Jan Hus: His Final Declaration
I, Jan Hus, in hope a priest of Jesus Christ, fearing to offend God, and fearing to fall into perjury, do hereby profess my unwillingness to abjure all or any of the articles produced against me by false witnesses. For God is my witness that I neither preached, affirmed, nor defended them, though they say that I did. Moreover, concerning the articles that they have extracted from my books, I say that I detest any false interpretation which any of them bears. But inasmuch as I fear to offend against the truth, or to gainsay the opinion of the doctors of the Church, I cannot abjure any one of them. And if it were possible that my voice could now reach the whole world, as at the Day of Judgment every lie and every sin that I have committed will be made manifest, then would I gladly abjure before all the world every falsehood and error which I either had thought of saying or actually said!
I say I write this of my own free will and choice.
Written with my own hand, on the first day of July.
The Czech priest Jan Hus was burned at the stake July 6, 1415. His followers organized the Moravian church next year. Heidi Muller's Moravian hymns were recently a feature attraction at the Corvallis Folklife Festival. The German priest Martin Luther read Jan Hus's writings and defended Hus at the Leipzig disputation. From Hus and Luther sprang Thomas Muenzer, the AnaBaptists and the Peasant War in Germany, which resulted in 100,000 German farmers, many Anabaptists, being killed.The Hutterites formed from the main Anabaptist movement in 1533. Following Jakob Hutter, this group decided to own everything together. Anabaptists suffered terribly in Europe, at the hands of Catholics, Lutherans, Prebyterians and Episcopalians.
The Dutch brother of the priest Menno Simon was involved with Thomas Muenzer's Anabaptists and in the Peasant War. Menno became a disciple of Luther and disciples of Menno founded the Mennonite church. A number of Mennonite congregations exist today in Benton and Linn Counties.In 1693, a Swiss bishop named Jacob Amman broke from the Mennonite church. His followers were called the Amish over the issue of church heirarchy. From the Mennonites,too, the United Brethren were formed about 1760.
Anabaptists and their descendents have lived in North America almost since the first Europeans arrived here.The members of the United Brethren wagon train to Benton County in 1840 was a formative influence in the history of our County. The Brethren, who were staunchly antislavery and very committed to education, founded many of the local public schools as well as Philomath College (now the Benton County Historical Museum), which was unique in admitting everyone, regardless of gender or ethnic background.