Hastings Rashdall

“ Few Reformers have been less violent even in words: hardly was he betrayed, even by a righteous indignation, into a single word or action which his maturer judgment would have condemned; yet he became the national hero of a people whose ferocity in religious warfare stands unexampled in the history of Christendom. ”

“ But the very point on which Huss is most sacerdotal,—his doctrine as to the obligation of the Clergy, and of them only, to obey the Law of Christ in all its strictness,—was the foundation of his anti-hierarchical doctrines. The powers and rights of the Priest were, as he held, so indefeasibly theirs that a Priest “living according to the law of Christ, and having a knowledge of the Scripture,” might not lawfully cease from preaching or administering the Sacraments, in obedience to the commands of any ecclesiastical authority whatsoever. ”

“ He behaved at Constance as one who was falling a victim to the malice of personal enemies, as one who grieved at being misunderstood; not as one who rejoiced, with a lawful pride, at being accounted worthy to die for a great cause. ”

“ When one of the indulgence-hawkers was discoursing in the accustomed strain upon the value of his wares, three young artizans in the crowd shouted out, “Thou liest! Master Huss has taught us better than that. We know it is all a lie.” The culprits were seized, taken before the magistrates, and condemned to death. Huss immediately proceeded to the Council-chamber at the head of a crowd of two thousand students, and there demanded with all the eloquence of indignation the remission of the sentence. ”

“ For, while the liberal tendencies which soon began to develop themselves in the Bohemian “nation” at Prague were not unlike those of the anti-papal party which at the beginning of the fifteenth century succeeded in completely crushing the Franciscans and establishing its own supremacy in the University of Paris, a difference of philosophical creed prevented the smallest sympathy arising between the reform-parties in the two Universities. At Constance the nominalist Reformers of Paris were among the noisiest of those who clamoured for the condemnation of the realist Reformers of Prague. ”

“ That excessive chess-playing should have been the only folly of his youth, is a sufficient testimony to the general strictness of his life: and that he gave up excessive chess-playing, if not chess-playing altogether, upon his ordination, shows that he must have entered upon his sacred calling in a spirit rare indeed at a time when the Church was the only means of worldly advancement open to the poor man, and when the average morality of the clergy was lower than the average morality of the laity. ”

“ The clergy of Prague sided with the orthodox Germans; the King favoured the Bohemians from motives of policy, the nation at large from feelings of patriotism. The contest raged furiously for six years. Theological, national, and philosophical differences were each of them held a sufficient excuse for a free use of bow and arrows in the streets of a mediæval University. In the present contest all these motives were combined: it was a struggle between German and Bohemian, between Nominalist and Realist, between a Church party and a Reforming party. ”

“ The most important practical measure of Reform which Huss urged upon the clergy of his day, was the abolition of the thirty Requiems and other lucrative superstitions with which the obsequies of all but the very poor were celebrated. His teaching as to prayers for the dead is, if anything, rather in advance of Wyclif’s position than behind it. He declares that “neither the Prophets, nor Christ and his Apostles, nor the saints who lived just after their time, explicitly taught men to pray for the dead; but they taught the people very earnestly that he who lived without fault was a holy man.” ”

“ Not least among the evils from which the Council was to deliver the Church, was the spread of heresy in Bohemia. Sigismund desired his brother Wenzel to send Huss to Constance. Five years before, Huss had refused to appear in Italy in obedience to the summons of the Pope. Had he now declined to appear before the fathers of Constance, the nobles of Bohemia would have been as ready to defend him in life as they were afterwards to avenge his death. On each occasion he debated the question of conscience presented to him with singular simplicity. He was willing to die ”

“ Above all, the establishment in 1348 of the University of Prague at a time when no German University yet existed, made the Bohemian Capital in many respects the most important city in the Empire.
But while the Bohemian kingdom rose to a higher position than it had ever held before, the danger of Germanization, long the bugbear of Bohemian patriots, was proportionately increased. Thousands of German students flocked to Prague, where they far out-numbered those of Bohemian birth. The rivalry of nations put on the guise of an opposition of philosophies. The Bohemians became Realists ”

“ The tone of the Bohemian literature of this period, like that of most of the vernacular literature of the Middle Ages, was decidedly anti-hierarchical. The Jesuits of later times assumed that everything that was Bohemian must necessarily be heretical; but enough has escaped the ravages of their Vandalism to enable those who have explored that unknown field of literature to pronounce that there were poets in Bohemia in the fourteenth century not unworthy of comparison with the father of English poetry. Satires on the Clergy must have lent some help to the Bohemian reformers ”

