IV. THE CONFESSIONS OF BOHEMIA, POLAND, AND HUNGARY.
§ 72. The Bohemian Brethern and the Waldenses.
Literature.
Franz Palacky (Historiographer of the Kingdom of Bohemia): Geschichte von Böhmen grösstentheils nach Urkunden und Handschriften. Prag. (1836 sqq.), 3d ed. 1864 sqq. 5 vols. (the 5th vol. comes down to 1526). The same: Documenta Mag. Joannis Hus, vitam, doctrinam, causam in Constantiensi Concilio actam . . . illustrantia. Prag. 1869 (mostly from unpublished sources). The same: Die Vorläufer des Hussitenthums in Böhmen. Prag. 1869 (new ed.). The same: Urkundliche Beiträge zur Geschichte des Hussitenkrieges. 1873, 2 vols. Palacky was a descendant of the Bohemian Brethren, and is the best authority on Bohemian history. He died May 27, 1876.
Jos. Alex. von Helfert: Hus und Hieronymus. Prag. 1853.
Anton Gindely: Böhmen und Mähren im Zeitalter der Reformation. Prag. 1857, 1858, 2 vols. (containing the History of the Bohemian Brethren from 1450-1609). The same: Quellen zur Geschichte der Böhm. Brüder, in Fontes Rerum Austriacarum, Vol. XIX. Wien, 1859. Gindely is a Roman Catholic, but kindly disposed to the Bohemian Brethren, and thoroughly at home in their literature.
Chr. Ad. Pescheck: Geschichte der Gegenreformation in Böhmen. Leipzig, 1850, 2d ed. 2 vols.
E. H. Gillett (d. 1875, in New York): Life and Times of John Huss; or, The Bohemian Reformation of the 15th Century. Boston, 1864, 2d ed. 2 vols., 3d ed. 1871.
W. Berger: Joh. Hus und Kaiser Sigmund. Augsb. 1871.
L. Krummel: Utraquisten und Taboriten. Gotha, 1871.
Fr. von Bezold: König Sigmund und die Reichskriege gegen die Husiten. 1872. By the same: Zur Geschichte des Husitenthums. München, 1874.
Jaroslav Goll: Quellen und Untersuchwngen zur Geschichte der Böhmischen Brüder. Prag, 1878 (I.).
HUS [1073] AND THE HUSSITES.
The reformation in the Kingdom of Bohemia (now a political division of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), began with John Hus and Jerome of Prague, who were influenced by the doctrines of Wycliffe, and who carried with them the greater part of the population, the Slavic Czechs. They were condemned by the oecumenical Council of Constance as heretics, and burned at the stake, the former July 6, 1415, the latter May 30, 1416. But their martyrdom provoked the Husite wars which would have resulted in the triumph of the Husites, had not internal divisions broken their strength.
The followers of Hus were, from 1420, divided into two parties, the conservative Calixtines, so called from their zeal for the chalice (calix) of the laity, or Utraquists (communio sub utraque specie), and the radical Taborites, so named from a steep mountain which their blind but brave and victorious leader, Ziska (d. 1424), fortified and called Mount Tabor. The Calixtines accepted the compromise of communion in both kinds, which the Council of Basle offered to them (1433), and mostly returned to the Roman Church. The Taborites rejected all compromise with the hated papal Antichrist, and demanded a thorough reformation, but they were defeated by the allied Romanists and Calixtines near Prague, 1434, and subdued by George Podiebrad, 1453.
THE BOHEMIAN BRETHERN.
From this time the Taborites disappeared as a party, but from their remnants arose, about 1457, a new and a more important sect, the Unitas Fratrum (Jednota bratrská), as they called themselves, or the Bohemian Brethren. [1074] They adhered to the rigid discipline of the Taborites, but were free from their fanaticism and violence. They endeavored to reproduce, in peaceful retirement from the world, the simplicity and spirituality of the Apostolic Church as they understood it. They held to the Bohemian version of the Bible revised by Hus [1075] as their only standard of faith and conduct. They rejected worldly amusements, oaths, military service, and capital punishment; they opposed the secular power of the clergy, and denounced the Pope of Rome as Antichrist. At first they received the sacraments from Calixtine and Romish priests who joined them.
In 1467 they effected an independent organization at a synodical meeting held in the village of Lhota, which was attended by about fifty members, priests and laymen, scholars and peasants, under the lead of Michael, formerly a Catholic priest. After praying and fasting, they elected by lot (Acts i. 26) three priests out of their number, and laid hands on them. Then they were all solemnly rebaptized. But not satisfied with this independent reconstruction of the Church, they sought regular ordination from a Waldensian bishop, Stephen of Austria, who was reported to have been ordained by a Roman bishop in 1434, and who afterwards suffered martyrdom in Vienna. Stephen ordained Michael; Michael ordained Matthias of Kunwald, and then, laying down his dignity, asked to be ordained afresh by Matthias, who was the first of the three elected by lot, and significantly bore the name of the supplementary apostle. This shows the vacillation of the Brethren between Presbyterianism and Episcopacy, as well as between radical independency and historical conservatism. [1076] But they retained, or meant to retain, an unbroken succession of the episcopate, and transmitted it afterwards to the Moravian Church. [1077]
The Brethren were cruelly persecuted; many were tortured and burned; others fled to neighboring Moravia, where for a short season they were unmolested. In the beginning of the sixteenth century they numbered in Bohemia about 200,000 members with 400 parishes. They had three printing establishments in 1519, while the Romanists had only one, and the Utraquists two. They made valuable contributions to evangelical hymnology. Their most fruitful author was Lucas of Prague (d. 1528), who did more for the organization of the society than its founder Gregor, and wrote over eighty books. [1078]