RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Huss
II. The Hussites: The arrest of Huss had excited considerable resentment in Bohemia and Moravia.
In both countries the estates appealed
i. Effect repeatedly and urgently to Sigismund
in Bohemia to deliver Huss. On the arrival of the
of the Death news of his death disturbances broke
of Huss. out which were directed at first against
the clergy, especially against the monks. Even the archbishop saved himself with difficulty from the rage of the populace. In the country places conditions were not much better. Everywhere the treatment of Huss was felt as a disgrace inflicted upon the whole country, and his death was looked upon as a criminal act. King Wenceslaus, prompted by his grudge against Sigismund, at first gave free vent to his indignation at the course of events in Constance; and his wife openly favored the friends of Huss. Pronounced Hussites stood at the head of the government. A league was formed by certain lords who pledged themselves to protect the free preaching of the Gospel upon all their possessions and estates, and to obey the power of the bishops only in case their orders accorded with the injunctions of the Bible. In disputed points the decision of the university should be resorted to. The entire Hussite nobility joined the league, and if the king had entered it, its resolutions would have received the sanction of the law; but he refused, and approached the Roman Catholic league of lords, which was now formed, the members pledging themselves to cling to the king, the Roman Church, and the Council. Signs of the outbreak of a civil war began to show themselves. Pope Martin V., who, while still Cardinal Otto of Colonna, had attacked Huss with relentless severity, energetically resumed the battle against Hussism after the enactments of the Council of Constance. He intended to eradicate completely the doctrine of Huss. For this purpose the cooperation of King Wenceslaus had to be obtained. In 1418 Sigismund succeeded in winning his brother over to the standpoint of the council by pointing out the inevitableness of a religious war if the heretics in Bohemia found further protection. Hussite statesmen and army leaders had to leave the country, and Roman priests were reinstituted. These measures caused a general commotion which hastened the death of Wenceslaus by a paralytic stroke in 1419. His heir was Sigismund.
Hussism had organized itself during the years 1415-1419. From the beginning two parties were
found: the closer adherents of Huss
2. Two clung to his standpoint, leaving the
Parties in whole hierarchical and liturgical order
Bohemia, of the Church untouched; the radical
party identified itself more boldly with the doctrines of Wyclif, shared his passionate hatred of the monastic clergy, and, like him, attempted to lead the Church back to its condition during the time of the apostles, which necessitated the removal of the existing hierarchy and the secularization of ecclesiastical possessions. The radicals among the Hussites sought to translate their theories into reality; they preached the suffieientia legis Christi — only the divine law (i.e., the Bible) is the rule and canon for man, and that not only in ecclesiastical
matters, but also in political and civil matters. They rejected therefore, as early as 1416, everything that has no basis in the Bible, as the adoration of saints and pictures, fasts, superfluous holidays, the oath, intercession for the dead, auricular confession, indulgences, the sacraments of confirmation and extreme unction, admitted laymen and women to the preacher's office, chose their own priests. But before everything they clung to Wyclif's doctrine of the Lord's Supper, denying transubstantiation, and this is the principal point by which they are distinguished from the moderate party.
The program of the more conservative Hussites
is contained in the four articles of Prague, which
were agreed upon in July, 1420, and
3. The Four promulgated in the Latin, Czech, and Articles German languages: (1) Freedom in
of Prague, preaching; (2) communion in both kinds; (3) reduction of the clergy to apostolic poverty; (4) severe punishment of all open sins.
The views of the moderate Hussites were represented at the university and among the citizens of Prague; therefore they were called
4. Calixtines the Prague party; they were also or Utra- called Calixtines or Utraquists, because
quists, and they emphasized the second article, Taborites. and the chalice became their emblem.
The radicals had their gathering-place in the small town of Austie, on the Luschnitz, south of Prague. But as the place was not defensible, they founded a city upon a neighboring hill, which they called Tabor; hence they were called Taborites. They comprised the essential force of Hussism. Their aim was to destroy the enemies of the law of God, and to extend his kingdom by the sword. For the former purpose they waged bloody wars, for the second purpose they established a strict jurisdiction, inflicting the severest punishment not only upon heinous crimes like murder and adultery, but also upon faults like perjury and usury, and tried to apply the conditions required in the law of God to the social relations of the world. The news of the death of King Wenceslaus produced the greatest commotion among the people of
Prague. A revolution swept over the 5. The country; churches and monasteries Hussite were destroyed, and the ecclesiastical Wars. possessions were seized by the Hussite
nobility. Sigismund could get possession of his kingdom only by the power of arms. Martin V. called upon all Christians of the Occident to take up arms against the Hussites, and there followed a twelve-years' war which was carried on by the Hussites at first defensively, but after 1427 they assumed the offensive. Apart from their religious aims, they fought for the national interests of the Czechs. The moderate and radical parties were united and they not only repelled the attacks of the army of crusaders, but entered the neighboring countries.
At last their opponents were forced to think of an amicable settlement. A Bohemian embassy was invited to appear at the council of Basel. The discussions began on Jan. 10, 1432, centering chiefly in the four articles of Prague. No agreement was
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