i6o

A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN

LITERATURE

lowly life, these and other similar views are repeatedly — Chelcicky was indeed ever prone to repetition — expounded in this as in his other works. It will, however, give a far truer insight into the ideas of Chelcicky if we dwell more lengthily on his masterpiece, the Sit Viry, or " Net of Faith," where these views are far more clearly expounded than elsewhere. This book, which has only recently become widely known, is one of the most valuable that have been written in the Bohemian language. The democratic character of the Slav race is noticeable in almost every line of this book, and Chelcicky's very scanty knowledge of Latin, often disadvantageous to him when he attempted theological definitions, here is the cause of the independence and originality which characterise his work. Chelcicky's descriptions of the habits and manners of the different classes of Bohemians in his time, though sometimes coarse, are often quaint, and occasionally very The practice acquired by his earlier writings witty. had also greatly improved his style, and he writes here with a facility that we do not find in his other works. The subject of the Net of Faith is a passage from the Bible 1 — which the author quotes at the beginning of his work— which tells us how Simon, by order of Jesus, cast out his net and the net broke. As Simon Peter's net then broke in consequence of the multitude of fishes, thus since the donation of Constantine, " damned persons, heretics and offenders," have entered the net of faith, which has been pierced by " the two whales," the Pope and the Emperor, the embodiments of spiritual and secular authority. The Net of Faith consists of two parts, the contents of which are thus described by the '

Gospel of St. Luke, chap. iv. ver. 4-6.