"The Inquisition tries heresy, suspicion of heresy, protection given to heresy, every kind of evil doing, sacrilege and enchantment, blasphemy, both heretical and non-heretical, insults offered to the Inquisition, whether by resisting its orders, offending its members or officers, either in person, character or property, or in any thing whatever belonging to them. The jurisdiction of the Inquisition extends over Jews, Mahomedans and all infidels, of whatever kind, comprehending all who teach anything contrary to the sentiments of the Court of Rome, concerning the Sovereign and unlimited power of the Popes, their superiority to councils, even general councils, and the divine arbitriment which they may exercise over the acts of governments and princes of all countries. Aside from all this, it is sufficient, to fall under the jurisdiction of the Holy Office, that one refrains from confessing for a year, eats meats on prohibited days, or breaks any one of the precepts of the Church. The words guilty and accused are synonymous in the dictionary of the Inquisition, because the Church cannot be mistaken: therefore, whoever is accused must be guilty. And it is not permitted to save any person who falls under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition: but he must be accused, even though a father or a brother.1"Phase 1: 1200-1350
Theodore Dwight, The Roman Republic of 1849: With Accounts of The Inquisition, and The Siege of Rome, and Biographical Sketches with Original Portraits [New York: R. Van Dien, 1851] p. 109
The first phase of the Inquisition which lasted for about a century and a half from 1200 to 1350 made the Roman Catholic church the master of all Europe. The RC church had been gradually gaining power since becoming the official state church of the Roman Empire under Constantine. The anarchy which followed the death of Charlemagne's sons, for which the church is in some ways responsible, hastened the end of the old Roman Empire and inaugurated the age of feudalism, the middle ages. By the eleventh century, the RC church was the only remaining international organization in Europe and the church intervened in every aspect of human life both secular and religious. As the church grew in power, it attracted to itself those who lusted for influence and power, corrupting the church in the process. Seeking spiritual solace in an age where life, even in the best of times, was difficult and uncertain, the populace in the south of France turned to non-Catholic religions whose preachers would minister to their spiritual needs. Using fire and sword, the church destroyed its competition for the hearts and minds of the people the only way it knew how -- with death and destruction.
Yet, it wasn't enough for the church that those who spoke out against it were cowed into silence. Rather, the church embarked on a course to root out heresy from all Christendom, eventually defining as heretical any person who was not sufficiently zealous for the faith. The Inquisition spread from its origin in Languedoc to the north of Italy and a greater portion of southern France, sweeping up all opponents in its wake. The Italian Papal Estates and the Holy Roman Empire came under the sway of the Inquisition, turning vast portions of Europe into little more than a police state. By the middle of the fourteenth century, opposition to the RC church among the laity was essentially crushed. Yet, the corruption which fostered the heresy which was the cause of the Inquisition continued, becoming even more scandalous to the faithful.
Portions of Europe were spared by the first phase of Inquisition I: England and the British Isles, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, even most of southern Spain which was under control of the Moors were passed over in the first waves of persecution. Not surprisingly, the voices in opposition to the church after 1350 came from the British Isles and eastern Europe. Indeed, the stories of John Wycliff (c.1330-1384) of England, Jan Hus (1372/73-1415) of Bohemia, and St. Jerome of Prague indicate that in the regions untouched by the Inquisition, heresy would break out at any time. Many of the arguments made by Wycliff and Hus would be made by Martin Luther in 1517 when he posted his 95 Thesis to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. In addition to the ecclesiastical arguments made by Wycliff, Hus, and Jerome, the church's reaction to Hus, along with its continuing inability to deal with the corruption in its midst, set the stage for the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth-century.
John Wycliff and the Lollards
Unlike earlier challengers to the church's dogma, John Wycliff (c.1330-1384) was not an untrained peasant or poorly trained parish priest who spoke from his heart about the contradictions between various portions of scripture or between scripture and the actions of the church. Rather, he was a scholastic, trained in the finest universities of his time, in the art of disputation, of forming an argument fitted to the intellectual wants of the time, and as knowledgeable about the fathers and doctors of the Church, the decretals and the canons, and Aristotle and his commentators as about Christ and his disciples2.
Wycliff was so dangerous to the RC church, not because he appealed to the hearts of the peasant (which he did), but because he appealed to the intellect of the leading minds of his time. Men from all walks of life had the highest regard for both his teaching and his integrity. Seeking the truth, Wycliff boldly, fearlessly espoused principles that directly attacked the foundations of papal power by speaking out against the sacerdotal system3. Years after his death, his name would be synonymous with heresy; the Waldenses of Spain and Germany became known as Wickliffites. His English followers were known as the Lollards.
