Page:John Huss, his life, teachings and death, after five hundred years.pdf/295

 not include all the practices and dogmas which Wyclif renounced. However, they were sufficient, if entertained, to shake to its foundation the ecclesiastical and doctrinal system accepted in his day. In all fundamental positions he was in agreement with the English teacher. These positions concern the nature and functions of the church, the extent of the pope’s authority and his infallibility, the immediate responsibility of the individual to the Scriptures, and the power of the priesthood in the sacrament of penance. These are most fully developed in Huss’s Treatise on the Church. They are restated in his two writings against Palecz and Stanislaus of Znaim, who had attacked the views set forth in that treatise. To a greater or less degree they are also touched upon in his treatises against the eight doctors and on indulgences, and some of them are stated with great positiveness in his letters, especially those addressed to Prachaticz in the year 1413. The Treatise on the Church, written during his period of semi-voluntary exile from Prague, was prepared for the very purpose of being an Apologia-a self-defense-and was considered by the council of Constance as giving the most calm and deliberate statement of his views. This treatise and the two defenses against Palecz and Znaim occupy one hundred and twenty-three pages of his works, two columns to a page.

The following statement will set forth the views in brief:

I. The church.—The council did not go astray in making Huss’s definition of the church the main accusation. That definition struck at the very root of the theory of the mediæval church which the council had inherited and accepted. The treatments of the Schoolmen, based upon Augustine, followed the theory that the church is a visible and tangible organization, as visible and tangible as was the republic of Venice or the kingdom of France. It is the kingdom of the faithful