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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY‘. i
37
and let the people have the ufe of the cup at the facrament. ‘They love to make fport
with him, and fay that he endeavoured to make the incomprehenfible myftery {till more
incomprehenfible, without having the leaft attention to how much the human mind was
lowered by fuch myfteries. They deny him the philofophical fpirit, both of his prede-
ceflor Wickliff, or of his followers, Luther, Zwingle, and Calvin. I had formerly the
fame opinion of him myfelf; but fince I have ftudied his hiftory and the hiftories of his
followers, I have conceived a much higher idea of him. I fearehed in the library of
Vienna for all the documents that relate to this interefting hiftory. In Menker I found
a vindication of the opinions of the Huflites, addrefled to the diet of Nuremberg. It is
written in a German which I could not underftand, till ‘I had read it over fix or feven
times, and procured afliftance from feveral of my friends. This wonderful reprefentation,
contains the whole confeffion of faith of the Huflites. They attack the whole fyftem of
the Roman Chatholic church, purgatory, fafts, monkery,—and it is certain that they
were only one ftep behind Calvin. The ftyle of this vindication has all the marks of in-
‘timate perfuafion, and of the foundeft underftanding, only like Luther, the author fome-
times falls into the ftyle of the times and runs into low language.
In fact, the fole advantage which the other reformers had over Hufs, arofe from the
invention of printing fince his time, as in confequence of this, knowledge was much more
widely {pread, as the doctrines could be much more widely diffufed. The doétrines of
Hufs were loft amidft the wars which followed his death. They were ftifled in the bar-
barity which overfpread Bohemia, when the people no longer attended to any teacher,
but the {word became the fole decider of all controverfy.
i found fufficient proofs that Hufs, notwith{tanding his obftinacy and prefumption, pof-
fefled an enlightened and philofophical mind, which, however, partook fomewhat of the
unpolifhed character of the age in which he lived. 1 am fometimes tempted to write his
hiftory, which perhaps is not yet fufficiently underftood. Whether I fhall perfevere I
know not, but in the mean time will collect what materials I can, and when I have time,
try whether I have any talents for writing hiftory—at leaft I feel a great temptation to
do this.
The prefent race of Hufiites flatter themfelves that the Emperor, whofe fentiments of
toleration are well known, and whois very fond of the Bohemians, will reftore to them
their freedom of opinion ; but people here generally think that they are deceived in their
expectations ; for as their fentiments nearly approach thofe of the Lutherans, it would
not be very prudent to allow the eftablifhment of a new fect, which always fpreads fome
roots that may grow and be dangerous.
The Bohemians are a wonderfully ftrong-built race of men. Dubravius, one of their
hiftorians, who was Bifhop of Olmutz in the fixteenth century, compares them to lions,
“ As the land (fays he, according to the manner of writing of thofe times,) lies under
the influence of Leo, fo do its inhabitants poffefs all the qualities of that noble animal.
Their high chelts, fparkling eyes, {trong thick hair, ftout bones, ftrength, courage, and
irrefiftible ‘pirit, when oppofed, all fhew evidently that the lion is their ftar, which they
bear likewiie in their coat of arms.”
They are a handfome, ftrong built, and active race of people; and you fee evidently
that they are defcended from the Croats, who are fome of the handfomett people upon
earth. ‘Their heads are a little too large; but their broad fhoulders, and their thick-fet
bodies render the difproportion not fo vifible as it would otherwife be. ‘They are with-
out doubt the beft foldiers of all the Emperor’s troops. They bear the inconveniencies
of the military life longer than any. Even hunger, that deadly fiend to every thing that
calls itfelf an Imperial foldier, they can fupport for a confiderable time.
VOL. VI. 7 My
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