Proto-protestansts and sola fide?

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arapahoepark

arapahoepark

Puritan Board Professor
Does anyone know if Proto-protestants like Jan Hus and the Hussites subscribed to a sola fide or something similar? What about Wycliffe?
 
I would want to see actual citations from Wycliff's own views that he taught sola fide. His most recent biographer, GR Evans, specifically disputes that point, and marshalls quotes to the contrary. I would love to believe that Wycliff taught sola fide (acknowledging, of course, he taught absolute predestination and numerous other things that logically imply sola fide), but at the moment I subscribe to Evans' reading of Wycliff.
 
theology of wycliffe

Justification by Faith

We usually credit Martin Luther with reintroducing this doctrine to the Church, but it is something that John Wycliffe very much believed, although his thoughts on the subject may not have been as advanced as that of later reformers. He writes, “Trust wholly in Christ, rely altogether on His sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by His righteousness. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. There must be atonement made for sin according to the righteousness of God. The person to make this atonement must be God and man.” He saw that auricular confession as unacceptable and so remarks, “Privy confession made to priests is not needful, but brought in late by the Fiend: for Christ used it not, nor any of His apostles after Him.” Personal salvation does not depend upon the Church, or in the ministration of the pope or the priests in Wycliffe’s understanding, but it is solely upon the purpose and election of God (his thoughts on predestination will be discussed below).

Justification by faith for Wycliffe did not mean that a believing man had no further need for good works, for in his message entitled Christ Stilling the Storm he states, “Belief fails when it works not well indeed but is idle as a sleeping man ... Each virtuous deed is strong when it is grounded upon the solidity of belief.” This level of thinking on justification and good works is in full agreement with the theology of the likes of John Wesley, and it confirms the apostle James’ statement that “Faith, if it hath not works is dead” (James 2:17). Though he saw that good works were important in the believer’s life, it is clear that he rejected the Roman Catholic notion of salvation by works, “If a man believe in Christ, and make a point of his belief, then the promise that God hath made to come into the land of light shall be given by virtue of Christ, to all men that make this the chief matter.” The reformers who followed Wycliffe would have little to differ with him concerning justification by faith.
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“Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation, and that without faith it is impossible to please God; that the merit of Christ is able, by itself, to redeem all mankind from hell, and that this sufficiency is to be understood without any other cause concurring.” (The Writings of the Reverend and learned John Wycliff, D.D. The religious tract society, London. 1847. Page 41.) John Wycliffe and justification by faith ‘alone’ | John Wycliffe
 
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