Wycliffe and Hus

Introduction

John Foxe

At this time Christianity was in a sad state. Although everyone knew the name of Christ, few if any understood His doctrine.… Instead, the Church was solely concerned with outward ceremony and human traditions. People spent their entire lives heaping up one ceremony after another in hopes of salvation, not knowing it was theirs for the asking. Simple, uneducated people who had no knowledge of Scripture were content to know only what their pastors told them, and these pastors took care to only teach what came from Rome—most of which was for the profit of their own orders, not for the glory of Christ.

Amid this spiritual darkness, some courageous men began to push for reform. These like-minded stalwarts have become known to history as the Pre-Reformers.

John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe left quite an impression on the church: 43 years after his death, officials dug up his body, burned his remains, and threw the ashes into the river Swift. Still, they couldn’t get rid of him. Wycliffe’s teachings, though suppressed, continued to spread. As a later chronicler observed, “Thus the brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; and they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine which now is dispersed the world over.”

“Master of errors”

Wycliffe had been born on 1328 in Hipswell, Yorkshire, on a sheep farm 200 miles from London. He left for Oxford University in 1346, but because of periodic eruptions of the Black Death, he was not able to earn his doctorate until 1372. Nonetheless, by then he was already considered Oxford’s leading philosopher and theologian.

In 1374 he became rector of the parish in Lutterworth. During this time he started becoming discontented with the papacy.

In the meantime, Rome had demanded financial support from England, a nation struggling to raise money to resist a possible French attack. Wycliffe advised his local lord, John of Gaunt, to tell Parliament not to comply. He argued that the church was already too wealthy and that Christ called his disciples to poverty, not wealth. If anyone should keep such taxes, it should be local English authorities.

Such opinions got Wycliffe into trouble, and he was brought to London to answer charges of heresy. The hearing had hardly gotten underway when recriminations on both sides filled the air. Soon they erupted into an open brawl, ending the meeting. Three months later, Pope Gregory XI issued five bulls (church edicts) against Wycliffe, in which Wycliffe was accused on 18 counts and was called “the master of errors.”

At a subsequent hearing before the archbishop at Lambeth Palace, Wycliffe replied, “I am ready to defend my convictions even unto death.… I have followed the Sacred Scriptures and the holy doctors.” He went on to say that the pope and the church were second in authority to Scripture.

This didn’t sit well with Rome, but because of Wycliffe’s popularity in England and a subsequent split in the papacy (the Great Schism of 1378, when rival popes were elected), Wycliffe was put under “house arrest” and left to pastor his Lutterworth parish.

Disputing the church

He deepened his study of Scripture and wrote more about his conflicts with official church teaching.

He wrote against the doctrine of transubstantiation: “The bread while becoming by virtue of Christ’s words the body of Christ does not cease to be bread.”

He challenged indulgences: “It is plain to me that our prelates in granting indulgences do commonly blaspheme the wisdom of God.”

He repudiated the confessional: “Private confession … was not ordered by Christ and was not used by the apostles.”

He reiterated the biblical teaching on faith: “Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on his sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by his righteousness.”

Believing that every Christian should have access to Scripture (only Latin translations were available at the time), he began translating the Bible into English, with the help of his good friend John Purvey.

The church bitterly opposed it: “By this translation, the Scriptures have become vulgar, and they are more available to lay, and even to women who can read, than they were to learned scholars, who have a high intelligence. So the pearl of the gospel is scattered and trodden underfoot by swine.”

Wycliffe replied, “Englishmen learn Christ’s law best in English. Moses heard God’s law in his own tongue; so did Christ’s apostles.”

Wycliffe died before the translation was complete (and before authorities could convict him of heresy); his friend Purvey is considered responsible for the version of the “Wycliffe” Bible we have today. Though Wycliffe’s followers were driven underground, they remained a persistent irritant to English Catholic authorities until the English Reformation made their views the norm.

One of the main ways in which Wycliffe impacted his world was through the Lollards, a wave of men who followed his example in preaching. A powerful preacher himself, Wycliffe commissioned men to preach throughout England. He called them the Order of Poor Priests, but Wycliffe’s enemies scorned them as “Lollards,” a derisive term probably meaning “a mumbler” or “an idler.” They preached obedience to God, reliance on the Bible as the guide to Christian living, and simplicity of worship. They rejected the Mass and the supremacy of the pope. They also denied that an organized church was necessary for salvation.

Following Wycliffe’s death, the Lollards continued his work of bringing the Scriptures to the people. But they faced great opposition and their efforts were suppressed. Thus, these men carried his writings abroad, some to Bohemia in central Europe. There, his works enormously impacted another Pre-Reformer, John Hus.

Jan Hus

Early in his monastic career, Martin Luther, rummaging through the stacks of a library, happened upon a volume of sermons by Jan Hus, the Bohemian who had been condemned as a heretic. “I was overwhelmed with astonishment,” Luther later wrote. “I could not understand for what cause they had burnt so great a man, who explained the Scriptures with so much gravity and skill.”

