John Huss and the Origins of the Protestant Reformation

Was Jan Hus a forerunner of the Protestant reformation, did he anticipate the reformation–absolutely. Through his teachings on the supreme authority of scriptures he challenged and defied the then unchallenged authority of the papacy and the church by providing an alternative authority. This position would become one of the central foundational teachings of the 16th century reformers. Huss also, like the Protestant reformers, recognized the need to release the scriptures from the control of the scholars, the church, and the language of Latin by making the scriptures available to the people in their own language. This was then reinforced by his exposition of those scriptures in the Czech language. Huss’ boldness as a reformer was even more evident in his redefinition of the church. Building on his major reform of making the scriptures his supreme authority, (although he did not completely disregard all that he had been taught about the church), he discarded much of what the scholars and the church taught about what or who is the church. Going directly to the scriptures, he sought to define the church based on the teachings of the Gospel and the Epistles. His biblical exposition on the nature of the church was in direct contradiction with many of the prevailing views. His views shook the very foundation upon which the Catholic Church was established. His adversaries rightly recognized that the teachings of Huss endangered the very existence of the church. Huss himself did not grasp the far-reaching implications of his teachings, but the Protestant reformers would carry out Huss’ teachings to their logical conclusion. John Huss had a profound and far reaching influence on the Protestant reformation that few scholars would deny