expeditions were undertaken. Prokop believed that by frequent attacks on the border-lands he could employ sufficient pressure against them to force them to grant freedom to the Bohemian Church, and perhaps even—so his sanguine temperament led him sometimes to believe—to induce them to accept the articles of Prague. In the meantime Prokop, whose matchless energy at this moment it is impossible not to admire, devoted his attention to the never-ending theological controversies in Prague. The good sense of the townsmen had, indeed, for the moment averted an armed conflict, but the odium theologicum of the rival divines continued unabated. The priest John of Přibram, one of the protagonists of the Hussite High Church, had in his sermons strongly attacked some of Wycliffe’s views concerning the Sacrament of Communion. This should not have been considered as an attack on Hussitism, as Hus himself had often stated that he did not accept unconditionally all Wycliffe’s views.[1] In this controversy Peter Payne, surnamed Engliš, strongly upheld the opinions of his master. Payne as well as Master Nicholas of Pelhřimov and the majority of the Táborite divines maintained that Christ was not present in the Sacrament essentially, but that in the Sacrament the bread and wine signified the body and blood of Christ, who had suffered for us on the cross. This theory, which Dr. Krummel calls the “Wycliflite-symbolic” interpretation,[2] was not quite in accordance with
- ↑ I may perhaps be allowed to quote here my own words—contained in Master John Hus, p. 21—“Hus himself frequently protested against the suggestion that he was responsible for all the statements made by Wycliffe, and shortly after the death of the Bohemian Church-reformer, a controversy on this subject arose. . . . John of Přibram, an intimate friend of Hus, wrote: ‘It is well known to many that when preaching Master John Hus said that he would not defend any error of Wycliffe, or of anyone else. He also preached: “If Wycliffe is in heaven, may he pray to God for us; if he is in purgatory, may God help him; if he is in hell the Lord be blessed.” Also in Constance before his death Hus said openly before all: “Why do you blame me because of Wycliffe? What concern is it of mine? For neither was Wycliffe a Bohemian, nor was he my father; he was an Englishman; therefore if he wrote errors, let the English answer for them.”’”
- ↑ “Die Wycliffitisch-symbolische Auffassung” (Hussiten und Taboriten, p. 85).
