That which she could not choose but see she | Accordant to a voice which charm'd no less, saw And o'er her sunlit dimples and her smiles 259. The ode with which the volume ends is very fine; but there is another piece which we regard as, on the whole, the most characteristic of Mr. Taylor's minor poems. Few poems are at once so true to Nature, and to that art which Nature owns. The metre is a rare one- - that of Lycidas; and the long interwoven periods, with their rhymes recurring at wide intervals, like the chime of funeral-bells far off, are in harmony with the elegiac strain:— That who but saw him once remember'd long, III. His life was private; safely led, aloof stood Largely and wisely, as no worldling could. "In remembrance of the Hon. Edward Er- For freedom as its signature and seal. nest Villiers. I. A grace though melancholy, manly too, tween, And flowers and spangles of the dewy lawn. II. And even the stranger, though he saw not these, That fail'd not at the first accost to please; His life thus sacred from the world, discharged IV. But farther may we pass not; for the ground How much by thy unerring insight clear Friend of my youth, whilst thou wast by my Autumnal days still breathed a vernal breath; From Good Words. BY HENRY ROGERS, Author of "The Eclipse of Faith." these reasons, (in fact, all the "Reformers before the Reformation," as they have been well called, are entitled to some of that praise,) but for a more special reason. In all likelihood, Huss was not simply the precursor of Luther, but literally paid down, THE story of John Huss, the great Bohe- That violation of the imperial safe-conduct in his martyrdom, the ransom of his life. mian Reformer, has been often told, and is which to the eternal shame of Emperor, sufficiently familiar to the student of eccle- Pope, Cardinals, and the whole Council of siastical history. But it may be doubted Constance, involved the death of Huss, was whether it has been so well known to ordi- the very thing which probably prevented nary readers, either as it deserves to be, or the like crime in the case of Luther at as that of Luther unquestionably is. This Worms. Vehemently was Charles V. urgis partly to be ascribed to the remoteness of ed to imitate the conduct of Sigismund, the age in which he lived, it is now just and violate, for the sake of the Church, the 450 years since his martyrdom; partly to safe-conduct granted to Luther; strongly was the character of the reformation he aimed he plied by the same casuistry, namely, that at, and which did not touch the great doc-no faith was to be kept with heretics; trinal abuses, the correction of which, after but Charles replied that "he had no wish all, was an essential preliminary to any radical reformation, such, in a word, as the in allusion to the story of Sigismund's to blush like his predecessor Sigismund," Church required, and Luther achieved; having manifested so much weakness, when partly to the fact that the heroic effort he Huss alluded to the subject of his safe-conmade was not successful, and that his mem- duct, at the Council of Constance. The ory has been clouded by the subsequent ex- scandal of that iniquitous transaction of the cesses of his followers; lastly, and above all perhaps, to the circumstance that the more Worms, and hence he safely quitted that Luther's ægis at previous century was illustrious name of Luther has eclipsed that of his great predecessor, in the blaze of place which he had entered with such dauntless courage in defiance of so many whose fame this bright morning star of the Reformation has almost faded from our eyes. saviour of Lutheromens of evil. Thus was Huss probably the For these reasons it may be well to say a little respecting the principal incidents of his life and the more striking traits of his character, in a periodical, which must have many thousands of readers who have not paid much, or, perhaps, any attention to the claims of the great Bohemian to the grateful homage and everlasting remem brance of mankind. Nor can any who love and revere the name of Luther forget that it was probably due to Huss that Luther was able to do so much; nay, that he lived to do anything. We may say this, not merely because Huss was a pioneer in the same great work; that he shaped many of the stones, and hewed much of the timber, of that Temple he was not permitted to build; that he made an impression on the outworks of the fortress which it was reserved for Luther to storm; not merely because Luther derived some lights, and still greater stimulus, at an early period of his career, from the history and writings of Huss, as is seen clearly in his letters, and in the allusions he made to him at the Leipsic Disputation;* not merely, I say, for * "When I studied at Erfurdt," says Luther, in the edition of the letters of Huss (1537), "I found in the library of the convent, a book entitled The Sermons of John Huss. I had a great curiosity to know Dipped in his fellow's blood The courage of Luther indeed was as great as though he too had died a martyr. Durhe went with such inflexible obstinacy ing his whole progress to Worms, whither against all the remonstrances of his friends is evident that he contemplated the too great and the muttered threats of