Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/175

72 Chelc̄icky̍ gave considerable thought and attention to one of the most important and spectacular events of Christendom in his age, the Council of Basel. Out of ninety-five chapters of his   he devotes full fifteen chapters to the Basel proceedings. Needless to say, he is very disappointed in the display of power and ecclesiastical hypocrisy so manifest at Basel. He is scandalized at the pharisaic ratiocinations profferred by high church dignitaries in the name of Christian truth. The Council may have repeatedly pronounced that the Holy Spirit was presiding over it, but Chelc̄icky̍ saw nothing in it but the work of the devil himself:

He took to task especially the Papal Auditor Juan Palomar, one of the chief opponents of the Hussite position, and the Parisian professor of theology Giles Charlier, who had several public disputations with the Taborite Bishop Nicholas A.D. 1431–1449.

Chaps. XIII–XVIII, LXVIII–LXXII, LXXVII–LXXX.

Chap.XIII, p.70*

Chap.XIII, p.63*,n.1.