Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/539

 TABORITES. g^Q cWef honor as the vicars of Christ and enemies of the Holy ite^IiT. '^' ^^""".'r"'-' '"^ '* ^'^"^ '^^ P°^'«°"^. tlie Tabor- tes d d the same. Various special Waldensian errors were attract- ing attention and obtammg currency among the people-the denial of purgatory, the vitiation of the sacrament in sinful hands the absolute rejection of the death-punishment and of the oath-show ing the mfluences at work. The position assumed by the Taborites was so strikingly similar to the beUefs ascribed in 1395 to the Waldenses in Austria by the Celestinian inquisitor, Peter that wiileT'^K T '" '""^'^"'^ '^' °"^^°*i°'^ ''-t--- them. While the Taborites accepted the four articles of the Calixtins ^ey reduced the Church to a state of the utmost apostohcllm phcity. Tradition was whoUy thrown aside; all images were to be burned ; there was no outward sign of distinction between ay' man and priest, the latter wearing beards, rejecting the tonsure and using ordinary garments; all priests, moreover, were WshZ' and could perform the rite of consecration; they blptSd f run! mug water, without the chrism, celebrated mass anywhere re^ mg the simple words of consecration and the Paternoste;7n a loud voice and m the vernacular, administering the body in fraff ments of bread and the blood in any vessel whifh might be handy ■ all consecrations of sacred vessels, oil, and water was forbidden • purgatory, which Huss had accepted, was denied, and to manSt their contempt for the suffrages of the saints the^ ate more than usual on fast-days and saints'-days ; auricular confession was de rided-for vernal sins confession to God sufficed, for mortal ones pubhc confession before the brethren, when the priest would assign a penalty commensurate with the offence. At the same .me the rude and uncultured vigor of the Taborites led them to regard all human learning as a snare. Those who studied the hbera arts were regarded as heathen and as sinning agatst the Gospel, and all writings of the doctors, save what were eTpresllv contained in the Bible, were to be destroyed.f «^Pressly • ^n. Syl™ Hist. Bohem. c. 35; Ejusd. Epist. 130 (0pp. Ed 1571 n fi7R> Pet. Zateeens. Lib. Diurnus (Mon„„.ent. Couc. Gen. S^c XV T I p Jsoi p - c.l. Bituncens. ann. 1432 (Harduin. VIII. 1459).-Goll Quellen n rnf' ^~^°''- ?.ur Geschichte der Bohmischen Briider, I. 106. U- tntersuchungen t GoU, Quellen u. Untersuchuasen 11 40-1 p-o t> •. .. u„en, II. 40-l._Preger, Beitrage zur Geschichte