of all those who are predestined to salvation.
2. Paul was never a member of the devil, even though he did certain acts which are
similar to the acts of the church's enemies.
3. Those foreknown as damned are not parts of the church, for no part of the church can
finally fall away from it, since the predestinating love that binds the church together
does not fail.
4. The two natures, the divinity and the humanity, are one Christ.
5. A person foreknown to damnation is never part of the holy church, even if he is in a
state of grace according to present justice; a person predestined to salvation always
remains a member of the church, even though he may fall away for a time from adventitious
grace, for he keeps the grace of predestination.
6. The church is an article of faith in the following sense: to regard it as the
convocation of those predestined to salvation, whether or not it be in a state of grace
according to present justice.
7. Peter neither was nor is the head of the holy catholic church.
8. Priests who live in vice in any way pollute the power of the priesthood, and like
unfaithful sons are untrustworthy in their thinking about the church's seven sacraments,
about the keys, offices, censures, customs, ceremonies and sacred things of the church,
about the veneration of relics, and about indulgences and orders.
9. The papal dignity originated with the emperor, and the primacy and institution of
the pope emanated from imperial power.
10. Nobody would reasonably assert of himself or of another, without revelation, that
he was the head of a particular holy church; nor is the Roman pontiff the head of the
Roman church.
11. It is not necessary to believe that any particular Roman pontiff is the head of any
particular holy church, unless God has predestined him to salvation.
12. Nobody holds the place of Christ or of Peter unless he follows his way of life,
since there is no other discipleship that is more appropriate nor is there another way to
receive delegated power from God, since there is required for this office of vicar a
similar way of life as well as the authority of the one instituting.
13. The pope is not the manifest and true successor of the prince of the apostles,
Peter, if he lives in a way contrary to Peter's. If he seeks avarice, he is the vicar of
Judas Iscariot. Likewise, cardinals are not the manifest and true successors of the
college of Christ's other apostles unless they live after the manner of the apostles,
keeping the commandments and counsels of our lord Jesus Christ.
14. Doctors who state that anybody subjected to ecclesiastical censure, if he refuses
to be corrected, should be handed over to the judgment of the secular authority, are
undoubtedly following in this the chief priests, the scribes and the pharisees who handed
over to the secular authority Christ himself, since he was unwilling to obey them in all
things, saying, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death; these gave him to the
civil judge, so that such men are even greater murderers than Pilate.
15. Ecclesiastical obedience was invented by the church's priests, without the express
authority of scripture.
16. The immediate division of human actions is between those that are virtuous and
those that are wicked. Therefore, if a man is wicked and does something, he acts wickedly;
if he is virtuous and does something, he acts virtuously. For just as wickedness, which is
called crime or mortal sin, infects all the acts of a wicked man, so virtue gives life to
all the acts of a virtuous man.
17. A priest of Christ who lives according to his law, knows scripture and has a desire
to edify the people, ought to preach, notwithstanding a pretended excommunication. And
further on: if the pope or any superior orders a priest so disposed not to preach, the
subordinate ought not to obey.
18. Whoever enters the priesthood receives a binding duty to preach; and this mandate
ought to be carried out, notwithstanding a pretended excommunication.
19. By the church's censures of excommunication, suspension and interdict the clergy
subdue the laity, for the sake of their own exaltation, multiply avarice protect
wickedness and prepare the way for antichrist. The clear sign of this is the fact that
these censures come from antichrist. In the legal proceedings of the clergy they are
called fulminations, which are the principal means whereby the clergy proceed against
those who uncover antichrist's wickedness, which the clergy has for the most part usurped
for itself.
20. If the pope is wicked, and especially if he is foreknown to damnation, then he is a
devil like Judas the apostle, a thief and a son of perdition and is not the head of the
holy church militant since he is not even a member of it.
21. The grace of predestination is the bond whereby the body of the church and each of
its members is indissolubly joined with the head.
22. The pope or a prelate who is wicked and foreknown to damnation is a pastor only in
an equivocal sense, and truly is a thief and a robber.
23. The pope ought not to be called "most holy" even by reason of his office,
for otherwise even a king ought to be called "most holy" by reason of his office
and executioners and heralds ought to be called "holy", indeed even the devil
would be called "holy" since he is an official of God.
24. If a pope lives contrary to Christ, even if he has risen through a right and
legitimate election according to the established human constitution, he would have risen
by a way other than through Christ, even granted that he entered upon office by an
election that had been made principally by God. For, Judas Iscariot was rightly and
legitimately elected to be an apostle by Jesus Christ who is God, yet he climbed into the
sheepfold by another way.
25. The condemnation of the forty-five articles of John Wyclif, decreed by the doctors,
is irrational and unjust and badly done and the reason alleged by them is feigned, namely
that none of them is catholic but each one is either heretical or erroneous or scandalous.
26. The viva voce agreement upon some person, made according to human custom by the
electors or by the greater part of them, does not mean by itself that the person has been
legitimately elected or that by this very fact he is the true and manifest successor or
vicar of the apostle Peter or of another apostle in an ecclesiastical office. For, it is
to the works of the one elected that we should look irrespective of whether the manner of
the election was good or bad. For, the more plentifully a person acts meritoriously
towards building up the church, the more copiously does he thereby have power from God for
this.
27. There is not the least proof that there must be one head ruling the church in
spiritual matters who always lives with the church militant.
28. Christ would govern his church better by his true disciples scattered throughout
the world, without these monstrous heads.
29. The apostles and faithful priests of the Lord strenuously governed the church in
matters necessary for salvation before the office of pope was introduced, and they would
continue to do this until the day of judgment if—which is very possible—there is
no pope.
30. Nobody is a civil lord, a prelate or a bishop while he is in mortal sin.
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