so bitterly the corruption of the Church and advanced various new doctrines, met with little or no oppositon.
After the death of Archbishop Olbram, the chapter elected Zbynek of Hazenburg as his successor. Zbynek had little knowledge and less learning, and owed his preferment to a successful military expedition intrusted to him by the king. It was said that he began to learn the alphabet after his elevation to the bishopric. Yet he possessed business-like habits, and manifested considerable good-will to work a reform in the Church.
At this time there was no man so popular in Prague as Hus. He was dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, later rector of the university, the confessor of the queen, and preacher of Bethlehem Chapel. Archbishop Zbynek looked upon him with much favor, intrusting him with various important duties. This friendship might have continued much longer than it did, but for the excessive zeal of some of the followers of Hus. The first serious trouble arose in regard to the teachings of Wycliffe, the English reformer. Owing to the marriage of Princess Anna of Bohemia to Richard II of England, there had been much intercourse between the two countries, and thus it was that the writings of that great man were introduced into Bohemia. They were eagerly read, and discussed with so much interest, that the matter was brought before the university. Forty-five of the Articles were condemned as heretical, and orders were issued that no one was to teach or maintain them either in public or private.
But public opinion had progressed too far for any such order to be obeyed. Even before the Articles were condemned, several learned men, among them Hus, declared that the said Articles were so separated
