ighteous liberality of which others knew nothing. That, however, which
their gentleness would have willingly averted, the violence of their
enemies brought about. The Church of Rome could not, or would not,
depend upon argument. She opposed to the reasoning of the Hussites the
rack and the cord; and Bohemia became, in consequence, the scene of
persecutions,--of which to read the record is at once painful and
humiliating. The martyrdoms of Huss and Jerome were followed by an
universal attack upon those who called them masters; and the priest
with the layman, the wife with her husband, the child with its parent,
sealed their faith with their blood.

From the first dawn of the Reformation in Bohemia, there were among the
Reformers two parties, which came, in course of time, to be
respectively known as the Calixtines and the Taborites. The demands of
the Calixtines were exceeding moderate; they sought only that the cup
should be dispensed to the laity in the communion; that the clergy
should be deprived of secular authority; that the Word of God should be
freely taught; and that sins publicly committed, should, in public, be
reproved. This fourth claim, be it observed, struck at the root of all
that influence which the Romish clergy derived from the practice of
secret and auricular confession; while the third aimed at a remodelling
of the liturgical services, by the substitution of the vernacular for
the Latin language in prayer. Yet were they considered by the Taborites
as coming far short of what the exigencies of the case required. These
latter, indeed, the Covenanters and Puritans of their day, saw nothing
in the Romish church except one mass of corruption. Her rites, her
ceremonies, her polity, her constitution, all were odious in their
eyes; and to hold friendly communication with her, on any subject
whatever, was, according to their view of religion, to bring the
accursed thing into their houses. Accordingly, while the Calixtines
endeavoured to soothe and conciliate, the Taborites rushed to arms; and
under Ziska, their renowned leader, achieved triumphs such as attend
only on the exertions of men whose actuating principle is a strong
religious fanaticism.

The career of Ziska, his ferocity and his zeal, are well known. John
Chevalier von Trocznow and Machowitz (for such was his real name),
enjoyed both rank and fortune in Bohemia; he was nobly born, held large
possessions, and had greatly distinguished himself in wa