p. 697 | The Missionary by Stephen N. Haskell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 44.

The Missionary.

By Stephen N. Haskell

The Council of Basel and Its Proceedings, Rome Triumphs.

THE Scriptures, in speaking of the Roman power, say, "It shall break in pieces and bruise." This has ever been true of it. Rome never changes. At times it often appears to be defeated, but it is the "mystery of iniquity." It is Satan's stronghold on the earth. In its folds he lives, by its forms he is nourished, and in its persecutions of the saints he glories. This power was to wear out the saints of the Most High, and it has done it, and still aims to do it. Protestantism of to-day has forgotten the foe with which it contended for centuries in the past, but it is none the less a foe still. What it could not do by fire and the sword, it has tried to accomplish by stratagem, always working on the principle that the end justifies the means.

Concerning the council at Basel, Fox says that the Papal legate opened the proceedings with a long and eloquent oration, in which he said that the church was the spouse of Jesus Christ, and the mother of the faithful; that it had the keys for binding and loosing the souls of men; also that it was white and fair, without spot or wrinkle, and could not err on those points necessary to salvation. He exhorted those present to receive the decrees of the council, and to give no less credit to them than to the gospel. He said that the Bohemians, who called themselves the children of the church, ought to hear the voice of their mother, who was never unmindful of her children. With many like remarks, he exhorted the people to the unity of the faith. The Bohemians briefly responded, saying that they neither believed nor taught anything that was not founded on the word of God; that they had come to the council to vindicate their innocence in open audience; and, in conclusion, laid upon the table the four articles which they had been instructed to insist upon as the basis of peace.

The Fathers strove, and not without success, to draw the deputies into discussion upon points of their faith. They anticipated an easy victory over men whose lives had been spent in the battle-field, but they found in Procopius a theologian as well as a general. They learned also that the Bohemians were as obstinate in the council chamber as on the battle-field. The debate dragged along for three tedious months. It was not a little mortifying to the Fathers at the close of this council to find themselves unsuccessful, and that, in the open debate in Basel, the place of their own selection, in the blaze of the ecumenical council, these men of Bohemia, whom they had condemned to general destruction, were uncompromising in every particular. They tried to draw them into debates that would make them appear unfavorable before the council. Said the Papal legate to the Bohemians, "You hold to a great many heresies; for example, you believe that the mendicant

orders are an invention of the devil." This, it was said, had been found in the writings of the theologians of Prague. "Can you show," replied Procopius, "that the mendicants were instituted by either the patriarchs or prophets of the Old Testament, or by Jesus Christ or the apostles of the New? If not, I ask you by whom they were instituted?" The legate did not press the question any farther. Answers like this to questions asked by the legate made the Papal party, instead of the Bohemians, appear ridiculous before the council.

It was thus that God vindicated his own truth, that truth that Huss and Jerome defended at Constance, where these two witnesses were burned at the stake; but here at Basel the truth came off triumphant. The council ended without any compromise on the part of the Bohemians; but still the Papal party had no desire to again unsheathe the sword and renew their warfare against this people. The Bohemian chiefs also felt it would be a great relief if the war could cease. But the only alternative for the Papal party was to call another council, and make another effort to unite with the Bohemians. Accordingly another council was appointed in 1434, to deliberate with reference to the question that had caused them so much trouble. This council was to be held at Prague, in Bohemia. Without entering into the particulars of the negotiation, it is sufficient to say that this council ended in a compromise. It was agreed that the four articles of the Hussites should be accepted, but that the right of explaining them, that is, of determining their precise import, should belong to the council; in other words, they should be submitted to the Pope and emperor. This proved the overthrow of the Bohemians. This agreement was called the compactata, and was very much like Rome as she has manifested herself in every age of the world. She accepted the Hussite articles, but reserved to herself the right of determining their true sense. It might have been foreseen that the interpretation and not the articles would henceforth be the rule. Said one writer, "This formula of the council is short, but there is more in the meaning than in its words. It banishes all such opinions and ceremonies as are alien to the faith, and it makes the Bohemians bound to believe and maintain all that the church, Catholic, believes and maintains." It was a surrender of the Bohemian faith, and thus the Pope and emperor, defeated on so many battle-fields, now triumphed by diplomacy.

The emperor now became sovereign of Bohemia, but he did not live to take an active part in the government. God had marked the dreadful sin he had committed in delivering up his servant, John Huss, to death. It was a singular, but severe, providence that kept the emperor so long from ruling over the people he so miserably treated. And now, when, by their own mistake in submitting to the policy of Rome, they placed him at the head of their nation, God would not permit him to rule over the people he had so abused. If there were no God who rules on this earth, we might well despair, but there is an unseen hand lying back of outward circumstances, that guards with a tender care God's work and people. Here, in the nineteenth century, this same God lives, and is watching with intense interest the development of character in his people, and the movements of nations. While the day of wrath is hastening, and troublous times are gathering, this unseen hand will provide a shelter for God's trusting people. May the Lord help us to prepare for these events. S. N. H.