CHAPTER VI.
BOHEMIA, MORAVIA, AND POLAND.
(1518-1521.)
The reformation of Denmark and Sweden proceeded, humanly speaking, from Luther, at whose feet the Scandinavian reformers had received the Protestant doctrine. Consequently it was of later date than the reformation of Germany. But there was one country in which the piercing tones of the evangelical trumpet had been heard a century before Luther; and we must not forget this country in the general history of the Reformation. The discourses of John Hus had resounded in Bohemia and Moravia. A great number of believers were to be found there at the beginning of the sixteenth century; but Luther’s reformation gave them a new life.
The Disciples Of Hus.
The disciples of Hus were divided into two distinct parties. One of these had kept up certain relations with the Government of the country, and had been weakened by the influence of the court. The members of this party did not reject the authority of the Roman Catholic bishops of Bohemia; and their principal concern was to reclaim the cup for the laity, which procured them the designation of Calixtines. But the majority of the Hussites, who were chiefly to be found among the country people and the provincial nobility, having entered into relations with the Wycliffites and the Vaudois, went farther than Hus himself. They professed justification by faith in the Saviour, and looked upon the institution of the papacy as anti-christian. This party, distinguished by the name of Taborites, was not at the time of its origin what it afterwards became. The waters, far from being tranquil, had then been in a state of fermentation, ebullition, and violent agitation. These ardent religionists had uttered war-cries and fought battles. But gradually, being purified by means of the struggle and by adversity, they had become more calm, more spiritual; and from 1457 to 1467 they had formed a respectable Christian community under the name of the United Brethren.
Two different views as to the Lord’s Supper prevailed among them, without however disturbing their brotherly unity. The majority believed, with Wycliffe that the body of Christ is truly given with the bread; not however corporeally but spiritually, sacramentally—to the soul, not to the mouth. This was afterwards very nearly Calvin’s thought. The most decided of the Hussites on this side was Lucas, an elder of the church. The others, fewer in number, bore some resemblance in their views to the Vaudois, and looked upon the bread as simply representing the body of Christ. This was afterwards the view of Zwinglius. The two parties were tolerant of each other and loved each other; and both were strongly opposed to the notion of a corporeal presence of Christ in the eucharist.
Hussites And Luther.
Suddenly the report of Luther’s reformation reached Bohemia, and there was great joy among the disciples of Hus. They saw at last arising that eagle which their master had announced, and a power shaping itself which would bring them important aid in their struggle with the papacy. The Calixtines had addressed Luther both by letter and by messengers. He received these with kindness; but he was not so friendly to the United Brethren. He would not enter into relation with a sect some of whose opinions he did not share. One day, in 1520, when preaching on the sacrament of Christ’s body, he said—‘The Brethren or Picards are heretics, for, as I have seen in one of their books, they do not believe that the flesh and the blood of Christ are truly in the sacrament.’[[612]] This deeply affected the Bohemian evangelicals.
Oppressed as they were, these brethren were anxious to find support in the Saxon reformation; and now it repulsed them! It seemed as if the little relish which they had for dogmatic formulæ, and the altogether practical tendency of their Christianity, must make it easy for them to come to an understanding with the Wittenberg reformers. They therefore sent two members of their body to Luther, John Horn and Michael Weiss, whose appointed task was, while not in any particular disowning their own doctrine, to bring the famous doctor to a better opinion of those whom he called heretics. It was not without some timidity that the two Hussites approached Wittenberg. As members of a despised and persecuted community, how would they be received by the illustrious doctor, a man who enjoyed the protection of princes, whose voice was beginning to stir all Europe, and whose audacious utterances terrified his adversaries? The interview took place at the beginning of July, 1522. The two humble delegates set forth accurately their belief respecting the Lord’s Supper. ‘Christ,’ they said, ‘is not corporeally in the bread, as those believe who assert that they have seen his blood flow. He is there spiritually, sacramentally.’[[613]] It might seem to Luther a critical moment. He encountered habitually so much opposition in the world, that he might well ask whether he should go on to compromise himself still farther by giving his hand to these old dissidents, who had been so many times excommunicated, mocked, and crushed. Was it his duty, in addition to all the opprobrium under which he already labored, to take upon him also that which attached to this sect? A small mind would have yielded to the temptation; but Luther’s was a great soul. He had respect only to the truth. ‘If these divines teach,’ said Luther, ‘that a Christian who receives the bread visibly receives also, doubtless invisibly, but nevertheless in a natural manner, the blood of Him who sits at the right hand of the Father, I cannot condemn them. In speaking of the communion, they make use of obscure and barbarous expressions, instead of employing Scriptural phrases; but I have found their belief almost entirely sound.’ Then, addressing the delegates at the time of their leave-taking, he gave them this advice—‘Be good enough to express yourselves more clearly in a fresh statement.’
The United Brethren sent him this fresh statement in 1523. It was the production of their elder, Lucas, who, as a zealous Wycliffite, came near to Luther, but at the same time felt bound to make no concessions. He had consequently set forth very clearly that there was in the Supper only spiritual nourishment for spiritual use. He had likewise added that Christ was not in the sacrament, but only in heaven. Luther was at first offended by these words. One might have said that these Bohemians took pleasure in defying him. But Christian feeling gained the ascendency in the great doctor. The discourses of Lucas gave him more satisfaction than his treatises. He therefore relented, and addressed to the Brethren his work on the Worship of the Sacrament,[[614]] in which while setting forth his own doctrinal views he testified for them much love and esteem. Both sides seem to have vied with each other in noble bearing. The party which most nearly agreed with Luther became the strongest; and after the death of Lucas, feeling more at liberty, it came to an agreement with the Saxon reformer, while those who looked upon the bread as representing Christ’s body, at the head of whom was Michael Weiss, entered into relations with Zwinglius.[[615]] All that we have just said relates to the Taborites.
Taborites And Calixtines.