1 of 2

Like Paul at Miletus, Jan Hus bid a tender farewell to his congregation at Bethlehem Chapel as he departed for Constance.

"Faithful and dear friends," he said, "you know that for a long time I have faithfully labored among you, preaching to you the Word of God without heresy or errors. Your salvation was, is now, and shall remain my desire until my death."

Hus knew he might never return to Prague. But if not, "we shall, of course, meet one another in the heavenly joy."

We think of him as "Jan Hus, the martyr." But before that, he was Jan Hus, the pastor—passionate about reform yet gentle toward his flock.

The Council of Constance charged Hus with "Wyclifism." The charge misrepresented Hus's theology (Martin Luther would later criticize Hus for accepting too much Catholic doctrine) but caught the spirit of his attack on the excesses of the medieval church.

What Hus desired was not a radical shift in church teaching, but for the church to be more worthy of its calling. This meant a return to the model of the early church and a complete re-evaluation of what it meant to be a priest.

First, Hus believed a priest's authority should be tied to his character and not merely his office. Naturally, this shook the foundations of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, which maintained that as long as a priest was in good standing with the Church, his ministry would remain effective regardless of his morality.

Hus, in contrast, believed it a priest's duty to model the godly life. As Wyclif had written, "Living a good life stirs rude men more than true preaching by word only."

For Hus, the "good life" began with ascetic simplicity. He demanded that priests live in apostolic poverty, being satisfied with the food and clothing provided by their office and giving the rest away. This idea arose both from Scripture and from Wyclif, who wrote that priests must "live a humble life, of poor men's alms and goods … and the remainder give truly to poor men that have not of their own."

Hus did not go so far as to deny the ministry of immoral priests. He maintained that sacraments in the hands of an unworthy priest remain valid, but the usefulness of the priest is undermined by his unseemly behavior.

Second, Hus wanted to narrow the gap between priest and people by giving lay people access to the Communion cup. Restoring the laity's right to take the chalice in Holy Communion became the battle cry for the whole Hussite movement.

For centuries the Holy Church had restricted the cup to the priest, lest the clumsy laity should spill any of the "blood of God." But the Hussites pointed to the words of Christ, "Drink of it, all of you."

Finally, Hus denounced as blasphemous the claim of priests to forgive sins directly, of their own power, whenever and wherever they wanted. He growled and barked at the practice of some priests who demanded money for such "forgiveness." Hus emphasized that it is God and Christ alone who forgive sins. Priests only declare such forgiveness.

The Czechs generally rejected the idea that the Church is restricted to the pope, cardinals, bishops and clergy. Hus insisted that the Church comprises the common people, the nobles, and the clergy.

The clergy, he said, constitute the best part of the Church if they perform their duties rightly, but that means they should relinquish the world and follow Christ most closely. If they are unfaithful to their duties, they become the worst part of the Church, laboring against Christ.

Hus's own ministry centered in his pulpit. His emphasis on preaching echoes Wyclif, and like Luther, he was a preaching professor. "Preachers," he once said, "count for more in the church than prelates."

next page... |  1 of 2

share this page

RSS Feed   RSS Help