HUS
586
HUS
the Emperor Sigismund for the role he played at the
council, and he regarded the execution of Hus as
an infringement of his royal rights. Meanwhile the
fathers assembled in council at Constance sent earnest
letters to the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in
Bohemia, insisting on complete extirpation of the
dangerous heresy (July, 1415); and gave ample
powers to the Bishop of Leitomischl as legate for the
same purpose. The Bohemian and Moravian nobles
took up the gauntlet. Four hundred and fifty-two of
them appended their seals to a joint answer to the
council, setting forth their conviction that the sentence
on Hus was unjust and insulting to their country; that
there were no heretics in Bohemia, that any assertion
to the contrary was itself a heresy of the worst kind.
This document bears date 2 Sept., 141.5. Three days
later they formed an offensive and defensive league,
by which they bound themselves for six years to
grant on their estates to all priests applying for it
freedom to preach the word of God, and protection
against episcopal prosecutions for heresy, and against
excommunication except from the local bishops. The
clergy, however, should oliey a lawfully elected pope
in all things not contrary to God and God's law. Tlie
authority of the council was thereby set at naught;
the Wycliffite principle that the laity should restrict
and restrain the power of the clergy was fully applied.
The Catholics did not remain idle; episcopal ordi- nances of 5 Sept. enjoined the publication in all churches of the prohibition of the lay chalice; a decree of 18 Sept. inhil)ited vagrant, i. e. Utraquist, preachers ; a league of Catholic lords was formed on 1 Oct.; it con- sisted mostly of the southern and northern gentry accessil)le to German influence. King Wenceslaus was on their side in word if not in deed. Before this favourable turn of events became known to it, the council, in its ordinary proceedings against Wycliffism, took a step of the gravest consequences, viz. the laying of the interdict on Prague for sheltering Johann of Jesenic, already excommimicated in 1412. Armed crowds of citizens invadctl every church and monas- tery where Divine .service had been suspended in obedience to the interdict, drove out all priests and monks unwilling to submit to the popular will, robbed them of their possessions and put Utraquist clergy in their places. The whole country followed the exam- ple of the capital ; the king antl the magistrates looked on without concern. The council's legate. Bishop Johann of Leitomischl, was powerless to stem the evil tide. Probably on his denunciation the four hundred and fifty-two signatories of the Utraquist covenant, together with Archbishop Conrad of Prague and Wenceslaus, Bishop of Olmutz, were summoned to appear before the council as suspected of heresy. Archbishop Conrad had been remi.ss in carrying out the conciliary measures; in the beginning of 1416 he had, in concert with the king, suspended the interdict on the far-off chance of thus conciliating the dissidents. The council was even then (1416) determined to use the .secular arm against the King of Bohemia and his unruly land, but Sigismund, with whom lay the exe- cution, refused his aid, hoping, as he said, to come to an understanding with King Wenceslaus.
The University of Prague was preponderatingly Utraquist; the council, therefore, towards the end of 1416, suspended all its privileges and forbade, under excommunication, all further academical proceedings. 'I'he lecturers, however, continued to lecture as before; liut the chancellor. Archbishop Conrad, refusing his co-operation, no new degrees could be conferred. Notwithstanding the turbulent spirit of many masters, the influence of the university as a whole was moder- ating. Thus, e. g. 2.5 Jan., 1417, when some fanatical country par.sons ha<l destroye<l the images and pro- faned the relics of their churches, the university, in virtue of the teaching authority it claimed, sent to all the faithful an exhortation to abstain from innova-
tions and to hold fast to old customs. The noblemen
of the Hussite league ordered the clergy dependent on
them to conform to their teaching. This act in the
right direction was followed on 10 March, 1416, by an-
otlier which gave Utraquism the sanction of the only
teaching authority then recognized in the country.
The rector, Johann von Reinstein (surnamed Car-
dinalis), declared, with the consent of all the Magis-
tri, that Communion under both kinds Ls an ordina-
tion of Christ Himself and a practice of the ancient
Church, against which no human ordinances of later
date could prevail. The declaration had been given
in answer to questions by members of the Hussite
league, and it was acted upon, wherever they ruled,
with such thoroughness that the Utraquist clergy was
insufficient to fill the places of the ejected Catholic
priests. The head of the league, Vincenz von Warten-
berg, found a way out of the difficulty. He waylaid
the Auxiliary Bishop of Prague, confined him in a
stronghold, and forced him to ordain as many Utra-
quist candidates for the priesthood as were needed.
The archbishop henceforth withheld ordination and benefices from all who did not abjure Wycliffism and Utraquism. The Council of Constance mean- while gave continued attention to Bohemian affairs. Martin V who, in 1411, as Cardinal Colonna, had ter- minated the trial of John Hus with the sentence of excommunication, now, as pope, confirmed all the council's enactments regarding him and his followers; he wrote to all whom it might concern to return to the Church or to lend their aid in suppressing the new heresies. Before the close of the council he addressed to King Wenceslaus a rule containing twenty-four articles, designed to bring back the religious status of the country to what it was before the Hussite up- heaval. The task was heavy, and perhaps uncon- genial to King Wenceslaus. Could he force all Wyc- liffites and Hussites to abjure or to die, reinstate all ejected priests in their benefices, maintain Catholic ascendency? He made no attempt. In June, 1418, he forbade the exercise of foreign jurisdiction over his subjects, a measure which iiut a stop to the work of the cardinal legate, (iiovanni Donienici. The same year saw the arrival of foreign sectarians, Beg- hards — called Pickarts — attracted by Bohemia's fame for religious liberty, and of the Oxford Wycliffite, Peter Payne, admitted to the faculty of arts at the university. The university, apprehensive of doc- trinal excesses, assembled (September, 1418) the whole party, the CommunHas fratnim, in order to come to an agreement on doubtful jioints. The a.ssembly granted Communion to new-born infants, but forbade all deviation from tradition except where it was evidently opposed to Scripture, as in the case of Utraquism.
In 1419 Utraquism received an accession of strength from the repressive measures against it. King Wen- ceslaus at last giving way to the pojie, and the emperor threatening a "crusade" against Bohemia, banished Johann of Jesenic from Prague and com- manded that all ejected Catholic beneficiaries should be reinstated in their offices and revenues. The people, accustomed by this time to Utraquist min- istrations, resented the change; they fought for their churches and schools; blood was shed, but the king's ordinance was executed wherever his authority was strong enough to enforce it. The success was, however, far from complete. The Utra(|uist clergy, followed by their numerous adherents, now a.ssembled on the hills, to which they gave Scriptural names, such as Tabor, Horeb, Mount Olivet etc. In .Inly, 1419, 'Mount Tabor" was the scene of an epoch-making as.sembly. Nicolaus of Ilusinec, banished by Wen- ceslaus as a dangerous agitator, had brought together 42.000 Utraquists: they listened to Utra<|uist preach- ers, received the chalice, and spent the day in organiz- ing resistance to any interference with their religion;
