Chapter 6 - 14th And 15th Centuries
We have witnessed a succession of Christians, known by Romanists as heretics but by God as martyrs, who stood against some of the heresies of Catholicism. As we proceed into the next centuries, we will see that the fire is still burning, and there are well-known and little-known saints standing for the truth of the Gospel.
John Foxe, noted writer of Foxe's Book Of Martyrs, gives a list of learned men between 1331 and 1360 who contended against the false claims of the pope. One of these, Michael of Cesena, who had numerous followers, not a few of whom were slain, declared the pope to be "Antichrist, and the church of Rome to be the whore of Babylon, drunk with the blood of the saints."
However, by far the outstanding man of this era was John Wyclif (sometimes spelled Wycliffe), who for good reason has been acclaimed "The Morning Star of the English Reformation," although some Protestant historians maintain that without Wyclif there might not have been any lasting Reformation, and therefore prefer to call him `The Father of the Reformation.'
Louis de Wohl has some interesting ideas about Wyclif on page 154 of Founded On A Rock. "Wycliffe's idea was a kind of forerunner of Protestantism in a very radical form. He wanted what is today frequently called `reactionary:' to throw overboard everything the Church had built up in the course of fourteen centuries and go back to the `Primitive Church.' - the only source and basis of Christianity was to be Sacred Scripture. He forgot, or did not see, that everything he wanted to destroy was based upon Holy Scripture like the primacy of Peter (and therefore all of his successors)"
Those familiar with the Scriptures know that the Bible nowhere speaks of the primacy and infallibility of Peter, and even many Catholic theologians have given up trying to base the authenticity of the Church upon the myth of apostolic succession.
Of course, you might doubt de Wohl's accuracy when he further states, "Wycliffe's idea was not even original: the Lollards in England had it before him." (The Lollards were the followers of John Wyclif.)
Wyclif, born around 1320 in Yorkshire, England, was in his day the ablest scholar at Oxford University. He was a Roman Catholic priest until his death, but he boldly declared, "the only head of the Church is Christ. The pope, unless he be one of the predestinate who rule in the spirit of the gospel, is the vicar of antichrist."
He also wrote fervently against the "power-grasping hierarchy" and the monks and friars who claimed special privileges without any scriptural warrant. Wyclif rejected transubstantiation utterly as contrary to both Scripture and reason. He denied the infallibility of the Roman Church in doctrine, and rejected many of the rising practices of the papal church - confession, purgatory, pilgrimages, and veneration of saints and relics. These, he stated, are all unscriptural.
Quotations from his sermons, given in Foxe's Book Of Martyrs, page 57, bear witness to these doctrinal beliefs of Wyclif. "The holy eucharist, after the consecration, is not the very body of Christ." "The Pope of Rome hath no more the keys of the Church than hath any other within the order of the priesthood." "The Church of Rome is not the head of all churches more than any other church is; nor that Peter had any more power given of Christ than any other apostle had."
Wyclif taught that the persecuting "little horn" of Daniel had found fulfillment in the papacy which arose out of the fourth kingdom, Rome. "Why is it necessary in unbelief to look for another Antichrist?" he asked. "In the seventh chapter of Daniel, Antichrist is forcefully described by a horn arising in the time of the fourth kingdom wearing out the saints of the most high." His book, The Mirror Of Antichrist, is filled with references to the Pope as Antichrist.
Regarding his translation of the Scriptures into English, Wyclif believed he was handing the very oracles of God, and every part was to be accepted without reserve. He declared plainly: "Christ and His Apostles taught the people in the language best known to them. It is certain that the truth of the Christian faith becomes more evident the more the faith itself is known. Therefore, the doctrine should not only be in Latin but in the common tongue, and as the faith of the Church is contained in the Scriptures, the more these are known in a true sense the better, The laity ought to understand the faith, and as the doctrines of our faith are in the Scriptures, believers should have the Scriptures in a language familiar to the people. If it is heresy to read the Bible, then the Holy Ghost Himself is condemned. If you deny Christ's words as heresy, then you make God a heretic.
If you condemn the Word of God in any language as heresy, then you condemn God for a heretic that spoke the word. If His Word is the life of this world, how may any Anti-Christ take it away from us that are Christian men, and allow the people to die for hunger in heresy."
Besides giving the Word of God to the English people, Wyclif knew the necessity of preaching that Word. The followers of Wyclif were the Lollards, who were fiercely persecuted, some commemorated to this day by the Martyrs' Memorial at the "Lollards' Pit" in Norwich, England. The Lollards were preachers of the Gospel who proclaimed the truths that Wyclif translated in the Bible.
Although the Lollards were completely orthodox and their leader, John Wyclif, remained a Catholic priest all his life and was not condemned until the Council of Constance 30 years after his death, Priest Markoe shows a flair for fiction when he lists the Lollard heresies. Besides the usual anti-Catholic beliefs, he avers they held that the universe and God are one. This attempt to smear true Christians with a coat of pantheism is a complete falsehood.
