patriotism, and unswerving devotion to the cause of truth. It was for these qualities that the Bohemians loved him, and endured all manner of persecution from the Pope rather than give up their chosen archbishop.
Rokycan died in 1471, about a month before his king, George Poděbrad.
Peter Čelčicky
The greatest man at this time in Bohemia as a thinker and writer, one who deserves the first place after John Hus, was Peter Čelčicky, the founder of the Moravian Brethren. He was born about 1390, in the village of Čelčice. He spent some time at the University of Prague, but took no degree. His mind naturally turning to religious matters, he was about to enter a monastery, when the disturbances in the Church made him give up the design. Living on his small estate in the village of Čelčice, he had no access to libraries or other means of self-culture, and yet what scanty opportunities presented themselves were embraced with such eagerness that his name became known among the learned men of Prague, and he was regarded with admiration and great respect. In 1437, when the Englishman, Peter Payne, was exiled from Prague, he sought refuge at the house of the sage of Čelčice.
Čelčicky began to write at the mature age of forty-three, and then it seems it was not from choice, but from a sort of moral necessity. He wrote to Rokycan, with whom he was on intimate terms of friendship, as follows: “My mind has something in it, God knows, that I must reveal to you, as to a man strong in great things.”
