i
HUSSEY
421
HUSSITES
i
I
did not see this, because he had formed no plan of oper- ations antagonistical to Rome. He advanced, not in obedience to a systematic process inwardly developed, but under the influence of outward circumstances. While Christ was the centre of his own faith, and he held to Christ's Word alone as the norm of the faith of all, he did not, on that account, reject Romish dogmas until he became conscious of a contradiction between them and the Scriptures. The more any theological question was made prominent by the circumstances of the times, the more clearly he apprehended the truth in its evangel- ical import. Upon some points, however, as, for in- stance, the seven sacraments, and transubstantiation in the Lord's Supper, he never changed the views which Avere his by education. No outward impulse was gi\'en him to investigate these points in a reformatory spirit. So also he allowed, with certain qualifications and great caution, prayers for the dead, although he did not deem them of any importance ; also confession to a priest and absolution, though none, he said, could forgive sins but God only; and he was, at first, satisfied with the holy communion in one kind. When this latter usage, how- ever, grew to be a subject of dispute between the na- tional and the Romish ])arty in Bohemia, he emphatic- ally endorsed the position of Jacobelliis of Mies, who was the great advocate of the cup. For an exposition of his views on the Church, as set forth in the work mentioned above, see Neander's Kirchengeschichte, vi, 395, etc., or Torrey's Translation, v, 299, as also Gillett's Life and Times of Hiiss, i, 244, etc. In general, it maj'' be said that it was not until liis trial before the council that he recognised the necessity of breaking with the Cliurch of Rome in order to effect a reformation. If he had been able, at that time, to escape from the hands of his enemies and return to Bohemia, he would have been the Luther of the world, and Protestantism would have begun its enlightening course a century earlier. See Reformation. While Huss failed to bring about a general reformation, his principles, developed and puri- fied, found an ecclesiastical form forty-two years later in the Church of the Brethren, and have, through tliat channel, come down to the present day as a power in Christendom, See Moravians.
IV. Literature. — For a study of the life of Huss, in addition to the histories of the Council of Constance, the most important works are: Lebensbeschreibimg des M. Johannes IIus von JIussinecz, von Aug. Zitte, W^eltpriest- er (Prague, 1790) ; an anonymous historj--, in German, " Of the manner hi tohich the Hob/ Gospel, together with John Huss, loas condemned in the Council of Constance hy the Pope and his faction," written by an eye-witness, and published in 1 548 ; Becker's Life of Huss ; Koehler's Huss und seine Zeit ; Hist, of the Hussites, by Cochleius ; Hodg- son, Reformers, p. 123 sq. ; Neander's Kirchengeschichte, vi ; Gillett's Life and Times of John Huss ; and especial- ly Palacky, F., Geschichte von Bohmen, iii, pt. i, c. iii-v ; Palacky, F., Documenta Mag. J. Hus vitam, doctrinam, causam in Cone. Constant, actam, etc., nunc ex ipsis fonti- bus hausta (Prag. 18G9) ; Bonnechose (Emile de), Les Reformations avant la Reforme (Paris, 1847, 2 vols. 12mo) ; Good Words, Jan. 6," 18(30, p. 21 sq. ; Ranke, Hist, of the Popes, ii, 79 sq. ; Zitte, Lebenbeschreib. d. ^fag. J. Huss (Prag. 1789-95,2 vols.) ; Wendt, Gesch. v. Huss und d. [lussiten (Magdeb. 1845) ; Helfert, Huss u. Hieromjmus (Prag. 1853) ; Bohringer, D. Kirche Christi r. ihre Zeugen (idtraraontane) (Zlir. 1858, vol. ii, pt. iv) ; Krummel, J. Huss (Darmst. 1863); Hofler, Mag. J. Huss (Prague, 18G4) ; Contemp. Rev. April and Julv, 1869 ; Stud. n. Krit. 18G3, iv, Meth. Quart. Rev. 1864, p. 176. (E. de S.)
Hussey, Robert, B.D., an eminent minister of the Church of England, was born at Sunderland, Kent, Oct. 7, 1801. He studied at Christ Church, Oxford, and grad- uated in 1825 with great credit. He discharged for a while the office of proctor, and was afterwards appoint- ed one of the public examiners in the classical school. In 1837 he took the degree of B.D. In 1842 he was ap- pointed regius professor of ecclesiastical history, which
position he held until his death, December 2, 1858. Hus- sey possessed an immense fund of information, to which his numerous works on all kinds of subjects bear full tes- timony. The principal of these are : Sermons, mostlg academical, vfith apreface containing a refutation of the theory founded upon the Syriac fragment of the (1)181103 of St."lgnatius (Oxf. 1849, 8vo) -.—The Papal Supnmaa/, its Rise and Progi-ess, traced in three Lectures (Lond. 1851 , 8vo). This little work demonstrates that "the pajjal system grew up and increased by means of usurpation and frequent acts of oppression, favored by the weakness of other parts of the Church, and the vices of ages." He had previously prepared for the University Press an edi- tion of Homer's Odyssey (Oxf. 1827) : — also the Latin text of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, with short notes (Oxf. 1846) : — and the Greek text of Soc- rates's Ecclesiastical History (1844). In 1653 he edited again for the University Press another etlition of Soc- rates, and this time not a mere text-book for his lec- tures, but an elaborate edition, with a Latin version, notes, and index, forming three volumes 8vo. In 1854 he published a sermon, by request, on University Pros- pects and University Duties, and in 1856 an ordination sermon on The A tonement. An edition of Sozomen was suspended by his death.