ch it now seems that human knowledge
cannot penetrate.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century fresh attempts were being
made to win back the Brethren to orthodoxy; and in this work the
ardour of the Dominicans burned bright. In 1500 one of them, Henry
Institor, a Doctor of Theology, procured from Alexander VI bulls which
recognized him as 'Inquisitor into heresy throughout Germany and
Bohemia', and empowered him to collect heretical books and send them
to the Bishop of Olmutz, the chief see of Moravia, to be burned; also
to join to himself two or three other Masters of Theology and preach
against the heretics. These bulls are printed at the head of a great
volume written by Institor, with the title 'A shield for the faith of
the Holy Roman Church against the heresy of the Waldensians or
Pickards, who on all sides are infecting with virulent contagion
certain races in Germany and Bohemia, to hatred of the clergy and
enervation of the ecclesiastical power'. In 1501 the volume appeared
at Olmutz, with an enumeration of thirty-six erroneous articles in
which the Pickards denied the authority of the Church; followed of
course by a vigorous refutation. At the same time one of their own
countrymen, Augustine Kasenbrot of Olmutz was writing a series of open
letters on the Brethren and their views.

But the most succinct account of the position is contained in an
attack made upon them by a learned and fair-minded Dominican, Jacobus
Lilienstayn. His book, 'a Treatise against the erroneous Waldensian
Brethren, commonly known as the Pickards, without rule, without law,
and without obedience, of whom there are many in Moravia, more than
in Bohemia', was composed in 1505 and is dedicated to the Dean of
Prague. It begins by setting forth five general and twelve special
errors of the Waldensians. The former are as follows:

1. They call the Gospels, the Epistles and the Acts, together
with the Old Testament where it agrees with the New, 'the Law
of Christ'; and they attack and deride the Doctors of the
Church.

2. They say the Pope has no more power in administering the
sacraments of the Church, and in other ecclesiastical matters,
than a simple priest has.

3. They say that in the practice of the Church nothing is to be
added to what Christ and the Apostles taught and did.

4. They hold the pure text of the Gospel without any gloss.

5. They allege that the Church is