Hus’s patriotic efforts to increase the power and importance of his country induced him to endeavour, as far as circumstances permitted, to establish relations with foreign countries. As regards this subject, also, our materials are scant. The racial hatred between Slav and Teuton rendered amicable intercourse with Germany impossible at Hus’s time, though a century later the German reformation undoubtedly caused religious sympathy for a time to prevail over racial antipathy. The Bohemians were, on the other hand, greatly influenced and attracted by the Wycliffite movement in England. The fact that King Richard II. had married a Bohemian princess, the daughter of Charles IV., undoubtedly led to considerable intercourse between England and Bohemia. Though the influence of Wycliffe on Hus was not so great, and particularly not so exclusive, as has recently been affirmed, its existence cannot be denied. Hus’s reference to “blessed England” when informing the Bethlehem congregation of the message of Richard Wiche has already been mentioned here. There is also no reason to doubt the assertion of a recent Bohemian writer[1] that Hus wrote to Lord Cobham begging him to send him copies of Wycliffe’s writings.[2]
The purely theological intercourse between England and Bohemia led to no political consequences, even at a period when religious and political controversy were more closely connected than is the case at the present day. Hus’s relations with the Slavic countries had, on the other hand, political results, which influenced even the period subsequent to the death of the Bohemian reformer. The prominent part played in the Hussite wars by the Poles and particularly by the princes of the reigning family of Poland is foreshadowed by the hitherto little known relations which Hus established with
- ↑ Dr. Nedoma, A Hussite codex of Star a Boleslav [Alt Bunzlau]. (Proceedings of the Bohemian Society of Sciences, 1891.)
- ↑ The statement is confirmed by English writers: “The Lord Cobham is said likewise . . . at the desire of John Huss to have caused all Wiclif’s works to be written out and to be dispersed in Bohemia.” (John Lewis, The Life of Dr. John Wiclif, 1820, p. 247.)
