This success seems to have encouraged Waldhauser to continue his
denunciations of the corruption of the clergy. He was again accused,
both by the Dominican and Augustine friars. The latter especially
accused him of apostasy. Waldhauser defended himself in a Latin
_Apologia_, which has been preserved. Its tone allows us to infer that
his attacks against the immorality of the monks must have been very
violent. It is a proof of the liberal mind of Charles, who has by German
writers often been accused of undue subservience to the Church of Rome,
that Waldhauser none the less retained his office as rector of the Tyn
Church up to his death.
Yet greater was the fervour of Milic, who, in 1369, succeeded Waldhauser
as rector of the Tyn Church. Milic had early in life held important
offices at the Court of Charles. A canon of the Cathedral of Prague, he
had also been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Court, and had for some
time in that capacity accompanied Charles during his travels. The desire
for Church reform and a return to the primitive Church, then so
prevalent in Bohemia, induced Milic to renounce all his honours and to
seek refuge in poverty. After having acted as curate for some time in a
poor village, Milic returned to Prague, where his sermons, preached in
the Church of St. Nicholas in the Malá Strana, soon attracted general
attention. Following in the steps of Waldhauser, he eloquently denounced
the corruption of his times; but he seems to have strayed further from
the doctrine of Rome than Waldhauser had done. Incessant study of the
Apocalypse, and the horror which the evil ways of his day inspired in
him, appear to have ripened in his mind the idea that the end of the
world was approaching. He gave expression to his views not only in his
sermons, but also in a written work, entitled, _Libellus de
Antechristo_. The monks of Prague, his enemies, as they had been those
of Waldhauser, denounced him to the Papal See, and Milic started for
Rome, where, in the absence of Pope Urban, he was imprisoned. After the
Pontiff's arrival an interview between him and Milic took place, when
Urban, recognising the purity of his motives, caused him to be
liberated, and allowed him to return to Prague. Through the favour of
Charles he here obtained the rectorship of the Tyn Church, as already
mentioned. Coming from a thoroughly Slavic part of Moravia, Milic was
well acquainted with the national language, and, indeed, only learnt
German late in life. His sermons, therefore, attracted yet more
attention than those of his predecessor. Milic did not limit himself to
invectives against vice, but endeavoured by his own activity to reform
the people of Prague. Through his influence the ill-famed buildings
known as Benatky (Venice) were destroyed and a building erected on the
spot to which the name of 'Jerusalem' was given, the first instance of
the adoption of biblical names, that afterwards became so frequent in
Bohemia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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