Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/536

 520 THE HUSSITES. tion. These four articles were speedily accepted by the strongly Cahxtin community of Prague, and were proclaimed to the world in various forms which added to their completeness and rendered their purport definite. Any one was declared a heretic who did not accept the Apostles', Athanasian, and Mcene creeds, the seven sacraments of the Church, and the existence of purgatory. Offences against the law of God Avere declared to be worthy of death, both of the offender and those who connived at them, and were defined to be, among the people, fornication, banqueting, theft, homicide, perjury, lying, arts superfluous, deceitful, and superstitious, avarice, usury, etc. : among the clergy, simoniacal exactions, such as fees for administering the sacraments, for preach- ing, burying, bell-ringing, consecration of churches and altars, as. well as the sale of preferment ; also concubinage and fornication, quarrels, vexing and spoiling the people with frivolous citations, greedy exactions of tribute, etc.* Upon this basis the Cahxtin Church proceeded to organize itself in a council held at Prague in 1421. Four leading doctors, John of Przibram, Procopius of Pilsen, Jacobel of Mies, and John of [N^euberg, were made supreme governors of the clergy through- out the kingdom, with absolute power of punishment. No one was to teach any new doctrine without first submitting it to them or to a provincial synod. Transubstantiation was emphatically affirmed as well as the seven sacraments. The daily use of the Eucharist was recommended to all, including infants and the sick. The canon of the mass was simplified and restored to primitive usage. Auricular confession was prescribed, as well as the use of the chrism and of holy water in baptism. Clerks were to be distinguished by tonsure, vestments, and conduct. Every priest was to possess a copy of the Scriptures, or at least of the New Testament, and stringent regulations were adopted for the pres- ervation of priestly morahty, including the prohibition of their protection by any layman after conviction. f Thus the Calixtin Church kept as close as possible to the old — Epistt. Ixvi. Ixvii. (Jo. Hus Monument. I. 82-4).— Laur. Byzyn. Diar. (Lude- wig VI. 175-81). t Conciliab. Pragens. ann. 1421 (Hartzheim V. 199-201). Cf. Johann. de Przibram Profess. Cath. Fidei (Cochlaei Hist. Hussit. pp. 501 sqq.).
 * JEgid. Carlerii Lib. de Legation. (Mon. Cone. Gen. Saec. XV. T. L p. 389).