History of the Church I:Week 18

A Spiritual Awakening In his book Christianity and History, Herbert Butterfield

observes that human systems rise and thrive and then fall because the processes of time have their own “judgment”

In other words, human systems are built by humans which have a flawed nature

Time exposes those systems and they fail

The Papacy in the Middle Ages was a system built by humans – over time its flaws were revealed

John Wycliffe

From Northern England, he receives his doctorate from Oxford and quickly becomes its leading professor

In 1377, a debate was raging over the idea of dominion

Dominion is the idea of who has authority on earth

John Wycliffe

Oxford professors said no man stood above other man

Wycliffe took it one step farther: he said the state could determine if the church was right and even take the property of corrupt church officials

John Wycliffe

He was promptly excommunicated and would have tried but he had influential friends who kept him from harm

He went on to say in 1378, the Pope was the ant-Christ and he become one of the first Protestants

John Wycliffe

The importance of Wycliffe is enormous Blazed the path for Luther Said the Scriptures should be used to refute the Church Believed the layman should have access to the Bible Said transubstantiation was wrong

John Hus

The Czech reformer was a student in 1395 when Wycliffe’s career was winding down

He read and promoted Wycliffe’s writing in Bohemia in southeastern Europe

He was excommunicated

John Hus

Unlike Wycliffe, Hus did not receive the support from his government

He was asked to go to the Council of Constance to decide the Great Schism when he was arrested

John Hus

He became a victim of the Inquisition

In 1425, he was burned at the stake

With Wycliffe and Hus gone it looked like the church would be not be reformed – the stage was set for a German reformer