Hus, The Council of Constance, “Four Articles of Prague”

Published on: Author: dnavarr4@uoregon.edu Leave a comment

The teachings of John Wyclif spread from England to Bohemia (Prague) in two primary ways, the first was through the impact that literacy and theology had from Oxford, both the city and the university to the University of Prague. The second is that in Prague, Wyclif’s views were held in a higher regard than they were in Oxford.

According to Hus’ theology, the Holy Spirit is from the “supreme goodness wisely and humbly governs God’s house”. Which implies that the Holy Spirit plays a specific role in the Trinity, he does the will of God and “enters through individuals” to instruct them on the will of God. He goes on to state what the impact simony does on the Holy Spirit, “For the Holy Spirit from heaven is given by laying on of hands. Accordingly, a dove is sold when the gift of the Holy Spirit is sold for money”. This is showing that people have equated the Holy Spirit with something that can be bought or acquired via human means. “Freely you receive, freely you give”. Hus is using writings of people in the church’s history in order to have more justification for his argument. Showing that previous saints and popes were not in favor of church offices becoming something of commerce. I believe that the majority of people would not have been able to refute the evidence and claims that Hus was making since the knowledge and lives of these individuals would’ve been well known to people at the time.

The central teachings that were attributed to Hus via Wyclif include the lack of importance placed on the Roman Church and the pope. Hus taught that the pope was not the leader of the church, but rather a “figurehead”, and in fact the true leader was and is Christ. He also stated that the church should not have jurisdictional or secular authority. In regards to church dominion, he believed that individuals like bishops, priests and even the pope couldn’t be in those positions if they were in sin and in fact if they were, they were defiling the position and the practice itself. In Madigan, the pope and the papacy is described as, “…not of divine institution but a human invention, it was founded not by Christ but the emperor Constantine”. This sums up the feeling of Hus via Wyclif in that neither of these individuals. Article 13 from the Council of Constance, opens with, “The pope is not the true and manifest successor of Peter, the first of the apostles”.

Following the death of Jan Hus, his followers took up his beliefs and called themselves the Hussites. The first of the four articles in the Four Articles of Prague addresses that the Word of God be freely preached. During the history of the church the public was intentionally limited on the knowledge received from the Bible given from the priests, bishops, and the pope. The document depicts the Hussites as being the righteous order fighting against evil. As a result, the perspective the document is written in reflects it’s attitude in portraying its acts of violence as being justifiable and necessary.

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