The Church
Overview
Of the writings of John Huss of Bohemia, The Church is the most important. From its pages, the charges were drawn upon which the author was pronounced a heretic by the Council of Constance and—the same day, July 6, 1415—burned at the stake. Huss found the principles set forth in this treatise in the writings of Wycliffe. The main principles are shared with Wycliffe, and Huss and Wycliffe use many of the same quotations from the Fathers, canon law, and Scripture to back their arguments. Although they shared the same principles and drew from the same sources, Huss’ writings are entirely unique, his writing charged at times with eloquence and piety. When the two principles emphasized in this treaty are given proper recognition—personal devotion to Christ and a daily life conformed to his teachings and example—the practice of Christian tolerance and all human tolerance will be advanced.
Top Highlights
“But the holy catholic—that is, universal—church is the totality of the predestinate—omnium predestinatorum universitas—or all the predestinate,2 present, past, and future.” (Page 3)
“The pope and the cardinals do not constitute the church.” (Page xiii)
“Huss definitely accepted the distribution of the cup to the laity and exclaimed against the impiety of the council’s act when it threatened every priest with the ban who dared to distribute it. On the other hand, he did not adopt Wyclif’s doctrine of the eucharist but to the end insisted that he was wrongly charged with denying the church’s dogma of transubstantiation.” (Pages xxx–xxxi)
“The opening clause of Boniface’s bull asserting the unity of the church, Wyclif and Huss both accepted, but they put upon it another interpretation from that intended by Boniface. The unity was not in the apostolic see but in predestinating grace as manifesting itself in the exercise of the Christian virtues.” (Page xxxv)
“2. The Papacy. The Roman pontiff is not the head of the church on earth. Christ is the head.” (Page xiv)
- Title: The Church
- Author: Jan Hus
- Publisher: Charles Scribner’s Sons
- Print Publication Date: 1915
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Era: era:medieval
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Church
- Resource ID: LLS:THECHURCHJHUSS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-07T23:36:51Z