128

A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

if

a

is

a

a

it is

I

is

is

it

if,

mentioned above, but the polemical tendency is here yet more evident, for Hus is here treating of the great The constant note of just plague-spot of his time. indignation renders the book very striking, and it would — as Mr. Wratislaw has truly remarked — well Taear translation as a whole. I shall, from want of space, bd unable to give more than one quotation. In Chapter IV. Hus deals with the question. Can a Pope be guilty of simony ? He writes : " Let us see if it is possible for a Pope to be a simoniac. Some say it is impossible, for he is the lord of the whole world, who is entitled to take what he wishes and do what he wishes. Therefore is he the most holy father whom sin cannot touch ? Now, you must know that many Popes were heretics, and generally bad, and they were deprived of the papal dignity. Therefore be not in doubt that the Pope can be a simoniac. And if some one maintain that he cannot commit simony or any deadly sin, then he must desire to raise him higher than St. Peter or the other Apostles. And to the argument that he (the Pope) is the lord of the whole world, who may take what he will and do what he will, I will answer that there is but one Lord of the whole world who cannot sin, and whose right it is to rule and do as He will, and that Lord is the according to the arguAlmighty God. And further, the most holy father, said that the Pope ment, for one only whom sin cannot touch, deny this our most Holy Father, the Lord God, whom sin cannot touch." After maintaining that Pope to be possible for simoniac, Hus continues thus " Let us see in what manner he (the Pope) can be simoniac. He can be so, he desires the papal dignity for the sake of firstly,