Hus and Wycliffe

The late medieval church disavowed John Huss and John Wycliffe during the lay religious movements for several reasons. The movements started by Huss and Wycliffe threatened the church as well and they explain the church’s response. John Huss and John Wycliffe tried to change the church and in turn the church would persecute their followers and Huss and Wycliffe themselves for several reasons. John Wycliffe and John Huss both had very similar beliefs. Wycliffe, alive between 1330 and 1384 (McKay, 356), believed the church should only follow Scripture. He even went so far as to transform the Bible into English so that Christians can read the Bible. His followers, Lollards, were persecuted in the 15th century. Some were executed and other recanted, but still some people continued to meet secretly to discuss the texts in English. John Huss took Wycliffe’s ideas to Prague, the capital of Bohemia. Huss called for translations of the Bible into the Czech language. Huss’s followers, the Hussites, also staged large rebellions in the 14th century. Overall, John Huss and John Wycliffe challenged the church’s authority. There are several reasons why the church would feel threatened by these movements. First of all, Wycliffe felt that Scripture should be the standard of Christian belief and practice. He also said that papal claims of secular power had no foundation in the Scriptures. Wycliffe also stated that the church should be stripped of all its property. John Huss added to Wycliffe’s ideas and denied papal authority. The Hussites defeated the combined armies of the pope and the emperor and in the 1430s the emperor agreed to acknowledge the Hussite church in Bohemia (McKay, 356). All of these made the church feel threatened by these movements. The church’s response to these movements came in a few different forms. On May 4, 1415 the Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic and banned all his books