The influence of Wyclif and his Lollards far outlasted their brief life span. Lollardry was strong in England for centuries, and, when Lutheranism arrived in England in 1523, the Bishop of London wrote to Erasmus, "It is no question of some pernicious novelty. It is only that new arms are being added to the great band of Wycliffite heresies." Through the reign of Henry VIII and during the persecutions of Bloody Mary, many who suffered were from strong Lollard areas. Wyclif can be seen to have played a most important role in the English Reformation.
It is interesting to put Wyclif's beliefs beside others we have already talked about. He did not have the luxury of intercommunication with other believers and a world-wide organization. Wyclif and his Lollards were a "little flock" and widely scattered. Many lived their entire lives without having the blessing of fellowship with like-minded believers. Their labels matter not; the item of import is their common faith in Jesus Christ, and the subsequent rejection of Roman dogma. Many suffered greatly, but all were willing to seal their testimony with their blood.
Wyclif's influence was also felt far beyond the borders of England. Benito Mussolini, in John Huss The Veracious, writes, "By a peculiar chain of circumstances Wycliffe's doctrine, after its bloody suppression in England, which its author, who died in 1384, did not survive, was transplanted to Bohemia where it found carefully tilled soil and grew rapidly." Mussolini mentions the influence of Waldensian Christians, and continues, "The Bohemian revolution, however assumed its Hussite character under the influence of Wycliffe, but more properly through Wycliffeism as introduced and popularized by Huss and his followers."
Writers about John Huss (sometimes spelled Hus) would fall into two easily defined categories, and these would either label him as a martyr or heretic. In order to examine the allegations of his heresy, we will turn to The Triumph Of The Church by Jesuit Priest John Markoe. He says, "The Hussites taught that the Church consisted of the predestined only; claimed St. Peter never to have been the head of the Church; denied that the clergy received authority from Christ, and held that mortal sin deprives every ruler of justification."
This can hardly be called a scholarly summary of the beliefs of John Huss or his followers. Markoe admits that Huss was greatly influenced by the writings of Wycliffe, which seems to be the unanimous conclusion of all historians, whether pro-Huss or anti-Huss.
To go to the other side for a brief outline of the life and teachings of John Huss, we go to Dr. Henry Halley in Halley's Bible Handbook, page 75: "John Huss (1369-1415). Rector of the University of Prague, Bohemia. He was a student of Wyclif, whose writings had penetrated Bohemia. He became a fearless preacher; attacked the vices of the clergy and the corruption of the church; with impassioned vehemence condemned the sale of indulgences; rejected purgatory, worship of saints and worship in a foreign language; exalted the Scriptures above the dogmas and ordinances of the church. He was burned alive at the stake, and his followers, a large part of the Bohemian population, were almost extirpated by a crusade ordered by the Pope."
Probably the fairest way to find out if John Huss was a part of a noble army or heretics or martyrs is to weigh the statements Dr. Halley has just given us by looking into Roman Catholic and reputable secular history. We will avoid any further use of anything our Catholic friends might feel is prejudiced reporting.
First, it will help by examining the background of the Hussite movement in Bohemia. Mussolini writes, "During the XIV century the Catholic Church had become a business bureau dealing in spiritual and secular affairs, the first being a handy disguise for the second. Rome was the firm's headquarters, but its branches were scattered throughout Europe. Traveling salesmen garbed in long cassocks, or as laymen, passed from one monastery to another, forever engaged in binding the network to insure commercial profits to the exchequer at Rome. Frederick von Bezold, professor at the University of Erlangen, in his splendid History Of The Reformation In Germany (translated into Italian by Valbusa and published in 1902 by the Societa Editrice Libraria of Milan) writes: `The Papal Chancellery has been defined a huge mint. The saying that in Rome everything was for sale, was no exaggerated aspersion, for money could buy anything from the smallest prebend to a cardinal's hat, and from permission to use butter on fast days to absolution for murder and incest.'"
The fact that the Roman Church was corrupt in those days is scarcely ever denied by any reputable historian, and the excesses evident in Bohemia were ample reason for some outcry to be made. John Huss himself, in his earliest days as a Roman priest, took part in the jest and ribaldry that often accompanied religious events in Prague.
Catholic Christianity had been brought to Bohemia in the ninth century. It soon was marked by the religious deterioration that was prevalent throughout the Roman world, and the first answer to this decadence was Conrad Waldhauser, an Austrian monk, who began by denouncing the sins of the Church, with a special emphasis on religious orders.
Augustinian monks uncovered six of Waldhauser's propositions which they claimed to be heretical; the Dominicans found eighteen. But Waldhauser was not really a heretic, for he did not disbelieve dogma or attack the institution of the papacy; he merely found fault with what he considered to be immoralities among the clergy. His life was threatened, but, protected by the archbishop and the King, he died peacefully in 1369.
Next on the scene was the mystic Milicz, who foresaw the imminent coming of Antichrist and the end of the world between 1365 and 1367. He was accused of heresy and summoned to Rome where, in the pope's absence, he fearlessly preached. His preaching added more fuel to the fire, now starting to summon the attention of the world, and announcing not only clerical sin but basic apostasy in the Roman system.
Others, including Mathias of Janow and Thomas Stitny, came and went, and the smouldering of resentment among Bohemians began to develop more strongly.
