publicly called the attention of the Bohemians to his works. A German
Silesian, named Hubner, had selected from Wyclif’s writings forty-five
propositions which he asked the University of Prague to condemn.
The period of Hus’s Rectorship seems to have come to an end before
this proposal was made; and on May 28, 1403, the new Rector of the
University convoked an assembly of the Masters of Arts, and laid
before them the propositions which Hubner had compiled. Hus at once
came forward to answer Hubner, but he based his opposition entirely on
the inaccuracy of the summaries laid before them. He referred to the
burning alive of certain adulterators of saffron, which had recently
taken place in Prague; and he declared that such a fate was better
deserved by these adulterators of books. But some of his followers went
much further. Stephen Pálec̆ threw a book of Wyclif’s on the table,
declaring that he was willing to defend it against all attacks; and
Stanislaus of Znaym (Znojem) offered to prove that none of the articles
attributed to Wyclif were heretical. This statement so offended some
of the older Masters that they at once left the room; but, in spite
of their retirement, a majority of those who remained condemned the
forty-five Articles of Wyclif, and decided that they should not be
taught in Bohemia. The influence of Wenceslaus was, for the moment,
thrown on the side of reform; and, after the death of the Archbishop of
Prague, he appointed to the see an ex-soldier named Zbynĕk Zajíc, who
had a great dislike to many of the impostures which had been encouraged
by the clergy. The new Archbishop at once sent Hus to inquire into
several fictitious miracles which had recently become notorious in the
country; and, by his help, these abuses were checked for the time.
[Illustration: JAN HUS.]
But, while Hus was zealous against every form of moral corruption, he
had by no means committed himself to those doctrines for which Wyclif
had been branded as a heretic. At the same time he had read and studied
many of the purely philosophical works of the English Reformer; and he
expressed his belief that much good was to be learned from them. With
the Englishman’s hatred of moral corruption Hus sympathised yet more
warmly; while the national character of the two movements naturally
roused a sympathy between their respective supporters. The revival of
the English language, as a literary expression of thought, had received
considerable impulse from Wyclif’s translation of the Bible; and the
use of English, rather than Latin or Norman-French, in theological
writings became one of the notes of the Lollard movement. In this
tendency Hus could not fail to observe the likeness to his own efforts
to maintain the Bohemian language against the inroads of the Germans.
All these considerations produced in Hus so strong a personal
admiration for Wyclif that he expressed a wish that his soul might be
with his. The combination of such a wish with the rejection of many of
Wyclif’s doctrines as heretical, was utterly unintelligible to most of
the contemporaries of Hus. This pious expression of moral sympathy was
naturally connected by many with the attacks which Stanislaus of Znojem
was at the same time making on the doctrine of Transubstantiation; and,
consequently, the rashness of Hus’s followers, coupled with his own
expressions of personal feeling, caused him to be branded as a heretic,
with regard to doctrines about which he held the orthodox belief.
But the opposition to the reform movement could not long be confined
to the masters of the University of Prague. In 1405 Pope Innocent
VII. became alarmed at the progress of heresy, and issued a Bull
against the doctrines of Wyclif. In deference to this denunciation,
Wenceslaus ordered an inquiry into these doctrines; and Archbishop
Zbynĕk became even more excited on the subject. On May 14, 1408, even
the Bohemian nation in the University consented to hold a meeting for
the examination of Wyclif’s books; but they could only be induced to
come to the harmless conclusion that the Articles of Wyclif should not
be taught in any heretical sense, and that his Dialogus and Trialogus
should not be studied by members of the University before they had
taken their degree. Such a decision could not satisfy the Archbishop;
and, in June, 1408, he issued a new decree forbidding the clergy to
preach against Transubstantiation. This decree was soon followed by a
demand that all who possessed copies of Wyclif’s books should surrender
them to the Archbishop; and the majority of the University obeyed this
command, only five students refusing.
