Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/107

38 Peter: he set himself apart from the national revolution and from the great struggles within the Hus site movement, concentrating all his efforts on the purification of the spiritual revolution started by John Hus. After his withdrawal to Chelc̄ice he began his life mission to "enshrine his thoughts in works which rank among the most precious treasures of Czech literature." In all of them, regardless of their topic, he kept on reminding the followers of Hus that they cannot bring about the Kingdom of Heaven as long as a hell of hatred burned within their hearts.

In all of his writings we recognize his great debt to the men he admired, Wyclif, Hus, and S̄ti̍tny̍. But he goes further than any of these. In accordance with the Waldensian teachings, Chelc̄icky̍ proclaimed that the taking of life in any form, even in war, was sin, and that whoever killed a man in battle was guilty of "hideous murder." vol.VIII: "The Close of the Middle Ages," Cambridge: University Press, 1936, p.87.

The problem of the Waldensian influence on Chelc̄icky̍ is still a moot question. According to some writings, Peter Waldo, on account of the persecution of the Waldensians in southern France and Northern Italy, went to Bohemia with his Viveto in A.D.1212. If tradition attributes his death to have occurred in 1218, that means that he must have spent six active years in Bohemia and Moravia. Furthermore, tradition names Kla̍s̄ter near Nova̍ Bystr̄ice, in the district of Jindr̄ichūv Hradec (Neuhaus) in southern Bohemia, as Waldo's burial place. Chelc̄ice, where Chelc̄icky̍ was probably born 170 years later, is barely 50 miles west of Kla̍s̄ter. Jean Jalla,, Geneva: Labor, 1934, pp.78–80. Johann Martinū,, Vienna: Kirsch, 1910. See also Gindely's and Goll's books in the bibliography.