John Huss : his life, teachings and death, after five hundred years kirjoitti:Popular preaching, as has been said, was no new thing in
Prague. For half a century before Huss's appearance
preachers had stirred the city by sermons in German and
Czech. The most notable of Huss's forerunners in the Bo-
hemian pulpit were Konrad of Waldhausen, Milicz of Kremsier
and Matthias of Janow.'^ Konrad of Waldhausen, an Aus-
trian belonging to the Augustinian order, settled in Prague
at the invitation of Charles IV, 1360. Here he preached
until his death, in 1369, first in St. Callus church and then
in the Teyn. His sermons were a popular sensation. They
soon emptied the churches of the Mendicant orders. Of the
discourses of the Mendicants he used the following words:
"As soon as I came to Prague the mass of the people forsook
the churches of the friar preachers with their fawning dis-
courses— blandis sermonibus—sind have followed me to this
day, and that in spite of the vigor with which I have rebuked
and punished them. " On one occasion when he was preaching
at Saaz, in 1365, Franciscans sought to drown the preacher's
voice and break up the services by ringing the bell, but
Konrad dismissed the congregation from the church and
preached in the open air. So great were the throngs which
pressed to hear him that he was at times obliged to leave the
Teyn church and set up his pulpit in front of it on the public
square. He preached both in German and in Latin.
Waldhauser, as he was also called, was a preacher of re-
pentance and righteousness, and attacked spiritual pride,
avarice, luxury, usury, and other sins. The effect of his
sermons was shown in changed lives. Women, it is reported,
laid aside their jewelry and their rich garments, influenced by
his warnings. The more he condemned vice and unnecessary
adornment the more, he said, did the attachment to him grow.
Konrad also used, as he himself informs us, the sharp thorn
of the Word against the simony of the clergy, and especially
of the monks, and arraigned them for commending spurious
relics. "It is folly," he exclaimed, "to run after the head of
St. Barbara when it is found not in Prague but in Prussia."^
To the complaints he made against the monks, the arch-
bishop replied that they were outside his jurisdiction and
had their own superiors to whom they were amenable.
Jan Huss:n edeltäjiä.