that the Bohemian movement was largely an indigenous one. It may here be mentioned that one of the earliest writers who attempted to prove the dependence of the Bohemian reform movement was the notoriously mendacious historian Hajek of Libocan. He stated that two otherwise unknown Englishmen, “Jacob the bachelor” and “Conrad of Kandelburgk” (Canterbury), first spread anti-Roman views in Bohemia,[1] “By greatly exaggerating the English influence on the foundation of Hussitism and stigmatising it as a foreign movement, Hajek, as he well knew, greatly injured the Hussites; for the intense national feeling that has always animated the Bohemians has produced among them an often exaggerated distrust of foreign interference.”[2] Though the influence of England on Bohemia has been exaggerated, it is certain that the Bohemian Church in its struggle against Rome found sympathy in England at an early period. On September 10, 1410, Hus received a letter from an English adherent of Wycliffe that caused great commotion among the little community of Bethlehem. It was long difficult to ascertain the name of the writer of this letter which in different MSS. appears as Richard Fitz, Richardus Vitze, and Richard Wichewitze. It has, however, now been ascertained that the writer was Richard Wiche, a Lollard, mentioned by Foxe,[3] who was executed in 1439, and whose memory became so popular that a decree prohibiting pilgrimages to the spot where he had been executed was published. Richard Wiche in his letter[4] states that he greatly rejoiced at the news that they (the Bohemians) also walked in the path of truth. He had heard that they also had suffered tribulations, but—Wiche writes—“Let us seek comfort in our Lord God and His immense kindness, believing firmly that it will not allow us, God’s workers, to be deprived
- ↑ See my History of Bohemian Literature, pp. 304–309.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 409.
- ↑ The Acts and Monuments of John Fox, vol. iii. p. 702 (edition of 1837).
- ↑ Printed by Höfler, Geschichtschreiber der Hussitischen Bewegung in Bohmen, vol. ii. p. 210.
