A History of Bohemian LiteratureLützow, Francis, hrabe
History
A History of Bohemian Literature
Lützow, Francis, hrabe
Czech literature -- History and criticism
The ever-increasing reaction against the corruption of the times, which
had already found expression in Waldhauser's sermons, caused Milič in
1363 to renounce all these dignities. In spite of the remonstrances
of his Archbishop, Ernest of Pardubic, he decided to devote himself
entirely to the preaching of the word of God. He first preached for a
short time in the small town of Bischof-Teinitz, and then in several
churches at Prague. The sermons of Milič vigorously inveigh against the
immorality and corruption of the times, and do not spare the secular
clergy and the monks. As Milič preached in Bohemian, his teaching
was accessible to the great mass of the people, whom Conrad's German
sermons had not reached.
The constant contemplation of the evils of his time, of poverty and
vice as he saw them in the streets of Prague on the rare occasions
when he left his studies for a few moments, produced a remarkable,
though not at that period exceptional, effect on the imaginative mind
of Milič. It seemed to him that all the preliminary symptoms described
in the Revelation of St. John had already occurred. He therefore came
to the conclusion that Antichrist was about to appear--he is said to
have fixed on the years 1365 to 1367 as the date of his arrival--and
sometimes even that he had already come. In a sermon preached before
Charles IV., Milič openly denounced that sovereign as the "greatest
Antichrist." Though he was imprisoned in consequence of this sermon,
Milič remained but a short time in prison. The magnanimous prince
condoned the offence against his person in consideration of the great
benefits which Milič had conferred on Bohemia, both by his eloquent
preaching and by the example of his own spotless and ascetic life. In
1367 Milič proceeded on a journey to Rome, where Pope Urban V. was then
expected from Avignon; he wished to inform the Pope of his conviction
of the impending end of the world and arrival of Antichrist. Milič
arrived in Rome before the Pope, and, as he himself tells us in his
_Libellus de Antichristo_, he caused a placard to be published on the
doors of St. Peter's Church announcing that he would shortly preach
a sermon declaring that Antichrist had come. Milič was immediately
arrested in consequence of this act, and imprisoned in a monastery
of the Minorite Friars. The errors in doctrine which he was accused
of were probably a mere pretext for proceeding against a man whose
eloquent sermons against the avarice and immorality of the clergy had
rendered him obnoxious to many monks. As the biographer of Milič tells
us, "The friars of the mendicant orders were greatly incensed against
him (Milič) because of his sermons on the admission of simoniacs to
religious orders, and on the possession of worldly goods by clerical
persons, both men and women. He was therefore thrown into heavy bonds,
together with Theodoric the hermit, a priest of saintly memory, who had
accompanied him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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