avenge his death. A Hussite League was formed by his followers, a
Catholic League was formed by his enemies. The Hussite Wars began.
It is important to note with exactness what took place. As we
study the history of men and nations, we are apt to fancy that the
rank and file of a country can easily be united in one by common
adherence to a common cause. It is not so. For one man who will
steadily follow a principle, there are hundreds who would rather
follow a leader. As long as Hus was alive in the flesh, he was able
to command the loyalty of the people; but now that his tongue was
silent for ever, his followers split into many contending factions.
For all his eloquence he had never been able to strike one clear
commanding note. In some of his views he was a Catholic, in others
a Protestant. To some he was merely the fiery patriot, to others
the champion of Church Reform, to others the high-souled moral
teacher, to others the enemy of the Pope. If the people had only
been united they might now have gained their long-lost freedom. But
unity was the very quality they lacked the most. They had no clear
notion of what they wanted; they had no definite scheme of church
reform; they had no great leader to show them the way through the
jungle, and thus, instead of closing their ranks against the common
foe, they split up into jangling sects and parties, and made the
confusion worse confounded.

First in rank and first in power came the Utraquists or Calixtines.2
For some reason these men laid all the stress on a doctrine taught
by Hus in his later years. As he lay in his gloomy dungeon near
Constance, he had written letters contending that laymen should be
permitted to take the wine at the Communion. For this doctrine the
Utraquists now fought tooth and nail. They emblazoned the Cup on
their banners. They were the aristocrats of the movement; they were