vi;io;i;i;iJiiiii;;;:i: j/^ 3 ^153 00505S7S b A Short Histories of the Literatures of the World : VII. Edited by Edmund Gosse, LL.D. Short Histories of the Literatures of the World Edited by EDMUND GOSSE, LL.D. Large Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. each Volume ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE By Prof. Gilbert Murray, M.A. FRENCH LITERATURE By Prof. Edward Dowden, D.C.L., LL.D. MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE By the Editor ITALIAN LITERATURE By Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D. SPANISH LITERATURE By James Fitzmaurice-Kelly JAPANESE LITERATURE By William George Aston, C.M.G., D.Lit. BOHEMIAN LITERATURE By The Count LOtzow, D.Litt., D.Ph. SANSKRIT LITERATURE By Prof. A. A. Macuonell, M.A. HUNGARIAN LITERATURE By Dr. Zoltan Beothy AMERICAN LITERATURE By Professor W. P. Trent RUSSIAN LITERATURE By K. Wai.iszewski In preparation MODERN SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE By Dr. Geokg Brandes LATIN LITERATURE By Dr. A. W. Verrall Other volumes will follow LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN A History of -Li BOHEMIAN LITERATURE BY THE COUNT LUTZOW D.LlTT. OXON. AND D.PH. PrAG. MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF SCIENCES IN BOHEMIA AND OF THE BOHEMIAN ACADEMY %onbon WILLIAM HEINEMANN MCMVII This Edition enjoys Copyright in all countrici signatory to the Berne Treaty, and is not to be imported into the United States of Amerxa. ^ ^ FOREWORD TO NEW IMPRESSION It has given me great pleasure that a new impression of my History of Bohe7nian Literature should have been required. I am, I think, justified in believing that the British public now takes a certain though still limited interest in the literature and language of ^1 my country. I am also perhaps not wrong in think- *^l ing that the origin of the struggles in the Austro- fw Hungarian empire — almost entirely attributable as it is to racial and linguistic discord — has become better understood in England. As I show in my book, the revival of Bohemian literature was largely responsible for the movement in favour of Bohemian autonomy ; and the early leaders of the Bohemian movement in the nineteenth century were mostly literary men. I vT^. am justified, therefore, in claiming a certain political O importance for this book. The new impression on K> the whole differs little from the former one, and in \; revising the book I noticed with pleasure how few (^s printer's errors required correction — a somewhat as- v) tonishing fact if we consider how difficult the spelling of Slavic words is. I have added considerably to the last pages of the book, which deal mainly with writers who are now alive. This part of the subject had been previously somewhat neglected, as I originally intended to omit all mention of living authors. \. ^ LiJTZOW. O^s^ Zampach, *Ys October 26 y 1906. PREFACE With the approval of Mr. Gosse, I have written this short History of Bohemian Literature according to a plan that differs considerably from that of certain earlier volumes in this Series. The works of Modern English, French, Italian, and even of Ancient Greek and Spanish writers, will be known to many readers of the volumes that deal with them. Bohemian literature, on the other hand, is absolutely unknown in Western Europe, and a large amount of space has therefore been devoted to translated quotations from Bohemian writers. Many of these unknown works have great interest and value. Bohemian literature, as we possess it, is to a certain extent disappointing and unsatisfactory. In consequence of the wholesale destruction of everything written in Bohemian that continued during more than a century, countless Bohemian books, many of which are known to have been valuable, have disappeared. Many forms of literature are scarcely represented in Bohemian. No dramatic works worthy of notice exist before the present century. Poetry also is valuable only in the earliest period and in the present century. Bohemian literature is so closely connected with Bohemian history, that without some knowledge of the latter it is often difficult to understand the references to historical events which must necessarily be found in a viii PREFACE history of Bohemian Hterature. Though 1 have some- times explained such references by notes, I could not do this to any great extent without trespassing on the domain of history. Those who wish to turn their atten- tion to the dramatic history of Bohemia will find their best guide up to the year 1526 in Palacky, whose monu- mental History of Bohemia was published in German as well as in Bohemian. Though no continuous narrative on the same plan brings Bohemian history down to the year 1620, Gindely, Tieftrunk, and Rezek have written extensively, in German as w^ell as in Bohemian, on the last years of Bohemian independence. Professor Tomek has in his short Geschichte Bohmens given an outline of the history of the country from the earliest ages up to the present day. I have in my Bohe^nia : an Historical Sketchy endeavoured to give a brief account of the history of Bohemia from an early period to the year 1620, written in accordance with the requirements of non-Bohemian readers. Bohemian writers have divided the literature of their country into three periods. The first extends from the earliest time to the days of Hus ; the second from Hus to the battle of the White Mountain ; the third from that battle to the present