Love Under Fire

Two Pictures Impress Huss

About this time, two strangers from England, men of learning, had received the light and had come to spread it in Prague. They were soon silenced, but because they were unwilling to give up their plans, they resorted to other measures. Being artists as well as preachers, they drew two pictures in a place where the public could see them. One represented Christ's entry into Jerusalem, “lowly, and sitting on a donkey” (Matthew 21:5) and followed by His disciples in travel-worn clothes and bare feet. The other picture showed a high church procession—the pope in his rich robes and triple crown, riding on a magnificently decorated horse, with trumpeters in front of him and cardinals and officials following in dazzling array. LF 45.1

Crowds came to gaze at the drawings. No one could miss the moral. A great commotion arose in Prague, and the strangers found it necessary to leave. But the pictures made a deep impression on Huss and led him to a closer study of the Bible and of Wycliffe's writings. LF 45.2

Though he was not ready yet to accept all the reforms that Wycliffe advocated, he saw the true character of the papacy, and he denounced the pride, ambition, and corruption of the hierarchy. LF 45.3