people of Prague in consequence of the interdict which, now carried out with relentless severity, deprived them of all spiritual consolations. He therefore left Prague, probably in October 1412.[1]
The departure of Hus from Prague naturally caused great rejoicing among his enemies, who declared that he had been expelled from the city. The fanatical monk Stephen of Dolein in particular expressed great joy that “he who in spite of the prohibition had not ceased to preach and would not leave Prague, had now been driven away by the just judgment of God.”[2] The period in the life of Hus with which this and the fourth chapter deal, begins with his formal rupture with the clergy and ends with his departure from Prague. The writings of this time, which Dr. Flajshans, whose services for the bibliography of Hus cannot be sufficiently praised, calls the polemical period, are not as valuable as those of the first period, to which at least one work of the highest value, the Super IV. Sententiarum, belongs. Still less can this period be compared to the following one, to which belong two of Hus’s greatest Bohemian works, as well as his hitherto best known Latin book, the treatise De Ecclesia. With the exception of a few Bohemian sermons, all the writings belonging to this period are Latin. They are, as already mentioned, mainly of a polemical character. Of these polemical writings the treatise
- ↑ The date of Hus’s departure from Prague as well as those of his subsequent short visits to the city has caused much controversy among the modern historians of Bohemia—Palacky, Tomek, Dr. Loserth, have all suggested different dates. More recently Dr. Novak has also written on this subject, which is also thoroughly discussed by Dr. Vaclav Novotny, in a lengthy treatise published in the Vestnik kr. ceske spolecnosti nauk (Journal of the Bohemian Society of Science) for 1898. The date of Hus’s departure given here is in accordance with Dr. Novotny.
- ↑ Dolein writes, addressing Hus: “Vides, qui pro tempore a praedicatione et tua rebellione ordinarie prohibitus in loco illo cessare noluisti, jam justo Dei judicio inde cum confusione per inobedientiam ejectus, jam vagus et latitans, velis, nolis, silentio comprimeris et ori tuo magnalia eructanti digitum superponis.” (Stephanus Dolanensis Antihussus, Pez Thesaurus Anecdotorum, T. iv. par. 2, p. 373.)
