— His Life, Teachings, and Death — After Five Hundred Years
By DAVID S. SCHAFF, D.D.
PlTBLISHED BY
Charles Scribner’s Sons
SDe C£ccle0ia
David S. Schaff, D.d
Professor of Church History, the Western Theological Seminary
Nemo tenetur quidquam credere nisi ad quod movet eum deus credere sed deus non movet hominem ad credendum faisum.
No one is held to believe anything except what he is moved by God to believe but God moves no man to believe what is false.
— John Huss, this treatise. p. .jo.
New York Charles Scribner’s Sons
Copyright, 191 S, By
Charles Scribner’s Sons
Published June, 1915
Vita et doctrina Christi sunt optimum sptculum … cum manifestum sit quod omnis homo et solum talis qui est in vila et doctrina Christo contrarius est hereticus, et omnis christianus et solum talis qui est in vita et doctrina Christo conformis est ut sic ab heresi elongatus. — De Ecclesia, p. 41.
The life and teaching of Christ are the best mirror … for it is evident that every man who in life and teaching is contrary to Christ and only such a man is a heretic: and every Christian who in life and teaching is conformed to Christ and only such a Christian is removed from heresy.
Spero, ex Dei gratia, quod sum christianus ex integro, a fide non devians, et quod potius vellem pati dirce morlis supplicium, quam aliquid vellem prater fidem asserere, vel transgredi mandata Domini Jesu Christi. — Ad Palecz, Mon., 1 : 325.
I hope, by God’s grace, that I am truly a Christian, not deviating from the faith, and that I would rather suffer the penalty of a terrible death than wish to affirm anything outside of the faith or transgress the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verum qui, in agone mortis, Jesum filium Dei passum pro nobis, invocat et ob talem causam tanta fiducia ac constantia in ignem conjicit sese, si is non magnanimum et fortem Christi martyrem sese prctbei, haud facile quisquam salvus erit. — Preface to some of Huss’s writings, I527-
Truly he — Huss — who in the agony of death invoked Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who suffered for us, and for such a cause and with such faith and steadfastness threw himself into the fire, if he did not show himself a noble and brave martyr of Christ, then will scarcely any one be saved.
Of the writings of John Huss of Bohemia, the Treatise on the Church is the most important.1 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, 141 5, burned at the stake. It was written in Latin and the translation, here offered, is the first that has appeared in English and seems to be the first to be issued in any language. It is offered as a help in the appreciation of a memorable man who deserves well of Western Christendom and as a contribution to the study of ecclesiology.
I. The Author. John Huss is the chief religious character of Bohemia, as Luther is of Germany, and John Knox of Scotland; and he is the one contribution his country has made to the progress of religious thought and of culture in Western Christendom. His fame it has been possible for several centuries to obscure through the semi-mythical personality of the Roman Catholic saint, John Nepomuk, but recently Husss eminence as a notable preacher and an unselfish patriot has come to recognition among his people, and in Southern Bohemia, though it is loyal to the Roman Catholic church, his memory is yearly celebrated.2