what his spiritual value is time will tell. Holy Church can
always afford to wait.

John Hus has just been mentioned. He passes before us in the pageant of
the Charles Bridge. Wenceslaus IV knew this fervent soul who came up to
Prague from his humble home in Southern Bohemia, and arrived at his M.A.
degree in 1396, eventually to become Rector of the University. It is
possibly indirectly through Wenceslaus that Hus became acquainted with
the writings and teachings of Wycliffe. Wenceslaus frequently
corresponded on the subject of Church Reform, on the recognition of
Urban VI as Pope, and other cognate matters, with his brother-in-law,
Richard II of England, and no doubt sister Anne added a line to her
husband's letters. Now Anne, we know, had already been deeply impressed
by Wycliffe's teaching; his writings had been known and treasured in
Prague for some time. John Hus had certainly studied them, and he was an
ardent advocate of Church Reform. We also find that he had a friend in
that long-suffering Queen Sophie, wife of Wenceslaus; he was even for a
time her father-confessor. We see John Hus pass on his way through the
storms of controversy to the pyre at which he perished by the
faithlessness of an Emperor, Sigismund, younger brother of Wenceslaus,
and also some time King of Bohemia. Then again we see the fire that
destroyed John Hus's body at Constance reflected time and again,
angrily, in the waters of the Vltava; the Hussites were out and, as we
have seen, were destroying by fire. So we see the Bishop's palace in
flames, the Church of "St. Mary under the Chain," and many of the old
houses on the Mala Strana. The same fate, but not by the same agents,
befell the old Gothic tower you see standing up above that quaint
congerie of buildings below you as you look upstream at the Old Town end
of the bridge. Here is the old water tower dating back through many
vicissitudes to 1489, and below it are the buildings of the Old Town
mill, which are also of venerable age.

Religious dissensions, strife and turmoil, marked the days when
Sigismund reigned over Bohemia and also the Holy Roman Empire; there
were at one time three rival Emperors, also three Popes, a state of
affairs not conducive to the world's welfare; and Prague suffered
accordingly. Strange scenes must have been reflected in the Vltava in
those stormy times, as the pageant of the history of Prague crossed the
Charles Bridge. One day, to the beating of drums, a b