with fanciful toilets and graces that are not graceful. Their head-dress is broad and high, and ends in a horn. Thus do they walk about like the celebrated courtesans of the Pope, to the surprise and offence of the whole world. And all this is in consequence of their noble birth, which reeks of injustice. Therefore can the true faith never be insulted by heathens or by Jews as it is by this race (the nobles), who found their claims on their coats of arms, and who have unjustly entered into the realm of the faithful. And they are odious in particular to the crucified Jesus; for their proud ways are contrary to the shame which He endured on the cross; they who, acting in everything in a manner contrary to Him for the purpose of worldly glory, yet wish to sit at table with Him and share the gain of His suffering. Therefore from all these causes they are displeasing to God, and harmful and burdensome to men. For the toiling community bears a heavy burden in the nobles; for they devour the poor, and everything good that is found in the land, that they grasp and devour, and greatly do they harm the whole people."
It must not be thought that Chelčicky's democratic views were opposed to the privileges of the nobility only. The special rights enjoyed by the citizens of some Bohemian towns, the privileged position of the clergy, even the intellectual superiority of the masters of the university, all were equally odious to the fanatical leveller Chelčicky. Of the citizens he writes thus: "I shall now speak of the knavery of the citizens, who are the strength of Antichrist, adverse to Christ, an evil rabble, who are full of boldness in committing bad actions, and help one another in vigorously combating truth and in cunningly suppressing it by means of hypocrisy; they speak well
