IN 1382, two years before the death of Wycliffe, the Princess Anne of Bohemia became the Queen of Richard II of England. Huss was then a lad of thirteen, or perhaps only nine or ten.
A sort of nominal Christianity had been introduced into Bohemia and its sister state of Moravia, in connection with the wars of Charlemagne, King of France, but the Sclavonic tongue had little in common with either French or Latin, and so the people remained in ignorance. About 863 A.D. the King of Moravia sent messengers to the Greek Emperor at Constantinople, saying: “Our land is baptized, but we have no teachers to instruct us, and translate for us the Holy Scriptures. Send us teachers who may explain to us the Bible." Methodius and Cyrillus were sent; the Bible was translated, and Divine worship established in the Sclavonic language, the common speech of both states.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain distinctly what was the teaching of these missionaries; but whatever it was, it was successful in making many converts, so that churches and schools arose on every hand.
The schism between the eastern and the western divisions of Christendom—we use the word in its wide and historical sense—had not yet been consummated, and the eastern ritual was used in both Bohemia and Moravia. Gradually the Latin ritual was introduced, and both countries came more and more under the domination of the Roman Pontiff; and in 1079, Gregory VII forbade the use of the Greek, and also of worship in the language of the people. Still more, from this time onward, Romanism prevailed, and anything like vital and Scriptural religion was very rare; though, doubtless, God had still a remnant who, amid much darkness and error and superstition, received the truth in the love of it, and held to the faith of the gospel. This must have been the case, for in some places the vernacular was still used in public worship, and the Communion practiced in both kinds. Some of the powerful nobles, too, were favorable to the gospel, and were the protectors of their poorer brethren, as also of the Waldenses, who, exiled from their native valleys, sowed the seed of the Kingdom in Bohemia.
The Princess Anne, referred to above, is described as a devout and godly lady, and a favorer of the doctrines of Wycliffe. Through her influence, Jerome of Prague and other learned men came to the University of Oxford, and, on their return to their native country, carried with them many of Wycliffe’s books, and, better still, the evangelical doctrines taught by the reformer, in their hearts. There must have been, largely by means of Richard's Bohemian queen, a frequent communication between the two countries, and so a considerable importation of Wycliffe’s writings; and even after her death in 1384, we find " the good Lord Cobham '' sending copies of Wycliffe’s Bible and his other works into Bohemia.
Huss was born on the 6th of July, 1373 (some accounts say 1369), in the little town of Husinetz, on the edge of the Bohemian forest, and near the source of the river Moldau and the Bavarian boundary. His parents were humble folk, but yet able to send him to the University of Prague. It is related that when his mother (for his father was then dead) took him to the university, she carried a present for the rector, which she lost on the journey. Grieved at her loss, she knelt down beside her son and invoked on him the blessing of the Almighty. Her prayer was heard, but she did not live to witness how abundantly God answered it.
His university career was a brilliant one; his mind expanding and his talents increasing from time to time. He is described as a young man, pale and thin in the face, blameless in life, sweet and affable in address, winning all who came in contact with him; and burning, as with a self-consuming passion, with a desire for knowledge. He was at this time a firm believer in the Papacy, a devoted son of the Church of Rome, and a strong believer in her sacraments. At the time of the Prague jubilee in 1393, he gave his last coins to the confessor of the Church of St. Peter. He had studied carefully the philosophical writings of Wycliffe, but of his theological works he was as yet ignorant.
In 1398 Huss entered the Church. He rapidly rose to distinct ion, and his fame having reached the court of Wencelaus, his queen, Sophia of Bavaria, selected him as her confessor.
Huss's career as a Reformer dates from about 1402, when he was appointed preacher to the Chapel of Bethlehem, in Prague. This chapel had been founded in 1392, by one Midhamis, a citizen of Prague, who laid great stress upon the preaching of the Word of God in the mother tongue of the people.
According to a contemporary historian, the moral condition of Prague was at this time very low indeed. “The king, the nobles, the prelates, the clergy, the citizens, indulged without restraint in avarice, pride, drunkenness, lewdness and every profligacy. In the midst of this sunken community stood up Huss-an awakener of the conscience. Now it was against the prelates, now against the nobles, and now against the ordinary clergy that he launched his bolts."
It would appear that until now Huss himself was not converted, but that while preparing these sermons he was inwardly awakened to an apprehension of the truth. His sermons, which had made such a stir within, made a stir also without. Some fell under the truth, but more rose up against it and the preacher. Huss, however, found protectors in the archbishop and in the queen; and so he continued preaching with unquenchable zeal and earnestness, proclaiming the truths of Holy Scripture, and appealing to the written Word in support of all his statements. He was bound to preach frequently, at what are called “Church Seasons," sometimes even twice a day, and always in the language of the people. In this way, while studying more and more closely the Word of God, and digging deeper and deeper in the mine of truth there treasured, he grew rapidly in the knowledge, and imbibed increasingly the spirit of the infallible Word. There grew up around him, too, a community of devout and awakened souls who thirsted for the living waters and hungered for the living Bread.
Huss knew not the true character of the movement he had commenced, nor whither it would lead him and others; he had entered the road to Protestantism without so much as dreaming of it.