his enemies, it likelihood of sharing the fate of Huss. The genius and maxims of ecclesiastical policy tion at least as strong; and the inheritors were unchanged; the terrors of Reformaof the persecuting principles of Constance have died if Charles V. had not been afraid equally unscrupulous. He would assuredly of " blushing." And as Huss deserves the veneration of posterity, scarcely more for what he did in the cause of Reformation, than for the spell astonishment was incredible. I could not comprewhat'doctrines that arch-heretic had propagated. My hend why they burned so great a man, who explained the Scriptures with so much skill and gravity. . But as his name was held in such abhorrence that I imagined the sky would fall and the sun be darkened if I made honourable mention of him, I shut the book with no little indignation." but honest parents, who seem to have done all they could for his education. which his name and fate threw around Luther, so his history itself is full of deepest and most tragical interest. In the vast cat- He was first sent to the school of his naalogue of martyrs there is hardly a victim tive village, and afterwards to another of whose fate awakens such unmingled admira- somewhat higher order, in a neighbouring tion for the unflinching fortitude and constan- town. He was noted from his boyhood for cy with which he adhered to what he deemed the acuteness and vigour of his intellect, and truth, and suffered for it; or which inspires made good in his youth all the promise of such vivid, and, indeed, exquisitely painful his childhood. He was sent to the Universympathy, as we read the story. Exposed, sity of Prague at an early age; and in the single-handed, to the concentrated enmity of dearth of authentic details, writers have the whole Roman Church and hierarchy, as garnished this event with some idle tradiembodied in the cruel Council of Constance, tions. There is an absurd story, for exam-to Pope and Cardinals, Emperor and Prin- ple, which L'Enfant gravely relates from ces; feeling that the whole might of prescrip- an old author, that "when his mother took tion, both of the present and the past, was him to Prague to enter him at the univeragainst him; doubtless often tempted to ask sity, she took a goose and a cake with her himsel as Luther sometimes did, and as Huss as a present to the rector, and that by chance was still more likely to do in that earlier and the goose flew away, an accident which the darker age, "Whether it was possible that poor woman looked upon as an evil omen, he alone should be right, and all the rest of and fell down on her knees to recommend the world wrong;” troubled with those tre- her son to the Divine Protection" (the tumors of heart which such a possibility could telary "goose," we may suppose, having left not but awaken, he yet held on his way its namesake)," and went on her way with though darker and darker at every step. - great heaviness of heart, that half her obundaunted. Such was the mastery which lation to the rector was gone." the truth had over him, so gloriously imperious was conscience, so profound his reverence for Scripture, and so resolute was he, like Luther, to yield obedience to that alone, that he was proof alike against shame and ignominy, cajolery and adulation, promises and threats, and at last sealed his testimony by enduring death in the most appalling of all shapes. This last proof of heroism, indeed, many men have given, both before and after him. But very few, if any, ever passed such an ordeal of absolute abandonment to the "cruel mockings" and wrongs of a hostile world, with so majestic a patience as he did. Huss before the Council of Constance is one of the sublimest pictures in the whole gallery of history. It is not my intention to give a full account of his life; but a slight sketch of its principal events is necessary for comprehending the significance of the closing scenes of it. It will not occupy much space, for the records of his early years are unusually meagre. He was born about 1370, at Hassinez, a village of Bohemia, not far from Prague. Huss is the Bohemian name for a "goose," and this furnishes both Huss and his enemies more than once with some rather clumsy pleasantry. It is hard to say whether he or they are more ponderously witty in availing themselves of it; he for the enhancement of his humility, and they as a term of reproach. He was born of lowly "He lived in times," says the same historian, "that were very favourable to the improvement of his various talents," a proposition which it is somewhat difficult to accede to, considering that the shadow of the "dark ages" still lay upon them, and the crepusculum of a better time was just beginning to glimmer. But it may be conceded (and this is probably what is meant,) that it was a period of literary and intellectual activity as compared with the preceding centuries; and his proximity to Prague certainly ensured him the advantages of one of the first universities in Europe. Of his academic career we know little or nothing, except that it was honourable and successful. Certain dates preserved in the ancient memoir of him by an unknown author, prefixed to the folio edition of his works, inform us that in 1393 he became M. A. and