But  it  was  not  till  1520,  when  he  had  read  some  of  Hus's
books,  and  received  congratulatory  messages  from  Bohemia,
that  he  found  out  that  he  had  all  the  while  been  a  Hussite
without  knowing  it.^  I  find  it  difficult,  however,  to  determine
how  much  of  Hus's  thought  had  been  working  in  the  German
mind  during  the  century  that  had  elapsed  since  his  condemna-
tion. It  was  necessarily  below  the  surface,  for  Hus  was  a
convicted  heretic,  and  to  sympathise  with  him  was  to  share  his
offence.  Bohemia,  though  politically  a  part  of  the  Empire,  was
separated  from  Germany  by  differences  of  race  and  speech ;  nor
were  the  victories  of  Ziska  or  the  ravages  of  Procopius  likely
to  procure  friends  for  their  faith.  Still,  as  Luther  himself
said  in  1520,  there  had  always  been  a  murmur  of  John  Hus
in  many  parts  of  the  land,^  and  that,  too,  continually  on  the
increase.  About  1430  a  Saxon  priest,  John  Drandorf,  was
burned  near  Worms  for  Hussite  heresy.  In  Bavaria,  in
Swabia,  in  Franconia,  even  in  Prussia,  there  were  distinct  traces
of  the  same  tendency.  The  city  council  of  Bamberg  at  one
time  thought  it  necessary  to  exact  from  all  the  citizens  an  oath
against  Hussite  doctrine.  About  1446  we  hear  of  one  Frederick
MiiHer,  who,  near  Eothenburg  on  the  Tauber,  always  a  centre
of  political  and  religious  enthusiasm,  taught  the  Hussite  doc-
trines, and  gathered  many  adherents,  of  whom  130  were  after-

^  For  a  full  account  of  these  men  and  Staupitz  ;  brewter  sumus  omnes  Hiis-

their  theology,  see  Ullmaun,  Beforma-  sitse  ignorantes  ;     denique    Paulus  et

toren  vor  der  Reformation.  Augustinus  ad  verbum  sunt  Hussitse.
