Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/149

 them to the archbishop’s palace within six days. Under penalty of the loss of ecclesiastical benefices and of other punishment it was forbidden to maintain or teach the heresies of Wycliffe, particularly those referring to the sacrament of the altar. The archbishop, in agreement with his councillors, further declared that he would in case of need appeal to the secular authority of King Venceslas, and finally reiterated the injunction not to preach in churches other than those belonging to the categories that have already been mentioned.

This step was a fateful one—one of which Zbynek assuredly did not see the importance. All hope of a pacific reformation of the Bohemian Church on the lines indicated by Waldhauser and Milic ended here. The views expressed by Milic and Matthew of Janov differed but little from those of Hus, but the latter, inflamed with holy enthusiasm for the welfare of mankind and imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, was not a man prepared to meekly retract words which he believed to have uttered in accordance with a divine command. He rejected blind obedience when it appeared to him that the authority of the church was used in an unlawful manner, prejudicial to the true interest of the church itself. It was not indeed the defence of Wycliffe’s doctrines that appeared to Hus to have the greatest importance. What in Wycliffe’s works could be authoritatively declared heretical he was ready to reject, though there was much in the teaching of the English divine that attracted him. But the prohibition of preaching in chapels involved a cessation of all attempts to reform the terribly demoralised clergy of Prague. In chapels only and in the Bethlehem chapel in particular free speech could be said to exist. The prohibition also put a term to all attempts on the part of Hus and his disciples to reach the lowly population of the city bv preaching to them in a popular manner and in a language understood by all. Hus considered the prohibition as an indefensible attack on the freedom of God’s word and as a deed opposed to Christ’s own law. This appeared to him a