Decline of the Bohemian Reformation.
By S. N. H.
"United, we stand; divided, we fall." THE internal divisions which had existed among the Bohemians, widened in proportion as the great struggle between them and the Papal party was relaxed. With the Taborites, who retained the most of the spirit of John Huss, the defense of their religion was their first concern, and that of their civil rights and privileges the second. They felt that if they could only have their religious privileges, they cared but little for the other; not realizing that the two were so closely united that they could not be separated. The Calixtines, on the other hand, had become lukewarm so far as their struggle upon the battle-field was concerned. They thought that the rent between their country and Rome was unnecessarily wide. Their policy was now one of compromise. They commenced at once to recede from the positions of Huss and to return to the camp of antichrist. The points of difference between Protestants and Romanists, so perfectly irreconcilable, were not then so clearly and sharply defined as they came to be by the great controversies that followed in Luther's time. The Taborites remained under the command of Procopius, who, although most desirous of ending the strife and letting his country have rest, would not accept of peace on terms which he held to be fatal to his nation's faith and liberty. Bohemia, he clearly saw, had entered upon the descending path. Rather than witness the humiliation which must follow, he again took himself to the field at the head of his armed Taborites. But the dissension that was fast growing among his friends, was disastrous to his cause. A fierce battle between the Taborites and the Calixtines was fought on the twenty-ninth day of May, 1434. It was fiercely contested on both sides, and as it was714being decided in favor of Procopius, the general of his cavalry rode off the field with all under his command. Procopius readily took in the situation, and gathering around him the bravest of his soldiers, he rushed into the thickest of the fight, where he contended for awhile against fearful odds; but at last he fell overpowered by superior numbers. The death of Procopius ended the Hussite wars, and with it was fulfilled the prediction of the Emperor Sigismund, that the Bohemians could only be overcome by Bohemians. With Procopius fell the cause of the Hussites; their heroic days were numbered, and the power of Rome's iron heel began to be felt. A historian in writing of these times, says that every woman among the Taborites was well acquainted with the Old and New Testaments, and unwilling as he was to acknowledge any good among the Hussites, he confessed that they had one merit, namely, "the love of letters." It was not uncommon at that time to find tracts written by the common people, discussing religious subjects, and evincing deep thought. But Bohemia had now dug for herself a grave, and all that had been so dear to that nation was about to be laid in the sepulcher, and the errors of Rome were to triumph over the people. The vitality and energy of the nation seemed suddenly to have left her. From this time she had no head to vindicate her rights. The Bohemians could hardly expect that a man who had broken his promise to Huss would fulfill his stipulations to them. Sigismund began at once to bring back the church under the dominion of Rome. This open treachery provoked a storm of indignation, and the country was on the brink of war; but before the matter could be brought to a crisis, the emperor died. The burning of Huss had caused him twenty years of war, and he had worried out his life in labors and perils, never knowing repose or tasting victory. He attempted much but never succeeded in anything. This was the end of a man who attempted by both war and policy to bring into subjection those who feared God. The Calixtines, when too late, saw that their compromise was only a delusion. The most devoted began to look around to see what they could do, or where they could flee, that they might live out their faith in peace, and many joined the Taborites. About the year 1455 the Taborites formed themselves into a distinct church, under the name of the "United Brethren." They had withstood Papal oppression by force of arms, and God had signally blessed them. Their spiritual leaders had been burned at the stake, and their political leaders had fallen on the battle-field. They now turned their attention to the work of searching the Scriptures more ardently for truth, and seeking a closer walk with God. As they looked around them they saw that error covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. All societies needed to be purified. Their former brethren, the Calixtines, were, as they thought, fast relapsing into their former errors. They therefore resolved to separate themselves from all other bodies, and build up the truth anew from the foundation. This step in connection with taking the name they did, exposed them to the bitter enmity of the Calixtines as well as the Roman Catholics, and they became the objects of a murderous persecution, in which they suffered far more than they had in their campaigns during the Hussite wars. Both warriors and nobles who had formerly stood by them, now began to forsake them, and the persecution that followed was terrible. They were dispersed in the woods and mountains, and inhabited dens and caves. In these abodes they were always careful to prepare their food in the night, lest the ascending smoke should betray their hiding-places. Around the fires which they kindled in their subterranean retreats, during the night, they read the word of God, and united in social worship. When it was necessary to leave these places in search of food, if there was snow on the ground, they would drag behind them branches of trees so as to obliterate their footprints, and make it impossible for their enemies to track them to their lurking-places. They sent messengers into the various countries of Christendom to inquire secretly if there were others of like faith. In this way they traversed all of Europe and brought back word that here and there they found a few isolated confessors of the truth, and that wherever they found them, either in cities or the country, they were, like themselves, the subjects of persecution. One thing that troubled these men of God was to devise some plan whereby their ministers might be ordained according to the common usage. After many anxious deliberations and much prayer, for their minds were greatly harassed respecting the matter, they proceeded as follows: In the year 1467 their chief men to the number of about seventy met in a plain at Lhota, in the neighborhood of the town of Richnovia. After humbling themselves with tears and prayers before God, they resolved on an appeal to the divine Omniscience as to who should be set over them as pastors. They selected nine men from their number from whom three were to be chosen and ordained. Twelve lots were prepared, nine of them were blank, and three inscribed Est. These were drawn from an urn by a child and distributed to the men. It was found that the three lots bearing the word Est were given to the following persons: Thomas Przelaucias, a very learned man; Matthew Kunwaldias, one of the most pious of men; and Elias Krzenovius, who was "distinguished for his great parts." These men received ordination from a Waldensian pastor who soon after suffered martyrdom at the stake in Vienne. These faithful Christians clung to the writings of Huss and Jerome, remembering the words first uttered by Huss, and afterward repeated by Jerome, that "a century must revolve before the day should break." This prediction was to this people what the words of Joseph were to the tribes in the house of bondage: "I die, and God will surely bless you and bring you out." It was this that kept alive their hopes through the night of their persecution. As year after year passed, they sometimes had persecution and then rest for a season; but the end of this century found two hundred churches of the United Brethren in Bohemia and Moravia. Says the historian, "so goodly was the remnant which escaped the destructive fury of fire and sword, and was permitted to see the dawning of that day which Huss had foretold." Thus commenced the Moravian church which has sent forth its missionaries to every part of the world.