This led to the birth of John Huss the same year that Waldhauser died. He was ordained a priest at the age of 30, and very shortly caught the attention of Prague with his electrifying sermons at the Chapel of Bethlehem. His first teachings were not heretical, for they did not question the revealed truths or dogmas of the Church, but he began by assailing the loose living and mercenary tactics of the priests.
By now, Wycliffite teaching began to penetrate Bohemia, and in 1403 a commission of Roman theologians uncovered 43 heresies in Wycliffe's writings. The reading of his books was prohibited, and Huss protested. Because of his defense of Wycliffite works, Huss was removed by the archbishop from the pulpit of the Chapel of Bethlehem.
During this time, the situation in Rome was one of confusion, as three popes, two of them pretenders, were contesting for the seat of Peter. Therefore it was not a time when Rome had as much control of the affairs in Bohemia as they would have liked, and this was another reason Hussite "heresy" could take firm root.
In the coming years, John Huss would find increasing official persecution, but support from the rank and file in Bohemia, and even from King Wenceslaus. In one instance, 200 volumes of Wycliffe's volumes were burned and at the same time, Huss was castigated.
Anti-pope John XXIII summoned Huss to Rome, but Wenceslaus prohibited Huss from obeying. Huss was invited by the new archbishop of Prague to an interview.
He was asked, "Is it your intention to obey pontifical orders?"
After a brief positive response, Huss became more explicit on his position. The words which sealed his position as a heretic, and started to ignite the fire that would one day consume his body, were fearlessly uttered.
"Let it be understood that I call apostolic orders the teachings of the Apostles of Christ, when the pope's orders are in agreement with these I am ready to listen to them; when they are contrary I refuse to obey them even if you were to kindle before my very eyes the fire in which my body was to be burned."
On July 29, 1412, the pope excommunicated John Huss.
One of the most infamous documents of history, the safe conduct of German Emperor Sigismund, pledged: "a guarantee of Huss' personal safety, and full and absolute freedom at Constance; and the liberty to return to Bohemia even in the event of Huss' refusal to bow to the decisions of the Council."
Huss' friends suspected treachery and warned him not to go. But Huss, feeling confident of the Emperor's loyalty, and convinced of his innocence, was getting ready to leave for the last journey of his life - to the Council of Constance.
Huss had challenged all in Prague to public debate; no one responded. His friends had nothing to debate and his enemies, who were plotting his death, did not wish to debate in open with him. Before he left for Constance, he had received from Nicholas, Bishop of Nazareth and Inquisitor of Prague, a document that stated he "had never found either error or heresy in the writings or sermons of John Huss."
It was clear, however, that Huss held no promises of a sure acquittal in Constance. He even bequeathed his personal effects to his disciples before he left. As he left Prague on October 11, 1414, he remarked to a friend, Andrew Polach, "I have a notion that I shall never see you again."
Huss was quickly imprisoned in Constance, and the Emperor declared that he had not meant the safe conduct to prevent the Council from having full jurisdiction to prosecute and punish Huss. Huss, now 45 years of age, knew the Council's order for Wycliffe's works to be burned was just the beginning of the ordeal he would face.
His trial began on June 5, 1415 during which time he was often not allowed to answer for himself. Finally, on July 6 the sentence of death was passed, and on July 15, 1415, he was led to the place of execution. The Society of the Universal Biography relates his last hours.
"He approached the pyre with all the fearlessness of fanaticism, as if he had come to the place of triumph, and singing hymns while the flames devoured his body and his books."
Some relate that the dying Huss prophesied, "Let a goose (the English meaning of the Czech word Huss) be sacrificed, but one hundred years hence out of its ashes there will rise a swan, who would uphold the truth that he had defended."
We cannot vouch for the authenticity of this prophecy, but we do know that, within 100 years, the movements in the heart of Martin Luther that would eventually call forth the Protestant Reformation, had begun. Dr. Halley places Luther's conversion in the year 1508, but even if that be too soon, we know that just over 102 years after the death of John Huss, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses on the door of Wittenburg Church that were to awaken the world and shake the Papal structure as it had never been shaken.
That Huss met his death purposefully and bravely is not denied by the most biased biographer. He truly became one of God's noblest martyrs, though disowned as a heretic.
After the death of John Huss, many variations of his teachings were taught in Bohemia, but on March 1, 1420 Pope Martin V called a crusade against the Hussites, and a large number were slaughtered. However, the Hussite movement had established several important precedents:
1. It was demonstrated that the truth (as proclaimed in the writings of John Wyclif) would find fertile soil in the hearts of those who were saddened by the immorality of religious leaders and therefore open to the truth
2. It demonstrated that a local religious leader could call upon a great deal of support from his local friends, who were also sickened by clerical immorality and inconsistency, even though they themselves knew they could well be called upon to answer with their own blood.
3. It proved that the church of Rome would exercise all expeditious means at her disposal, even if they included deceit and lying, in order to further her ends.
These, the power of truth, the openness of those who really want the truth, and the cruelty of the oppressing religious force have been re-enacted many times, and will continue to surface as we progress through the pages of time.