Jerome Of Prague

Jerome Of Prague

He was the loose cannon of church reform in Czechoslovakia.

JEROME of Prague was a tall, black-bearded, hotheaded, adventurous Reformer of the Catholic Church in the 1390s. His friend Jan Hus, also a Reformer, had encouraged him to travel to England to study the teachings of John Wycliffe, the English Reformer. Jerome went to Oxford and immersed himself in the works of Wycliffe. Returning to Prague, he brought Wycliffe’s books back to Hus and the other Czech Reformers.

Jerome had a restless and adventurous spirit. He loved to travel abroad, spreading his message of reform, but frequently returned home to his beloved Prague to reconnect with Hus. He traveled to Jerusalem, Paris, Poland, Lithuania, Heidelberg, Cologne, Vienna, Russia, and Hungary. His ability as an orator and his respect as one of the most able scholars of his day provided him opportunities to address university crowds. He created a commotion wherever he went with his fiery condemnation of the corruption within the Catholic Church. He barely escaped each city, always leaving behind enraged university masters and church authorities.

When Hus was arrested and brought to Constance in 1414, Jerome promised him he would come to his aid. Hus wrote to Jerome and warned him not to come. However, true to his daring spirit, Jerome secretly entered the city on April 4, 1415. He boldly posted inflammatory signs around the city demanding the right to speak before the council in his and Hus’s defense and requested a pledge of protection. When he was given no assurance of security, he attempted to flee the city. He almost escaped but was captured and thrown into prison.

While Jerome was imprisoned in stocks and chains, Hus was burned at the stake as a heretic, remaining faithful to the end. After Hus’s death, Jerome recanted all that he had previously proclaimed, expecting thereby to be set free. He confessed loyalty to the Catholic Church and pronounced Wycliffe and Hus to be heretics. To his dismay, Jerome was not set free after his recantation but kept in prison for many months. The council, believing that not even a recantation should save a heretic from execution, pressed for a new trial at which he could be condemned. Meanwhile Jerome was feeling great remorse over his disloyalty to his Lord. At the ensuing trial Jerome denounced his recantation, saying that he said those things “for fear of death,” and he publicly resolved to defend God’s truth until death. He demanded a hearing to plead his case, but the council refused to hear his defense. He angrily replied, “What iniquity is this! While I have languished for three hundred and fifty days in the most cruel prisons, in stench, squalor, excrements, and chains, lacking all things, you have ever heard my adversaries and slanderers; but me you now refuse to hear even for an hour! . . . For you have already in your minds condemned me as an unworthy man, before you could learn what I really am. But you are men, not gods, not immortals, but mortals!”

Jerome’s impassioned speech impressed a few bystanders, but the council quickly condemned him to death.

For his execution he was made to wear a tall paper hat painted with red devils. Jerome said, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he suffered death for me, a most miserable sinner, did wear a crown of thorns upon his head; and I for his sake will wear this adorning of derision and blasphemy.”

As he was led to the same place where Hus had been burned to death, Jerome sang hymns in Latin and Czech, continuing to sing as the wood was piled around him. On May 30, 1416, Jerome of Prague, wearing his paper crown, was burned at the stake.

Reflection

Jerome denied his Lord as the apostle Peter had done, yet he recanted and was forgiven. Have you ever denied your Lord? What factors caused you to do this? If we confess our denials to God as Peter and Jerome of Prague did, God can enable us not to do it again.

If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father in heaven. But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven.

Matthew 10:32-33