Hus had openly expressed his dislike of some of the prosecutions, by
which the Archbishop attempted to enforce some of his prohibitions;
and such a protest from so prominent a reformer could not be allowed
to pass unnoticed at such a crisis. So, early in 1408, the clergy of
Prague presented to the archbishop certain articles against Hus. Most
of these are concerned with his denunciations of the pecuniary greed of
the clergy; but they also include a reference to his wish that his soul
might be with Wyclif. For the moment, indeed, these complaints produced
little result; for just at this time Archbishop Zajíc himself announced
that, after inquiry, he could find no heresy in Bohemia. Moreover, it
was unavoidable that this smaller controversy should be lost sight
of, for a time, in the apparently larger issue of the reunion of
Christendom under one Pope.
The division of the Papacy between Rome and Avignon had begun to cause
such a scandal in the Church that a new Council was held necessary for
the restoration of order and unity. Wenceslaus saw in the meeting of
this Council an opportunity for recovering the position of which he had
been deprived. He had never admitted the legality of his deposition
from the Imperial throne; and, since only a part of the Electors had
sanctioned that step, he had plausible grounds for disputing its
validity. When, then, the Council of Pisa proposed to deal with the
Papal Schism, Wenceslaus consented to send ambassadors to that Council,
on condition that they should be recognised as the representatives of
the Holy Roman Emperor. To secure the consent of the Council to this
proposal, Wenceslaus readily accepted the decision of that body, that,
as a preparatory step to the Unity of the Church, the two rival Popes
should be required to resign; and he forbade his subjects to recognise
the authority of either Gregory XII. or his rival till the Council
should have decided on their claims. This demand at once produced a new
line of division between the contending parties in the Bohemian Church.
Hus and his friends had welcomed the Council of Pisa, as a possible
means of accomplishing the reforms which they desired; and they
made no difficulty about approving the deposition of the two Popes.
The Archbishop, however, and the great body of the Bohemian clergy,
maintained that they were bound by their allegiance to Gregory XII.;
and in this view the three foreign “Nations” in the University eagerly
supported them.
This division of opinion at once brought to a head that desire for
reasserting their national independence which the Bohemians had so
long cherished. The dislike of being swamped in their own capital by
foreigners had been steadily growing in the minds of the Bohemians.
This feeling had been at first expressed in complaints about the
rise of prices and the overcrowding of the city; but it had gained a
much greater intensity when the native population realised that the
supremacy of their language in their own country was at stake. The
resistance of the Germans to the demands of Wenceslaus enabled the
Reformers to join their movement for national independence with the
assertion of the royal authority; and, as a means of accomplishing both
these ends, they proposed that the Bohemian Nation should in future
have three votes in the election of University officials, while each
of the three foreign “Nations” should be still limited to one vote.
Wenceslaus had already made some concessions to the national party
in the University; and they naturally thought that he would at once
approve of a concession which would tend to strengthen his hands in his
struggle against Gregory XII.
To their great surprise, however, they at first met with a rebuff.
Wenceslaus was desirous of recovering his position as Emperor; and for
that he needed German support. He also wished to appear as the orthodox
champion of the Church; and a recent event had brought home to him the
danger into which the Bohemian Reformers were running, in this respect.
Stephen Pálec̆ and Stanislaus of Znojem had been sent as commissioners
to the Council of Pisa; on their way thither they had been arrested
at Bologna and imprisoned as heretics. This so alarmed the king, that
when the Bohemian Deputation waited on him at Kutna Hora, he not only
rejected their proposals, but sharply rebuked Hus and his friends for
bringing discredit on the nation by tainting them with heresy.
Consistency of purpose, however, was never one of the virtues
of Wenceslaus. A Bohemian nobleman of the name of Lobkovic had
considerable influence with the king; and he was a strong champion of
Hus and his party. He pointed out to Wenceslaus that those who proposed
this reform at the University were the supporters of the king’s policy
in the Council of Pisa. Queen Sophia, with whom Hus had already become
a favourite, no doubt used her influence in the same direction. The
king was convinced that his interests were, for the time, on the
side of the Reformers; and, in January, 1409, he issued the desired
decree which granted three votes to the Bohemian Nation in University
elections.
But the powerful German party did not yield without a struggle. They
pleaded that their oaths as Masters of Arts bound them to maintain the
settlement made by Charles IV.; and they pointed out that that Emperor
had intended to make his University the centre of all the learning
of the Empire. Finally they suggested that, if the Bohemian Nation
objected to be swamped by them, it ought to separate from them and have
a council, tribunal, and elections of its own.
