Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/582

 566 '^HE HUSSITES. Much ill-feeling was generated, until, in 1495, at the Synod of Eeichenau, there was mutual forgiveness and a moderation of the rules. Yet two of the puritan leaders, Jacob of Wodnan and Amos of Stekna, refused to accept the compromise, and founded the sect known as Amosites, or the Little Party, which maintained a separate existence for forty-six years. "^ During this period the Brethren had been subjected to repeated and severe persecution. Sometimes driven for refuge to the moun- tain and forest, whence they earned the name of Jamnici, or cave- dwellers, they counted their roll of martyrs who had testified in the dungeon or at the stake to the strength of their convictions. Yet the httle band steadily grew. In the year 1500 it was deemed necessary to increase the number of bishops to four. In Bohemia and Moravia they counted between three hundred and four hun- dred churches with nearly two hundred thousand members. There were few villages and scarce any towns in which they were not to be found, and they had powerful protectors among the nobihty, who, by the enslavement of the peasants in 1487, had become practically independent and able to shelter them during periods of persecution. The Brethren were active in education and in the use of the press. Every parish had its school, and there were higher institutions of learning, especially at Jungbunzlau and Li- tomysl. Of the six Bohemian printing-offices they possessed three, while the Catholics had but one and the Calixtins two. Of the sixty books issued in Bohemia between 1500 and 1510, fifty were printed by the Brethren.f From this period until the death of Ladislas, in 1516, they were subjected to intermittent but severe persecution, especially in Bo- hemia. Ladislas, in his wiU, left instructions for their extermina- tion " for the sake of his soul's salvation and of the true faith ;" but the minority of his son Louis, only ten years old, the breaking- out of disturbances, and the feuds between Catholic and Calixtin brought them peace. The exiled pastors returned, the churches were reopened, and public service was resumed. With the rise of Lutheranism and the negotiations between the Bohemians and t Hist. Persecut.Eccles. Bohem. pp. 63-66, 73-4.-Ripoll III. 577.— Camerarii Hist. Frat. Orthod. pp. 104-22.— De Schweinitz, op. cit. 170, 225-6.— Von Zez- schwitz, Real-Encyklop. H. 656-7, 660.
 * De Schweinitz, op. cit. pp. 122-7, 172-5, 180-1.