"O God and Lord, now the council condemns even Your own act and Your own law as heresy, since You Yourself did lay Your cause before Your Father as the just judge, as an example for us, whenever we are sorely oppressed"
About this Quote
A medieval dissident is doing something radical here: he drags the Church into court using the Church's own paperwork. Hus addresses God in the language of hierarchy and procedure, then pivots to an accusation that lands like a legal brief. If the council calls "Your own act and Your own law" heresy, the implication is devastating: the institution charged with guarding orthodoxy has become the engine of blasphemy. He doesn't argue theology so much as expose a credibility crisis.
The key move is the appeal to precedent. Hus points to Christ laying His cause before the Father "as the just judge" not as piety, but as an example that authorizes resistance when earthly authorities turn predatory. It is a way of saying: even God submitted His case to a higher tribunal; I can do the same when your tribunal is corrupt. That framing matters in 1415, at Constance, where councils claimed sweeping authority to heal schism and police doctrine. Hus answers conciliar power with a higher jurisdiction that councils can't subpoena.
The subtext is also pastoral and tactical. "Whenever we are sorely oppressed" widens the frame from Hus's personal trial to a template for anyone crushed by ecclesiastical machinery. He's writing a politics of conscience: obedience has limits, and those limits are set not by clerical consensus but by divine justice. That is precisely why the line is so combustible. It turns a heresy proceeding into a referendum on the council itself, and it does it with the most dangerous weapon in medieval Europe: the claim that the court has mistaken its own authority for God's.
The key move is the appeal to precedent. Hus points to Christ laying His cause before the Father "as the just judge" not as piety, but as an example that authorizes resistance when earthly authorities turn predatory. It is a way of saying: even God submitted His case to a higher tribunal; I can do the same when your tribunal is corrupt. That framing matters in 1415, at Constance, where councils claimed sweeping authority to heal schism and police doctrine. Hus answers conciliar power with a higher jurisdiction that councils can't subpoena.
The subtext is also pastoral and tactical. "Whenever we are sorely oppressed" widens the frame from Hus's personal trial to a template for anyone crushed by ecclesiastical machinery. He's writing a politics of conscience: obedience has limits, and those limits are set not by clerical consensus but by divine justice. That is precisely why the line is so combustible. It turns a heresy proceeding into a referendum on the council itself, and it does it with the most dangerous weapon in medieval Europe: the claim that the court has mistaken its own authority for God's.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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