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Jerome of Prague

(c. 1370 - 1416) [G. Holmes, Europe: Hierarchy and Revolt 1320-1450 (London, 1975) pp. 197, 203]

Preacher, religious reformer; studied at Oxford, Paris, Heidelberg, Cologne; brought Wyclif's writings to Prague; friend and colleague of John Hus; burnt at Constance

The life and martyrdom of Jerome of Prague. 1563, pp. 242-50; 1570, pp. 748-57; 1576, pp. 608-15; 1583, pp. 632-39.

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Cologne (Köln; Colonia Agrippina)

[Colen; Colleyn; Collen; Colon]

North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Coordinates: 50° 57' 0" N, 6° 58' 0" E

Cathedral city

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Leuven (Louvain)

[Louain; Louane; Louaine]

Flemish Brabant, Belgium

Coordinates: 50° 53' 0" N, 4° 42' 0" E

Capital of Flemish Brabant; university town

cause: MarginaliaThe Popes Bull in Englishe.Remember the rebukes wherewith we are scorned all the day lōn of foolish rebukers. Encline thy eare to our prayers: for Foxes are risen vp, seeking to destroy thy vine yarde, the vincpresse wherof thou onely hast trodē, and ascending vp to thy Father, hast committed the charge and regiment therof vnto Peter as chiefe head, and to thy Vicare and his successors. The wilde Bore out of the woode seeketh to exterminate and roote vp thy Vineyard. Rise vp Peter, and for this thy pastorall charge committed to thee from aboue entēd to the MarginaliaNote here and marke good reader how the Church of Rome holdeth by the bloud of S. Peter, & not by the bloud of Christ.cause of the holy Church of Rome the mother of all churches, and of our fayth, which thou by the commaundement of God didst consecrate wyth thine owne bloud: agaynst which (as thou hast foretold vs) false lyers haue risen vp, bringing in sects of perdition, to their owne spedy destruction. Whose toūg is like fire, full of vnquietnes, and replenished with deadly poysō: who hauing a wicked zeale, and nourishing contentions in theyr harts do bragge and lye agaynst the verity.

Rise vp Paul also, we pray thee, which hast illuminate the same Church with thy doctrine and like martyrdome. For now is sprong vp a new Porphecy, who, as they said Porphyry then vniustly did sclaunder the holy Apostles, so semblably doth this man now sclaunder, reuile, rebuke, byte, and barcke agaynst the holy Byshops our predecessors, not in beseeching them, but in rebuking them. And where he distrusteth his cause, there he falleth to opprobrious checkes & rebukes, after the wonted vse of heretickes, whose vttermost refuge is this (as Hierome sayth) þ^t whē they see theyr cause go to wracke, then like Serpentes they cast out theyr venime with theyr toung, and when they see themselues, neare to be ouercome, they fall to rayling. For though heresies (as thou sayest) must needes be, for the exercise of the fathfull: yet least these heresies should further encrease and these Foxes gather strength agaynst vs, it is needfull that by thy meanes and helpe, they be suppressed and extinguished at the beginning.

Finally let all the whole vniuersall Churche of Gods Saynts and Doctours rise vp, whose true expounding of holy Scripture being reiected, certayne persons (whose hartes the father of lyes hath blinded) and wise in theyr owne conceites (as the maner of heretickes is) do expoūd the scriptures otherwise then the holy Ghost doth require folowing onely theyr owne sense of ambition and vayneglory: yea rather do wrast and adulterate the Scriptures: so that as Hierome sayth, now they make it not the gospel of Christ, but of man, or which is worse of the deuill.

Let all the holy church I say, rise vp, & wich the blessed Apostles together make intercessiō to almighty God, that the errors of all schismatickes being rooted & stocked vp, his holy Church may be conserued in peace and vnity.

For of late (which for sorrow we can not expresse) by credible information and also by publick fame it hath come to our eares, yea we haue seene also & read with our eyes, diuers and sundry errors, of which some haue bene condemned by counsels and constitutions of our predecessors containing expresly þ^e heresies of the Greekes & of the Bohemians: some agayn MarginaliaRespectiuely.respectiuely, either heretical or false, or sclaunderous, or offensiue to good eares, or such as may seduce simple myndes: newly to be raysed vp, by certayne false pretensed Gospellers: who by curious pride seeking worldly glory against the doctrine of the apostle, would be more wise then becommeth them, whose babling (as S. Hierome calleth it) without authority of the Scriptures, should finde no credit, vnlesse they should seme to cōfirme theyr false doctrine euen with testimonies of the scripture, but yet falsely interpreted. Which worketh vs so much the more grief, for þ^t those heresies be sprong in þ^e noble nation of the Germaines, vnto the which natiō we with our predecessors, haue alwayes borne speciall fauor and affection. For after the Empyre was first translated by the Church of Rome, from the Greekes vnto the Germaines, the said our predecessors and we, haue alwayes had them as speciall fautors & defenders of this our Church, and they haue alwaies shewed themselues as most earnest suppressors of heresies: as witnes wherof remaine yet those laudable cōstitutions of the Germane Emperors, set forth and confirmed by our predecessors, for the liberty of the Church, and for expulsing heretickes out of all Germany, and that vnder greuous penalty and losse of al theyr goods and lands. Which constitutiōs, if they were obserued this present day both we and they should now be free from thys disturbaunce.