A close counselor of the king, the first time Wycliff was accused of heresy was when the King wanted to refuse to send the Pope a large sum of money and Wycliff provided the king with a theological justification for keeping the money. Protected by the king himself, the pope's demand to persecute Wycliff as a heretic fell on deaf ears. Wycliff continued developing his novel theology, eventually even denouncing the theory of transubstantiation for which he quickly fell out of favor with the king. Officially accused by the English clergy of heresy, Wycliff was condemned as a heretic in 1382, but because of the political situation received the relatively lenient sentence of expulsion from his position at Oxford University. He lived quietly in retirement until his death in 13844. Wycliff remained a faithful son of the church until the Inquisition reopened his case in May 1415 at the Council of Constance where he was again declared a heretic. As a consequence, the Inquisition was established in England to exterminate the Lollards, Wycliff's influence in England came to an end, and heretics would be burned in England for centuries to come. His body was ordered to be disinterred and burned, a decree which was not carried out until 1428.
Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague
Meanwhile Jan Hus (1372/73-1415), a Bohemian (Czech) prelate, learned of Wycliff's teachings and became his avid follower. To Wycliff, all of the problems in the church revolved around one issue: who held the keys to heaven5 -- if the Pope did not hold the keys to heaven, then much of the sacerdotal system on which the church was based could be swept away and replaced with a church that was much less susceptible to corruption. As long as the Pope was viewed as holding the keys to heaven, the clergy would attempt to sell absolution and the sinners would try to buy absolution, reducing penance to the role of sin tax and turning the confessional into a place for transacting business.
Of Wycliff's teachings Lea writes,
About four years after his death, in 1388 and 1389, twenty-five articles of accusation were brought against his followers, whose reply gives, in the most vigorous English, a summary of his tenets. Few documents of the period are more interesting as a picture of the worldliness and corruption of the Church, and of the wrathful indignation aroused by the hideous contrast between the teaching of Christ and the lives of those who claimed to represent him. It is observable that the only purely speculative error admitted is that concerning the Eucharist; all the others relate to the doctrines which gave to the Church control over the souls and purses of the faithful, or to the abuses arising from the worldly and sensual character of the clergy. It was an essentially practical reform, inspired for the most part with rare common-sense and with wonderfully little exaggeration, considering the magnitude of the evils which pressed so heavily upon Christendom.
The document in question shows the Wickliffite belief to be that the popes of the period were Antichrist; all the hierarchy, from the pope down, were accursed by reason of their greed, their simony, their cruelty, their lust of power, and their evil lives6."
Educated, Jan Hus of Prague earned his bachelor of theology degree in 1394 and his master of arts in 1396. Ordained in 1400, by 1401 he was dean of the philosophical faculty and in 1403, shortly after his consecration, he was appointed as preacher to the annual synods. Respected, Hus preached to both the high-borne and the low-borne, denouncing the abuses of the church to all who would listen. By 1407, some ecclesiastics complained to Archbishop Zbinco about him and he was deprived of his position7.
Although he was not the best educated or the sharpest wit among the reformers, his fearlessness, his unbending rectitude, his blameless life and his gentle nature won for him the veneration of the people and leadership of the Bohemian reform movement. Hus continued to preach and began to rail against the highest ecclesiastical authorities, not just the local bishops. In March 1411, Hus was excommunicated but the city stood by him and he continued to preach. The Hussite faction grew stronger and the Pope laid an interdict on the city. Local ecclesiastics refused to bury the dead, baptize the new born, or perform any other church services. At the request of the king, to relieve some of the tension in the city, Hus retired to the countryside where he wrote manifestos denouncing the abuses in the church and forwarding them to Prague where they were read in public. Wearying of the struggle, King Wenceslas banished the papal supporters from the kingdom, enabling Hus and his adherents to be masters of the field. Hus remained in the country except for occasional visits, incognito, to Prague8.
Hus was so popular that Lea writes:
". . . when he stood up in the council to meet his accusers, [he said,] "I came hither of my own free will. Had I refused to come neither the king nor the emperor could have forced me, so numerous are the Bohemian lords who love me and who would have afforded me protection." And when the Cardinal Peter d'Ailly indignantly exclaimed, "See the impudence of the man," and a murmur ran around the whole assembly, John of Chlum calmly arose and said, "He speaks the truth, for though I have little power compared with others in Bohemia, I could easily defend him for a year against the whole strength of both monarchs. Judge, then, how much more they whose forces are greater and whose castles are stronger than mine." 9. " But we get ahead of our story.
On December 9, 1413 Pope John XXIII issued a bull convoking a church council at Constance for the following November in which three issues would be addressed: a settlement of the Great Schism, a general reformation of the church, and heresy10. The first church council to be held in two centuries, and of much greater significance than the previous council due to the much more serious nature of the issues to be discussed, religious and secular authorities strove to attend or to send their representatives. The best and brightest, the rich and powerful, the highest born and highest placed men of Europe flocked to Constance.
