Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/39

6 If they were asked to name their best theologians, they would point to Berdyaev, Soloviev, and Comenius.

And if the question were, "Who is, among all Slavs, the most original thinker and the most radical Christian?" the consensus of opinion would certainly say, "Peter Chelčický!"

Peter Chelčický, born some time toward the close of the fourteenth century in Southern Bohemia, during the days of John Hus' fame, became the most critical opponent of Romanism as well as of the Hussite Revolution. Relentlessly, he sought the Christian way of life and the hristian answer to the historical, social, economic problems of his time. He did not find it in the Church of Rome nor in the bloody protest against it, Hussitism.

It is customary to speak of two types of Continental Reformation: Calvinist and Lutheran. Yet there is still a third type, waiting for more scientific exploration, the Slav or, specifically, the Czech Reformation. It bears the deep imprint of three prophetic personalities: of John Hus, its protagonist, hero, and martyr; of John Amos Comenius, its philosopher, educator, and theologian; and of Peter Chelčický, its stern prophet, conscience, and climax.