John Hus - Beliefs

HIS BELIEFS

In 1413, during his absence from Prague, Hus wrote an outstanding work entitled, De ecclesia, i.e., Of the Church. A copy was sent to Prague and read in the Bethlehem Chapel. This work displays his dependence on Wycliffe's teachings. In fact some have said that the first ten chapters of this book were taken directly from Wycliffe. Schaff paraphrases and quotes this book in the following manner:

The…Church is the body or congregation of all the predestinate, the dead, the living and those yet to be....The Roman pontiff and the cardinals are not the Church. The Church can exist without cardinals and a pope, and in fact for hundreds of years there were no cardinals. As for the position Christ assigned to Peter, Huss affirmed that Christ called himself the Rock, and the Church is founded on him....In view of Peter's clear and positive confession, “the Rock—Petra—said to Peter—Petro—'I say unto thee, Thou art Peter, that is, a confessor of the true Rock which Rock I am'. And upon the Rock, that is, myself, I will build this Church.”

…The Roman bishop, he said, was on an equality with other bishops until Constantine made him pope. It was then that he began to usurp authority. Through ignorance and the love of money the pope may err, and has erred, and to rebel against an erring pope is to obey Christ. There have been depraved and heretical popes.

In the second part of De ecclesia, Huss pronounced the bulls of Alexander and John XXIII. anti-christian, and therefore not to be obeyed. Alexander's bull, prohibiting preaching in Bohemia except in the cathedral, parish and monastic churches was against the Gospel, for Christ preached in houses, on the seaside, and in synagogues, and bade his disciples to go into all the world and preach....

…He denied the pope's right to go to war or to make appeal to the secular sword. If John was minded to follow Christ, he should pray for his enemies and say, “My kingdom is not of this world.”…The power to forgive sins belongs to no mortal man any more than it belonged to the priest to whom Christ sent the lepers. The lepers were cleansed before they reached the priest....

In denying the infallibility of the pope and of the Church visible, and in setting aside the sacerdotal power of the priesthood to open and shut the kingdom of heaven, Huss broke with the accepted theory of Western Christendom; he committed the unpardonable sin of the Middle Ages. These fundamental ideas, however, were not original with this Bohemian Reformer. [7]

Hus frequently acknowledged his dependence upon John Wycliffe. He was thankful that “under the power of Jesus Christ, Bohemia had received so much good from the blessed land of England.” [8]
Hus's view of the Church was, according to Spinka, “indeed destructive of the Church as a legal corporation, as Apostle Paul's concept of the liberty in Christ had been destructive of the Jewish legalism.” [9]

The Bible became the standard and norm by which John Hus tested everything

He spoke out against the popular practice of praying to the saints and against the efficacy of absolution, i.e., the power of the priests to forgive sins. He blasted the practice of simony, i.e., the buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices. He also condemned the sale of indulgences, affirming that the sinners' real need was genuine repentance and sorrow for sins.

Since the teachings Hus preached were based directly upon the Word, none could deny the truth he spoke. However, the truth was not welcomed by all:

[Hus] might have died peacefully in his bed had he not dared to criticize doctrines and practices of the

Hus caused consternation by asking 'What does the Bible say?

Church which had been accepted unquestioned for centuries. Here again Hus tested their truth and validity by the Bible. For too long men had been accustomed to accept as true and sacrosanct whatever the Pope or the Church said. Hus caused consternation by asking 'What does the Bible say?' Then his enemies raised the cry of 'heretic.' [10]

Another work of Hus was his treatise of “The Six Errors” of the Roman Catholic Church. The first of these errors was the boast of what he called the “insane priests” who claimed to “create the body of God.” [11] Hus argued that since creating means making something out of nothing, only God can be called Creator. Another error Hus addressed in this treatise was the abuse of the term “to believe.” He noted that the priests command men to believe in Mary, the saints, and the pope. Hus asserted that we should believe in none but God. Another error cited by Hus dealt with obedience to superiors within the hierarchy of the Roman Church. Hus insisted that a Christian must obey a superior's command only if it is in accordance with God's will as revealed in Scripture. Hus himself demonstrated this principle when he continued to preach at the Bethlehem Chapel after receiving a papal order forbidding him to do so.