was desired to accuse of heresy. The partisans of Rome, little acquainted with the works of Wycliffe, which, indeed, they were forbidden to read, had transformed the English divine into a monster of the infernal regions. Thus the Carthusian monk, Stephen of Dolein, tells us in his Medulla Tritici that when some one known to Stephen was one night reading Wycliffe's Trialogus, it appeared to him as if Wycliffe had rushed into the room, gnashing his teeth, reproaching him for not believing his statements and striking him heavily, while many spectators appeared to be present. He retired before the enraged fiend, but fortunately found on the floor a dungfork. He seized it, and with it struck his adversary so severe a blow that he fell to the ground. He then battered in his brains and killed him. The spectators praised God, and the victor, somewhat distressed by the manslaughter he had committed, was comforted by the spectators with the words: Fear not! the murder of this man involves no guilt.[1] Hus, it is almost needless to repeat, always admitted that he had deeply studied the works of Wycliffe and felt in sympathy
- ↑ This strange tale should be given in Stephen's own Latin words. He writes: “Andiant itaque Jesu Christi fideles quod referam. Factum est hoc tempore ante triduum ut certissime didici quod, dum quidam vir catholicus nomine et condicione haec scribenti cognitus scripta nefaria legeret, et relegeret in suo (Wycliffe’s) Trialogo maxime de venerabili Sacramento Dominici corporis et etiam per insomnes plurimas noctes pluribus suspiriis et lachrymis molestissime ferret, et Divinam et Ecclesiae Sanctae tantam injuriam deplangeret: Accidit sibi ut intempeste matutinae Vigiliae agens idipsum paululum reclinato capite discretionis intuitu quievisset. Et ecce Magister ille diversorium illius fremens et iratus nimium ingrediens, non solum verbis durioribus perstrepens, sed et verberibus horribilibus circumcirca consedentibus plurimis, irruit in eum quae praediximus. Qui dum quasi infirmior non haberet unde vel quo sibi resisteret, irato cedens et retro, et retro se aspiciens, quasi a Domino sibi praeparatam vidit tridentem, jacentem furcam id est instrumentum quo fimus de stabulis et domibus solet purgari et ejici. Conversusque hanc arreptam illi in faciem valido ictu et in caput suum impegit, et dejecto eo usque ad cerebri effusionem concussit, manus confregit et penitus interfecit. Ad cujus spectaculum facto multorum fidelium laetabundo concursu, dicentibus et acclamantibus singulis, Benedictus Deus qui tradidit impium: dictum est victori singularis certaminis, perterrite de homicidio, ne timueris; ex nece enim hujus hominis irregularitatem non incurres.” (Stephanus Dolanensis, Medulla Tritici, Pez Thesaurus Anecdotorum, vol. iv. 2, pp. 246–247.)
