CHAP. 10. JOHN HUSS AND JEROME OF Prague.

231

neck was fastened to the stake and the wood was ready to be kindled, the elector Palatine offered him his life if he would retract. But, said he, "What I have written and taught was in order to rescue souls from the power of the devil and to deliver them from the tyrranny of sin, and I do gladly seal what I have written and taught with my blood." The flame was kindled and he soon expired, calling upon God.

Thus fell before the power of the beast, one of the best of men; one of the greatest ornaments of the Christian Church. The world hated him, for he was holy. The pope and his minions put him to death, not because he was in their view heretical in sentiment, for this he was not; he lived in a very dark age; the light of truth had not dawned upon his soul; but because, like John the Baptist, he openly condemned their licentiousness and hypocrisy.

His companion in life soon followed him to the stake. This was Jerome of Prague. He had travelled into England for the enlargement of his mind, and had brought from thence the writings of Wickliff. These he faithfully studied, imbibing their spirit, and feeling it his duty to preach their doctrines. When Huss was imprisoned, he went to Constance to exhort him to stedfastness; but when seized himself and threatened with the most dreadful of all deaths, his heart failed him and he had the weakness to deny all he had maintained as truth. But his denial of the truth filled his soul with the deepest anguish, and he summoned fortitude to avow again the real sentiments of his heart and meet his fate. "I came," said he, "to Constance, to defend John Huss, because I had advised him to go thither and had promised to come to his assistance in case he should be oppressed. Nor am I ashamed here to make public confession of my own cowardice. I confess and tremble while I think of it, that, through fear of punishment by fire, I basely consented, against my conscience, to the condemnation of the doctrine of Wickliff and Huss." Even Jerome, however, did not open his mind to all the light shed forth by the English reformer. could not with him, condemn the doctrine of transubstantiation. But he was a witness against many of the abominations of popery, and went to the stake on the 30th of May, 1416. When bound for the slaughter, he raised his voice and sang,

"Hail happy day and ever be adored

When hell was conquered by great heaven's Lord."

He

When the flames had nearly done their awful work, he was heard to cry out, O Lord, have mercy on me, have mercy Thou knowest how I have loved thy truth."

on me.

The ashes of these early witnesses to the truth were scattered by the winds of heaven; but their memory was precious. The inhabitants of Bohemia were shocked at the dreadful sacrifice which had been made of the best of blood to the wickedness of priests. The next year, about sixty of the principal persons of the country addressed a letter to the council, saying, We can find no blame attached to the doctrine or life of John Huss, but, on the contrary, every thing pious, laudable and worthy of a true pastor. Ye have not only disgraced us by his condemnation, but have also unmercifully imprisoned, and perhaps already put to death Jerome of Prague, a man of most profound learning and copious eloquence. Him, also, ye have condemned, unconvicted. Notwithstanding all that hath passed, we are resolved to sacrifice our lives for the defence of the gospel of Christ and of his faithful preachers."

were not seen.

These were men, ready to be led through all the perilous conflicts of a reformation, had they had enlightened guides. But, alas! it was an age of awful darkness; and, though many saw the vices and abominations of Antichrist, yet none, as yet, saw the true way of reform. The best men had a poor understanding of the faith. The idea that the kingdom of Christ was a spiritual kingdom, was embraced by but few, if any. Errors of practice were distinctly visible, but errors of doctrine The Romish church, in the council of Constance, passed a decree forbidding the use of the cup by the laity in the communion. This, added to the other enormities and corruptions of the age, roused the Bohemians to arms. About 40,000 assembled together on a mountain near Prague, which they called Mount Tabor, where they raised a strong fortification, and put themselves under the direction of two chiefs, Nicolas and John Ziska, with the determination to revenge the deaths of John Huss and Jerome, and obtain the liberty of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own conscien

ces.

Their numbers increased soon to an amazing extent; war was declared against Sigismund, the German emperor, and a deluge of blood was shed. Each party appeared to the other as enemies of true religion, hated of God and justly exposed to extirpation by fire and the sword. The most shocking and ter rible acts of barbarity, therefore, were continually exhibited. At length, the Papal party yielded; and, in 1443, a treaty of peace was concluded, in which the Bohemians were allowed the use of the cup in the sacrament, and the administration of the ordinance in their own language.

With these terms, the major part only were satisfied. These were called Calixtines. The remainder, who seem to have

CHAP. 10.

HUSSITES.

