Before we
proceed, we must devote a few words to the personal merits and
fortunes of these latter.
John Huss was born A.D. 1373, at Hussinecz, a village in the southern
part of Bohemia; from which he sometimes took the name of Huss of
Hussinecz, or John of Hussinecz. Although without property himself, he
was enabled, at the age of sixteen years, by the pecuniary assistance
of the proprietor of his native village and some other patrons, to
prosecute his studies at the university of Prague, where he
distinguished himself by his abilities and diligence. In the year 1396
he was made Master of Arts, and two years later began to lecture on
philosophical and theological subjects. In A.D. 1402 he was appointed
curate and preacher to the chapel of Bethlehem at Prague, the duties
of which office he united with his professorship. In the same year the
queen Sophia chose him for her confessor. He thus at once acquired an
influence over the people, the students, and at court. It was about
this time that he became acquainted with the writings of Wickliffe. In
the year 1407 he began publicly to oppose and preach against the
errors in doctrine and the corruption then reigning in the church. The
archbishop of Prague, Zbyniek, an illiterate and violent man, whose
ignorance had made him the laughing-stock of the students, by whom he
was called the _Alphabetarius_, or ABC doctor, collected two hundred
manuscripts of Wickliffc's writings; and, without any further
authority from the pope than his previous condemnation of them,
committed them to the flames in the archiepiscopal palace.
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