B.D.; three years after was ordained priest, and began to preach; in 1400 was appointed to that function in the chapel of Bethlehem, at Prague, where he became the favourite court preacher of Sophia, the Queen of Wenceslaus. In 1401, he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Divinity and Confessor to the Queen; and some time after, Rector of the University. In 1405 he had already become famous for his sermons at Bethlehem, preached in his native tongue, in which he insisted on forgotten evangelical verities, and inveighed energetically against the corruptions of the Church and the vices of the clergy. It was in the nature of things that this should expose him to the hatred of the Church. He had been equally fearless, indeed, against the vices of the laity; but King Wenceslaus sarcastically told the clergy, it was only when he began to attack similar vices in the Church that he became so obnoxious to them. He gave great offence, also, to a large portion of the Bohemian clergy by the part he took in the great Papal Schism; strongly advocating the rejection of the claims of Gregory XII. But his sermons were not the only cause of the fierce hatred which followed him from this time to his death. Strange to say, there were other reasons for the odium attached to him, perhaps as potent, or nearly as potent, as any of his imputed religious errors, though they had nothing to do with religion. Enthusiastically beloved by a large party of his countrymen, there was of course always a large part of the Romish Church, who, for the very same causes, were bitterly opposed to him; but, had he had no other enemies, it is pretty certain he might have remained safe in Bohemia (supposing it had been possible for him to evade the summons to Constance), as Luther in Saxony under the protection of Frederick. Of course, he had the dominant church party also against him, out of Bohemia; but their hatred was greatly strengthened by the extraneous causes to which we have just adverted, and which it is necessary to bear in mind in order to understand his true position. The first is, the part he took in asserting certain rights of his countrymen to a just share in the government of the University of Prague, and by which he exposed himself to the hatred of Germany. The remembrance of that quarrel, in which the Germans were worsted (and as they alleged, perhaps truly alleged), through the instrumentality of Huss, inspired them with a lifelong hatred of him. Having such important results, the quarrel may justify a few words of expla nation. The University of Prague was founded in the year 1347, by the Emperor Charles IV. It was modelled on the statutes of the universities of chief note in Europe, as Paris and Bologna, where, in questions involving university honours and emoluments, three votes were given to the native, and one vote to the foreign, members. But as, during the infancy of the University of Prague, there was a much larger number of students from various parts of the Germanic Empire than from Bohemia, this proportion was reversed. The consequence was that the university honours and rewards were almost monopolised by the Germans; and, as the native students increased in numbers, this naturally occasioned much chagrin and discontent. They sought to redress this wrong, and were successful, principally through the efforts of Huss and Jerome of Prague. Huss admitted that the provisional management was reasonable enough, as long as the foreign element in the university was so preponderant. But when that was no longer the case, "It is just," said he, "that we should have three yotes, and that you Germans should be content with one." The Germans, however, as might be expected, were by no means content. On the contrary, so exasperated were they, that they agreed, should the alteration take place, they would leave the university en masse; and, it is further said, resolved that if any were obstinate enough to refuse taking a part in this exodus, he should expiate his guilt by the loss of two of his fingers! a curious illustration of the old saying as to the "humanising effects of polite learning," and not less of the strength of national hatred. Be this as it may, the Germans, (who doubtless thought, from their numbers, that their secession would leave the university as “ frightful a solitude" as Tertullian says the Roman Empire would have been if all the Christians had gone out of it,) carried out their threat. And if their numbers had been as great as some accounts make them, no doubt the vacuum would have been all but complete. But the figures generally given are clearly fabulous, as is indicated by the enormous differences in the several accounts found in different writers. As reported in L' Enfant, one writer says the students were 44,000, which is about as probable as that there were at one time 30,000 students at Oxford. Another, a little more modestly, says 40,000; a third computes the roll at 36,000; a fourth comes down to 24,000; Eneas Sylvius reduces it to 5,000, which Count Krasinski thinks may have been the truth, though he hardly assigns any sufficient reason for preferring it to that of other writers who fixed it at 2000! In other words, we know little about the matter. The secession