surrection."[1] And Bishop Tonstall, writing to Erasmus, 1524, said that the new views were "not a question of some pernicious novelty, but only that new arms were being added to the great band of Wyclifite heretics."
But what Wyclif's Bible was to the small company of dissenters in England, Huss's Treatise on the Church was to the large body of Bohemians who respected Huss's memory and followed, in part or in whole, his views.
In Luther's time, Huss's name and also his treatise were a live power. As for his treatise, a copy of it was sent by Hussites to the German Reformer on the ground that he and Huss were agreed and, in 1520, an edition was printed in Mainz by Ulrich von Hutten.[2] Wyclif was not quoted by the Reformers. They knew him through Huss.
The ancient church produced two writers on the specific topic of the church, Cyprian and Augustine. The Unity of the Church written by the bishop of Carthage, though small in compass, is of much importance for its view of the episcopate. Augustine, in the controversy with the Donatist dissenters, furnished material of great moment for the definition of the church without giving a succinct definition.[3] The nearest approach to it were his statements that the church is the holy body of all the faithful, to be saved—sancta cong. omnium fidelium salvandorum—and the body of the faithful who are elect and justified—fidelium predestinatorum et justificatorum.[4] The term catholic, or universal, first used by Ignatius, was employed by these Fathers in conformity with the usage which had become general.
During the Middle Ages, the topic was not a matter of special treatment. The ideas of Augustine were not questioned that baptism is essential to salvation and that all
- ↑ Preface to Exposition of St. John, Parker ed., p. 225.
- ↑ Under the title de unitate Ecclesiæ cujus autor periit in concilio Constantiensi. For the influence of Huss's name and death upon Luther, see Schaff, Life of Huss, pp. 291 sqq.
- ↑ See Loofs, Dogmengesch., 4th ed., p. 370.
- ↑ P. 36, Super IV. Sent., 616.
