THE WRITINGS OF CHELCICKY

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Bethlehem Chapel, that stronghold of the Bohemian Church reformers. Neither the date of Chelcicky's arrival at Prague nor that of his departure is certain. It is very probable that he was in that city during the last years of the life of Hus, and a passage in one of his writings renders it probable that he was personally acquainted with the great Bohemian reformer. Chelcicky was in Prague during the stormy years 1419 and 1420, and the terrible scenes that he then witnessed no doubt intensified his horror of bloodshed. He probably left Prague not long after the bloody battle of the Vysehrad (November I, 1420), and spent the rest of his hfe on his farm at Chelcic. Though living in retirement, Chelcicky continued to take part in the numerous theological controversies of his time, and it also appears that towards the end of his life some of his followers formed a small community known as the " Brothers of Chelcic," of which he became the head. Chelcicky died about the year 1460. There is sufficient contemporary evidence to prove that Chelcicky was a voluminous writer, but many of his works have been lost, and up to the beginning of the present century they had all fallen into almost comThe strongly democratic character of plete oblivion. these writings, and the bitter invectives against the aristocracy and clergy which they contain, rendered them specially obnoxious during the period of reaction that It is indeed followed the battle of the White Mountain. only within the last ten or twelve years that some of Chelcicky's works have been edited, and much further work is required before we can thoroughly appreciate his position in Bohemian literature. We possess four larger works of Chelcicky, the Reply to