682 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D, 1-204-1517.
he whom God chooses will be saved irrespective of pope and priests, and all who have faith will enjoy as much blessedness as prelates. Wesel also made the distinction between the visible and the invisible Church and defined the Church as the aggregation of all the faithful who are bound together by love — collectio omnium jidelium caritate copulatorum. In his trial, he was accused of having liad communication with the Hussites. In matters of historical criticism, he was also in advance of his age, casting doubt upon some of the statements of the Athanasian Creed, abandoning the application of the term Catholic to the Apostles' Creed and pronouncing the addition of the Jilioque clause — and from the Son — unwarranted. The doctrines of indulgences and the fund of merit he pronounced unscriptural and pious frauds. The elect are saved wholly through the grace of God — sola Dei gratia salvantur electi.
At the request of Diether of Isenburg, archbishop of Mainz, the Universities of Cologne and Heidelberg sent delegates to the trial. The accused was already an old man, leaning on his staff, when he appeared before the tribunal. Lacking strength to stand by the heretical articleSjJie agreed to submit "to mother Church and the_tea£Mag:s_of_^the doctors." A. public recantation in the cathedral followed, and hfs books were burnt. ^ These punishments were not sufficient to expiate his offence and he was sentenced to imprisonment for life in the Augustinian convent of Mainz, where he died.
Among Wesel's reported sayings, which must have seemed m.ost blasphemous to the devout churchman of the time, are the following: " The consecrated oil is not better than the oil used for your cakes in the kitchen." " If you are hungry, eat. You may eat a good capon on Friday." "If Peter established fasting, it was in order that he might get more for liis fish " on fast days. To certain monastics, he said, " Not religion " (that is, monastic vows) "but God's grace saves," reliyio nullum salvat sed (jratia Dei.
^ During his trial, Wesel acknowledged the following writings ashis: 1, Super modo ohligationis Ifytim hximanarum ad qnemdam Xkulaum de Bohemia. 2, De potentate ecchs. 3, Dejejiiniis. 4, De indulyejitiis.
§ To. DOCTRINAL REFORMERS. 683
A still nearer approach to the views of the Reformers was made by Wessel Gansfocjb, commonly called John WesselT^ born m Groningen, 1420, died 14gg. In his Preface to Wessel's writings, 1522, Luther said, "If I had read Wessel earlier, my enemies might have said that Luther drew everything from Wessel, so well do our two minds agree." Wessel attended school at Z wolle, where he met Thomas a Kempis of the neighboring convent of Mt. St. Agnes. The story ran that when Thomas pointed him to the Virgin, Wessel replied, " Father, why did you not rather point me to Christ who calls the heavyladen to himself ? " He continued his studies in Cologne, where he took Greek and Hebrew, in Heidelberg and iji Paris. He declined a call to Heidelberg. In 1470, we find jiim in Ronie. The story went that, when Sixtus IV. invited him to follow the common custom of visitors to the Vatican and make a request, the German student replied that he would like to have a Hebrew or Greek manuscript of the Bible from the Vatican. The pope, laughing, said, " Why did you not ask for a bishopric, you fool ? " Wessel's reply was " Because I do not need it."
Wessel spent some time in Basel, where he met Reuchlin. In 1473, the bishop of Utrecht wrote that many were seeking his life and invited him back to Holland. His last years, from 1474 on, Wessel spent with the Brothers of the Common Life at Mt. St. Agnes, and in the nuns' convent at Groningen. There, in the place of his birth, he lies buried. His last words were, "I know no one save Jesus, the Crucified."
Wessel eiijir^jed.-ar-reputatioftiQr-fff^at leajinJuft. He escaped arraignment at the hands of the Inquisition, but was violently attacked after his death in a tract on indulgences, by Jacob Hoeck, Dean of Naaldwyk. None of Wessel's writings were published till after the outbreak of the Reformation. Although he did not reach the doctrine of justification by faith, he declared that pope and councils may err and he defined the Church to be the communion of the saints. The unity of the Church does not lie in the pope — unitas ecclesice sub uno papa
1 The name " John " is disputed by Muurling and Wetzer-Welte and shown by Paulus to be a mistake. Gansfort, or Goesevort, was the name of the village from which the family came.