It was, however, the enemies of the English Reformer who first publicly called the attention of the Bohemians to his works. A German Silesian, named Hubner, had selected from Wyclif’s writings forty-five propositions which he asked the University of Prague to condemn. The period of Hus’s Rectorship seems to have come to an end before this proposal was made; and on May 28, 1403, the new Rector of the University convoked an assembly of the Masters of Arts, and laid before them the propositions which Hubner had compiled. Hus at once came forward to answer Hubner, but he based his opposition entirely on the inaccuracy of the summaries laid before them. He referred to the burning alive of certain adulterators of saffron, which had recently taken place in Prague; and he declared that such a fate was better deserved by these adulterators of books. But some of his followers went much further. Stephen Pálec̆ threw a book of Wyclif’s on the table, declaring that he was willing to defend it against all attacks; and Stanislaus of Znaym (Znojem) offered to prove that none of the articles attributed to Wyclif were heretical. This statement so offended some of the older Masters that they at once left the room; but, in spite of their retirement, a majority of those who remained condemned the forty-five Articles of Wyclif, and decided that they should not be taught in Bohemia. The influence of Wenceslaus was, for the moment, thrown on the side of reform; and, after the death of the Archbishop of Prague, he appointed to the see an ex-soldier named Zbynĕk Zajíc, who had a great dislike to many of the impostures which had been encouraged by the clergy. The new Archbishop at once sent Hus to inquire into several fictitious miracles which had recently become notorious in the country; and, by his help, these abuses were checked for the time. [Illustration: JAN HUS.] But, while Hus was zealous against every form of moral corruption, he had by no means committed himself to those doctrines for which Wyclif had been branded as a heretic. At the same time he had read and studied many of the purely philosophical works of the English Reformer; and he expressed his belief that much good was to be learned from them. With the Englishman’s hatred of moral corruption Hus sympathised yet more warmly; while the national character of the two movements naturally roused a sympathy between their respective supporters. The revival of the English language, as a literary expression of thought, had received considerable impulse from Wyclif’s translation of the Bible; and the use of English, rather than Latin or Norman-French, in theological writings became one of the notes of the Lollard movement. In this tendency Hus could not fail to observe the likeness to his own efforts to maintain the Bohemian language against the inroads of the Germans.