Bohemia, from the earliest times to the fall of national independence in 1620 / With a short summary of later events

by C. Edmund Maurice

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.