Of these arguments, the first may be fairly dismissed as one of those
pieces of ill-tempered rhetoric which are usually thrust forward on
such occasions. If an oath to maintain the laws of an association
implies an opposition to any possible change in those laws, there
can be few corporations in the world which are not deeply tainted
with perjury. But the second argument, which appealed to the wishes
and intentions of Charles IV., had undoubtedly some plausibility,
especially when one considers that the University was only sixty years
old. An answer to this objection could, however, be easily found by
the Bohemians. Though Charles IV. had no doubt desired to make the
University the centre of the Empire, other words of his could be quoted
to show that he had also intended that his Foundation should secure
special advantages to the Bohemians.
The explanation was, that Charles’s idea, however grand, was
self-contradictory; and, while inconsistent schemes may work very
well, as long as all who are interested in them wish them to do so,
they must fall to pieces at once if they are administered by two
antagonistic parties with directly opposite ideals about the welfare of
the institution. Charles had undoubtedly wished, as the Germans said,
to make Prague an intellectual centre for Europe; he had also desired,
as the Bohemians said, to call out the national life and encourage the
national literature of Bohemia. It now appeared that these two objects
were incompatible; and the question was, which must yield to the other.
Charles IV. was a great statesman; but, as in the case of so many great
men, the effect which he ultimately produced was precisely the contrary
of that which he desired. He had wished to found a University, which
should gratify the feelings both of Bohemians and Germans, and be a
centre of unity and peace to the Empire. He had, instead, given an
impulse to life, movement, and struggle, which was to overthrow many
abuses which he condemned, but also to drag down in their fall much
which he desired to maintain.
Finding that their arguments were of no avail, the Germans devoted
themselves to more practical forms of obstruction. They insisted on
disregarding the decree of the King and on voting in the old fashion
at the next election of the Examiners. The Bohemians resisted this
attempt; and the consequence was that no examination took place. A
similar dispute arose about the election of the Deans of Faculties; and
a similar result followed. It was obvious that the continuance of this
struggle must end in the destruction of the work of the University.
Moreover, whatever doubts Wenceslaus might have on other subjects, he
was quite clear about the duty of enforcing his own decrees. So, on
May 9, 1409, he summoned an extraordinary meeting of the University,
at which he appointed a new Rector and a new Dean of Arts on his own
authority. The Germans, finding further resistance hopeless, resolved
to abandon the struggle; and, on May 16th, several thousand German
students left Prague for ever.
VIII.
FROM THE RETIREMENT OF THE GERMANS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PRAGUE TO THE
DEATH OF HUS.
(1409-1415.)
The overthrow of German supremacy in the Bohemian University has been
considered by both sides to mark a great crisis in the history of
Bohemia. The national character, which had been stamped at so early a
time on the reforming movement, now became more visible to the world
at large, and at the same time more exclusive and defiant. Nor was
its effect on the life and death of Hus less notable. When he became
recognised as the most complete embodiment of the principles of the
Bohemian Reformation, his German enemies naturally fixed upon him as
the chief actor in this important stage of the movement; and wild
charges of violence and intimidation towards the Germans helped to
increase the hostility which had been roused by the suspicion of heresy.
Nevertheless, it seems clear enough that, though Hus ultimately
rejoiced in the change produced by the German secession, he had yet
taken but a secondary and hesitating part in producing the change
itself. On returning from Kuttenberg (Kutna Hora), after Wenceslaus’s
first rejection of this proposal, Hus, disappointed and anxious, was
seized with illness; and, while worn with suffering, he asked a friend
whether, after all, the change was a just one. This appeal has been
quoted by a modern writer as a proof of the duplicity of Hus; and the
same antagonist has scornfully contrasted this anxious hesitation with
the exulting approval of the change which Hus proclaimed at a later
time.
To those who try to weigh both sides of a question, it may not seem
so difficult to understand that Hus may have heartily desired, and
exulted in, the victory of the reforming party and the freedom of the
Bohemians from German domination, and yet may have hesitated in his
own mind, especially in sickness, about the justice of the particular
step which brought things to a crisis. The point which rather seems to
distinguish him from other men in the matter was the candour with which
he confessed those previous doubts at a place and in a time when such a
confession was certain to be used against him.