It was now that he became acquainted with the theological writings of Wycliffe, studying them earnestly, admiring the piety of the author, and somewhat in sympathy with the reforms he demanded. Thus, though the voice was no longer heard crying in the fine old church at Lutterworth, its echoes were making themselves heard in distant Bohemia. Queen Anne of Bohemia was dead, but the ladies of her court, on their return to their native land, carried with them the writings of the great English Reformer, whose disciple their mistress had been, and in whose spotless life and joyful death they had witnessed the power of the everlasting gospel.
Another event, too, helped forward the work of Reformation which Huss had unconsciously begun. There came to Prague two graduates of Oxford, disciples of Wycliffe, James and Conrad of Canterbury. What they had learned on the banks of the Thames they proclaimed by the waters of the Moldau.
They held public disputations on the doctrine of the primacy of the Pope.
Things were hardly ripe for so bold a measure, and the authorities at once silenced them. But they could paint as well as preach, and their brushes were made eloquent. With the consent of their host, they drew in the corridor of his house, first, a picture of our Lord's entrance to Jerusalem, “meek, and riding upon an ass"; and on the other side they displayed the more than royal magnificence of a Pontifical cavalcade. There was the Pope, adorned with Triple Crown, attired in robes bespangled with gold, and glittering with precious stones; riding on a richly caparisoned horse, with trumpeters proclaiming his approach, and a brilliant crowd of cardinals and bishops following in the rear.
Their pictures were as eloquent and telling as their speech, and the graphic contrast struck every beholder. The city was moved; there was great excitement, and the English visitors found it prudent to withdraw; but they had awakened thoughts which no authority could suppress.
Amongst those who came to gaze at the pictures was John Huss. He returned quietly, to study more closely the writings of Wycliffe. At first he was startled at the bold things stated; then he was staggered; then convinced. The lying miracle in the church of Wilsnack, to investigate which Huss was one of three commissioners sent by the Archbishop of Prague, helped further to open his eyes to the impostures of Rome. The miracle was a so-called relic of the blood of Christ, which was proved to be simply an imposture. To this relic thousands flocked, some coming from great distances, from Poland, Hungary, and even Scandinavia. Miracles were said to be wrought by the holy blood, and many cures were reported to be made by it.
Huss's work in reforming one of the customs of the university gave him great favor and influence with the Bohemian people, and helped to open the way for his great work.
Tidings of Huss's work at Prague reached the ears of the Pope, who sent a bull for the suppression of all preaching in private chapels, and for the burning of Wycliffe’s books. They were, of course, written copies, and some beautifully illuminated by the copyists, and were therefore very costly, above the means of the poor to buy. Many, no doubt, were secreted, but more than two hundred volumes were publicly burned amid the tolling of bells.
This inflamed the zeal of Huss, and he began to attack the Pope's indulgences. For this he was summoned to Rome, to answer in person for his daring. Acting on the advice of some of his powerful friends, he declined to go, requesting to be heard by counsel. This was refused, and the Pope proceeded with the case in his absence. He was condemned, and the city of Prague was laid under an interdict. Every church was closed, the altar lights put out, and corpses lay by the wayside unburied. There was a tumult and bloodshed. What was Huss to do? Stay he could not with safety, so he retired to his native town, the territorial lord of which was his friend.
His first thoughts were with his flock of the Chapel of Bethlehem. "I have retired," he sent them word in a letter, "not to deny the truth, for which I am willing to die, but because impious priests forbid the preaching of it." But he could not be idle. Following his Divine Master, he travelled all through the region round about, preaching in the towns and villages. Crowds hung upon his words, delighted equally with his meekness, his courage, and his eloquence." "The Church," said they, "has pronounced this man a heretic and a demon, yet his life is holy, and his doctrine pure and elevating."
After a time things quieted down in Prague, and Huss returned to his old pulpit at Bethlehem. His flock gathered round him, and he thundered away again, and louder than ever, against the tyranny of the priesthood in forbidding the free preaching of the gospel.
Mighty changes were imminent in Bohemia, and gathering clouds already foretokened the near approach of the storm that would usher them in. Huss had many powerful friends, and the queen still faithfully clung to his side, but he had no man in all things like-minded, as Luther had in the following century in Melancthon and others. As a theologian and a Reformer he stood alone, while day by day new difficulties arose, and the course he had been led to take led him still further and further towards the goal, without his knowing in some cases what the next step would be. Happily, at this juncture, God sent him just the friend and helper he needed in Jerome of Faulfish, a Bohemian knight, who had returned some time before from Oxford, where he had become a convert to the doctrines of the gospel as set forth by Wycliffe. Passing through Paris and Vienna, he challenged the learned men of the universities to dispute with him on matters of faith. His arguments were too strong, and his logic too keen for his opponents, so they accused him of heresy, and he was cast into prison. Escaping, he came home to Bohemia just in the time of Huss's deepest need. Henceforth they were fast friends and co-workers in the great cause of the Reformation. R. S.
NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS.
We shall be glad to receive Papers from our Christian readers and friends suitable either for young or old. Perhaps we need more kelp of this kind for the young. There are many Sunday School teachers among our readers who could send bright stories and incidents, if they would sit down occasionally, pen in hand, and write what they have seen and heard. We would also encourage our Christian friends to write the story of the way God led them out of darkness into light, as such testimony is so very helpful in assisting others to enter the large place of Christian liberty and joy.