A History of Bohemian Literature

by hrabe Francis Lützow

The subversive character of these theories, which lead to the assertion that the necessity of secular authority is only founded on the wickedness of humanity, and that the ideal state should be ruled by Christ alone, did not escape Chelčicky. In the last chapter of the first part of the "Net" he writes: "From these things (i.e. statements) some one might say that I insult the (worldly) power. Let him say nothing of the sort, though he may wish (to do so); for I do not insult it (i.e. power), but honour it, as is seemly, and I say that it is good when God uses it well, and through it carries out what He considers good. But the evil which men do and wish to carry out through it (worldly power), that I blame before the people.... God is Lord of the world, and could rule and restrain it without that power if He wished to do so; therefore if we maintain that He wishes to rule the world by means of temporal authority, and that those men rule the world as officials of the Lord God, then those who have power over the world can restrain and command it easily if they ordain that which they see is good for the world." It is evident that this passage is evasive, and contains no answer to the questions to which the former quotation naturally gives rise.

The second part of the Net of Faith has as a second heading the words, "Of the bands, and of each of them separately;" but it must not be confused with Chelčicky's lost work, Of the Bands in Bohemia. Chelčicky deals first, and deals very severely, with the "band" of the nobles. His animosity against those who bear arms is sometimes very quaintly expressed. He writes: "All the value of noble birth is founded on an unjust invention of the heathens, who obtained coats of arms from emperors or kings in reward of some deed of prowess. And some buy these coats of arms for the sake of their vanity, such as a gate,[60] a head of a wolf or of a dog, a ladder, or half a horse, or a trumpet, or a knife, or a pork sausage, or something of that sort. In such coats of arms lies the value and dignity of noble birth. And this nobility has the same glory as the arms from which they derive the value of their nobility. But if money did not fall to them as well as noble birth, hunger would soon make them ready to abandon their coats of arms and seize the plough!... Therefore he who can prove that he is well born, and has (in his arms) a ladder or half a horse, receives letters (i.e. patents of nobility) declaring that he is better born than Abel, the second son of Adam, and he obtains such consideration that he is always considered as being good; should he even commit the worst actions, his coat of arms does not permit that he should be bad."

These attacks on the nobility continue during three chapters. The following passage contains a curious description of the dress worn by the nobles of Bohemia in the fifteenth century. Chelčicky writes: "The men wear copes reaching to the ground, or they wear a short round jacket and a hood which reaches down to the saddle of their horse, and with it a monk's cowl and a neckerchief, or a short cloak, and with it long hair reaching down to their shoulders, and on it a small rough hat like a cone; they look out from under it as from a dovecot, for verily they do not know what monsters they make of themselves. The abominable women also deck themselves out with so many petticoats that they can hardly drag themselves along in them, and with fanciful toilets and graces that are not graceful. Their head-dress is broad and high, and ends in a horn. Thus do they walk about like the celebrated courtesans of the Pope, to the surprise and offence of the whole world. And all this is in consequence of their noble birth, which reeks of injustice. Therefore can the true faith never be insulted by heathens or by Jews as it is by this race (the nobles), who found their claims on their coats of arms, and who have unjustly entered into the realm of the faithful. And they are odious in particular to the crucified Jesus; for their proud ways are contrary to the shame which He endured on the cross; they who, acting in everything in a manner contrary to Him for the purpose of worldly glory, yet wish to sit at table with Him and share the gain of His suffering. Therefore from all these causes they are displeasing to God, and harmful and burdensome to men. For the toiling community bears a heavy burden in the nobles; for they devour the poor, and everything good that is found in the land, that they grasp and devour, and greatly do they harm the whole people."

It must not be thought that Chelčicky's democratic views were opposed to the privileges of the nobility only. The special rights enjoyed by the citizens of some Bohemian towns, the privileged position of the clergy, even the intellectual superiority of the masters of the university, all were equally odious to the fanatical leveller Chelčicky. Of the citizens he writes thus: "I shall now speak of the knavery of the citizens, who are the strength of Antichrist, adverse to Christ, an evil rabble, who are full of boldness in committing bad actions, and help one another in vigorously combating truth and in cunningly suppressing it by means of hypocrisy; they speak well of it (= truth) yet they are guests at the assemblies of evil people, and of the shameless knaves who follow the path of Judas. Therefore have these knavish townsmen too grievously torn the net of faith when they resisted the faith; they with their special town-privileges, which are similar to the government of the heathens and founded on the same principle; they are similar to the bands who have coronets and crests, and in many matters they draw at the yoke (that is, act) together. Too much, indeed, has the knavery of the townsmen increased, too strong are the worldly institutions, and too great is the power of Antichrist; for through them (the townsmen) he is prosperous in his war against Christ. Therefore faith, like a net, could not contain these many knaveries and remain intact; they have torn it open by their opposition to Christ's truth; only the lying and dead phantom of faith have they left, and the false name of Christianity."

Somewhat later Chelčicky develops his views on the foundation of cities. It has been conjectured that he derived these views from the Waldenses; but the influence of the Waldenses on the Hussite movement, and on Chelčicky and the Bohemian Brethren in particular, is a question on which the principal Bohemian authorities disagree. A similar theory as to the origin of cities can also be traced to Wycliffe, who is perhaps the "Magister Protiva" whom Chelčicky quotes. In any case, the theory of an original communism, which was destroyed by the murderer Cain, is very characteristic of Chelčicky. He writes: "Magister Protiva, dealing with the foundation of cities, spoke thus: Cain, after the murder of his brother, built a town, the foundation of which was the cause that he acquired goods by means of robbery and violence. Thus was he enabled to enjoy the fruits of his thievery, and by the invention of landmarks he changed the former simplicity of men's lives, of their weights and measures, into craftiness or cunning, and he introduced corruption. He first laid down landmarks, and he first fortified towns with walls; and being afraid of those whom he and his band had offended and robbed, he assembled his followers in his towns."

