Who Were the Hussites?

Rejected Views of the Heretics

Aug 9, 2009 Marilynn Hughes

Some heretics would choose of their own will a false doctrine.

Jan Hus, founder of the Hussites, was born around 1369 A.D. in Bohemia. Having studied for the priesthood, he taught theology at the University of Prague. During his years of study, he found himself entranced by the work of Jerome of Prague who introduced him to the works of John Wycliffe who eventually became one of the most important men in the history of the Protestant Reformation.

John Wycliffe’s Influence on the Hussite Heresy

John Wycliffe was a profoundly holy man, now considered a saint by Protestants and often Catholics alike. But in his time, he was obsessed with translation the bible into the language of the people so that the faithful could truly understand what it was they professed to believe.

For this profound commitment, John Wycliffe was put in prison more than once. When he died, is body was uninterred and burned. Both John Wycliffe and Jan Hus would come to be called heretics.

Jan Hus and his Creation of the Hussites

Jan Hus rose to great power in the Catholic Church as rector of a University. He became a huge reformer of the clerical state which was a very common problem in that time. Usury and the selling of indulgence, among many other concerns, became his passion.

Somewhere along the way, it was the life and writings of John Wycliffe that inspired his rebellion against a corrupt clergy. Writing De Ecclesia, he utilized the ideas of Wycliffe on predestination and he, too, rejected the claim of the papacy to be of divine origin.

The Hussites eventually became members of a reformed pre-Protestant church in 1418, although many other controversies and difficulties lay ahead of them.

But Jan Hus and John Wycliffe go down in Protestant history as saints, despite official condemnation of them by the Catholic Church when they were declared heretics.

Heresy According to the Early Church Fathers

The Early Church Fathers had a difficult time holding the line on their doctrinal definitions, especially when such Protestant greats as Jan Hus and John Wycliffe entered onto the world scene with the full and sincere intention of making the gospels readable in the languages of the people.

“The heretics, as many as they are, all depart [from each other], holding so many opinions as to one thing. They bear about their ‘clear notions’ in secret within themselves. Therefore, if they ever agree among themselves as to the things predicted in Scriptures, then we will also refute them.

"Meanwhile, in addition to holding wrong opinions, they also convict themselves, for they are not of one mind with regard to the same words," according to (Irenaeus) A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers – Edited by David W. Bercot.

Other interesting heretical sects included the Gugliemites and Iconoclasm.

Sources:

• Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics, by Charles S. Clifton.
• A Catholic Dictionary, by William E. Addis and Thomas Arnold, M.A.
• Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, by Dr. Ludwig Ott.
• A Short History of Christian Doctrine: From the First Century to the Present, by Bernhard Lohse.
• The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils, 325 - 1870, by Philip Hughes.
• A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers, Edited by David W. Bercot.

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Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics