porate in their works without acknowledgment long passages and even entire treatises contained in the books of previous writers. Thus Gerson without acknowledgment included in his works a considerable part of the Declaratio compendiosa defectuum virorum ecclesiasticorum of Henry of Langenstein.[1] Thus also Peter of Ailly incorporated a considerable portion of Occam’s Dialogus in one of his early works without mentioning his source.[2] Many other similar cases could be mentioned. The great authority of so eminent a scholar as Professor Loserth has induced other recent German writers, who possessed less learning though more racial hatred than he does, to vilify Hus and to exaggerate the importance attached to Wycliffe in Bohemia.[3] These writers have particularly laid great stress on the supposed ignorance of Hus. This supposition can already be considered as obsolete in consequence of the recent studies of Bohemian writers, particularly of that talented and enthusiastic scholar, Professor Flajshaus. The learned professor published recently an almost unknown work of Hus entitled Super IV. Sententiarum, a commentary on the sentences of Peter Lombard. The work, larger than any other book of Hus that is known, has great value and bears witness to the deep and extensive learning of the writer. In referring to this recent and important publication, Professor Loserth writes:[4] “It can now be considered as certain that the former opinion of the literary work of Hus will be changed in many respects, and that it will be esteemed more highly than before.”
It has already been mentioned that the exaggeration of the undeniable influence of Wycliffe’s writings on those of Hus
- ↑ Schwab., Johannes Gerson, p. 121.
- ↑ Tschackert, Peter von Ailly, p. 43.
- ↑ Professor Loserth is not himself free from this tendency. Thus, when referring to a passage of Hus’s De Ecclesia in which the Bohemian reformer refers to Bishop Grosseteste, Loserth mentions that the Prague libraries possessed many MSS. of the writings of the Bishop of Lincoln, adding “that they were probably obtained because Wycliffe frequently mentioned him,” a conjecture for which Loserth does not give a tittle of evidence. Grosseteste’s writings were much read and studied quite independently of Wycliffe.
- ↑ Mittheilungen des Instituts fur oesterreichische Geschitschreibung, No. 26.
