Oratio lamentabilis ... Iohannes Savageti Constantiensis et Basiliensis ... super turbatione dicte ecclesie Constantiensis ... una cum tractatu per eum, edito sex dubiis iuris clauso ... Per que evidens iustitia ... Ludovici de Freiberg ... confirmati episcopi ac iniustitia Ottonis de Sunnenberg ... declaratur et ostenditur

A Treatise on the Controversy of the Church of Constance, edited by the Distinguished Doctor, Master Johannes Savageti, Canon and Archdeacon of the said Church, enclosed within six legal doubts. In which it is shown by law that the reservations and apostolic provisions made for the said church by our Most Holy Lord Pope Sixtus IV were and are valid, and that the Concordats of the German nation do not hinder them, but assist them. And many other notable things are contained therein, through which the evident injustice of the rebels—namely Otto of Sunnenberg and his accomplices, who adhere to and favor him against the law—is shown.

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Since there are very many ecclesiastics and seculars of the city and diocese of Constance who, having postponed the decrees of the holy fathers and relying upon their own prudence—or more truly their own ignorance—and inordinate affection, impugn the apostolic provisions previously made for the person of the Reverend Father in Christ, Lord Ludovic of Freiberg, for the Church of Constance with rash presumption, [using] iniquitous and false persuasions, and barking hatefully and proudly against the Apostolic See, they do not care to obey or follow its mandates, however penal they may be, issued regarding the said provisions. Nor do they wish to believe those who are more learned or to yield to the truth, but with obstinate animosity they strive to defend their false opinion, not by law or effective reason, but by injury and certain cavillations. Pope Leo the Saint refutes these, saying: "What is more iniquitous than to know impious things and not to believe those who are wiser?" But they fall into this ignorance who, when they are impeded by some obscurity in knowing the truth, do not have recourse to apostolic letters or evangelical authorities, but to themselves, and therefore they are masters of error because they were not disciples of truth, as Gratiano reports in Decretum, 24.q.3.c. "Quod autem." For ignorance is especially to be detested in priests, because when they, blinded by ignorance, provide guidance to others, both fall into the pit. Whence it is said in the Psalm: "Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see," etc. Therefore, priests must labor to cast away ignorance from themselves like a pestilence. For ignorance is the mother of all errors, and is especially to be avoided in priests who have assumed the office of teaching among the people of God. For priests are admonished to read the sacred scriptures, the Apostle Paul saying to Timothy: "Attend to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine, and persevere in these always." Therefore, let priests know the holy scriptures and the canons, and let all their work consist in preaching and doctrine, and let them edify all, as much by the knowledge of faith as by the discipline of works.