of the foreign students took place in 1409, and, led to the establishment of the University of Leipsic. The seceding Germans spread and kept alive among their countrymen, a vivid and lasting hatred of Huss, which formed an appreciable element in the grand total of enmities combined against him in the Council of Constance. It may be as well to add that there was probably also another adventitious cause of hostility to Huss. He was in philosophy a "Realist." Now between the Realists and their opponents, the Nominalists, the disputes were equally unintelligible and interminable, and turned upon refinements of abstraction so extremely subtle that (one would imagine) they could never stir in a single human bosom the faintest breath of passion! But this would be to credit human nature with far more good sense than it can claim. Whatever men can wrangle about, be it the idlest phantasm of the most crazy dreamer, that they can also fight about; and indeed often with an energy of passion in inverse proportion to the importance or clearness of the point in dispute. Accordingly, these two metaphysical sects often sought to decide by blows what they could not decide by reason: and shed blood and even sacrificed lives for the question, whether an abstract name (as man, for example) represented any one man in particular, or man in general. In short, they made more than one university of Europe a sort of metaphysical Donnybrook, where the combatants fought with about as intelligent understanding of what they were fighting for, and also with as much passion and obstinacy as any Irish "factions" whatsoever. Now it has been surmised that the fact that Huss was a Realist, and consequently hated by the opposite faction of the Nominalists, made him obnoxious to many of his judges at Constance. It is certainly not a little mournful, as well as curious, that in this and other cases, the fortunes of Truth and Humanity should often be imperilled by considerations which have nothing in the world to do with either the one or the other; that a man like John Huss may be made a martyr for religion, in a great measure because national animosities have set two communities by the ears, and opposite sects are blindly engaged in a night-battle about an incomprehensible dogma of metaphysics. * Another fact which undoubtedly had much more to do with his fate, as really exercising, a powerful influence over his theological opinions and exposing him to the rancour of Rome, was his attachment to the writings of Wickliffe. It is an interesting circumstance to Englishmen, that from our *One subtle question, particularly respecting transubstantiation, seems to have been designed to en trap Huss through his Realist creed. It challenged him to maintain the Universal à parte Rei, and had like to have given him some trouble. - L' Enfant, vol. i. p. 324. remote insular seclusion went forth the influence which gave the chief impulse to the Bohemian Reformer. It makes good the quaint words of Fuller in his Church History of England," when speaking of the posthumous dishonour put on Wickliffe's ashes:-"They were cast into the Swift, a neighbouring brook, running hard by. Thus this brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, then into the Main Ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over." But that his doctrine should have been conveyed to Bohemia would have seemed as little likely as that any particle of his dust should reach it, in default of that "seaport on the coast of Bohemia," which Shakspeare has created there in spite of geography. Yet so it was; and by one of those incidents by which the Providence of God in the course of its ordinary working easily brings the strangest things to pass, and binds the most distant things together. Our Richard the Second's queen was Anne of Bohemia, daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. After her husband's death she returned to Bohemia, and some of her retinue took many of the writings of Wickliffe with them. Certain Bohemians, it is said, had sojourned for some time at Oxford, among whom was Jerome of Prague: while others add, that two English Lollards found their way to Prague, and were entertained for some time at the house of John Huss, and that from them he got to know the works of Wickliffe. However that may be, and whatever the mode, it is certain that he became well acquainted with several of those works, and that they produced a strong effect on his opinions. At his chapel of Bethlehem, he often spoke in terms of eulogy of the great English Reformer, and prayed that when he died his soul might be with that of Wickliffe, wheresoever that might be! There is a tradition that the two English Wickliffites asked Huss to allow them to paint the hall of his house, and that on his granting the request they depicted, on one side, Christ's lowly entry into Jerusalem, and on the other, in strong contrast with it, a splendid procession of the Pope and his cardinals, in all the pomp and glitter of pontifical pageantry. It is said these pictures excited much curiosity; that many came to see them, and went away divided in opinion about their propriety. But the generality of ecclesiastics understood the pictorial writing of these Wickliffite Mexi |