THE MARTYR OF BOHEMIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3006, 25 October 1911, Page 88

THE MARTYR OF BOHEMIA.

By Jessie Mackay.

An old volume of "Good Words" is open before me, bringing back the palmy days of Norman Macleod in the midVictorian time, when plain words and high thoughts were in fashion. The yellow pages open at an article describing the Huss Festival in Bohemia, and one idly and curiously catches at the title. Huss?—a name that floats nebulously through the mists of five hundred years, and yet'men were celebrating his birthday so late as 40 years ago—celebrating it with earnest-- declamation, solemn procession, while the forces of clerical bigotry that destroyed the body of John Huss so long ago were still actively banning his memory in death. Who was this prcto-reformer of the fifteenth. century, and why does Bohemia still honour his name? John Huss was born in the little town of Hussiwies in 1369. His parents were of humble birth but easy circumstances — they seem to have been of pure Czech birth, otherwise Bohemian Slavs, ' so the young "Jan" Avas a true representative of his earnest and eloquent countrymen. According to mediaeval fashion (and Biblical, for that matter) to took his surname from his native town. He received every educational advantage, and while yet young received preferment in the Church. His energies found a congenial outlet in . teaching, and the Bohemian capital was not slow to learn his worth, so that lie was speedily promoted to .toe rector of Prague University. His position and hi® growing fame as a scholar and theologian brought him into cordial relations with the Court and the chief men of the.kingdom. He was to Prague a foreshadowing of what Calvin •beoaime to Geneva. But the far greater religious freedom that had been enjoyed in Bohemia gave him that standing in his native land which French bigotry denied to Calvin. Had Bohemia continued on her peaceful way, Huss had lived and died honoured by all men. But as years passed she .became the object of the ambition of 'Sigismund of Hungary, afterwards Emperor, and in the intrigues and contentions that followed, the run of Huss was ultimately accomplished by the Papal party. Huss was by nature no schismatic ; he was only for reform. Had Rome put her house in order then there would have been no martyrs in Prague and no Luther to take up their work a century later, to Pome's undoing. . As. it was, Huss enjoyed the support of the national clerical party in his first and successful campaign of reform. The writings of Wickliffe, dead for nearly a generation past, had penetrated to the schools of the Continent, and nowhere found more attentive readers than in Bohemia .and its sister State, Moravia, largely owing to the faithful teaching of Huss. It was the infhience of Wickliffe that helped him to make a stand against the specious asurdities and abuses of pilgrimmage rift in that part of Europe in the fifteenth century—abuses of precisely the same kind as those which drove Luther to action first. With the helr> of his brother clerics he effectually put down the mercenary miraele-mongers in his own country. Soon the tale was taken to Rome, and every pressure was brought upon the King of Bohemia to silence him. After a time he had to withdraw from his public ministrations ;_ but his retirement only gave him time to write books, which spread reform ideas more widely. Finally Sigismund, now the most powerful Sovereign in Germany, cited him to appear before a religious council at Constance in 1414, promising him safe conduct. Huss put his affairs in order and obeyed the summons, though with clear premonitions of the "safety" promised him. Arrived at Constance", the net was soon drawn round him. He was arrested, put on trial without counsel, and finally condemned to die at the stake unless he abjured the doctrines of Wickliffe and recanted his former teachings. But the "pale, thin man in mean attire" who faced these fierce persecutors was of the true martyr stuff, and prepared for his frightful end with noble fortitude. "In the truth of _ that gospel which I have preached, written, and taught, I now joyfully die." In 1415, .the year of Agincourt, John Huss was burnt at Constance. His ashes were flung into the Rhine. But the earth that denied him burial was cursed with much blood for his sake, and Sigismund was punished for his broken .safe conduct by 16 years of war. during which he lost many battles, though a compromise gave him partial victory at last. All Bohemia was stirred to wrath by the death of its beloved teacher. A fight began between the national party and the Papal party. The latteir succeeded in burning Jerome of Prague, Huss's follower, in the same year; but all Bohemia was in arms over the quarrel. Two divisions of Hussites were united in opposing Sigismund, and put themselves under the brave and devoted John Zizka, who led them for nine years. After his death they continued the struggle under other leaders, till Sigismund ratified a treaty doing away with the most flagrant clerical abuses. The more conservative Hussites, the Calixtines, as they were ( called, then settled doAvn among the I Orthodox Catholics, while the more ad-

vanoed wing, generally called Taborites, from "Mount Tabor," Zizka's principal fortress, identified themselves finally with a quiet and gentle but courageous body that first cam© into notice about 1457. These were the far-famed Moravian Brethren, who share with the W a Menses the glory of being the most zealous missionary church in Europe. In this famous sect the spirit of Hues still lingered for ages, blessing both Moravia and the regions beyond.

It is somewhat difficult to define Hues"* bsliefs. They could scarcely have been what we mow. call "Protestant" in all points. But his influence on his time was wholly for good, and it has 'been truly said of this great Bohemian martyr that "he was the chief intermediary in handing on from Wickliffe to Luther the torch that kindled the Reformation."