Dissatisfaction with the Church

Dissatisfaction

The church experienced major transformations as movements attacked papal authority and threatened to factionalize the united Christian community. Although the repercussions of these disruptions weren't felt until the late fifteen-hundreds, it doesn't mean that they were minuscule. Three perfect examples of this dissatisfaction are the works of Marsilius of Padua, John Wycliffe, and Jan Huss.

Marsilius of Padua was an Italian lawyer. In 1324 he wrote a book called Defender of Peace. In it he expressed his distaste for all of the papal authority, and his advocacy for the lay sovereignty within the church. Implicating Nominalist principle he proclaimed that the reality of the Christian community is like the reality of the universe, consists of the sum of all its parts. He further on stated that the sovereignty of the Church belonged to its members, because it is them who share the will of the community.

John Wycliffe also had the peoples' best interests in mind with his attacks on the Church. He argued that the Church had drifted from the people and he wanted the doctrines simplified. He also proposed that the Bible itself be translated into English so that it would be easier for the common people to comprehend its contents. Now this act would lessen the power of the priests because, then, the people would be able to read it themselves and could form their own opinions about what it said. He declared that the scriptures alone declared the will of God and that neither the pope and the cardinals nor the Scholastic theologians could tell the Christians what they should believe.

Jon Huss, a bohemian priest, started his own movement that favored the common people. He had heard about John Wycliffe and had very similar ideas. He felt that the priests shouldn't be thought of so prestigiously and that they shouldn't be divided from the lay people. He believed that the body of the Church was made up of all the faithful and that they were all equal. He didn't like that fact that at mass the common people were only allowed the wafer while the priests could take in both the wafer and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Christ. In a dramatic gesture, he shared his cup of wine with all worshipers, in doing so reducing the distinctiveness of the priest. He was summoned to defend his views before the Church Council at Constance. He was deceived though and handed