the people that it is better to kneel to the devil than to kneel at
the altar; and thus you have taught them to despise religion and
wallow in unholy lusts." He condemned the King for being a King at
all; for no intelligent man, said Peter, could possibly be a King
and a Christian at the same time. And finally he condemned the Pope
as Antichrist and the enemy of God.

Yet Peter was something more than a caustic critic. For the
terrible ills of his age and country he had one plain and homely
remedy, and that for all true Christians to leave the Church of Rome
and return to the simple teaching of Christ and His Apostles. If
the reader goes to Peter for systematic theology, he will be
grievously disappointed; but if he goes for moral vigour, he will
find a well-spread table.

He did not reason his positions out like Wycliffe; he was a
suggestive essayist rather than a constructive philosopher; and,
radical though he was in some of his views, he held firm to what he
regarded as the fundamental articles of the Christian faith. He
believed in the redemptive value of the death of Christ. He
believed that man must build his hopes, not so much on his own good
works, but rather on the grace of God. He believed, all the same,
that good works were needed and would receive their due reward. He
believed, further, in the real bodily presence of Christ in the
Sacrament; and on this topic he held a doctrine very similar to
Luther's doctrine of Consubstantiation. But, over and above all
these beliefs, he insisted, in season and out of season, that men
could partake of spiritual blessings without the aid of Roman
priests. Some fruit of his labours he saw. As the fire of the
Hussite Wars died down, a few men in different parts of the