In the 15th century, the Council of Constance (1414-1418) condemned the errors of Jan Hus. Many of these errors seem entirely consonant with the words and/or behavior of the modern-day papal accusers. Let’s review some of the condemned errors and see how they compare to modern errors.

from Denzinger, the condemned errors of Jan Hus:

“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.”

This error essentially states that when a priest (or bishop) errs gravely in any way, whether by a grave sin or an error of the faith (“vice in any way”), he is to be considered entirely untrustworthy, and all that he does should be seen as wicked. This last part is explicitly stated by Hus in #16 below.

“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.”

These two errors (8 and 16) are seen in the words and behavior of many of the papal critics today. Anyone who, in their judgment, errs gravely — especially Pope Francis, his supporters, and any bishops or priests who speak or act contrary to the conservative understanding of the Faith — is viewed as if he were entirely corrupt. They see him as wicked (though they might not use that term), and so they consider all that he does to be wicked (#16). And then then consider him to be “untrustworthy” in his entire understanding of the Church, the Sacraments, and the Faith.

The correct position is that when a person errs, only the error is to be condemned, not the whole person. Moreover, if a person sins gravely, his other acts may well be moral and virtuous. Each act must be judged on its own as to its morality. A person, especially a baptized Christian, can cooperate with grace at any time. Even a person in a state of unrepentant actual mortal sin can cooperate with actual grace (and hopefully be led to repentance). So we should not condemn in their entirety any Church leaders who err in some way, nor should we treat them as wicked opponents.

But it is also important to note that the papal accusers are, in almost every case, making false or exaggerated accusations against Pope Francis. His errors, if any, are necessarily limited by the grace of God. No Roman Pontiff can teach heresy, nor teach any grave error, nor commit apostasy, heresy, or schism, nor err gravely in decisions of discipline. The indefectibility of the Church keeps the head of the Church on earth from grave errors of any kind, by the prevenient grace of God.

“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.”

These errors allow anyone to judge the Roman Pontiff, to consider him to be not the true successor of Peter, nor the true head of the Church, and thereby to reject him as Teacher and Shepherd. This attitude (rather than the specific error itself) is seen in the way that the papal critics treat Pope Francis. They do not speak or act as if he were the Vicar of Christ. While they acknowledge that he holds the office of Roman Pontiff, this is not sufficient for them to avoid the sin of schism. One must submit to the Roman Pontiff as one’s own Teacher and the Shepherd of one’s own soul.

Jan Hus thought that anyone could judge the Pope to be not predestined to salvation, and therefore reject that Pope’s authority and acts. His error allows anyone to judge whether the Pope follows Peter’s way of life, and if he is judged to have failed in this, to treat him as not the true successor of Peter.

And the papal critics today are behaving similarly. They judge Pope Francis. They judge the Cardinals and Bishops, as well as the body of Bishops itself. And they treat the Pope and any of the Cardinals or Bishops who support him (or who seem to the critics to have erred) as if they were “not the manifest and true successors of the college of Christ’s other apostles” — not unless they live as the papal critics wish they would live.

“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.”

The above error proposes that the faithful can disregard the decision of proper Church authority, to excommunicate someone (or by implication other actions) and continue preaching and teaching what the Holy See has decided is error. And this is the attitude, if not the exact situation, of the papal accusers today. They will not stop speaking against the Pope and any Cardinal or Bishop they oppose, no matter what the Church decides. And if a sentence of excommunication were handed down against any leader they support, they would not accept it. They would encourage that person to continue to preach and would declare the excommunication to be invalid (“pretended”).

“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.”

“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….”

The above errors permit the faithful to judge and condemn any Roman Pontiff, even accusing him of being under the influence, or doing the bidding of the devil, just like Judas. These errors also permit the faithful to deny that any Pope is the true Pastor of the Faith, based on their judgment and condemnation of his words and deeds. These are errors for several reasons:

1. The First See is judged by no one;
2. The prevenient grace of God does not permit any Pope to teach any grave error, nor to err gravely on decisions of discipline, nor in any way to do grave harm to the Church;
3. The prevenient grace of God keeps every Pope faithful, and prevents the faith of the Pope from failing by apostasy, heresy, or schism (or in any other substantial way).
4. The Church is the indefectible body of Christ, enlivened and led by the Holy Spirit, and the Pope is the indefectible Vicar of Christ, protected from error and failings of faith by the Spirit. Therefore, to accuse the Pope or a Council or the Church at the highest levels of being infiltrated by Satan is blasphemy against Christ and against the Holy Spirit.
5. The Faith would lose is surety if each and every Pope were not guarded by the grace 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.”

“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.”

“30. Nobody is a civil lord, a prelate or a bishop while he is in mortal sin.”

The above errors permit the faithful to judge the Pope, to condemn him by their evaluation of his works, and to reject his authority. And this is exactly the behavior of the papal accusers, even if their rationalizations are somewhat different, the error is essentially the same. They judge the Pope, or various Cardinals and Bishops, or even a Council, to be sinning gravely, and by that unjust judgment they reject the authority of Christ in the Church.

So the papal critics are living the errors of Jan Hus, errors condemned by the Ecumenical Council of Constance. They are truly heretics and schismatics. For in order to reject the authority and teachings of Pope Francis, other Popes, and Vatican II, they must deny the dogmas that teach the faithful to believe and obey the Church. And having rejected all Church authority by these heresies, they refuse submission to Popes and Councils, thereby committing schism.

Some papal accusers go so far as to accuse Vatican II and/or various Popes of being under Satanic influence, and that wicked sin reaches to the extent of apostasy and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. For to accuse the Church of being led by Satan destroys the faith entirely, and is therefore apostasy. And the same accusation is truly against both Christ Himself and the Spirit, since the Church is the body of Christ, with Jesus as her Head, and with the Spirit as her Soul.

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.

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