What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church

by Gavin Ortlund

Hus’s death is crucial to consider because it represents an illuminating vignette into the larger world of late medieval Western Europe. Why did the Protestant Reformation represent, for so many, a breakthrough and renewal in the understanding of the gospel? The answer is not only that the gospel had been obscured by the financial scandal of ever-expanding indulgences but also that opposition to this abusive practice was viciously persecuted by the highest levels of leadership within the Church of Rome. What must be grasped is that Hus’s execution was not a violation of medieval Roman Catholic theology, but its expression. This sounds shocking to modern ears, but it is true to history. The medieval Roman Catholic Church claimed the authority to exterminate heretics, and to do so through the secular authority, over which she claimed jurisdiction.