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JOHANN RUCHRAT VON WESEL (d. 1481)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 526 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHANN RUCHRAT VON See also:

WESEL (d. 1481)  , See also:German theologian, was See also:born at Oberwesel See also:early in the 15th See also:century . He appears to have been one of the leaders of the humanist See also:movement in See also:Germany, and to have had some intercourse and sympathy with the leaders of the See also:Hussites in Bohemia . See also:Erfurt was in his See also:day the headquarters of a See also:humanism which was both devout and opposed to the realist metaphysic and the Thomist See also:theology which prevailed in the See also:universities of See also:Cologne and See also:Heidelberg . See also:Wesel was one of the professors at Erfurt between 1445 and 1456, and was See also:vice-See also:rector in 1458 . In 146o he was appointed preacher at See also:Mainz, in 1462 at See also:Worms, and in 1479, when an old and worn-out See also:man, he was brought before the Dominican inquisitor See also:Gerhard Elten of Cologne . The charges brought against him took a theological turn, though they were probably prompted by dislike of his philosophical views . They were chiefly based on a See also:treatise, De indulgentiis, which he had composed while at Erfurt twenty-five years before . He had also written De potestate ecclesiastica . He died under See also:sentence of imprisonment for See also:life in the Augustinian See also:convent in Mainz in 148r . It is somewhat difficult to determine the exact theological position of Wesel . See also:Ullmann claims him as a " reformer before the See also:Reformation," but, while he mastered the formal principle of Protestantism, that scripture is the See also:sole See also:rule of faith, it is more than doubtful that he had that experimental view of the doctrines of See also:grace which See also:lay at the basis of Reformation theology . He held that See also:Christ is men's righteousness in so far as they are guided by the See also:Holy See also:Ghost, and the love towards See also:God is See also:shed abroad in their See also:hearts, which clearly shows that he held the See also:medieval See also:idea that See also:justification is an habitual grace implanted in men by the gracious at of God .

He seems, however, to have protested against certain medieval ecclesiastical ideas which he held to be excrescences erroneously grafted on See also:

Christian faith and practice . He objected to the whole See also:system of indulgences; he denied the See also:infallibility of the See also:church, on the ground. that the church contains within it sinners as well as See also:saints; he insisted that papal authority could be upheld only when the See also:pope remained true to the evangel; and he held that a See also:sharp distinction ought to be See also:drawn between ecclesiastical sentences and punishments, and the judgments of God . The best See also:account of Wesel is to be found in K . Ullmann's Reformers before the Reformation . His See also:tract on Indulgences is published in See also:Watch's Monumenta Medii Aevi, vol. i., while a See also:report of his trial is given in Ortuin C:ratius's Fasciculus rerum expetendarumn et fugiendarum (ed. by See also:Browne, See also:London, 1690), and d'Argentre's Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus (See also:Paris, 1728) . See also See also:Otto Clemen's See also:art. in See also:Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie See also:file prat . Theologie and Kirche (3rd ed., See also:Leipzig, 1908), xxi . 127 .

End of Article: JOHANN RUCHRAT VON WESEL (d. 1481)
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