Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/35

 mony to the knowledge of Scripture possessed by the Taborites:—“Pudeat Italiæ sacerdotes, quos ne semel quidem novam legem constat legisse; apud Taboritas vix mulierculam invenias, quæ de novo Testamento et veteri respondere nesciat.”—“Let the priests of Italy be ashamed, who, it is well known, have not even once read the New Law; among the Taborites you can scarcely find a woman who cannot answer questions on the New and Old Testaments.”

Nor will it be altogether uninteresting to add a slight sketch of the origin of these Bohemian Brethren, from whom, after the destruction of Bohemian liberty, the present “Moravians,” or “Herrnhuters,” took their rise. After the forcible suppression of Tabor by George Podiebrad, religious thought was some time before it found itself a home. A great teacher arose in Peter Chelczicky, whose school at Unwald was dispersed, and all congregational assemblies forbidden, while individuals were exposed to the severest persecution. “Yet,” says Palacky,” their number increased, especially among the lower orders, among peasants and tradespeople, though a few noblemen and clergymen joined them; their very danger increased their resolution as well as their prudence. Led by Brother Gregory, they from the first adopted the doctrines of Peter Chelczicky, and made great exertions to free themselves from the suspicion of wishing to follow the example of the Taborites—a violent sect, as it appeared to them, which had missed the path of truth—since, though it understood the law in theory, it dared to transgress it openly in practice. One of the first manifestoes, the ‘Consent on the Mountains of Reichenau,’ (Swoleni na Igrach Rychnowskych,) in 1464, indicated as the object of the union, ‘The abiding in the righteousness which is from God; the leading a virtuous, humble, quiet, self-restrained, patient, and pure life; the holding fast the Christian faith,