and we can see from his writings that Bohemian prose was developed at a time when our own was in a rudimentary condition.”
The hymns of this period also attest the high attainment of their authors, many of them being still popular, and at the same time worthy of a place in the classic literature of the country. Some of the best are ascribed to Huss.
The civil and religious commotions which followed the tragic death of Huss in 1415, and his friend Jerome in the following year, were not ended by the battle of Lipany. The Taborites maintained an existence for fully twenty years later, and it was by stratagem in negotiation, as well as in warfare, that the Calixtines at length succeeded in dispersing them. Their place was taken by the Unitas fratrum, or Church of the United Brethren, who, anxiously studying to return to the simplicity of the early Church, formulated, in their quiet retreat at Litiz, in the Silesian Mountains, the first constitution of a Presbyterian Church.[1]
For years the persecution against the United Brethren or Picards raged without intermission, and it was only with great difficulty, and at the peril of their lives, that the Brethren continued to hold meetings. There is an impressive simplicity in the bare records that survive of their proceedings. Thus, in 1464, we are told they held an assembly in the forest of Rychnov, when they “agreed to continue submissive, humble, patient, and pure, to obey and to pray for those in authority, and to labour honestly, so as to become able to afford help to suffering brethren,”—this forest assembly is a picture, I think, deserving to be placed beside the pictures of the Pilgrim Fathers, embarking on board the Mayflower, or landing at Plymouth Rock, or our own Covenanters in Greyfriars Churchyard. Indeed, it almost excels them.
It may be noted that this pious community were strong in the assertion of two points on which they differed from both Calixtines and
- ↑ Although the old Unitas divided the ministry into three grades or orders—viz. bishops (seniors), presbyters, and deacons, as the Moravian Brethren still do, Synods formed legislative, and Boards of Elders the executive, powers of the Church. The bishops’ special function is merely to ordain, and they do not appear to have had any jurisdiction or authority over the other ministers.
B