Chelčicky then deals with the clergy. He is particularly severe on the mendicant friars, of whom, he writes thus: "It is thus as regards the poverty of the monks: If it were true poverty it would be blessed, but their poverty is insatiable and endures no want; therefore has it only the name of poverty. Although they may not have many good treasures, yet they can gather together so much that they can live in abundance just as he who possesses treasures. Thus (such a monk) is called poor though he is free from all the privations which poverty causes. Many citizens indeed would accept this sort of poverty if they could—relying on the regulations that permit constant begging—gather together so much money that they could have a more abundant fare than their neighbours, even should the latter earn much money by usury. And if a poor monk obtains such abundance for his dinner-table that he disdains beef and delicious peas with fat bacon, but wags his tail when he sees game, birds or other delicacies that are better than peas, then he has got himself a good livelihood by his begging; and he and his companions the other monks have made a better business out of begging than some squire who has a plough and two fields, or even a large farm. Far indeed is such a mendicant friar from poverty; as he is always begging, he would not scorn it should some one offer him gold; the covetous monk would stick it into his bag, buy himself value (that is, an annuity), give up the obligation of begging and rather become a lord, winning from God with a trump."

After passing judgment on the priesthood, Chelčicky proceeds to criticise the men of learning, or rather the theologians, for in his time, particularly in Bohemia, scarcely any other learning was known. He writes: "As regards the bands of masters of colleges, they are among Christians, those of whom, one would think, that they were as a light of the world, and that the faith of Christ had in them its strongest pledge; (this) in consequence of their sure faculty of judgment and of their virtues, and also (would one hope) that in time of persecution the faithful people would find support among them. When, in time of persecution, the frivolous run away, they who are stronger in faith should take the weight on themselves; for one would think that they only studied science so zealously—and gave it to be understood that they do so for the sake of faith—because they wished to defend the faith against heretics, and against the other enemies of the Christian truth. But these their speeches which they boastfully deliver are not true, and they have given no proof (of their zeal) during the present time of persecution. I know of no one whom, with all their learning, they have assisted. That is a living proof. As to Hus, he had the faith in himself. Had he not been granted special strength by God, the learning of the colleges, all of them that there are in the Romish Church, would have stifled the faith in him; for all these colleges flocked together to Constance against him. But dear God gave him so much holy learning, that the Antichristian spirit of all those ravens did not possess sufficient learning to extinguish in him the true faith.... What the principal Antichrist's popes, cardinals, bishops, abbots, the bands of monks and parsons, could not obtain for their own advantage, and for the benefit of their dishonest cause, adverse to Christ, that the masters of colleges have succeeded in obtaining. Thus these college-men, as if they grieved for their father Antichrist, and for the shame that befell him when truth was proclaimed, have employed all their learning at two councils, which lasted several years, one at Constance and the other at Basel, for the purpose of skilfully laying snares against the truth; and for this have they sought the aid of worldly power, that they might carry through that which their learning had discovered, and on which they had deliberated, and thus prove the truth of their teaching, and they had already won over to their side[61] the entire might of the empire, so that having pronounced the truth heretical and condemned it, they might destroy it by means of the imperial power. But God, who observes the thoughts and counsels of the wicked, did not allow them to obtain that which in their deliberations they had aimed at, and for which they had employed their learning."

I will give a last quotation from the Net of Faith, illustrating Chelčicky's views as to the manner in which the Church first became possessed of worldly goods. It will be noticed how naively he here refers to the grievances of the Bohemian peasants of his time, and without hesitation speaks of them as existing at the time of Constantine. "The emperor," Chelčicky writes, "having made a lord of the Pope by means of the gift of a royal estate, and having given him the honour of royal glory, ordered that everywhere in his dominions churches should be built, and fields with ploughs attached to them. Then the apostles of Antichrist, having settled down in these churches, and being clever and thrifty men, amply enlarged the gift of Constantine; besides their (church) farms, they obtained lordly donations, woods, fishponds, taxes on the people, rich tithes; they taxed all religious functions and their services, and for the purpose of obtaining money they introduced the ringing of bells, and in all the land near their church they sell (religious rites) at the burial of the dead."

I have dealt somewhat more fully with the Net of Faith, as being Chelčicky's most valuable and most characteristic work. It will therefore be sufficient to notice but briefly his remaining writings, particularly as there is a marked decline in the interest of what he composed after the year 1340, when the Net of Faith appeared. Of the four books which—following Dr. Goll—I have called Chelčicky's principal works, it only remains to notice his Reply to Rokycan, which is generally considered the most important of his polemical writings. While Rokycan, the Utraquist archbishop, was in exile from Prague, he met Chelčicky, and a conversation between them began concerning "the men who are called priests, and the slight advantage they have conferred on men." The conversation was followed by a correspondence of which only this treatise has been preserved. It is a lengthy diatribe against the "band" of the ecclesiastics, and attacks not only the Roman clergy, but also the priests of the Bohemian National (Utraquist) Church, whom Rokycan, now returned from exile, was endeavouring to organise hierarchically.

As already mentioned, many minor works of Chelčicky have become known, some quite recently. Of these, the most important are the Exposition of the Passion according to St. John and the treatise On the Beast and its Image. They are commentaries, the former on the last chapter of the Gospel, the latter on the Revelation of St. John, a saint whose particular influence on Chelčicky is often noticeable. Of other minor works, the treatise On the Body of Christ and that On the Foundation of Worldly Laws are most worthy of notice.