But if the charge of duplicity against Hus is founded mainly on
ignorance of human nature, the accusation of violence which was
brought against the Bohemian reformers may have been partially due to
a confusion between two contests which were taking place at the same
time, and in which the same parties were to some extent involved.
For, while the Germans and Bohemians were struggling for supremacy
in the University of Prague, Wenceslaus was devoting his energies to
the punishment of the Archbishop and clergy for their championship of
Gregory XII. In this, as in every other case, Wenceslaus soon damaged
his cause by his utter want of self-restraint. Mobs were let loose
upon the clergy, many acts of violence were committed, and a general
sense of insecurity prevailed. Zbynĕk, who had plenty of that bull-dog
courage which one might expect from an ex-soldier, replied to the
king’s violence by putting Prague under an interdict. How the king
might have met this defiance one may guess from his previous conduct;
but the Archbishop and his clergy were saved from the fate of Nepomuc
by a sudden change of circumstances.
The Council of Pisa had agreed to depose the two existing claimants
of the Papacy; and, after some discussion, they chose a new Pope,
under the name of Alexander V. At first, of course, this Pope was not
very favourably inclined to an Archbishop who had steadily opposed
his election; but, when Zbynĕk accepted his authority, and showed
his appreciation of him by sending him rich gifts, Alexander became
alarmed at the spread of heresy in Bohemia, and granted a commission
for inquiry into the writings of Wyclif, and a permission to Zbynĕk to
remove those writings from the eyes of the faithful.
This commission gave a new opportunity to the enemies of Hus; and
they presented a petition against him to the Archbishop, in which
they charged him with sixteen acts of heresy and disorder. Some of
these charges had already been put forward on former occasions, others
alleged against him heresies which he repudiated; but there are four
accusations at least that are specially worth noting, both for their
own character, and on account of the answers made to them by Hus. The
fourth charge was that in a conversation, which took place at the time
of the drowning of John Nepomuc and the arrest of the Dean of Prague,
Hus had spoken lightly of these acts, and had condemned the proposal to
put Prague under an Interdict on account of them. Hus replied to this
charge by quoting his actual words. “If,” said he, “he himself, or any
other, had been killed or imprisoned, that was no reason why men should
cease to give praise to God throughout the kingdom of Bohemia.” The
fifth clause he answered by one of those distinctions which seemed to
his enemies so dishonest. Hus was accused of saying that anti-Christ
had fixed a foot in the Roman Church, which it was difficult to move.
To this charge Hus answered that he had never said this of the Roman
_Church_, because he considered that that Church consisted of all those
who held the faith preached by St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome; but
that he did maintain that anti-Christ had set his foot very firmly in
the Roman _Court_ (Curia). Thirdly, he objected to two of the charges
against him on the ground that they implied his use of words which had
no equivalent in the Bohemian language, and which, therefore, he could
not have used in the Bethlehem Chapel. Lastly, in answer to the charge
of having stirred up ill-will between Bohemian and German, he denied
that he had done this, unless either German or Bohemian had taken
unjust occasion from his words; and he reiterated his statement that he
loved a good German better than a bad Bohemian.
It was evident that these articles were intended to identify still
more closely the struggle of the Archbishop and clergy against secular
intrusion and heretical doctrine with the struggles of the Germans for
supremacy in Bohemia. But if, by so doing, Zbynĕk secured a stronger
following in the outside world, and bound to his cause those Germans
who had remained in Bohemia, he irritated against him still more
strongly the feeling of the Bohemian nobles and of a large number of
the citizens of Prague; and he even alienated from him many of the
inferior clergy.
Another powerful influence, which was specially exerted at this time
in favour of Hus, was that of the Queen Sophia. She had been greatly
impressed by the preacher, and had taken him as her chief adviser, some
say her confessor; and, though it may be true of Wenceslaus that he
hated Zbynĕk more than he loved Hus, the reverse is true of his wife.
