De ecclesia
 Title page | |
| Author | Jan Hus |
|---|---|
| Language | Latin |
| Subject | Theology, Ecclesiology |
| Genre | Treatise |
| Published | 1413 |
De ecclesia (On the Church) is a 1413 theological treatise by the Bohemian priest Jan Hus. Written in Latin during his exile at Kozí Hrádek castle in southern Bohemia following his excommunication, the book is considered his most significant theological work.[1] Drawing heavily upon the erroneous teachings of the English priest John Wycliffe, De ecclesia outlines Hus's heterodox views on ecclesiology, predestination, and papal authority.[2] The book's premises formed the primary basis for the charges of heresy against Hus at the Council of Constance, where thirty of his propositions were formally condemned by the Catholic Church.[3]
Structure
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The work comprises 23 chapters. The first ten chapters articulate Hus's systematic understanding of the Church, particularly his view that it consists exclusively of the predestined. Chapters 11 to 23 are a polemical response to the theological faculty of Prague and a rejection of the papal bull Unam sanctam by Pope Boniface VIII. In these later chapters, Hus attempts to defend his disobedience to legitimate Church authorities, particularly Antipope Alexander V (who was recognized by many as the legitimate pope at the time), and characterizes his excommunication and the interdict imposed upon him as illegitimate.
Themes and errors
[edit]Predestinarianism and the Nature of the Church
[edit]A central error of De ecclesia is its embrace of predestinarianism, a heresy that denies the Catholic doctrine of free will and the role of the Sacraments. Hus argues that the true Church is strictly the convocation of those predestined by God to salvation. He posits a "true" Church comprising the predestined (whose head is Christ alone) and a "false" Church comprising the damned.
Consequently, Hus taught that a person foreknown to damnation is never part of the Holy Church, while a person predestined to salvation always remains a member, regardless of their sins or excommunication.[4] The Catholic Church condemned this view because it implies that a person's ultimate destiny is determined by God's will alone, rendering human cooperation with God's grace, personal sanctification, and the Sacraments irrelevant.
Denial of Papal Authority
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In De ecclesia, Hus rejects the divine institution of the Papacy and the visible, hierarchical structure of the Church Militant. He denies that Saint Peter was or is the head of the Holy Catholic Church.[5] Instead, he claims that the preeminence of the Bishop of Rome is merely a consequence of secular decisions, such as the Donation of Constantine, and not instituted by Christ.
He further argues that the Pope can only be considered a successor of Peter if he perfectly emulates Peter's virtues, effectively divorcing the office of the Papacy from the individual holding it. Denying the necessity of a visible head on earth, Hus writes:
Blessed also be God Almighty, who ordains that His militant church shall have such life that, when a pope is dead, she is not on that account without a head or dead! Because not upon the pope but upon the head, Christ, does her life depend.
— Jan Hus, De ecclesia[6]
And further referencing the Western Schism:
Blessed also be the Lord, the one living head of the church, who preserves her so effectually in unity that, even now, while there are three so-called papal heads, she remains the one spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ!
— Jan Hus, De ecclesia[7]
These assertions directly contradict the Catholic doctrine that Christ delegated His authority to Peter and his successors to rule and guide the visible Church on earth.[8]
A Defective "Right of Resistance"
[edit]Hus uses De ecclesia to formulate a subjective "right of resistance" against Church authorities, prioritizing personal interpretation over obedience. He asserts that inferiors are not obliged to obey superiors if they judge their commands to be contrary to their own understanding. Defending his own refusal to cease preaching, he writes:
Further, it is evident that if pope or other superior command the priest not to preach, who is disposed to do so (as has been said), or the rich not to give alms, the inferior ought not to obey. Wherefore, depending on this command of the Lord, I have not obeyed Pope Alexander's command in regard to not preaching and hence will humbly bear excommunication, confident that I will secure to myself the benediction of my God.
— Jan Hus, De ecclesia[9]
In another famous passage, he mocks papal authority and the requirement of obedience:
If ever a pope should command me to play on the flute, build towers, to mend or weave garments, and to stuff sausages, ought not my reason to judge that the pope was foolish in so commanding?
— Jan Hus, De ecclesia[10]
He concludes that truth is revealed to "simple laymen and little priests who choose rather to obey God than men," prefiguring the Protestant error of the priesthood of all believers and the rejection of a special class of clergy to mediate between God and humanity.
Influence and Condemnation
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The errors contained within De ecclesia had a profound and destructive impact, paving the way for the Hussite rebellion and later the Protestant Reformation. At the Council of Constance, the Church identified the book's teachings as heretical, particularly its denial of papal authority and its deterministic view of salvation.[11]
Later, during the Leipzig Debate in 1519, Martin Luther realized the similarities between his own teachings and those found in De ecclesia. In 1520, Luther had 2,000 copies of the book printed, famously acknowledging, "Without knowing it, I taught Hus's doctrine... We are all Hussites without knowing it."[12]
References
[edit]- ^ Schaff, David S. (1915). John Huss: His Life, Teachings and Death, After Five Hundred Years. Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 152–153.
- ^ Leff, Gordon (1967). Heresy in the Later Middle Ages: The Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent c.1250-c.1450. Manchester University Press. pp. 666–667.
- ^ Denzinger, Heinrich (2012). "Council of Constance: Errors of John Hus". Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum. Ignatius Press. pp. 317–321. ISBN 978-0898707465.
- ^ Wilhelm, Joseph (1908). "Council of Constance". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, Error 7 of John Hus: "Peter is not and never was the head of the Holy Catholic Church."
- ^ Hus, Jan (1915). The Church (De Ecclesia). Translated by Schaff, David S. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 133.
- ^ Hus, De ecclesia (trans. Schaff, 1915), p. 134.
- ^ Pope Leo I. "Sermon 4, On the Anniversary of His Elevation to the Episcopate". Sermons. Catholic University of America Press.
- ^ Hus, De ecclesia (trans. Schaff, 1915), p. 238.
- ^ Hus, De ecclesia (trans. Schaff, 1915), Chapter 21.
- ^ Tanner, Norman P. (1990). Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. Georgetown University Press. pp. 427–431. ISBN 978-0878404902.
- ^ Brecht, Martin (1985). Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation 1483-1521. Fortress Press. p. 317. ISBN 978-0800628130.