Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/458

BOHEMIA.. 442 resoluteness with which Wiclilifl carried out to its logical conclu- sion the Auc^ustinian doctrine of predestination, thus necessarily n ng at the root of all human mediation, the suffrages of the faints fustiiication by works, and all the machinery of the Church for th purchase and sale of salvation. In this, as m the rest iuss followed him, though the distinction between his principles fnd the orlhodox ones of the Thomists and other schoolmen was L subtle to render this point one which the Church could easily condemn.* Th" one serious speculative error of Wicklifl lay in his eSor to reconcile the mystery of the Eucharist with the stubborn fac that after consecration the bread remained bread and the -ne continued to bo wine. He did not deny conversion into the body and blood of Christ; they were really present ^-^^f^^^^l^^l his reason refused to acknowledge transubstantiation, and he in vented a theory of the remanence of the substance coexistmg with r dTvine elements. ' Into these dangerous -^^leties Huss ^f used to follow his master. It was the one point on which he declmed to accept the reasoning of the E^fshma., and J.t as .. shaU see it served as a principal excuse for hurrying him to the stake. Wickhff's career as a heresiarch was unexampled, and its pe- culiaxities serve to explain much that ^^-fj^'^^^^^XBle- ^z^ 2^s^ :^ -- - Sut=. tt ri himself - Vr«« ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - nirg^pTpar^trrverare^^^^^ to mmedfate prosecution as a heretic, yet the pohtica situation w s ^h as to'render ineffectual all efforts to c^ry ou t^se .. structions ; he was never even excommunicated, ^n^ jas^J^; ^*^^ to die peacefully in his rectory of Lutterworth on the 1^ Jj' «* the vear 1384. No further action was taken by Eome unti the question of his here^^wa^^inPrague^Alth^^^^^^ m 1409, . Tri,1o<.i n 14 • IV 33. - Jo. Hus de Ecclesia, c. 1 (Monument. I. fol. 196-T, Ed , S -w". mcfird adv. Jo. Wiclefum (Fascic. Rer. Expetend. et Fug.end^ f 3JS-. leVln tUe coo— .on -U. -^^--l- rS,:?, in the Council of Constance (P. Mladenowic Relat.o, Palucky Documenta. p. 31