1
66
LITERATURE
A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN
is
is
A
a
is
It
it
a
is
is
is,
of it (= truth) yet they are guests at the assemblies of evil people, and of the shameless knaves who follow the path of Judas. Therefore have these knavish townsmen too grievously torn the net of faith when they resisted the faith ; they with their special town-privileges, which are similar to the government of the heathens and founded on the same principle ; they are similar to the bands who have coronets and crests, and in many matters they draw at the yoke (that act) together. Too much, indeed, has the knavery of the townsmen increased, too strong are the worldly institutions, and for through them too great the power of Antichrist prosperous in his war against (the townsmen) he Christ. Therefore faith, like net, could not contain these many knaveries and remain intact they have torn open by their opposition to Christ's truth only the lying and dead phantom of faith have they left, and the false name of Christianity." Somewhat later Chelcicky develops his views on the foundation of cities. has been conjectured that he derived these views from the Waldenses but the influence of the Waldenses on the Hussite movement, and on Chelcicky and the Bohemian Brethren in particular, question on which the principal Bohemian authorities disagree. similar theory as to the origin of cities can also be traced to Wycliffe, who perhaps the "Magister Protiva" whom Chelcicky quotes. In any case, the theory of an original communism, which was destroyed by the murderer Cain, very characteristic of Chelcicky. He writes " Magister Protiva, dealing with the foundation of cities, spoke thus Cain, after the murder of his brother, built a town, the foundation of which was the cause that he acquired goods by means
