The appeal to men’s reason aroused them from their passive submission to papal dogmas. The Scriptures were received with favor by the higher classes, who alone in that age possessed a knowledge of letters. Wycliffe now taught the distinctive doctrines of Protestantism—salvation through faith in Christ, and the sole infallibility of the Scriptures. Many priests joined him in circulating the Bible and in preaching the gospel; and so great was the effect of these labors and of Wycliffe’s writings that the new faith was accepted by nearly one half of the people of England. The kingdom of darkness trembled.
(SR 337.1)
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VC
The efforts of his enemies to stop his work and to destroy his life were alike unsuccessful, and in his sixty-first year he died in peace in the very service of the altar.
(SR 337.2)
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VC
It was through the writings of Wycliffe that John Huss of Bohemia was led to renounce many of the errors of Romanism and to enter upon the work of reform. Like Wycliffe, Huss was a noble Christian, a man of learning and of unswerving devotion to the truth. His appeals to the Scriptures and his bold denunciations of the scandalous and immoral lives of the clergy awakened widespread interest, and thousands gladly accepted a purer faith. This excited the ire of pope and prelates, priests and friars, and Huss was summoned to appear before the Council of Constance to answer to the charge of heresy. A safe conduct was granted him by the German emperor, and upon his arrival at Constance he was personally assured by the pope that no injustice should be done him.
(SR 337.3)
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VC