“And Petr Chelčický said and says the same,” she interrupted. “Why, then, don’t you and yours listen to his words? When he teaches that violence cannot be answered by violence? That war never ends in victory, but spawns a new war, a war that can bring nothing but another war? Petr Chelčický knew and loved Huss but distanced himself from men of violence and murder. He distanced himself from men who turn their faces towards God as they kneel on battlefields among corpses. Men who make the sign of the cross with bloodied hands.

“You climbed the mountains at Easter in 1419,” she continued, before he could protest. “On Tábor, Oreb, Baranek, Sion and the Mount of Olives, you created a fraternal community of Children of God, imbued with the Holy Spirit and the love of your neighbour. Then you were true Warriors of God, for you had pure souls and hearts, for you zealously carried the word of God and proclaimed Divine love. But it lasted a bare fifteen weeks, my boy, fifteen short weeks. Already by Saint Abdon’s Day, on the thirtieth of July, you cast men from windows onto spears, murdered people in streets, churches and houses, and committed rape and slaughter. Instead of God’s love, you began to preach the Apocalypse. And the name ‘Warriors of God’ no longer befits you, for what you are doing more delights the Devil. You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven up a stairway of corpses. You pass down it to Hell.”

“But yet,” he interjected, reining in his annoyance, “you said that Utraquism is dear to you. That you see the need to reform the Church, that you are aware of the need for far-reaching change. When Chelčický called: ‘The Fifth Commandment: Thou shall not kill!,’ papal crusades were marching on Prague. Had we listened to Chelčický, who entreated us to defend ourselves with nothing but faith and prayer, had we faced the Roman hordes with only humility and love for our neighbour, they’d have slaughtered us. Bohemia would have run with blood, and our hopes and dreams vanished into thin air. There would have been no changes, no reform. In its triumph, Rome would have been even more haughty, cocksure and arrogant, even more mendacious, even more in opposition to Christ. We had something to fight for, so we fought…”