A History of Bohemian LiteratureLützow, Francis, hrabe
History
A History of Bohemian Literature
Lützow, Francis, hrabe
Czech literature -- History and criticism
There is sufficient proof that Matthew of Janov was a very voluminous
writer, but his works have reached us in a very incomplete state,
and they were entirely unknown before the present century. It is not
difficult to account for the almost complete oblivion into which
these important works had fallen. Though the teaching of Matthew was
on many points similar to that of the Hussites, yet no reverence for
his person and his memory was felt by them. They could not refrain
from contrasting his recantation with the very different behaviour
of Hus under similar circumstances. If some of his works have been
preserved through the agency of the party that favoured Church reform,
this was because such writings were attributed to Wycliffe or Hus.
The adherents of the Church of Rome were, of course, anxious that,
after his recantation, the former heretic theories of Matthew should,
as far as possible, be buried in oblivion. They, not without reason,
regarded some of the opinions of Matthew as most dangerous for their
Church. The celebrated Protestant divine Neander, who perhaps has
studied the works of Janov with more care than any one else, declares
that a thorough study of Janov's works proves that, independently
of Wycliffe, there existed in Bohemia at the end of the fourteenth
century a strong reaction against the Roman hierarchy, founded on
principles somewhat similar to those of the later German reformers. In
his _Kirchengeschichte_, also, Neander has expressed the opinion that
the views of Hus not only did not go farther than those of Matthew
of Janov, but that they indeed remained somewhat behind those of the
earlier divine.
It is certain that some of Janov's writings were in Bohemian, as a
decree of the archiepiscopal vicariat (dating from the year 1392) has
been preserved in which Matthew was ordered to submit for inspection
two Bohemian books which he had just written. All trace of both
these books has long been lost. There is, however, no doubt that the
majority of Janov's books were written in Latin. Those that have been
preserved consist of a large number of religious pamphlets, written at
different periods. Towards the end of his life Matthew collected these
writings and published them in a large book entitled _Regulæ Veteris
et Novi Testamenti_. The work is divided into three books consisting
of chapters, some of which retain the designation under which they had
formerly appeared as separate pamphlets. No complete MS. of the _Regulæ
Veteris et Novi Testamenti_ is in existence, but it would be quite
possible to reconstruct the work from the different MSS. and publish
it; there seems, however, to be at present little probability that any
one will undertake this task.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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