Few great teachers are ever well represented by their immediate followers and disciples; but hardly any have been distinguished from their followers by so many and such important differences as those which separated John Hus from the men who are known by his name. First of all there was the gulf which separates the man who rejoices to die for his faith from those who delight in killing on its behalf. But that difference between teacher and follower, though much more vital, is, perhaps, also more common than the barrier of doctrinal difference which separated Hus from those who claimed to represent him. The very practice, which supplied the war-cry of the coming struggle, was one which Hus had merely approved with a friendly tolerance, never advocated with any special enthusiasm; and that difference of feeling is characteristic of the whole relations between Hus and his followers. On the one hand the constitutional reforms of the Church, hinted at in the “De Ecclesia,” would certainly have been rejected by the Calixtine party; while, on the other hand, the doctrines and practices of the Taborites would have been opposed by Hus himself. It will therefore be more convenient, in describing the following struggle, to speak of the Reformers by their doctrinal name of “Utraquists,” rather than by the personal but misleading title of “Hussite.” But, if the spirit of the living Hus could scarcely be said to rest upon those who called themselves by his name, undoubtedly the death of Hus was recognised, on both sides, as the essential cause of the wars which followed. Men might wrangle about this or that doctrine or practice; but the murder of a Bohemian, in a place to which he had been sent under the special protection of the King and the nobles, was a point which could never be forgiven or forgotten against Sigismund or the Council of Constance; especially when this murder was connected with an attempt to brand as heretics the whole Bohemian nation. This feeling breathes through the fiery letter of the nobles of Bohemia, which was sent to the Council on the 2nd of September, 1415. They accused the Councillors of having condemned Hus on false evidence; and they declared him to be a good Catholic. They give the lie to all to dare to assert that there is heresy in Bohemia or Moravia, except only to the Emperor Sigismund, who, they _hope_, is innocent in the matter; and they declare that they will defend the law of Christ and His preachers, even to the shedding of blood.