Church reform. He soon noticed the piety and eloquence of the young priest, John Hus. He even appointed him preacher to the synod, and entrusted him with important missions. It was only gradually that Hus lost the favour of his ecclesiastical superiors, and only from the end of the year 1408 did the Church of Rome consider him as an open enemy. After having obtained the consent of the pope, Zbyněk decided to strike a decisive blow against the Hussite party. He issued a decree ordering that all writings of Wycliffe, wherever they were found, should be burnt; and he prohibited all preaching except in parish or college churches, or in convents. This was directly aimed at Hus, who generally preached in the so-called Bethlehem Chapel, which was a private foundation. Disregarding the appeal that Hus had addressed to Pope John XXIII, the archbishop soon afterwards excommunicated Hus for continuing to preach. At the same time a large number of manuscripts containing Wycliffe's writings were publicly burnt at Prague by order of the archbishop. Venceslas may at this time be considered as still siding with the national party—probably in consequence of the influence of Queen Sophia, who remained warmly attached to Hus. He ordered the archbishop to indemnify the owners of the manuscripts which had been destroyed, some of which were of great value, and seized on part of the revenues of the archbishop and of other higher ecclesiastics. He also wrote to the Pope in favour of Hus, and when the latter was summoned to Rome, Queen Sophia[1] addressed a menacing letter to the cardinals, warning them "that if the Holy College did not find means to arrange this matter, the king and the Bohemian lords would soon see their way to settling it according to their views." Both the king and the national party at court indeed still maintained that Hus had uttered no heresy, and that it was his German accusers who dis-
- ↑ Baron Helfert, writing strongly from the papal point of view, severely blames Queen Sophia, and pronounces a general and rather severe judgment on the female sex: "Women have with rare exceptions, noted in history, no tact, no independent judgment as to how public affairs should be conducted. … In politics, as in household matters, they are led more by sentiment than by sense. If a man is at their side … they are attracted by his political views, and generally go further than he does" (Helfert, Hus und Hieronymius). Of course the supposed influence of Hus over Queen Sophia, whose confessor he was, is alluded to.
