corpse and the cures effected upon the sick who touched it. In 1729, John was canonized by Benedict XIII, and his name is celebrated in the Breviary, May 16. One of the difficulties in the legend is that there were two Johns of Pomuk, the one the queen’s confessor, who died 1383, and the other the vicargeneral, who died 1393.
The Jesuits of the counter-Reformation period, exerting themselves to blot out the fame of Huss, magnified the cult of Nepomuk. A monument on the old bridge over the Moldau, which has been regarded as a statue of the saint and at which people still worship, is now looked upon as a monument erected to John Huss. Over the sanctity of John Nepomuk, we have no controversy, but we are interested in the truth and the committal of Huss to his proper place in the history of his people. Nepomuk’s story seems to be largely an invention. However that may be, it is true that in these later years a new interest has been shown among the Catholic population of Bohemia in Huss as a Czech patriot. He certainly deserves the friendly consideration of his people on the ground of his patriotism and his services for the Czech language.[1]
The prominent place which Huss occupies in the contemporary history of the fourteenth century cannot be gainsaid, no matter what the opinion may be which is passed upon his career and his fame. To say the least, he has claimed as frequent treatment from biographers as have the names of contemporary popes and accredited church leaders of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Nay, he has claimed far more attention. Neither the names of Gerson nor d’Ailly, eminent though these churchmen were, nor the name of Vincent Ferrer, the evangelist, are so widely known and pro-
- ↑ At my last visit in St. Vite’s, 1913, after being shown by the verger the tombs of St. Wenceslaus and other shrines, I said: “Well, why haven’t you a shrine to John Huss? He was a famous patriot.” “So he was,” replied our guide most good-naturedly, “but there was nothing left for a shrine. His ashes were all thrown into the lake of Constance.”
