Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/365

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THE HUSSITE WARS
343

repetition of the other stipulations contained in the compacts. The seventh and eighth articles declared that the Bohemian Church recognised the seven sacraments, and declared that the holy mass should be celebrated in the form accepted by the Catholic Church. Articles nine, ten, and eleven sanctioned fasting according to the regulations of the Catholic Church, declared that priests should be tonsured and should wear a distinctive clothing, and forbade priests to receive remuneration for the exercise of religious functions. Further articles maintained the existence of purgatory, as taught by the Catholic Church, exhorted the priests to read Scripture diligently and to use the national language in the religious services as far as possible. The eighteenth article sanctioned the veneration of the saints and prayers to them for their intercession, but severely forbade the rendering to them of that worship which is due to God alone. The last article declared that the Bohemian Church, conforming to Scripture, would render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and formulated theories that appear very advanced for that period. The reader would almost think that the theory of a “free Church in a free state” was advocated, did he not also read that “the transgressors against God’s law must be punished more severely than those who transgress the laws of men.” Rokycan’s theories, of which it has here been only possible to give a mere outline, are of great. interest, as they to a great extent indicate the views which the Bohemian Church adopted up to its final destruction in 1620. It is true that in the last years previous to that date German Lutheranism had a considerable influence on the Bohemian Utraquists. It is not surprising that the extreme moderation of Rokycan’s view displeased the Táborite divines, but it is less easily explicable that the faction of the Utraquists led by Magister Přibram, which was nearest to Rome in its teaching, also raised objections. Both the Táborites and the doctors of the university, who followed Přibram, formulated their objections in written statements. The assembly then separated