Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/54

 he also strongly insists on the necessity of assembling a general council of the church in Rome.

On the arrival of Pope Urban in Rome, Milic was released from prison after he had had an interview with the Cardinal of Albano, and discussed his views with him. The cardinal appears to have acquired considerable influence over Milic. Thenceforth we find that the Bohemian preacher laid less stress on his views concerning the impending advent of Antichrist. The Cardinal of Albano treated him with great honour, received him in his house, and ordered those who had maligned him to beg his pardon. Milic then returned to Prague "without hindrance, comforted, and appeased." On his return to his country, he was as zealous for the welfare of his fellowmen as before, but in his sermons as far as possible avoided to touch on matters of dogma. Like all Bohemian church-reformers, he strove rather to denounce the immorality, avarice, luxury, haughtiness of the Bohemian people, and ecclesiastics in particular, to inculcate the study of Scripture, to help the poor, humble, and oppressed, than to excel in scholastic definitions and theological sophistry. Milic, indeed, after his return from Rome became even more stringent in his ascetism and more enthusiastic in his attempts to aid the poor and suffering. He now abstained entirely from the use of meat and wine, allowed himself but a limited time for sleep, slept on a hard couch, and frequently used the rod for the chastisement of his body. The fame of the sanctity of Milic soon spread through Prague, though the mendicant friars and most of the parish-priests, who considered his saintly bearing a tacit condemnation of their evil lives, continued his bitter enemies. A certain number of friends now gathered round him, who sympathised with his labours and admired the sanctity of his life. Such men were Conrad Waldhauser, Adalbert Ranco, Thomas of Stitny, Matthew of Janov. Of these men formerly little was known but their names, and our present knowledge is almost entirely founded on researches made within the last twenty