RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
*37
and let the people have the ufe oPthe cup at the facrament. They love to make fportwith him, and fay that he endeavoured to make the incomprehenfible myftery hill moreincomprehenfible, without having the lead attention to how much the human mind waslowered by fuch mvfteries. They deny him the philofophieal fpirit, both of his prede-o ffor 'Wickliff. or of his followers, Luther, Zwingle, and Calvin. I had formerly thefame opinion of him myfelf: but fmce I have dudied his hitlory and the hiftories..of hisfollowers, I have conceived a much higher idea of him. I fearched in the libiaiy ofVienna for all the documents that relate to this interefting hiftory. In Menker I founda vindication of the opinions of the Huffites, addreffed to the diet of Nuremberg . It iswritten in a German which I could not underftand, till I had read it over fix or feyeatimes, and procured affiftance from feveral of my friends This wonderful reprefentationcontains the whole confeffion of faith of the Huffites. They attack the whole fyftem ofthe Roman Chatholic church, purgatory, falls, monkery,—and it is certain that theywere only one ftep behind Calvin. The ftyle of this vindication has all the marks of in-timate perfuafion, and of the founded undemanding, only like Luther, the author fome-times falls into the ftyle of the times and runs into low language.
In fact, the foie advantage which the other reformers had over Hufs, arofe from theinvention of printing fince his time, as in confequence of this, knowledge was much morewidely fpread, as the do&iines could be much more widely diffufed. The doctrines ofHufs were loft amidft the wars which followed his death. They were (lifted in the bar-barity which overfpread Bohemia , when the people no longer attended to any teacher,but the fworcl became the foie decider of all controverfy.
1 found Efficient proofs that Hufs, notwithftanding his obftinacy and preemption, pof-feffed an enlightened and philofophieal mind, which, however, partook fomewhat of theunpoliftied character of the age in which he lived. I am fometimes tempted to write hishiftory, which perhaps is not yet fufficiently underftood. Whether I Ihall perfevere Iknow Hot, 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 todo this.
The prefent race of Huffites flatter themfelves that the Emperor, whofe fentiments oftoleration are well known, and who is very fond of the Bohemians, will reftore to themtheir freedom of opinion : but people here generally think that they are deceived in theirexpectations •, for as their fentiments nearly approach thofe of the Lutherans , it wouldnot be very prudent to allow the eftablilhment of anew fe<ft, which always .fpreads fomeroots that may grow and be dangerous. , . .
The Bohemians are a wonderfully ftrong-built race of men.. Dubravms, one of themhiftorians, who was Bilhop of Olmutz in the fixteenth century, compares them to Isons.“ As the land (fays he, according to the manner of writing of thofe times,) lies^underthe influence of Leo, fo do its inhabitants poffefs all the qualities of that noble animal.Their high chdis, fparkling eyes, ftrong thick hair, ftout bones, ftrength, courage, andm-efiftible fpirit, when oppofed, all ffiew evidently that the lion is their ftar, which theybear likewife in their coat of arms. ’
they are a handfome, ftrong built, and active race of people ; and you fee evidentlythat they are defended’ from the Croats , who are fome of the handfomeft people, uponearth. Theirlieads are a little too large; but their broad ffioulders, and^ their thick-fetbodies render the difproportion not fo vifible as it would otherwife be. .They are with-out. doubt the bell foldiers of all the Emperor ’s troops. They bear the inconveniencies
Even hunger, that deadly fiend to every thing that
-» a. * VJ wA uu L1IL
of the military life longer than any.
calls itfelf an Imperial foldier, they can fupport lor a confiderable time.VOL. vi. ^
Mv