233

been the true Waldenses, wished for a more thorough reformation from popery and a restoration of Christianity to its primitive simplicity. They were called Taborites, and, through ignorance and fanatacism, went to many unwarranted excesses, and were the object of fiery persecution, especially from their brethren the Calixitines. In 1467, they formed a separate church and chose their own pastors. In 1480, their number was increased by an accession of some Waldenses, who escaped out of Austria, where they had been severely persecuted, and some of their pastors had been burned alive. But their enemies gave them no rest. The next year, the Hussites were all banished from Moravia, and were compelled to seek refuge in other countries for six years. Their number, however, did not much diminish. In the beginning of the sixteenth century they had in Bohemia and Moravia, two hundred congregations. These poor oppressed and despised people appear to have formed the true church of Christ in that age. They greatly needed the clear light of a future age, a clear view of the pure doctrines of the gospel;* they were guilty of many acts of violence and rapine in defence of their religion, considered justifiable in that age; but among them, as among the early Waldenses, was a spirit of prayer, a spirit of holiness, and abhorrence of the errors and corruptions of the man of sin, a strict discipline, a desire for the pure and simple worship of Jehovah, and a disposition to make the scripture the only rule

That the Hussites had many views, it is evident from the following articles of their creed given by Æneas Sylvius, who was afterwards pope Pius II.

The pope of Rome is equal with other bishops.

Among priests there is no difference.

There is no purgatory fire.

It is vain to pray for the dead and an invention of priestly covetous

ness.

The images of God and the saints ought to be destroyed.

The blessing of water and palm branches is ridiculous.

The religion of the mendicants was invented by evil demons.

No capital sin ought to be tolerated, although for the sake of avoiding a greater evil.

Auricular confession is trifling; it is sufficient for every one in his chamber to confess his sins unto God.

The temple of the great God is the whole world.

The suffrages of saints, reigning with Christ in heaven, are implored in vain, forasmuch as they cannot help us.

The festivals of saints, are altogether to be rejected.

We should cease from work on no day, except that which is now called the Lord's day.

of faith and practice. Their covenant God, no doubt, beheld them in the thickets and clefts of the rocks, and heard their midnight songs of praise, and communicated to them his Holy Spirit. And if, as we have reason to believe was the case, they feared God, they are among the hundred forty and four thousand who now stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion.

The Taborites were those Bohemian brothers called Piccards and Beggards who joined Luther in the reformation. Their descendants and followers are now to be found in the same countries.

The brethren and sisters of the Free Spirit, called in the Flemish, Beggards and Beguins, were a numerous people in Holland and Germany, who seemed to turn from the ceremonies and superstitions of popery to something like inward piety and spiritual contemplation, and were most violently persecuted by the magistrates and Roman clergy in the fourteenth century.

Thus have we seen the Witnesses hitherto prophesying in sackloth, from the first rise of the Papal dominion. We shall now behold them indeed triumphant in the great reformation; though, wherever the Man of Sin rules they will be subjected to oppression, and if possible, to death, until his dominion be taken away.

CHAP. 11.

REFORMATION.

235

CHAPTER XI.

Circumstances in Europe favouring a reformation.-Philip's triumph over Boniface. Removal of the Pope to Avignon. Great Western schism. Mendicants unpopular. General 'demand for a reform. Council of Constance.

tures.

Discouragements.

Character of the Popes. Their power. Low state of Religion and Learning. Immediate causes.-Avarice of the Popes. Sale of Indulgences opposed by Martin Luther. Luther's birth and education. Retires into a monastery. Reads the ScripMade professor at Wittemberg. Opposes Tetzel. Meets with applause. Circumstances favouring his cause.- -Summoned to Rome. Appears before Cajetan and Miltitz. Disputes with Eckius. Reformation commences in Switzerland. Erasmus. Melanchton. Frederick the Wise. Luther excommunicated. Burns the Pope's bull, and establishes the Lutheran Church. Summoned to the Diet at Worms. His defence and condemnation. Secreted at Wartburg. Re-appears, and publishes the New Testament in German. Preaches the Gospel with great

success.

་

FROM what has passed before him, the reader will gain some general view of the deplorable state of the Christian world at the commencement of the sixteenth century. The Papal power was not, perhaps, so great as it had once been. Boniface VIII. may be viewed as having stood, in the fourteenth century, on that proud and guilty eminence of absolute spiritual and temporal dominion, which had been the desire of almost every pontiff through successive ages. Provoked by his haughty and overbearing demeanour, Philip, king of France, hurled him from his seat, and he died in disgrace and anguish. To prevent such almost uncontrollable dominion at Rome, Philip placed a Frenchman in the Papal see, and fixed his residence at Avignon in France. This remained the seat of the Papacy for 70 years; a period called, by the Catholics, the Babylonish captivity. But this removal from Rome greatly awakened the power of the Pontiffs. It removed their personal influence, which had been immense, from the city. It gave their enemies in Rome an opportunity to cabal against them, and ravage with impunity, St. Peter's patrimony. Many Italian cities revolted from the Pope. Decrees sent from Avignon, were treated with contempt. Other parts of Europe caught the same feeling; and, from this time, the thunders of the Pontiffs were heard without much fear or dread.