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John Huss's Treatise on the Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2009

David Schley Schaff
Affiliation:
Professor of Church History in the Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh

Extract

The approach of the 500th anniversary of John Huss's death and the interest taken at the present time in questions of ecclesiology have suggested the subject of this paper. The “Treatise on the Church,” De ecclesia, was Huss's chief writing and from it were drawn the charges for which he died at the stake, July 6, 1415.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Church History 1914

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References

page 89 note 1 Loserth, Wiclif and Hus, p. 182, says: “Of all Hus' writings this has always been deemed the most important. Friends and foes alike have always regarded it withrespect.” I adopt the spelling Huss as more congenial to the English reader's eye. Loserth in the article “Huss” in the last edition of Herzog changes to this form, and Karl Mūller also adopts it in his Kirchengeschichte.

page 90 note 1 This distinction was made in the Protestant confessions as in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, “Every particular or national church hath authority,” etc., Article XXXIV.

page 92 note 1 A popular view in the later Middle Ages. So Wyclif: Communitas intelligit per Romanam ecclesiam papam et cardinales, quibus est necessarium omnibus aliis obedire (De ecclesia, p. 92).

page 97 note 1 Palacky, Documenta Mag. J. Hus, p. 288.

page 97 note 2 Sermones de sanctis, p. 242, totus numerus predestinatorum.

page 97 note 3 Schwane, Dogmengeschichte der mittleren Zeit, p.510, says: “Huss rejected the definition that the church is a visible community of believers in Christ.”

page 98 note 1 Huss, Opera i, 325 sq.

page 98 note 2 Reply to Stanislaus, Huss, Opera i., 345, etc.

page 98 note 3 Palacky, p. 289.

page 98 note 4 Huss, Opera i., 326, 342, 344.

page 98 note 5 Huss, Opera i, 353, 356, etc.

page 98 note 6 Huss, Opera i., 352.

page 99 note 1 Reply to Paletz Huss, Opera i., 324.

page 99 note 2 Palacky, p. 291.

page 99 note 3 Opera i., 282, 322 sq.

page 99 note 4 Palacky, p. 297.

page 99 note 5 Opera i., 325. In the Cathedral of Constance, Huss insisted upon proof from Scripture and declared there was no appeal so safe as the appeal to Jesus Christ. Palacky, pp. 293, 319.

page 99 note 6 Reply to Paletz, Opera i., 330.

page 100 note 1 Palacky, p. 294. Gerson also made the charge against Huss that he denied the church's right to demand the infliction of the death penalty upon heretics: Palacky,185 sq.

page 100 note 2 Huss, Opera p. 354 sq.

page 101 note 1 See Loofs, , Dogmengeschichte, 4th ed., 1906, p. 370.Google Scholar

page 101 note 2 De sacramentis, i., 2.

page 101 note 3 Schwane, Dogmengeschichte, p. 504.

page 101 note 4 Reusch, p. 9, and Mirbt, Quellen, 3d edition, p. 157.

page 102 note 1 Schaff, Church History, v., Part i, pp. 674, 777.

page 102 note 2 See Riezler, Die literarischen Widersacher der Päpste zur Zeit Ludwig des Baiers. Finke, Aus den Tagen Bonifaz VIII. Haller, Papstthum und Kirchenreform. Scholz, Die Publizistik zur Zeit Philipps des Schönen und Bonifaz VIII.

page 103 note 1 See Schaff, Church History, v., Part 2.

page 103 note 2 See Culley, David E., Konrad von Gelnhausen, seine Lehre, seine Werke und seine Quellen. Halle, 1913, p. 84sqq.Google Scholar

page 104 note 1 Haller, p. 87. Culley, pp. 60, 86.

page 105 note 1 In his Wiclif and Hus and his edition of Wyclif's Tractatus de ecclesia, Introduction. Since the discovery of Huss's Super IV libros Sententiarum, a larger measure of originality has been again claimed for the Bohemian.

page 105 note 2 Wyclif, De ecclesia, p. 366.

page 105 note 3 Wyclif, p. 507.

page 106 note 1 Wyclif speaks of the monstrosa superbia ecclesiæ. occidentalis, p. 362, and says that if the pope had inherent right to forgive sins and did not absolve all men, he would be most guilty, pp. 549, 551, 556. 561, etc. Baptism, he says, does not delete all original sin, and the defect of final perseverance is the most grave defect of sin, p. 467. The last clause of Boniface's bull is to be detested, p. 38. See also Schaff, Church History, V., Part 2, p. 322 sgq.

page 107 note 1 John of Turrecremata gave up one hundred of the chapters of his Theology to the discussion of the church.

page 107 note 2 Jeder welcher die Taufe empfangen hat, gehört in irgend einer Art und in irgend einer Weise … dem Papste an. Mirbt, Quellen, p. 371.

page 108 note 1 Huss's letter to Hawlik, written from Constance. See Palacky, Documenta, p. 128.