27
social injustices. "You cannot improve society without first destroying the foundations of the existing social order," insisted Chelcicky. He felt a deep respect for Hus, but he rejected with harsh words his unbiblical notions of purgatory, his views on war, oaths, and the worship of pictures.15• He loved Wyclif but he rejected his traditional – can we say, 'undemocratic'? division of men into three estates (Lords, priests, and the working people). He felt very close to the Waldensians, but to him their Christianity was hot radical enough. He agreed with St. Ambrose that God has given the earth to the common use of all, and that therefore the rich have no exclusive right of ownership.16 He retained an astonishing independence of judgment which brought him into personal contact with the leading spirits of the Hussite movement. There is preserved an amazing woodcut of the period portraying Peter Chelc̄icky̍ discoursing on equal terms17 with the doctors of the Prague University; he had discussions with Master Jakoubek of Str̄i̍bro, head of the University, with the Hussite bishops Nicholas of Pelhr̄imov and John of Rokycana, who was then the Primate of Bohemia, and with the foremost Hussite philosopher Dr. Stanislav of Znojmo.
15• F. O.Navra̍til, Petr Chelc̄icky̍, Prague: Orbis, 1929, p.34.
16 "The superfluities of the rich are the necessities of the poor. They who possess superfluities possess the goods of others. The earth belongs to all, not to the rich. But those who possess their share are fewer than those who do not. ." St. Ambrose.
17 See p.28.