Hus (ca. 1372–1415) easily ranks as the most outstanding of the Bohemian reformers.7 A gifted preacher, Hus achieved “proto-reformation status”8 as the leading popular exponent of the Bohemian reform movement.9 After his death, he was regarded as a national hero.10 Hus was solid in the Scriptures and well-acquainted with Wycliffe’s writings. He held to the sole authority of Scripture, wrote against papal authority, proposed a Bible translation into the Czech language, and introduced congregational singing to the Bohemian church.11 For his doctrinal convictions, he was condemned and martyred a century before Martin Luther took his historic stand for the same truths.

Hus was born in Husinec (or Husinetz), a small market town in southern Bohemia, in the modern-day Czech Republic, and was raised of peasant stock. The name Hus means “goose.” His mother desired that he become a priest, so he entered the elementary school in nearby Prachatice at about thirteen years of age.

In 1390, Hus enrolled at the University of Prague, beginning what would be a long relationship with this institution. During his student days, Hus was first exposed to Wycliffe’s writings when he earned money copying his works. Five copies of the complete works of Wycliffe in Hus’s handwriting remain in the Stockholm Royal Library today. Through this rigorous discipline, Hus absorbed Wycliffe’s teaching.

In 1402 Hus was appointed the rector and preacher of the enormous Bethlehem Chapel in Prague. The sanctuary of this influential church was capable of seating three thousand worshipers. The church had been founded a decade earlier by a wealthy merchant to be a center for Reformed preaching. Two sermons a day were preached there in the language of the common people.

During these years, Hus underwent a change. Though he spent some time with what he called a “foolish sect,” he finally discovered the Bible: “When the Lord gave me knowledge of Scriptures, I discharged that kind of stupidity from my foolish mind.”

The following year, the Council of Pisa met to attempt to resolve a dispute over the papacy between Benedict XIII and Gregory XII. Instead of resolving the issue, however, the council elected yet another claimant, Alexander V. Which of the men should be recognized as the pope? Hus, along with King Wenceslaus IV and the Czech teachers, sided with Alexander. The German teachers sided with Gregory. King Wenceslaus forced the archbishop to acknowledge the new pope. Zajic then secured from Alexander a papal bull (decree) prohibiting preaching in private chapels, including Bethlehem Chapel. When Hus received this order, he immediately rejected it. Thus, Zajic excommunicated him and had Wycliffe’s books burned in Prague. Still, with the government’s support, Hus continued to preach at Bethlehem Chapel.

The defiant Hus was summoned to appear in Rome. He refused and instead sent representatives. Hus was excommunicated again, this time for willful contempt of papal authority.

When the king changed the university’s constitution, the German teachers and students left the school. Hus was elected rector of the university, which was growing in its sympathy for Wycliffe. However, the conflict between Rome and Hus was escalating. Alexander’s successor, Pope John XXIII, promoted the sale of indulgences for the forgiveness of sins. Hus could not be silent on this issue and condemned indulgences as heresy, a hideous corruption of the true gospel. In response, he was excommunicated a third time.

In 1412, public demonstrations broke out in Prague, aroused by the Reformed truths Hus was teaching. A simulated papal bull was burned publicly by reform-minded students. But in the uprising, three young men were beheaded for opposing the sale of indulgences. As a mounting threat to Rome, Hus was excommunicated a fourth time. Prague, largely siding with Hus, threatened violence against the papacy. To prevent that, Hus went into voluntary exile in southern Bohemia, where he remained during much of the conflict (1413–1414). There he wrote some of his finest works, among them Exposition of the Faith, The Ten Commandments, and The Lord’s Prayer.

In the fall of 1414, Pope John XXIII convened the ecumenical Council of Constance at Constance, Germany, to address two escalating problems: the papal schism and the rising heresy in the Western church, especially in Bohemia. Hus stood squarely in the centre of this latter controversy. He was summoned to attend the council as a delegate, but his friends warned him not to accept. They suspected an ambush awaited him. But Hus received an assurance of safety from the Holy Roman emperor, Sigismund. With high hopes of presenting his views to the assembled authorities, Hus accepted the invitation to the council.

Hus arrived in Constance on November 3, 1414. Despite the repeated government promises of safety, he was immediately arrested for heresy. He was thrown into prison, where he languished for eight months while the council addressed other matters. In the terrible conditions of the prison, Hus’s health declined significantly. Only a visit from the pope’s physician and relocation to a better cell spared his life.33

Stephen Palecz, a detractor, came to see Hus in prison when he grew very ill. Later, Hus recorded the venomous words with which Palecz greeted him before the council: “Since the birth of Christ, there hath not arisen a more dangerous heretic than yourself, excepting Wycliffe.”

But Hus remained steadfast. Later, he recorded an exchange with one of the Roman Catholic authorities: “One of the doctors said to me that, whatever I did, I should submit to the Council, though my whole case was good and in order, and added, ‘If the Council told you, “You have only one eye,” although you have two, you ought to agree with the Council that it is so.’ To which I replied, ‘If the whole world told me so, as long as I have the use of my reason, I could not say so without resisting my conscience.’ Like Luther at the Diet of Worms, Hus’s conscience was captive to the Word of God.

