Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/84

The utraquist archbishop of Prague, John of Rokycan, maintained at the council of Basel that Matthew of Janov had first taught in Bohemia the doctrine of utraquism whose emblem, the chalice, became so distinctive a feature in the Hussite wars. Recent research has proved to a certainty that Janov never taught or preached utraquism.^[1] He, however, always insisted on the right of laymen to receive communion frequently, and maintained that through the sacrament a mystical union is established between God and the worthy communicant. This supreme favour and grace should not, Matthew declared, be reserved to priests, but should be granted to laymen also. Saintly laymen, he maintains, have the right to receive communion as frequently as priests, Dr. Kybal has first pointed out how close the connection is between the principle of the frequent communion of laymen, as maintained by Janov, and the utraquism of the Hussites of the fifteenth century. Both claims were founded on a democratic basis and were protests against the theory of the inferiority of laymen which priests—and often the most unworthy priests—were maintaining in Bohemia at this period.

 

1. This has been principally proved by Dr. Kalousik in his erudite treatise, O Historii Kalicha v. dobach predhusitskych (On the history of the chalice in pre-Hussite times).