Jerome of Prague

Jerome of Prague (born c. 1365, Prague [now in Czech Republic]—died May 30, 1416, Konstanz [Germany]) was a Czech philosopher and theologian whose advocacy of sweeping religious reform in the Western church made him one of the first Reformation leaders in central Europe.

A student at the Charles University of Prague, Jerome came under the influence of the Czech reformer Jan Hus, with whom he collaborated in criticizing the Roman Catholic Church and in debating theological issues throughout Bohemia, Poland, and Germany. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in 1398, he continued his studies at Oxford and adopted the philosophical theology of the English reformer John Wycliffe. He returned to Prague in 1401 and, as a university professor, began spreading Wycliffe’s teaching.

The Christian church, according to Jerome’s views, is the community of those chosen by God for salvation and is not defined in legal terms devised by a rigid ministerial structure. He advocated, moreover, the need for poverty in the church and called for the expropriation of church lands. In the order of worship he insisted that the wine of Holy Communion be extended to the laity, as practiced by the early church, and asked for more freedom in preaching.

Continuing to propagate reform doctrine at various academic centres throughout Europe, Jerome taught at the Sorbonne (1405) and at the universities of Heidelberg and Cologne (1406) but was forced to leave by ecclesiastical authorities in each city. Returning to Prague, he and Hus resumed public debates and proposed to reform the structure and customs of the church through a general council.

Extending his dissent to traditional sacramental theology and liturgy, Jerome was forced to leave Vienna in 1410 and was expelled from Poland after King Władysław II had invited him to reorganize the University of Kraków. Again at Prague, in 1412, he joined Hus in a famed public disputation in which he maintained that the faithful are not bound to obey papal commands that conflict with the laws of Christ. He then led a procession through the city, climaxed by burning Antipope John XXIII’s decree authorizing the sale of indulgences (pardon from punishment for sin).

In April 1415, against the advice of his followers, Jerome went secretly to the Council of Constance in an unsuccessful attempt to defend the teaching of the imprisoned Hus. As he was leaving Constance (Konstanz), he was arrested and imprisoned. Confined for more than a year and ill, he disavowed the condemned doctrine of Wycliffe and Hus, after repeated interrogation by the conciliar tribunal. Accused of ambiguity and insincerity at his final appearance before the council (May 26, 1416), he then withdrew all earlier retractions of reform views and declared that his confession of Roman Catholic orthodoxy had come out of fear and weakness. Accordingly, he was judged a relapsed heretic and sentenced to burn at the stake. The Bohemian Hussite Church considers Jerome (with Hus) the first martyr for the Protestant Reformation.

Of Jerome’s writings, all that remain are his university lectures and disputations and two treatises, Positio de universalibus (“A Position on Universals”) and Quaestio de universalibus (“The Question of Universals”).