and, as did the Waldenses[1] dated the beginning of the ecclesiastical corruption from the—imaginary—donation of the Emperor Constantine to Pope Sylvester. His views with regard to the Sacrament of the Altar—the point on which all religious controversy in Bohemia in the fifteenth century turned—were opposed to those of the Taborites, with whom he sympathized on some points. Chelčicky denied that the tenets of the priests of Tabor on this subject coincided with those of Wycliffe. He seems to have considered that the English divine, rather than Hus, was his own teacher. Chelčicky believed himself in accord with Wycliffe in maintaining the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament.[2]
From the very scanty and contradictory notices of Chelčicky's life, we learn that he made the acquaintance of Rokycan, probably during the long period 1437–1448, beginning in the reign of King Sigismund, when the archbishop had absented himself from Prague. We are told that they once met and conversed "on the men who are called priests, and on the slight advantage they conferred on men."[3] The archbishop seems to have been impressed by the words of Chelčicky. After his return to Prague (1448), Rokycan's preaching assumed a more earnest and more impassioned tone. Grieved by the reaction against Hussitism, which he feared would be the consequence of the accession of King Ladislas, he returned to the views of the earliest Bohemian reformers. He proclaimed that true religion was extinct, and that the influence of Antichrist showed itself even in the administration of the Holy Sacrament. Among Rokycan's hearers was a young man known to us as Brother Gregory, who was a nephew of the archbishop. He was deeply impressed by his uncle's teaching, and appealed to him for spiritual advice. The archbishop—preparing the way for events
- ↑ The question whether the doctrines of Chelčicky and Brother Gregory were derived from the Waldenses, and whether Waldensian priests consecrated the first priest of the "Unity," is one of the most controverted points in Bohemian history. On the whole, evidence is rather against the influence of the Waldenses on the foundation of the "Unity," though there may have been a connection between the two sects later.
- ↑ Goll: "Peter Chelčicky und seine Lehre" (Pt. ii. of the Quellen zur Geschichte der Böhmischen Brüder).
- ↑ Goll.
