Prague, which, he said, contained the views of the Lollards and which, he had been told, might have been written by Hus. The book, as was proved, had not been written by Hus, nor had he had any part in it. Though Hus was not able to enter into a disputation with Stokes, he yet thought it his duty to reply to the statement which Stokes had made. In a speech, which has been preserved, he justly stigmatised the absurdity of those who wished to declare heretics all who had read Wycliffe’s books. He acutely pointed out that Wycliffe had been hated by many, and particularly by the higher clergy, because he had blamed their vices and admonished them to lead honest and blameless lives.
Hus’s dispute with Stokes was no doubt soon forgotten in view of the weighty events that followed at a short interval. Through the death of Zbynek the important and valuable archiepiscopal see of Prague had become vacant. Candidates were numerous, and at a period when simony was almost universal in the Roman Church, bribery was rampant. The election at first proceeded slowly, and fears were expressed that Baldassare Cossa might appoint a new archbishop. The king therefore requested the canons to come to a decision, and of the twenty-four candidates Albert of Unicov, physician to the king, was on October 29, 1411, unanimously chosen as archbishop. A contemporary chronicler writes:[1] “After him (Zbynek), Albik (Albert) a great master of the medical sciences became archbishop. He was a German by birth, born at Unicov. The people said that he had bought the archbishopric, for he had much money. He was, however, a very niggardly and miserly German, and would not have any knights or pages around him, that he might not be obliged to give them money.” The well-meaning king, to whose influence the election of his former court-physician was largely due, no doubt sincerely believed that Albert of Unicov would be able to establish a quieter condition in Bohemia. The new
- ↑ Ancient Bohemian Chroniclers, vol. iii. p. 14.
