Il Tractatus De iuramento di Nicola della Rosa Nera

The House "At the Black Rose" in Prague was a singular centre of study and instruction by the University's Natio Bohemica. Since 1411 there were three teutonici guest professors linked to the party of John Hus: Master Peter of Dresden, Master Frederick Eppinge, and Master Nicholas of the Black Rose (de Rosa Nera); they were given the nickname of Dresdeners. In 1412 after the renewed sentence of Wyclif's 45 Articles passed by ecclesiastical and university authorities, Hus's party decided to publicly defend some of these articles including the one that prohibited the oath in certain cases. A treatise discussing this issue is in Prague, former Chapter Library, now Archiv Pra skeho Hradu, MS C 116, of which the edition is here given: the text is by Nicolaus de Rosa Nera and can be considered his testament. As a bachelor of Canon Law he quotes canonical texts: Decretum Gratiani, the Decretals with the glosses. Besides, a basic authority quoted is Pseudo-Chrysostom's Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum, in order to support the view that the six Evangelical Recommendations of Mt 5, including Mt 5,37, are to be considered commandments. Nicolaus states the duty to fight against the Antichrist, present in the Council of Constance and in the dominant simony of ecclesiastical organization. There are connections with the imitation of Christ in the spirit of the Devotio Moderna, but no connection with Waldesianism.