“ Had Sigismund delivered John Huss out of the hands of the Council, he would have deliberately proclaimed himself a heretic, and have brought about the dissolution of an assembly which was on the point of effecting that Reunion of Christendom which had been the noblest object and the most ambitious dream of his life.
Never, indeed, since the darkness closed in around the Church, had the prospects of Reform, to the superficial observer, appeared so fair. ”

“ To the Cardinal d’Ailly and his friends it seemed that a Realist could not consistently believe a doctrine which as a formal Article of Faith owed its existence to an extravagance of Realism. He began to browbeat the Bohemian Master with questions about his views on the universale a parte rei and similar scholastic pedantries. The good sense of an Englishman put a stop to this irrelevant discussion: he declared that the Council ought to be satisfied with Huss’ assurances on the subject. ”

“ Few men who have enjoyed so much popularity, and that the dangerous popularity of a religious leader, have been so absolutely free from affectation. His life was devoted to the assertion of a great principle which had been obscured for centuries: he thought that he was asserting a principle in defence of which good men of all ages would have gladly died. ”

“ If, however, he truly satisfies himself that the command of the Pope is contrary to a command of Christ, or tends in any way to the hurt of the Church, then he is bound boldly to resist it, lest he be a participator in the crime by consent. ”

“ It is melancholy to reflect that a nation which has perhaps suffered more in defence of religious and political liberty than any other in Europe, should now be a province of the Austrian Empire, covered with the hideous Pagan temples which attest the triumph of Jesuitism, [18] the most immoral development of that religion against the immorality of which Huss protested. They have laboured, and others have entered into their labours.
Wyclif was, as we have seen, a more thorough, a more violent but also a more statesmanlike reformer than John Huss. ”

“ When he came within sight of the stake, he knelt down and said several of the penitential Psalms, and constantly repeated the words, “Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” “What this man may have done before,” said some of the bystanders, “we know not; we only know that he hath made excellent prayers to God.” A confessor was allowed him, in spite of the protest of a “priest on horse-back, in a green jacket lined with red,” who said that heretics must not be allowed confessors: but as he would not recant, absolution was refused. ”

“ The Council of Pisa had, at the conclusion of its deliberations, determined that another General Council should assemble within five years to complete the work of reforming the Church “in its Head and Members.” Sigismund demanded that the Pope should give effect to the decree of the Council. A Pontiff who owed his election to the reforming Cardinals, and who could only hope to regain his lost Italian dominions by the help of the reforming King of the Romans, could not positively refuse compliance. ”

“ There were standing by the fires in which Huss and Jerome perished, men who most unconsciously were to do something to set forward the cause for which they died. Poggio and Æneas Sylvius have left us accounts of the constancy of their deaths. The tone in which they write shows how very cold Faith was to become in the age which was yet an indispensable preparation for the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Æneas Sylvius says: “We don’t find that any of the philosophers ever suffered death with so much courage as they endured the fire. ”

“ To the third charge of “excessive” preaching against the clergy, Huss pleaded that his preaching had been by no means excessive. It will be observed that the charges really brought home to the accused only amounted to breaches of ecclesiastical discipline, with the exception, perhaps, of the expression touching Wyclif’s soul. It is characteristic of the man that as yet his only heresy is sympathy with heretics. ”

“ The King, while he asserted his orthodoxy by prohibiting the teaching of the doctrines on the subject of Indulgences condemned by the Faculty, consulted his own inclinations and the safety of his throne by refusing to silence his Consort’s popular chaplain. When told to refute the heretic instead of trying to shut his mouth, the Doctors complained that Huss would not commit his opinions to writing. Huss offered to accept their challenge, on condition that whichever party should be vanquished in the disputation, should suffer death at the stake. ”

“ He agreed that the questions in dispute between himself and the University should be referred to the arbitration of the King and his Council. The arbitrators determined [22] that there should be, to use diplomatic language, a return to the status quo ante bellum. The Archbishop was to take off all ecclesiastical censures pronounced by himself, and to procure the cancelling of those imposed by the Pope: he was to report to the Pope that no heresy existed in Bohemia, and to request that all proceedings pending in the Papal Courts might be stopped. ”

