engage in temporal affairs; yet as there were improvident and careless laymen, they would not judge or condemn a priest who, inspired by the Divine Spirit, established peace and order among secular men, thus assuming functions which laymen had proved incapable of exercising. They were also sure that there were no priests among them who would not gladly renounce such functions if it were possible for them to do so. With regard to the use of vestments, the last point which Rokycan had raised, the Táborites maintained the views which they had previously held. They said that concerning mass and Communion, certain matters were essential, these were the necessary materials, bread and wine, the ritual words at the moment of consecration, and the presence of a lawfully ordained priest, who had the intention of celebrating mass; other matters—and this referred specially to the vestments of the priests—could be observed or neglected without incurring sin in either case.[1] The priests of the Orphans then expounded their views, which were intermediate between those of the Praguers and those of the Táborites.[2] Their statements, however, appear to have been considered unimportant, and are hardly mentioned by the contemporary writers. When reading the authentic statements expounding the views of the different Hussite parties, it is impossible not to be struck by the comparative moderation of the opinions expressed. It is certain that the Hussite parties, intending to appear jointly before the universal council of the Church, endeavoured to attenuate the differences which existed between them as to matters of ritual and doctrine. It is also certain that during the whole period of the Hussite wars there were many fanatics holding views that differed widely from those recorded above. Yet every Bohemian, to whatever branch of Christianity he
- ↑ I have founded my account of these discussions on the “Chronicon Taboritarum” (Höfler, Geschichtsschreiber, etc., Vol. II. pp. 475–480).
- ↑ “The Orphans on some points agreed with the masters of Prague, on others opposed them in union with the Táborites” (“Scriptores rerum Bohemicarum,” Vol. III. p. 80).
