Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/534

 g^g THE HUSSITES. the Brethren of the Free Spirit. A stranger, said to come from Flanders, whose name, '' Pichardus," shows evidently that he was a Beghard, disseminated the doctrine of the Brethren, and among other things that nakedness was essential to purity, which we have seen was one of the extravagances of the sect. The prac- tice was one which in a more settled state of society could not have been ventured on, but in Bohemia he found little difficulty in obtaining quite a large following of both sexes, with whom he settled on an island in the river Luznic, and dignified them with the name of Adamites. Perhaps they might have flourished un- disturbed had not fanaticism, or possibly retahation for aggres- sion, led them to make a foray on the mainland and slay some two' hundred peasants, whom they styled children of the devil. Ziska's attention being thus drawn to them, he captured the isl- and and exterminated them. Fifty of them, men and women, were burned at Klokot, and those who escaped were hunted down and gradually shared the same fate, which they met with un- daunted cheerfulness, laughing and singing as they went to the st'ike ^ In the sudden removal of ecclesiastical repression of free thouo-ht it was inevitable that unbalanced minds should riot m extravagant speculation. Among the zealots who subsequently developed into the sect of the Taborites there was at first a strong tendency to apocalyptic prophecy suited to the times. -F'l^t, there was to be a period of unsparing vengeance, during which safety could be found only in five specified cities of refuge, after which would follow the second advent of Christ, and the reign of peace and love among the elect, and earth would become a paradise At first, the destruction of the wicked was to be the work ot God, but as passions became fiercer it was held to be the duty of the righteous to cut them off without sparing. These Ohiii- asts or Millenarians had for their leader Martin Huska, surnamed Loquis, on account of his eloquence, and numbered among them Coranda and other prominent Taborite priests. Waldensian in- fluence is visible in some features of their faith, and they rendered themselves peculiarly obnoxious by the denial of transubstantia- . Palacky, Beziehungen, pp. 20-l.-^n. Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c. 41.-DU- bravii Hist. Bohem. Lib. 27.