Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June 16/58

Contributor - D. J. Geerling

Title - Christianity Goes Into Action - John Huss

Topic - Church History

In the City of Prague in Bohemia, one winter evening many years ago, a group of University students sat around the fire enjoying themselves. One of them, who was deeply intent on the book he was reading, suddenly stretched out his hand and put it into the fire. He held it there until one of his companions seized his arm and pulled it away. "Dost thou want to kill thyself, John of Hussinetz?" he cried. John replied by showing him that he was reading the story of the death by burning of Lawrence, the martyr, and said: "I was only trying if I could bear anything of what that holy man suffered for Christ's sake". Some of the students never forgot that strange act of John Huss, For it explained his courageous loyalty to God in after years.

John was a poor man's son, but from his earliest days he had been fired by a great desire for learning After his father's death his mother took him from his native village to Prague, the great University of Bohemia, hoping to get him educated. She carried a goose and a cake as a gift to the University authorities. To the horror of mother and son, the goose escaped from the basket on the way, and only the cake could be offered as a gift. In spite of this, Huss succeeded in getting into the University, maintaining himself by singing and doing subordinate work for the Church. So poor was he that he had to live mostly on porridge and had no spoon with which to eat. "I used to make a spoon of a piece of bread till I had done eating my Porridge and then I ate the spoon," he wrote afterwards, and added: "Evil men are the devil's spoons; by means of them he devours others, and then he devours them also."

When he was thirty-two, he became a priest, and began teaching at the University. A year later Huss was appointed preacher to Bethlehem Chapel, founded in Prague some years earlier by a prominent citizen.

After two years of preaching at Bethlehem chapel, something happened to change the course of Huss's life. Two English preachers arrived in Bohemia from Oxford, bringing with them the teaching of John Wycliffe, the English reformer. The emissaries of the Pope soon took action against them, and they were forbidden to teach. Nothing daunted, they proceeded to draw two pictures on the outside walls of the house in which they were staying. One was the picture of Jesus entering Jerusalem, meek and riding upon an ass. On the Opposite wall they portrayed the royal magnificence of a papal procession. They showed the Pope adorned with a triple crown, arrayed in costly robes, riding proudly on a richly caparisoned horse, with trumpeters heralding his approach, and followed by a brilliant crowd of cardinals, bishops and other prelates.

These Pictures were so well drawn that they told their own story, and the people of Prague flocked to see them. Among those who went to study these pictures and look for their meaning was Huss. As he compared the humble and simple entry of Jesus into Jerusalem with the splendour and wealth of the procession of the Pope, he realized how far the prelates and the clergy of his day had departed fr GM the simple method of Jesus and His disciples. The pictures led Huss to study the writings of John Wycliffe more closely. These writings gave a new impetus to his preaching. Soon all Prague was stirred by the new message of their popular preacher. Huss boldly denounced the evil lives and false teaching of the clergy and the Pope and in contrast gave the Gospel story to the people. At once the archbishop and clergy were up in arms against him. A well-known priest, hiding his head in the grey cowl of his mantle, attended the services at Bethlehem Chapel in order to find cause for accusing Huss of heresy. His presence made no difference whatever to the fearless preacher, who guessed his mission. In the midst of an explanation of the difference between the laws of God and those of the Pope. Huss called out from the pulpit: "Write that down, cowled monk, and carry it to the bishop's palace!" Shortly after this incident Huss also hotly denounced the sale of indulgences by the Pope's legate in Prague. The Pope threatened to excommunicate him and put the whole city of Prague under an interdict. To protect his people from this boycott, Huss retired from Prague to the castle of one of his friends, and spent some time in writing books and pamphlets, which were scattered over the land and helped forward the work of the Reformation.

The Pope then determined to get Huss condemned by the Council of Constance which was being held at that time, primarily tosettle other ecclesiastical disputes. The king of Italy, who was the chairman, summoned Huss to attend, sending him a pledge of safe conduct, to go and return without molestation. Huss went to Constance without demur but trusting not in kings. These are his words: "I confide altogether in the all-powerful God, my Saviour. He will fortify me in His trust that I may face with courage both temptation and prison and, if necessary, a cruel death." As soon as he arrived at Constance he was arrested and thrown into a filthy cell above a sewer. After nine months' imprisonment he was brought before the Council once more and convicted of heresy. Next he was taken to the cathedral in his robes of office, and led, with the communion cup in his hands, to the high altar. There with elaborate ceremony the cup was taken away from him, his robes stripped from him, and he was led to the neighbouring meadows and burnt at the stake. Even at the last moment he was urged to recant and save his life, but he replied boldly that he was willing to sign his testimony with his blood. As the flames rose around him, he was heard praying for forgiveness for his enemies. The ashes of the fire were thrown into the Rhine so that no trace of his body could remain.

John Huss, a faithful servant of Jesus, whose testimony will forever remain.

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