If any had flattered themselves that with the death of Huss the
Reformation in Bohemia had also received its death-blow, they had not
long to wait for a painful undeception. Words fail to describe the
tempest of passionate indignation with which the tidings of his
execution, followed within a year by that of Jerome, were received
there. Both were honored as martyrs, and already, in the fierce
exasperation of men's spirits against the authors of their doom, there
was a prophecy of the unutterable woes which were even at the door. Some
watchword by which his followers could know and be known--this
watchword, if possible, a spell of power like that which Luther had
found in the doctrine of justification by faith--was still wanting.
One, however, was soon found; which indeed had this drawback, that it
concerned a matter disciplinary rather than doctrinal, yet having a real
value as a visible witness for the rights of the laity in the Church of
Christ. So far as we know, Huss had not himself laid any special stress
on communion under both kinds; but in 1414--he was then already at
Constance--the subject had come to the forefront at Prague; and, being
consulted, Huss had entirely approved of such communion as most
conformable to the original institution and to the practice of the
primitive Church. On the other hand, the council, learning the agitation
of men's spirits in this direction, had declared what is called the
"Concomitance"--that is, that wherever one kind was present, there was
also the other, which being so, nothing was, indeed, withholden from the
communicant through the withholding of the cup. At the same time the
council had solemnly condemned as a heretic everyone who refused to
submit himself to the decision of the Church in this matter, June 15,
1415.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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