“ Against that sentence [26] Huss, together with one Master and five Bachelors of Arts, had, a month before the excommunication, made his appeal from the Pope “male informato” to the Pope “melius informato,” from the delegate of Alexander V. to John XXIII. in person.
Meanwhile, the Preacher of Bethlehem Chapel remained excommunicated; but the services and sermons were continued as before. In the life of every reformer there comes a time when some of his disciples are offended at him, and walk no more with him. Hitherto, the quarrel of Huss had been the quarrel of the University. ”

“ Huss entirely denies both to Bishops and Clergy what may be called destructive powers. That excommunication which shuts a man off “from participation in the favour of God, from a worthy participation of the Sacraments, and from a participation in the prayers which prepare for eternal life” can only be pronounced when the Bishop knows by special revelation [14] that the offender is already excommunicated by God. ”

“ For his own part, there was nothing which Huss desired more than an opportunity of clearing himself before such an assembly from accusations which he believed to be founded on nothing but misrepresentation. Innocent of many of the heresies laid to his charge, he imagined that all the opinions which he really held were conformable to the doctrine of the Church. He was aware that worldly men had denied the evangelical truths which he preached; and he was aware that, in these latter days, worldly men were predominant in the Church. ”

“ But in Wyclif’s writings Huss was brought face to face with heresy, with doctrines which had been solemnly condemned by the Church, and which had not been retracted. After the study of Wyclif’s works, although his timid and cautious intellect recoiled from some of his opinions, his moral nature no longer shrank from heresy as from a contamination. His chivalrous temper prompted him to go far greater lengths in defence of one whom he considered unjustly condemned, than was required by the strict exigences of his own theological position. ”

“ Huss defended his refusal on the authority of S. Chrysostom. The Vicar-General’s reply was, “Ha! Master; you came here to listen, not to argue.” Huss repeated his protest. “Is it just,” he asked, “that you should condemn this priest, saying that he holds the errors of the Waldensians when he has sworn to you by God?” The priest was condemned, and after a short imprisonment, banished from the diocese. Huss sent an indignant remonstrance to the Archbishop. ”

“ Huss was, however, not for one moment to be persuaded that it was his duty to smother, or by the use of forced interpretations and ambiguous language to make the smallest effort to smother, the dictates either of his reason or of his conscience.
Physical exhaustion has often proved a severer trial to the constancy of brave men than the prospect of a cruel death. To the illness from which Huss had been suffering all through his trial in consequence of the closeness of his confinement, there had now been added the torture of the stone. ”

“ Ill at ease in his conscience at the reflection which could not have failed to suggest itself to him, that he was bringing to the stake one whose opinions he had once to a large extent shared, Palecz seems to have felt it necessary to persuade himself that in spite of all denials Huss must be heretical on this cardinal doctrine of the Theology of the time; though it is difficult to understand how he could suppose that one who was ready to die rather than recant one heresy, should so obstinately repudiate another, had he really held it. ”

“ He constantly urges that those who accuse others of error, should refute and convince, instead of trying to suppress them. But when asked at Constance what was to be done with heretics who were deaf to all argument, he admitted that they must be punished in the body, he does not say burned to death. ”

“ It was high time for those who did not intend to be heretics to beat a retreat.
Huss’ next step separated him for ever from the leading Theologians of Prague. Zbynek was succeeded by the King’s physician, Albic of Uniczow. The Legate entrusted with the pallium of the new Primate, was also the bearer of a bull proclaiming a crusade against the Pope’s rebellious vassal, Ladislaus King of Naples, who was now ravaging the Papal territories. Plenary indulgence was promised as the reward of assistance, personal or pecuniary, against the enemy of the Church. ”

“ Before taking his departure for Constance, Huss appeared once more in Prague. Even those who from their position would have seemed the least likely to favour one accused of heresy, appear to have recognised that the character of the nation was to some extent involved in the character of John Huss: they felt that he was being betrayed by malicious enemies into the hands of foreigners who hated their nation. ”

“ He denies the claim of any man, or any body of men, to Infallibility. He will own no authority in matters of Faith but Holy Scripture: neither Fathers, nor Popes, nor General Councils. In so far as the Reformation was an assertion of the right of Private Judgment, Huss asserted it as fully and as clearly as any of the German Reformers, and far more clearly than our English Reformers. ”

“ The South of Europe had to go through a period of revived Paganism before the North could produce men who should unite the enthusiasm of Huss and Jerome with the scholarship and literary culture of Æneas Sylvius and Poggio.
The deficiencies of John Huss as a Reformer were the noblest testimony to the beauty of his character as a man. ”