Background
He was born at Oberwesel early in the 15th century.
He was born at Oberwesel early in the 15th century.
He objected to the system of indulgences, and has been called a “reformer before the Reformation.” Wesel was one of the professors at Erfurt between 1445 and 1456, and was vice-rector in 1458. In 1460 he was appointed preacher at Mainz, in 1462 at Worms, and in 1479, when an old and worn-out man, he was brought before the Dominican inquisitor 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 treatise, De indulgentiis, which he had composed while at Erfurt twenty-five years before.
He had also written De potestate ecclesiastica. He died under sentence of imprisonment for life in the Augustinian convent in Mainz in 1481.
lieutenant is somewhat difficult to determine the exact theological orientation of Wesel. He held that Christ is men"s righteousness in so far as they are guided by the Holy Ghost, and the love towards God is shed abroad in their hearts, which clearly shows that he held the medieval idea that justification is an habitual grace implanted in men by the gracious act of God.
He seems, however, to have protested against certain medieval ecclesiastical ideas which he held to be excrescences erroneously grafted on Christian faith and practice.
He objected to the whole system of indulgences. He denied the infallibility of the church, on the ground, that the church contains within it sinners as well as saints. He insisted that papal authority could be upheld only when the pope remained true to the evangel.
And he held that a sharp distinction ought to be drawn between ecclesiastical sentences and punishments, and the judgments of God.