TER XXIII.

JOHN HUSS.

A.D. 1369-1414.

It would seem that after a time Wyclif's opinions almost died out in
England. But meanwhile they, or opinions very like them, were eagerly
taken up in Bohemia. If we look at the map of Europe, we might think
that no country was less likely than Bohemia to have anything to do with
England; for it lies in the midst of other countries, far away from all
seas, and with no harbours to which English ships could make their way.
And besides this, the people are of a different race from any that have
ever settled in this country, or have helped to make the English nation,
and their language has no likeness to ours. But it so happened that
Richard II. of England married the Princess Anne, granddaughter of the
blind king who fell at Cressy, and daughter of the emperor Charles IV.,
who usually lived in Bohemia. And when Queen Anne of England died, and
the Bohemian ladies and servants of her court went back to their own
country, they took with them some of Wyclif's writings, which were
readily welcomed there; for some of the Bohemian clergy had already
begun a reform in the Church, and Wyclif's name was well known on
account of his writings of another kind.

Among those who thus became acquainted with Wyclif's opinions was a
young man named John Huss. He had been an admirer of Wyclif's
philosophical works; but when he first met with his reforming books, he
was so little taken with them that he wished they were thrown into the
Moldau, the river which runs through Prague, the chief city of Bohemia.
But Huss soon came to think differently, and heartily took up almost all
Wyclif's doctrines.

Huss made many enemies among the clergy by attacking their faults from
the pulpit of a chapel called Bethlehem, where he was preacher. He was,
however, still so far in favour with the archbishop of Prague, that he
was employed by him, together with some others, to inquire into a
pretended miracle, which drew crowds of pilgrims to seek for cures at a
place called Wilsnack, in the north of Germany. But he afterwards fell
out of favour with the archbishop who had appointed him to this work,
and he was still less liked by later archbishops.

From time to time some doctrines which were said to be Wyclif's were
condemned at Prague. Huss usually declared that Wyclif had been wrongly
understood, and that his real meaning was true and innocent. But at
length a decree was passed that all Wyclif's books should