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    Wycliffe, Huss, and Zinzendorf

    THE Inquisition and the devastating wars which the popes and the Councils directed against the Albigenses and Waldenses during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, had scattered some of them over Europe, where they settled mostly in Germany, Poland, and Bohemia. “Others turning to the west obtained refuge in Britain.” 17See “Dissertation on the Prophecies.” by Bishop Thomas Newton. p. 518, and “History of the Evangelical Churches of ... Piedmont.” by Samuel Morland, Esq.. p. 191. (London. 1658). Everywhere these God-fearing people worked quietly for the salvation of souls, and thus prepared the way for the Reformation. But the books of heaven alone contain the true record of the work done by these humble Waldenses.FAFA 147.1

    “John Wycliffe was the herald of reform, not for England alone, but for all Christendom. The great protest against Rome which it was permitted him to utter, was never to be silenced. That protest opened the struggle which was to result in the emancipation of individuals, of churches, and of nations.” — The Great Controversy, 79, 80.FAFA 147.2

    In Bohemia, Huss and Jerome were, in their labor, animated by the writings of Wycliffe, so that the light of truth, which the Papacy had quenched in the “Vallies ” was flaring up in England and Bohemia. Dr. Fr. Nielsen, of Denmark, says of the papal opposition:FAFA 147.3

    “The struggle against the Waldenses ... was as nothing compared to the trouble that broke out in the Bohemian church when Wycliffism had taken root in that country ..... about the year 1400 Jerome, M.A., of Prague had been at Oxford, and from thence had brought with him to Prague Wycliffe’s ‘Dialogus’ and ‘Trialogus,’ and in 1403 John Huss stepped out openly as one of Wycliffe’s disciples.” — “Haandbog i Kirkens Historie” (Handbook of Church History), Vol. II, p. 874, ed. of 1893. Copenhagen.FAFA 147.4

    After Huss was burned, July 6, 1415, and Jerome, May 30, 1416, their work of reform was carried on by their followers. But they were divided into two camps, the conservative of Prague, and the radical of Tabor. Dr. Nielson continues:FAFA 148.1

    “All Hussites were agreed upon yielding obedience to the ‘law of God.’ ... Those of Prague ... rejected only that which conflicted with the law of God, [while the] Taborites ... would acknowledge only what was expressly mentioned in the Scriptures .... The Taborites read the Scriptures with their own eyes .... The radical party rejected all holidays, even Sunday .... Some longed for the condition of the apostolic times .... The religious enlightenment among the Taborites was great, and their women had a better knowledge of the Scriptures than the Italian priests.... In Germany the Waldenses had, without doubt, as in Bohemia, several places prepared the way for the Hussitism....FAFA 148.2

    “If any one after the middle of the fifteenth century wanted to find genuine disciples of Wycliffe and Huss in Bohemia he had to go to the eastern border where the remnant of the Taborites, as ‘the quiet in the land’ in strict discipline endeavored to follow the law of God. At the close of the fifteenth century there were in Bohemia and Moravia about two hundred churches of the ‘Brethren,’ who rejected all connection with the Roman church and had their own ministers and bishops, who through a Waldensian Bishop from Austria believed they had preserved the apostolic succession.... Time and again they were subject to bloody persecutions.” — Id., pp. 886-888, 896, 897.FAFA 148.3

    We shall now show that these Waldensian and Hussite brethren were Sabbath-keepers. Dr. R. Cox says: “I find from a passage in Erasmus that at the early period of the Reformation when he wrote, there were Sabbatarians in Bohemia, who not only kept the seventh day, but were said to be ... scrupulous in resting on it.” Erasmus’ statement follows: “Now we hear that among the Bohemians a new kind of Jews has arisen called Sabbatarians, who observe the Sabbath.” — “Literature of the Sabbath Question,” Cox, Vol. II, pp. 201, 202.FAFA 148.4

    Bishop A. Grimelund of Norway speaks of them as “the anciently arisen, but later vanished sect of Sabbatarians in Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary.” — “Sondagens Historie” (History of Sunday), pp. 46, 47. Christiania: 1886.FAFA 149.1

    About the year 1520 many of these Sabbath-keepers found shelter on the estate of Lord Leonhard, of Lichtenstein, “as the princes of Lichtenstein held to the observance of the true Sabbath.” — “History of the Sabbath,” J. N. Andrews, p. 649, ed. 1912. Lord Leonhard asked the Sabbatarians to submit to him a statement of their belief, which was sent to Wolfgang Capito, a leading Strassburg Reformer, and to Caspar Schwenkfeld. This document is lost, but Schwenkfeld’s answer to it (printed in 1599) contains several quotations from it, showing that their arguments for the seventh day were much the same as those used by Seventh-day Adventists today. In 1535 they were driven from their homes by persecution, but “once more they were granted respite.” Finally in 1547 the king of Bohemia, yielding to the constant urging of the Roman church, expelled them. “The Jesuits contrived to publish this edict just before harvest and vintage.... They allowed them only three weeks and three days for their departure; it was death to be found even on the borders of the country beyond the expiration of the hour.... At the border they filed off, some to Hungary, some to Transylvania, some to Wallachia, others to Poland.” See J. N. Andrews, ‘History of the Sabbath,” pp. 641-649.FAFA 149.2

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