§ 44. JOHN HUSS OF BOHEMIA. 359
golden era of its literary and religious history. tn_1344».jtli^ archbishopric of Prag was created, and the year 1347 witnessed an event of far more than local importance in the founding of ^the University of Prag^. The first of the German universities, it was forthwith to enter upon the era of its brightest fame. The Czech and German languages were spoken side by side in the city, which was divided, at the close of the 14th century into five quarters. The Old Town, inhabited chiefly by Germans, included the Teyn church, the Carolinum, the Bethlehem chapel and the ancient churches of St. Michael and St. Gallus. Under the first archbishop of Prag, Arnest of Pardubitz, and his successor Ocko of Wlaschim, a brave effort was made to correct ecclesiastical abuses. In 1355, the demand for popular instruction was recognized by a law requiring parish priests to preach in the Czech. The popular preachers, Konrad of Waldhausen, d. 1369, Militz of Kremsier, d. 1374, and Matthias of Janow, d. 1394, made a deep impression. They quoted at length from the Scriptures, urged the habit of frequent communion, and Janow, as reported by Rokyzana at the Council of Basel, 1433, seems to have administered the cup to the laity. 1 When John Huss entered upon his career in the university, he was breathing the atmosphere generated by these fervent evangelists, although in his writings he nowhere quotes them.
Close communication between England and Bohemia had? been established with the marriage of the Bohemian king Wen^ zel's sister, Anne of Luxemburg, to Richard II., 1382. She was a princess of cultivated tastes, and had in her possession copies of the Scriptures in Latin, Czech and German. Before this nuptial event, the philosophical faculty of the University of Prag, in 1367, ordered its bachelors to add to the instructions of its own professors the notebooks of Paris and Oxford doctors. Here and there a student sought out the English university, or even went so far as the Scotch St. Andre^vs. Among th^se who studied in Oxford was Jerome of Prag. Thus a
1 The truth of Rokyzana's statement is denied by Loserth, in Herzog, VIII. 588 sq. On other Bohemian preachers of Huss' day, see Flajshans, Serm. de Sanctis, p. iv.
360 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1204-1517.
bridp;-e for tlie transmission of intellectual products was laid
from WycllTri Irrturn hnll tn the napitai on the MoidauT^ Wyclifs views and -^lYritincrs wpre known in Bohemia at an early date. In 1381 a learned Bohemian theologian,^icolas Biceps, was acquainted with his leading principles and made them a subject of attack. Huss, in his I'cply to tlie English Carmelite, John Stokes, 1411, declared that he and the menil)ers of the university had had Wyclif's writings in their liands and been readni!> tlieiii for 20 years and mnreT^TH'velfnpiRs are extant of these writings, made in Huss' own hand, 1398. They were carried away in the Thirty Years' War and are preserved in the Royal Library of Stockholm.
John Huss was born of Czech parents, 1369,. at Husinec jn Southern Bohemiti, The word Hus means goose^ and its distinguished bearer often applied the literal meaning to himself. For example, he wrote from Constance expressing the hope that the Goose might be delivered from prison, and he bade the Bohemians, " if they loved the Goose," to secure the king's aid in having him released. Friends also referred to him in the same way.^ His parents were poor and, during his studies in the University of Frag, he supported himself by singing and manual services. He took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1393 and of divinity a year later. In 1396 he incepted as master of arts, and in 1398 began delivering lectures in the university. In 1402 he was chosen rector, filling the office for six months.
With his academic duties Huss combined the activity of a preacher, and in 1402 was appointed to the rectorship of the
1 See Loserth, Wiclifand Hus, p. 70. Wenzel or Wenceslaus IV., surnamed the Lazy, was the son of Charles IV. Ilis second wife was Sophia of Bavaria. His half-brother, Sigismuiid, succeeded him on the throne.
2 Flajshans : Serin, lie Sanctis, p. xxi. Niirnb. ed., I. 136.
3 Workman : IIus' Letters, pp. 94, 118, 163, 189, 192, 198, 201. The spelling, Hus, almost univensally adopted in recent years by German and En,u:lish writers, has been exchanged by Loserth in his art. in Herzog for Huss, as a form more congenial to the German mode of spelling. For the same reason this volume has adopted the form Huss as more agreeable to the English reader's eye and more consonant with our mode of spelling. Karl Miiller adopts this .spelling in his Kirchengeschichte. The exact date of Huss' birth is usually given as July (Jth, 1309, but with insufficient authority. Loserth, Widif and Hus, p. 0.') S(i.