RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bohemian
was prepared to build up the Christian community on the principles newly won. The doctrines, which had thus far been formulated but feebly, were now systematized on other foundations, and from these various points of view Lukas developed a noteworthy literary activity. The external existence of the Unity was seriously threatened at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Vladislav, who had tolerated them hitherto, was induced to proceed against them by Bohuslav of Lobkowitz, the foremost representative of Bohemian humanism, who saw the roots of manifold evils in religious disunion. At the same time Alexander VI sent the Dominican Heinrich Institoris to Olmutz as censor of books for Bohemia and Moravia (bull of Feb. 4, 1500), and he, after a fruitless disputation with certain representatives of the Brethren, preached against them with extreme severity. The overtures toward a reconciliation between Rome and the Utraquists (1501) led the latter to make common cause in opposition to the Brethren, and a decree of the king, dated July 5, 1503, forbade all further toleration of the sect in Prague and the royal cities, while the Roman Catholic estates voluntarily enforced this prohibition in their districts. A conference held at Prague between the Utraquistic clergy and some of the Brethren failed to convince the latter of their " errors," nor did a Latin creed given them by the king in 1503 meet with their approval. He was still more incensed at them by two venomous letters of the Olmutz canon Augustine Kasebrot, so that he issued a sharp decree against them in 1507. These decrees, however, could not become valid until accepted by the diet, and Vladislav accordingly proposed a law against the Brethren at the diet convoked on July 25, 1508. This was accepted by the estates and placed on the code, as in force throughout the country. It forbade all public and private gatherings of the "Pickards," and ordered the destruction of all their books and writings, while they were commanded to attend Roman Catholic 1. Op- or Utraquistic churches, their clergy pressive and teachers being prisoners of the Measures king unless they should consent, ot after receiving instruction, to join Vladislav. one of these religious bodies. The
law is said to have been obeyed by all estates until Christmas, and those who still tolerated " Pickards " were mulcted. This measure conditioned the position of the Brethren in Bohemia for almost the entire period of their existence, but the Moravian diet refused to accept it. In 1541 the code was destroyed by a fire at Prague, so that it became necessary to draft the laws anew at following diets. Thereupon the Brethren endeavored to secure the abolition of the law, but in vain; nor was it repealed until an imperial letter of Rudolf II in 1609. It is strikingly suggestive of the political conditions of Bohemia in the sixteenth century, however, that a community which was legally prohibited, like the Brethren, could attain such wide extension and importance. This was possible only because the nobles obeyed the laws as they Pleased, for the king was generally too much occuoied with foreign affairs to be able to insist rigidly
on compliance with his statutes, and in case he did attempt to execute them, he was resisted by a coalition of the estates, who sought to check all growth of the royal power. At first the law was strictly observed, and the Brethren were severely oppressed, their meeting-places being closed, their priests expelled, and imprisonment and even occasional execution serving as deterrent measures. Lukas himself was imprisoned, and was freed only by the death of Vladislav on Mar. 13, 1516. This event lessened the severity of a persecution which had been opposed by some estates from the very beginning. During the reign of Vladislav's son Louis, which marked a further decay of the royal power, the persecution of the Brethren ceased altogether, and the governmental center of the Unity, which had been transferred to Prerau in Moravia during the period of oppression, was again removed to Bohemia, and located at Jungbunzlau, the residence of Lukas. While he was presiding bishop, the Brethren first came into contact with the German Reformation, when Luther learned of their short catechism, of which he seems to have received a German translation in 1521.
Although Luther at first declared himself at least in sympathy with their doctrine of the Lord's Supper, he became estranged from the Brethren after 1524, while their tendency to remain aloof, so far as possible, from the Lutheran movement was strengthened by the vagaries of Gallus Cahera in Prague (1523-29), especially since it
2. Over- resulted in the enforcement by the
tures to diet of the decree of Vladislav (1525). the Prot- The Brethren also sent a fruitless
estants. deputation to Erasmus, apparently in 1520. In the closing years of his life Lukas found himself obliged to break with the Habrovanites or Lultish Brethren in Moravia, who were closely associated with the " small " party, and rejected celibacy, spiritual and temporal authority, and the taking of oaths, in addition to following Carlstadt in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, and wishing to substitute baptism of the spirit for baptism by water. After a fruitless conference, letters were exchanged with considerable frequency for a number of years, while an effort made by the Anabaptists who had emigrated from the Tyrol to Moravia to unite with the Brethren ended in 1528 in a complete schism. Lukas died at Jungbunzlau on Dec. 11, 1528, and was buried in the local house of the Brethren, which had formerly been a monastery. The organization, however, which he had given the Unity remained unchanged until its end.
In principle the supreme judicial power was lodged with the synod, which consisted of all the clergy, although it contained no delegates chosen from the communities. It was, at the same time, the supreme court of appeal, although the chief administrative body, the " Close Council " (uzkd rada), which was composed of some ten members chosen by the synod for life, apparently constituted the real government. The legal relation of the " Close Council " to the synod seems never to have been accurately defined. At the Synod of 1497 the " Close Council " was treated with all submission
Bohemian Bois