Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/352

 language—should be mentioned. Of Latin works the treatise De Ecclesia, one of Hus’s best known but least original books, belongs to this time. Though Dr. Flajshans has named this period the apostolic one in distinction from the previous polemical one, controversial writings abound at this period also. Hus, indeed, “was ever a fighter.” Of such controversial writings the treatises Contra Palec, Contra Stanislaum de Znoyma, Contra octo doctores, Contra praedicatorem Plznensem are the most important. The last period, which Dr. Flajshans has not very felicitiously called the apologetic one, comprises the time from Hus’s departure for Constance to his death. This period is naturally not fertile in literary productions; but it is to this period that belong the Constance Letters, the most precious memorial of Hus that we possess.

As is proved by contemporary writings, the tragical death, or as the Bohemians deemed it, the martyrdom of Hus, was immediately considered an event of the highest importance in all Europe. The subsequent Hussite wars, in which almost the whole of Europe was arrayed against Bohemia, naturally spread the fame of the master yet further. Portraits of Hus must, therefore, have been numerous from an early time. It is none the less certain that no existent portrait can lay claim to be an authentic representation of the Bohemian reformer. It is needless to say that the many portraits of the master which have appeared almost continuously since his death have great historical interest. In Bohemia, where everything connected with Hus is still a matter of the greatest interest, a considerable literature on the subject of Hus’s appearance has recently sprung up. It is here sufficient to state that the portraits of Hus belong to two types that are entirely different. Generally, though not absolutely, it may be stated that the older portraits represent Hus beardless, and the newer ones with a large beard. The oldest representations are found in the illustrated editions of Richenthal’s chronicle, and they represent Hus as being without a beard. It is, however, obvious