TRIED FOR WYCLIFFISM

In July 1415, Hus was placed on trial for “Wycliffism.” He was ordered to condemn Wycliffe’s works. Hus responded that he would yield to the church when instructed by Scripture. He stated that he supported Wycliffe, but would condemn any of the English Reformer’s teachings if they were proven wrong by the Bible. Hus firmly held to the teachings set forth by Wycliffe; although they had been deemed heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, Scripture had confirmed them to Hus’s conscience.

Hus was then urged to recant his own teachings. He later said: “I have not recanted nor abjured a single article. The Council desired me to declare the falsity of all of my books and each article taken from them. I refused to do so, unless they should be proved false by Scripture.” Elsewhere he wrote: “I refuse to be the enemy of the truth and will resist to the death all agreement with falsehood.… It is better to die well than to live badly.”

In a letter to the University of Prague as his execution approached, he said: “I, Master John Hus, in chains and in prison, now standing on the shore of this present life and expecting on the morrow a dreadful death, which will, I hope, purge away my sins, find no heresy in myself, and accept with all my heart any truth whatsoever that is worthy of belief.”

CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC

On July 6, 1415, the Council of Constance declared the teachings of Wycliffe to be heretical. The council then solemnly condemned Hus as the leading exponent of Wycliffe’s views.

In a humiliating ceremony, six bishops stripped him of his priestly garments and shaved his head. They put on his head a paper hat covered with red demons and the word heretic. Finally, the bishops committed his soul to the Devil, but in response, Hus said, “And I commit myself to my most gracious Lord Jesus.”

In the face of death, Hus then boldly told his executioners, “Today, you are burning a goose [the meaning of his name in Czech]; however, a hundred years from now, you will be able to hear a swan sing; you will not burn it, you will have to listen to him.” No one could foresee how these words would be fulfilled one hundred years later in Germany through Luther, who saw himself as the fulfillment of Hus’s prediction.

The council handed Hus over to Emperor Sigismund, who was sitting on an imperial throne in full regalia. Hus, bound in chains, was ordered to recant or die. He refused to deny his writings, so the soldiers led him away to be burned at the stake. When asked to recant one last time, Hus replied: “God is my witness that the things charged against me I never preached. In the same truth of the gospel which I have written, taught, and preached, drawing upon the sayings and positions of the holy doctors, I am ready to die to-day.”

That very afternoon at the execution site, commonly known as the Devil’s Place, Hus was burned at the stake, a martyr for the truth he had preached so fearlessly. It is recorded that he died singing, “Jesus, son of the living God, have mercy on me.”

Though Hus was dead, the reform movement lived on. The truth of Scripture was, once again, restored in that day.

Conclusion

In this same Council of Constance , 31 years after the death of wycliffe he was condemned hon 260 counts of heresy. The council ordered that his writings be burned and that his bones be exhumed and put out of consecrated ground. Finally, in 1428, the pope ordered that Wycliffe’s remains be dug up and burned, and his ashes scattered into the Swift River.

But Wycliffe’s bones were more easily rejected than his lasting influence. As one observer notes: “They burnt his bones to ashes and cast them into the Swift, a neighboring brook running hard by. Thus the brook has conveyed his ashes into the Avon; Avon into Severn; Servern into the narrow seas; and they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine which now is dispersed the world over.” Wycliffe’s impact was felt throughout England and the European continent.

Wycliffe, the Morning Star of the Protestant Reformation, shines as a gleaming light against the dark backdrop of the Roman Catholic Church in the fourteenth century. It is often said that the light shines brightest when the night is darkest. Wycliffe proved the truth of this adage.

As it was in Wycliffe’s day, so it is in this hour of history. The contemporary church is once again shrouded in darkness. May the Lord raise up a generation of men who stand out as bright lights for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The compelling story of John Hus reads like a dress rehearsal for what would follow a century later with Martin Luther. When writing to Spalatin in February 1520, Luther said, “Without knowing it I both taught and held the teaching of Hus: in short, we were all Hussites without knowing it.” Luther saw himself as a fulfillment of Hus’s prediction of a coming swan, writing in 1531: “John Hus prophesied of me when he wrote from his prison in Bohemia: They will now roast a goose (for Hus means a goose), but after a hundred years they will hear a swan sing; him they will have to tolerate. And so it shall continue, if it please God.” Such was Hus’s enduring influence on Luther and the other Reformers. Charles Spurgeon said:

“They burnt John Hus, and Jerome of Prague; but Hus foretold, as he died, that another would arise after him, whom they should not be able to put down; and in due time he more than lived again in Luther. Is Luther dead? Is Calvin dead today? That last man the moderns have tried to bury in … misrepresentation; but he lives, and will live, and the truths that he taught will survive all the calumniators that have sought to poison it.”

By God’s grace, the truths Hus proclaimed in his day live on in our generation. Hus’s gospel is our gospel. And that which thundered in Prague during the fifteenth century must thunder again in this present hour.

May the Bohemian Reformer exert a lasting influence on a new generation of believers in this day. May all those predestined by God be strong in this hour of history—for God’s glory and the good of His people.

And may we pass the inheritance of the doctrines of grace to generations yet to come.