p. 202 | The Missionary by Stephen Nelson Haskell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 26, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 13.

The Missionary.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

Influence of Wycliffe's Writings on Bohemia.

THE light of truth did not all emanate from one man or one nation. God selects his instruments irrespective of nationalities or persons. "But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."

Wycliffe was born in 1324, forty-nine years before Huss. His influence was felt in different parts of England, especially in the university of Oxford. About the same time that the university at Prague was established, certain doctrines taught by Wycliffe were traversing Europe, and there attracted much attention at Prague. Especially was this true of a work in which he attacked the doctrine of transubstantiation. The Princess Anne, who married Richard II., was religiously inclined, and became a devoted reader of the Scriptures, a copy of which in each of three different languages she carried to England. She possessed a liberal spirit, which seemed natural to her native country. She was thus prepared to receive and cherish the doctrines of Wycliffe, which were agitating all Europe. She was the first of the illustrious band of princesses who were the nursing mothers of the Reformation.

In 1394 Queen Anne died, and her attendants, returning to Bohemia, carried with them some of Wycliffe's writings. So strong was the attachment between this royal couple that the bereaved king devised and had erected a monument upon which his own image and that of the queen were carved, with the hands of the two clasped together. It also represented the sympathy existing between England and Bohemia, which gave great strength to the Reformation. Another circumstance which aided the Reformation in Bohemia was the fact that many of the Waldenses found an asylum there from the fierce persecution which was then raging against them in their own country. The influence which they exerted was felt in the university at Prague.

It was also at this time that the forty years' schism existed in Rome, when two popes contended for the supremacy, each claiming to be the true infallible pope, Christ's vicegerent on earth. One had his court in Avignon, France; the other had his in Rome. The Italian pope, Urban IV., was acknowledged in Bohemia. He died about the year 1389, and the French pope, Clement VI., continued as before. This contention unsettled the minds of many. While claiming infallibility, each hurled dreadful anathemas at the other. Each excommunicated the other, and denounced him as the son of Belial, anti-Christ, heretic, thief, despot, and traitor. History says that they were not far out of the way in their representations. Parties were formed everywhere. Kings and queens took sides and changed sides as their interests dictated. Thoughtful men saw plainly that some higher power than the pope was necessary to bring unity to the faith.

Huss became an ardent admirer of Wycliffe's writings, and yet he did not recognize in the Englishman a brother reformer, but the more he read, the more he approved. One of his associate collegians, observing him perusing a work of Wycliffe, remarked that by a decree of the council, that man's soul had been sent to hell. Huss replied, "I only wish that my soul, when it leaves this body, may reach the place where that of this excellent Briton now dwells."

Huss had many bosom friends at this time, who were equally outspoken in behalf of Wycliffe and his work, some of whom afterwards became his bitter enemies and accusers. Persecution tried them and found them wanting. At a critical time in the history of the Reformation they abandoned it; but not so with Huss. In reply to one of his former friends who had turned back on account of persecution, Huss said: "Though Wycliffe, or an angel from Heaven, taught otherwise than the Scriptures teach, I could not follow him. I disobey the perverse mandates of my superiors, because Scripture teaches me to obey God rather than man."

S. N. HASKELL.