Waldenses in Bohemia,[1] and their ecclesiastical development was wholly different from that of their brethren in the valleys. Paul Stransky, a Bohemian historian of the seventeenth century, says that they were expelled from the South of France, came by way of Germany to Bohemia, and settled near Saatz and Laun.[2] It was a period of extraordinary developments in church and state By the execution of John Huss Rome had sown the wind and was reaping the whirlwind. The Hussite War raged with terrible fury. However incongruous the elements among the Bohemians, they were a unit in their national, although by no means doctrinal, opposition to the Hierarchy. These circumstances, on the one hand, rendered Bohemia a safe refuge for the Waldenses, on the other, laid a snare for them. The Hussites were divided into two factions: the Calixtines, who contended, mainly, for the privilege of the cup in the Lord’s Supper, and the Taborites, who desired a thorough reformation of the church. The former were the aristocratic, the latter the popular party. Learned Doctors of the University of Prague guided the one, enthusiasts of the tented city of Tabor the other. Coming into contact with both these factions, the Waldenses shaped their course so as to give offence to neither. They associated with the Taborites,[3] they were on friendly terms with the Calixtines, and, in course of time, openly fraternized with them even at the mass.[4] Men like Rokycana
- ↑ Herzog’s Real Encyclopaedie vol. xvii, 51 and 520. Giesler’s Kirchengeschichte ii, 4, 432.
- ↑ History of Bohemia, by P. Stransky 6. 6. (quoted by Plitt).
- ↑ Herzog’s Real Encyclopaedie vol, xvii, 530.
- ↑ This statement is established by very positive and abundant testimony, both ancient and modern. Blahoslav in his Summa, &c., (Lissa Folio viii) says: “It seemed that the doctrine of the Waldenses was taken from the H. S. even as is ours. Nevertheless, they (the Brethren) discovered certain practices which are unworthy of true disciples of Christ and deserve censure:” and then goes on, at considerable length, to specify these practices, amongst the rest, attendance at mass. Comenius Rat. Disciplinae Sect. 62, p. 18, says: “The purity of their (Waldenses) doctrine and their endeavor to lead christian lives greatly pleased them (the Brethren). But they were displeased that they should hide and not openly confess the truth; and that for the sake of avoiding persecution they should frequent papistical temples and take part in idolatrous worship.” Zeschwitz in his Katechismen der Waldenser u. Böhm. Brueder p. 161, corroborates this: “What the Brethren censured in the conduct of the Waldenses was, above all, that, although they recognized in the Pope the Antichrist, they yet did not openly proclaim their protest, but even took part in the Romish mass.” And Herzog in his article on the Waldenses (Encyclopaedie xvii, 520) repeats the same charge, and adds that this sort of accommodation the Waldenses everywhere allowed themselves.
