forbidden from bringing the clergy before a civil tribunal,
contrary to imperial privileges that have been conceded: for
Pope Clement the Martyr says: "If any of the presbyters have
trouble with one another, let whatever it be adjusted before
the presbyters of the Church." Hence Constantine the Great,
the most Christian Emperor, was unwilling in the holy
Council of Nice to give judgement even in secular cases. "Ye
are gods," he says, "appointed by the true God. Go, settle
the case among yourselves, be cause it is not proper that we
judge gods." As to what is further repeated concerning Church
regulations has been sufficiently replied to above. Nor does
Christian liberty, which they bring forth as an argument,
avail them, since this is not liberty, but prodigious
license, which, inculcated on the people, excites them to
fatal and most dangerous sedition. For Christian liberty is
not opposed to ecclesiastical usages since they promote what
is good, but it is opposed to the servitude of the Mosaic law
and the servitude of sin. "Whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin," says Christ, John 8:34. Hence their
breaking asts, their free partaking of meats, their neglect
of canonical hours, their omission of confession - viz. at
Easter - and their commission and omission of similar things,
are not a use of liberty, but an abuse thereof, contrary to
the warnings of St. Paul, who earnestly warned them, saying:
"Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not
liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one
another." Gal. 5:13. Hence no one ought to conceal his crimes
under the pretext of Gospel liberty, which St. Peter also
forbade: "As free, and not using your liberty for an cloak of
maliciousness, but as the servant of God," 1 Pet. 2:16. As to