nown as the forerunners of Huss. Huss, like many of his contemporaries
in Bohemia, wrote both in Bohemian and in Latin. Of the Bohemian
writings of Huss, who contributed greatly to the development of his
native language, the most important is his _Vyklad viry, desatera Boziho
prikazani, a patere_ (exposition of the creed, the ten commandments and
the Lord's Prayer) written in 1412. Of his numerous other Bohemian works
we may mention the _Postilla_ (collection of sermons), the treatises _O
poznani cesty prave k spaseni_ (the true road to salvation) and _O
svatokupectvi_ (on simony), and a large collection of letters; those
written in prison are very touching.

The years that followed the death of Huss formed in Bohemia a period of
incessant theological strife. The anti-Roman or Hussite movement was
largely a democratic one, and it is therefore natural that the national
language rather than Latin should have been used in the writings that
belong to this period. Unfortunately in consequence of the systematic
destruction of all Bohemian writings which took place through the agency
of the Jesuits, after the battle of the White Hill (1620), a large part
of this controversial literature has perished. Thus the writings of the
members of the extreme Hussite party, the so-called Taborites, have been
entirely destroyed. Of the writings of the more moderate Hussites, known
as the Calixtines or Utraquists, some have been preserved. Such are the
books entitled _Of the Great Torment of the Holy Church_ and the _Lives
of the Priests of Tabor_, written in a sense violently hostile to that
community. A Bohemian work by Archbishop John of Rokycan has also been
preserved; it is entitled _Postilla_ and is similar though inferior to
the work of Huss that bears the same name.

A quite independent religious writer who belongs to the period of the
Hussite wars is Peter Chelcicky (born in the last years of the 14th
century, died 1460), who may be called the Tolstoy of the 15th. His
dominant ideas were horror of bloodshed and the determination to accept
unresistingly all, even unjust, decrees of the worldly authorities.
Though a strenuous enemy of the Church of Rome, Chelcicky joined none of
the Hussite parties. His masterpiece is the _Sit viry_ (the net of
faith). Among his other works his _Postilla_ and polemical writings in
the form of letters to Archbishop John of Rokycan and Bishop Nicolas of
Pelhrimov deserve mention.

The Hussite period