Hus sought and received safe-conducts from both his king and the pope. Believing that the other men who thundered as loudly as he did against the abuses of the church and the need for reform would support him, Hus did not understand that his outspokenness about the source of the corruption, his stand on the issue of the Keeper of the Keys to Heaven, precluded his adversaries from ever embracing his position for in doing so they would destroy the source of their own power. Sensing that to refuse to go to Constance and face his colleagues would give his opponents an inestimable advantage, ensured by the king and pope of his safety and believing in his colleagues, Hus, of his own free will, journeyed to Constance in spite of the fact that he had already been excommunicated from the church11. Along the way, whenever his entourage stopped in a town, Hus would post a message on the church door indicating that he was going to Constance to defend himself and to encourage his detractors to debate him at Constance.
Arriving in Constance, Hus continued his high-profile life, even celebrating mass in his lodgings, despite of the fact that he was excommunicated from the church. Because the papacy was not yet ready to move against Hus, the pope temporarily suspended his excommunication, but Hus remained a cause for scandal in the eyes of the faithful - here was a heretic, openly preaching his message to the faithful in spite of the orders of the highest ecclesiastical official, the pope. On November 28, Hus was summoned before the cardinals, was questioned as to his beliefs, was arrested and imprisoned12 , despite the safe conduct that had been issued by the Pope. Contrary to his normally untrustworthy behavior, possibly out of pride, King Sigismund stood by the safe conduct which he had issued and demanded Hus's release. On December 1, a commission was appointed to investigate Hus for heresy13. In January, when it became expedient to him, Sigismund withdrew his safe conduct from Hus. Hus was outraged by this betrayal although his friends continued to stand by him. Word filtered back to Bohemia about the refusal of both their king and the church to honor their safe conducts and the local nobility, unwise to the ways of the Inquisition, grew uneasy.
Between January and June, Hus was questioned several times by the members of the commission (i.e. Inquisitors) although he does not seem to have been tortured and was permitted to have writing materials so that he could remain in contact with his friends14. On June 5, Hus was again brought before the council, and, at the insistence of Sigismund, had his long awaited opportunity to debate with his accusers in public15. The public trial continued on the 7th and the 8th16. with Hus defending himself quite skillfully. But the debate would mean nothing: Hus had been declared a heretic, excommunicated in 1411, and, not only remained excommunicated for much more than a year, but had publicly taught his heretical doctrines. For the church to ignore such a bold challenge to its power was unthinkable: Hus must either recant his heresy and spend the remainder of his life doing penance in prison on bread and water or he must go to the stake as a heretic.
Yet, Hus was sent back to prison with the hope that he would abjure his heresy: to the church, a living, but imprisoned, heresiarch who repudiated his own doctrines was preferable to a dead heresiarch who refused to recant. Unfortunately, many of the doctrines which Hus was accused of holding he did not in fact hold and these doctrines Hus refused to acknowledge and abjure. As we have seen in other cases, his refusal to acknowledge believing in an heretical idea he did not believe in only showed his unwillingness to make a clean confession of his errors and sealed his fate. He was now also a contumacious heretic, unwilling to acknowledge his errors and recant his beliefs. On July 6, 1415 Hus was sentenced as a "pertinacious and incorrigible heretic,17" was relaxed to secular authorities, and went to the stake. The only deviation the council had made from normal procedure was in the extraordinary leniency with which it treated Hus: Hus was not tortured, was given writing material to communicate with friends while in prison, and was allowed to appear before the council three times to publicly defend himself18.
The Bohemian magnates were outraged by Hus's martyrdom. Letters flew between the magnates and the council. On May 30, 1416, Jerome, a follower of Hus who had gone to Constance to lend his aid to Hus, went to the stake19. The council finished itself with the Hus matter when, on July 1, 1416, they forced another of Hus's supporters, John of Chlum, to admit that both Hus and Jerome had suffered justly20. Each incident roused the Bohemian nobility to greater fury. Factions loyal to Hus or to the Pope developed within the Bohemian nobility and by 1419, Bohemia was in the midst of a civil war. When the protesters were finally ready to negotiate peace terms in 1433, the negotiators demanded extraordinary assurances that the safe conducts issued to them would not be abrogated.
When the German nobility decided to support Martin Luther a century later, they would have the lessons of the Bohemian nobility to use as a guide. The episodes of Wycliff and Hus set the stage for the successful Protestant Reformation in Germany in the sixteenth century.
End Notes
References
Theodore Dwight, The Roman Republic of 1849: With Accounts of The Inquisition, and The Siege of Rome, and Biographical Sketches with Original Portraits, [New York: R. Van Dien, 1851
Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, vol 2, (1888) [New York: Harbor Press, 1955 ]