MarginaliaThe Germaines in olde tyme most addicted to popery aboue al other nations.Furthermore, the heresy of the Hussites, Wicleuistes, & of Hierome of Prage, being condēned and punished in the Coūcel of Constance, doth witnes þ^e same. Moreouer doth witnes the same, so much bloud of þ^e Germanes spilt fighting agaynst the Bohemians. To cōclude, the same also is confirmed & witnessed by the learned & true confutatiō, re-probation and condēnation set forth by the Vniuersities of Colene and Louane in Germany agaynst the foresayd errors. Many other witnesses also we might alledge, which here, least we should seme to write a story, we pretermit.

Wherfore we for the charge of our Pastorall office cōmitted vnto vs, can no longer forbeare or winck at the pestiferous poyson of the foresayd errors: of the which errors we thought here good to recite certayne. The tenor of whiche is this, as foloweth.

MarginaliaArticles of Luther.It is an old heresy to say, that the Sacramentes of the new law doth geue grace to them, qui non ponunt obicem. i. which haue in themselues to the contrary, no let.

In a childe after his Baptisme, to deny that sinne remayneth, is to tread downe Paule and Christ vnder foote.

The origene of sinne, although no actuall sinne doe folow after, doth stay the soule leauing the body, form the entraunce into heauen.

Vnperfite charity of a mā departing, must needes bring wyth it great feare, which of it selfe is enough to deserue the payne of Purgatory, and stoppeth the entrance into the kingdome of heanen.

To say that penaunce standeth of three partes, to wit, contrition, confession, aud satisfaction, is not founded in holy Scripture nor in auncient, holy and Christian Doctors.

Contritiō, which a man stirreth vp in himselfe, by discussing, remembring, and detestinge his sinnes, in reuoluing his former yeares in bitternesse of soule, and in pondering the waight, number and filthinesse of his sinnes, the leesing of eternall blisse, and getting of eternall damnation: this contrition maketh a man an hipocrite and a great sinner.

It is an olde prouerbe, & to be preferred before the doctrine of all that haue written hitherto of contrition: from henceforth to transgresse no more. MarginaliaBest repentance is a new lyfe.The chiefest and the best penaunce is a new life.

Neither presume to confesse the veniall sinnes, nor yet all thy mortall sinnes, for it is impossible to remember all the mortall sinnes that thou hast committed, and therefore in the primitiue Church they confessed the mortall sinnes, which onely were manifest.

While we seeke to number vp all our sinnes sincerely vnto the priest, we meane nothing els herein, but that we will leaue nothing to the mercy of God, to be forgeuen.

In confession no man hath his sinnes forgeuen, except he beleue, whē the priest forgeueth, the same to be remitted: yea otherwise his sinne remayneth vnforgeuē, vnles he beleue the same to be forgeuen. For els remission of the priest, and geuing of grace doth not suffice, except beliefe come on his part that is remitted.

Thinke not thy sinne to be assoyled, for the worthines of thy contrition, but for the word of Christ: MarginaliaMath. 16.Whatsoeuer thou losest. &c. When thon art absolued of the priest, trust confidently vpon these wordes, and beleue firmely thy selfe to be absolued, & then art thou truely remitted.

Admit the party that is confessed were not contrite (whiche is *Marginalia* Impossible because it can not be that the fayth of the true confessour can be without contrition. impossible, or that the priest pronoūced the wordes of losing, not in earnest, but in iest: yet if the party beleue that he is absolued, he is truely absolued in deed.

In the sacrament of penaunce and absolution, the Pope or bishop do no more, then any inferior priest can do. Yea and where a priest is not to be had, there euery Christian man, yea or Christian woman standeth in as good stead.

* Marginalia* He meaneth this because that as no man knoweth all his sinnes, so no man can be contrite for thē sufficyently. None ought to say to the priest, that he is contrite, neither ought the priest to aske any such matter.

It is a great error of them which come to the holy housel trusting vpon this, that they are cōfessed, that theyr cōscience grudgeth them of no deadly sinne, that they haue sayd theyr prayers, - and done such other preparatiues before: all those do eat & drink to theyr owne iudgement. But if they beleeue there to obteyne Gods grace, this fayth maketh them pure and worthy.

It were good that the church should determine in a generall coūcell, lay men to cōmunicate vnder both kindes: & the Bohemians so doing, be therin neither hereticks, nor schismatickes.

The treasures out of which the Pope doth graunt his Indulgences, are not the merites of Christ, nor of the Sayntes.

Indulgences and pardons be a deuout seducing of the faythfull, and hinderance to good works: and are in the number of thē which be thinges *Marginalia* This he correcteth in his Asertiōs of these Articles, & sayth that Indulgences be neyther lawfull nor expedient. And likewise he correcteth and reuoketh the Articles lawfull, but not expedient.

Pardons and Indulgences to them which haue them, auayle not to remission of the punishment due before God, for actuall sinnes committed.

They which thinke that Indulgences are wholesome and cōducible to the fruite of the spirite, are deceiued.

Indulgences are onely necessary for publicke transgressions, & are onely graunted to them that are obstinate and impacient.

Indulgences and pardons are vnprofitable to 6. sortes of persons. 1. to them that be dead, or lye in dying. 2. to thē that be weak and infirme. 3. to such as haue lawfull impedimentes. 4. to thē that haue not offended. 5. to such as haue offended, but not publickly. 6. to those that amend and do well.