Yet in spite of all this force of opposition, Zbynĕk showed very little
sign of yielding. He consented, indeed, to postpone any final act until
the Margrave of Moravia could be consulted. But, whether Jodok delayed
beyond the time proposed, or whether the Archbishop simply grew tired
of waiting, he resolved, on June 10, 1410, publicly to burn two hundred
of Wyclif’s books; and accordingly they were burnt in great state, in
the court of the archiepiscopal palace, the bells of the churches
being tolled during the performance.
As if to mark the man against whom this proceeding was specially
aimed, the Archbishop followed it up by commanding the closing of all
private chapels, a command understood by everybody to be intended
especially against the chapel in which Hus preached. Hus and his
friends indignantly appealed to the Pope against these proceedings; and
they did not fail to point out that many of the works which were burnt
were not theological at all, but simply dealt with abstract philosophy.
Indeed, the traditions of learning and culture, which the German
scholars had hoped to secure to their side, in their first struggle
against the Bohemian language, were now appealed to by the opposite
party with much more force. Zbynĕk was ridiculed in satirical songs
for having burnt books which he had never read; and the University of
Bologna, when consulted by the Pope, denounced the burning of the books
as an insult to the University of Oxford. Zbynĕk, indeed, would have
fought to the last; but Pope Alexander was shaken by the opposition
which these proceedings had called forth, and he checked the inquiry
into Wyclif’s books, and continued to delay matters, till the decision
was taken out of his hands by death.
Both parties made haste to approach the new Pope, John XXIII.; and he
demanded that Hus should come to Rome. The danger of the way made a
good excuse for refusal; and John, having received rich presents from
Zbynĕk, consented to excommunicate Hus for contumacy. This, however,
did not affect Wenceslaus’s attitude; for, irritated by Zbynĕk’s
opposition, and impressed by the queen’s partiality for Hus, the king
had become a zealous champion of the Reformers. He demanded that Zbynĕk
should compensate those whose books he had burnt; and, on his refusal,
he confiscated his property for the benefit of the owners of the books.
At the same time the king and his friends wrote to the Pope to assure
him that he had been ill-informed about the circumstances of the case.
The Pope being thus politely set on one side, and riot and disorder
continuing, there seemed an opportunity for some outsider to step in.
This opportunity was eagerly seized by Sigismund. He had never formally
resigned that administrative power which Wenceslaus had granted to
him in his time of emergency; and, though he had nominally supported
Wenceslaus against Rupert in his claim to the Imperial crown, he was
now intriguing to succeed the latter and to set aside his brother.
Wenceslaus, on his part, was willing enough to listen to proposals
for peace when they did not come from a clerical source; and Zbynĕk
consented to accept the arbitration proposed. But, when the arbitrators
demanded that the archbishop should write to the Pope to ask him to
repeal the excommunication of Hus, Zbynĕk refused to submit to this
decision; and he went to Presburg to appeal personally to Sigismund.
There, however, he fell ill and died; and, in a few months, the
controversy had assumed quite another form.
It will be remembered that the Council of Pisa had professed to put an
end to the disunion in the Church by deposing the two claimants of the
Papacy, and electing Alexander V. in their place. But, though Alexander
V., and his successor, John XXIII., had probably been accepted by a
majority of the authorities of the Church, the deposed Popes still, at
times, put forward claims which could easily be taken advantage of by
those who wished to stir up division in the Church. Ladislaus, the king
of Naples, who had a grudge against John, took up the cause of Gregory
XII. Therefore, in December, 1411, John proclaimed a crusade against
the King of Naples, and promised plenary indulgence to all who would
support this expedition, either in purse or person.
The commissioners for promoting this war arrived in Prague in 1412;
and they soon set to work, not merely to preach the crusade, but to
organise a regular system for the sale of the indulgences. Some attempt
to start this trade had been begun in 1393, but it does not seem to
have been then carried on on so extensive a scale. _Now_ the Legate
farmed out the right of selling these indulgences to other priests,
granting them preferment in the Church, and receiving from them a
commission on what they raised. As respectable clergymen would not
often undertake such an office, the trade fell into the hands of men of
disreputable lives, who were thus brought prominently to the front. Hus
had objected, from the first, to the attempt to involve the Bohemians
in a war which he considered unchristian; and, when to the proposal for
the crusade was added the organisation of the sale of indulgences, he
determined to raise the question in an assembly of the University.