TOUCHING THE ARTICLES OF FAITH WHICH JOHN HUSS HAD DERIVED FROM THE WRITINGS OF JOHN WICKLIFFE.

Sebastian Franck writes as follows: “John Huss, a disciple and fellow believer of this Wickliffe, received the Wickliffite doctrine from Jerome of Prague, who carried it with him from England to Bohemia as a sacred treasure.”

Continuing, he relates the articles which John Huss had learned and adopted from Wickliffe’s writings.

1. “That the Roman church has no right to divide the sacrament, and has wrongfully deprived the laity of one form.

2. “That the Roman bishop is just like other (ordinary) bishops.

3. “That under all circumstances there is no purgatory.

4. “To pray for the dead is vain and unavailing, and is invented by the avarice of the priests.

5. “Images of God and the saints are not to be tolerated, and should be abolished.

6. “The wicked devils have invented the unspiritual mendicant orders.

7. “The priests ought to be poor, and live only from alms.

8. “Outward, auricular confession is altogether false and man’s invention. It is sufficient to confess one’s sins in the closet to God.

9. “The ceremonies and usages of the (Roman) church are vain things.

10. “Touching several things concerning the sacrament, etc.

11. “The time is uselessly consumed by the seven hours.191

12. “There is no merit in the fasts instituted by the church, and in many other errors.

13. “Men shall not swear in any wise. Hence he said to those who urged him vehemently to swear an oath: ‘I am afraid every way; if I swear, eternal death is my portion; but if I swear not, I cannot escape your hands; but it is better that I fall into your hands without sin than to sin in the sight of God.’ ”

Here we certainly clearly see that the doctrine of not swearing in any wise, was an article of his faith; and if it was the case that he was requested to abjure his faith or religion, he refused to abjure it, not only because he would not forsake his faith or religion, but also because he held that one ought not to swear at all, as the 13th article declares: “Men shall not swear in any wise,” that is, not at all. Seb. Fr. Chron., 3d part, fol. 105. Tract, van den Loop Werelt, fol. 100. Also P. J. Twisck, Chron., page 764. A.