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A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

of the Archbishop, and probably by his order. Hus had been sent with two other priests to investigate so-called miracles which, as was stated, had been performed by a relic containing the blood of Christ, which was exhibited In his treatise at Wilsnack, a small town on the Elbe. Hus asserted that it was impossible that the blood of Jesus Christ should be materially contained in any one spot. It was, he said, only to be found in Holy Communion. Somewhat later— about the year 1410 — the tone of He no longer writes as an Hus's writings changes. unconditional adherent of the Church of Rome, and the influence of Wycliffe's ideas gradually becomes eviHus's writings, still mainly Latin, are numerous dent. at this period ; they deal with then current theological controversies, and it would be of little interest to enumeOne of these treatises, addressed to a rate their titles. countryman of Wycliffe, entitled De Libris Hcereticorum Legendis ; Replica contra Anglicum Joannem Stokes, deals almost entirely with Wycliffe's doctrine. John Stokes, a licentiate of law, was a member of an English embassy which was sent to Bohemia by King Henry IV. It was rumoured at Prague that Stokes had during his stay there stated that Wychffe was in England considered a heretic. . Hus immediately challenged the Englishman to a public disputation before the university in the then customary manner. On the refusal of Stokes to attend the meeting, Hus yet delivered his speech in defence of Wycliffe before the university, and afterwards founded his pamphlet principally on the contents of the speech. Many of the minor Latin writings of Hus are indeed based on speeches delivered before the university, and even in his larger Bohemian writings he has often introduced large portions of his sermons.