God’s Battle Axe – John Huss

           John Huss, originally Jan Hus or Iohannes Hus, was a Czech theologian and Church reformer in late 13^th and early 14^th centuries. He watered the ground for Martin Luther and other reformers through his fiery preaching of the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ. This brought him into confrontation with the organised church of his time, dominated by Roman Catholicism.

Huss was a revolutionary Christian and was not content to accept the perverted Gospel preached by the so-called ‘mother Church’. He had this to say about his opponents, “I desire to be Balaam’s ass. Because the prelates sit on me, wishing to force me to go against the command of God to stop preaching, I will press the feet of their desire and will not obey them, for the angel of the LORD stands before me in the way”.

         Huss was born in 1369 to peasant parents in “Goosetown”, that is Husinec, in the south of today’s Czech Republic. In his twenties, he changed his name from Hus to Huss (meaning a goose). To escape poverty, he trained for the priesthood. Commenting on this stage of his life, Huss said, “I had thought to become a priest quickly in order to secure a good livelihood and dress and to be held in esteem by men”.

He earned a bachelor’s degree, masters and finally a doctorate before he was ordained a preacher in 1401. His first parish was Prague’s Bethlehem Chapel which held a congregation of 3,000 people. It was the most popular church in one of the largest of Europe’s cities, a centre of reform in Bohemia. For example, sermons were preached in Czech, not Latin.

During those years, Huss underwent a change. Though he spent some time with what he called a “foolish sect”, he finally discovered the Bible. He said, “When the Lord gave me knowledge of Scriptures, I discharged that kind of stupidity from my foolish mind”. The catalysts were the writings of John Wycliffe, another church reformer that had been declared heretic by the Roman Catholic leadership. At this time, the University of Prague was already split between Czechs and Germans, and Wycliffe’s teachings only reinforced the schism.

         Early debates between both groups hinged on fine points of philosophy. The Czechs with Wycliffe were realists, while the Germans were nominalists. The Czechs who followed Huss also warmed up to Wycliffe’s reforming ideas, though they had no intention of altering traditional doctrines. They wanted to place more emphasis on the Bible, expand the authority of church councils and lessen that of the Pope, as well as promote the moral reform of the clergy.

Thus, Huss began increasingly to affirm his loyalty to Scriptures, “desiring to hold, believe, and assert whatever is contained in them as long as I have breath in me”. A political struggle ensued, with the Germans labelling Wycliffe and his followers as heretics. With the support of the king of Bohemia, the Czechs gained the upper hand, and German students at Prague University were forced to flee to institutions in other cities.

The situation was complicated by European politics, which saw two popes vying to rule Christendom. A church council was called at Pisa in 1409 to settle the matter. The council deposed both popes, namely Gregory XII and Celestine V, and elected Alexander V as the legitimate pontiff. The deposed popes rejected the ruling and continued to preside over their respective factions. Alexander was soon “persuaded” – that is bribed to side with the Bohemian church authorities against Huss, who continued to criticize them. Huss was eventually forbidden to preach and later excommunicated, but only on paper; with local Bohemians backing him. Thus, he continued to minister at Bethlehem Chapel.

When Alexander V’s successor, Pope John XXIII authorized the selling of indulgences to raise funds for his crusade against one of his rivals, Huss was scandalized, and further radicalized. He accused the pope of acting in mere self-interest, adding that the pontiff lacked the moral authority required of his office. The development compelled Huss to lean more heavily on the Bible, which he proclaimed the final authority for the church.

Furthermore, he argued that the Czech people were being exploited by the pope’s indulgences. The king of Bohemia saw Huss’ criticism as a veiled attack on his person because he earned a cut of the indulgence proceeds. With that, Huss lost the support of the king. Also, the angry king ensured that Huss’ excommunication which had been tacitly dropped, was revived. Thereafter, an interdict was put upon the city of Prague that no citizen could receive Communion or be buried on church grounds as long as Huss continued in ministry.

          To spare the city, Huss withdrew to the countryside toward the end of 1412. He spent the next two years composing a number of treaties. The most important titled ‘The Church’ was sent to Prague to be read publicly. In it, he argued that Christ alone is the head of the church, that a pope “through ignorance and love of money” can make many mistakes, and that to rebel against an erring pope is to obey Christ.

         In November 1414, the Council of Constance assembled, and Huss was summoned by the Roman Emperor Sigismund to come and give an account of his doctrine. Because he was promised safe conduct, and because of the importance of the council which earlier promised to undertake church reforms, Huss accepted the invitation. When he arrived however, he was immediately arrested, and was kept in prison for several months. Instead of a hearing, Huss was hauled before authorities and asked merely to recant his views. In response to the obvious betrayal he said, “I appeal to Jesus Christ, the only judge who is almighty and completely just. In his hands I plead my cause, not on the basis of false witnesses and erring councils, but on truth and justice”.

            He was then taken to a cell where many of his acquaintances pleaded with him to recant. On July 6, 1415, he was taken to the cathedral, dressed in his priestly garments. He was then stripped of them one by one. He refused one last chance to recant at the stake, where he prayed, “Lord Jesus, it is for thee that I patiently endure this cruel death. I pray thee have mercy on my enemies”. He was heard reciting the Psalms as the flames engulfed him. His executioners were not satisfied with just murdering this servant of God. They scooped up his ashes and tossed them into a lake so that nothing would remain of the ‘heretic’. But some Czechs collected bits of soil from the ground where Huss died and took them to Bohemia as a memorial.

The Bohemians were furious with the execution of Huss and repudiated the council. Over the next several years, a coalition of Hussites, radical Taborites, and other groups refused to submit to the authority of the Roman Emperor or the church. They fended off three military assaults before they eventually reconciled with the rest of western Christendom, though on their own terms. For example, Bohemia was one of the few Catholic regions that offered Communion of both bread and wine; the rest in Christendom simply received the bread. Those who repudiated this last compromise formed the Unitas Fratrum (Union of Brethren). This later became the foundation for the Moravian Brethren. Note that Moravia is a region in Czech Republic. The group played an important role in the conversion of the Wesley brothers in the United Kingdom, among other influential Christians of the era.

         Huss became a hero for Martin Luther in particular. Early in his monastic career, Luther rummaging through the stacks of a library, happened upon a volume of sermons by the martyred servant of God. Luther said, “I was overwhelmed with astonishment. I could not understand for what cause they had burnt so great a man, who explained the Scriptures with so much gravity and skill”.

There is so much to learn from this martyred servant of God. Going against the Catholic Church in those days took a nerve of steel. It also required total commitment to God’s purpose. In our days, we want to be politically correct and enjoy the favours of the world. We also kotow to the ideals of organised church at the expense of our loyalty to Christ. We need to develop a pair as the Americans would say, and learn to say ‘No’ to teachings or doctrines that are contrary to Scriptures.

Our focus must be on God and His purposes for our lives. We may be persecuted as Huss was but we have the assurance that God would vindicate us in due course. Jesus did not promise us a blissful life here on earth. He knew that we would face tribulation or trials for His sake. He said in Mathew 5:10-12, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you”.

*** Materials sourced from John Huss: Pre-Reformation Reformer, https://www.christianitytoday.com.