day. Chaps. I. and II. of this book deal with the first; Chaps. III., IV., V., and VI. with the second ; and Chap. VII. with the third period. Like the history, the literature also of Bohemia is, particularly in the most interesting periods, a record of incessant religious struggles. I am thoroughly con- scious of the fact that an account of these struggles is a most difficult task, that the writer " Incedit per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso." PREFACE ix 1 can only express my conscientious belief that I have delineated these religious controversies in accordance with the writings of the most accredited authorities. I have only been able to allude incidentally to some of the materials that I have used while writing this book. I have, however, principally relied on a prolonged study of the works of the Bohemian writers with whom my work deals. It is at least the privilege of a critic of so little known a literature as that of Bohemia that he is not confronted by an enormous amount of anciently accu- mulated criticism. In one or two cases where I felt uncertain, I have had the privilege of receiving advice from Professor Josef Kalousek, of the Bohemian Univer- sity of Prague, and from Mr. Adolphus Patera, head- hbrarian of the Bohemian Museum in that town. I have entirely limited my remarks to the works of those Bohe- mian writers who have general interest, or are at least characteristic of their time. Very many names contained in the histories of Bohemian literature written in the national language have therefore been omitted. lOtzow. Zampach, New Year's Day, 1 899. CONTENTS CHAP. PACE FOREWORD TO NEW IMPRESSION V PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION ...,.«.. xiii I. THE EARLIEST BOHEMIAN POETRY .... I II. EARLY PROSE WRITERS— THE PRECURSORS OF HUS . 42 III. HUS 86 IV. THE PERIOD OF THE HUSSITE WARS . . . .143 V. HUMANISTS AND THEOLOGIANS 1 74 VI. BOHEMIAN HISTORIANS OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 295 VII. THE REVIVAL OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE . . . 354 BIBLIOGRAPHY 423 INDEX 427 INTRODUCTION The Slavic language, a branch of the great Aryan family of speech, was originally one. It gradually divided itself into various dialects, a certain number of which have become written languages. According to the generally accepted division, the existent Slavic languages are divided into three great classes — the North-Eastern, Southern, and Western groups. The last-named group consists of the Bohemian and Polish languages and the almost ex- tinct dialect of the Lusatians in Prussia and Saxony. The Bohemian language is spoken in a large and con- tinuous part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, compris- ing the greater part of Bohemia and Moravia, part of Silesia, a small portion of the Archduchy of Austria, and extensive districts in Northern Hungary. There are con- siderable numbers of Bohemians beyond the borders of this continuous territory, in Lower Austria (particularly in Vienna), in Prussian Silesia (where their homes adjoin those of the Bohemians in Austrian Silesia), in Russia (particularly in Volhynia), and in the United States of America. According to the most authentic statistics, the Bohemian language is spoken by about 7,930,000 people. Of these, 7,650,000 live in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 70,000 in Prussia, 60,000 in Russia, and 150,000 in the United States of America. Minor Bohemian colonies, such as XIV INTRODUCTION that in London, do not require special notice : the native language also often disappears here after one or two generations. The Slavonic inhabitants of Northern Hungary, identi- cal with the Bohemians as regards their race, have in the present century developed a written language somewhat different from that of Bohemia. If we therefore deduct them from the total, we come to the result that the Bohe- mian language is spoken by about 5,750,000 people. A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE CHAPTER I THE EARLIEST BOHEMIAN POETRY If it were possible to compare the greatest literature of the world with that of a small and little-known country, it might be said that the " Question of the Manuscripts " is the necessary beginning of every account of Bohe- mian literature, just as the '^ Homeric Question " must form the commencement of every work on the literature of Greece. The ^' Question of the Manuscripts " turns on the genuineness of two documents which first became known at the beginning of the present century, and were supposed to be the most ancient writings in the Bohe- mian language. These manuscripts have from the first attracted great notice, and they gave a great impulse to the revival of Bohemian literature in the present cen- tury. The Manuscript of Koniginhof is also by no means devoid of poetical merit, and these documents will there- fore always have to be mentioned, even should it be finally proved that both were forgeries. The manuscript that was first discovered is the so- called Rukopis Kralodvorsky or Manuscript of Konig- A 2 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE inhof.^ It was stated that this document had been found by Venceslas Hanka (afterwards librarian of the Bohe- mian Museum) in the tower of the deanery church of Koniginhof, or Kralovd Dvur, on September i6, 1817. It was further declared that Hanka's attention had first been attracted to the manuscript by Bor5, chaplain at Koniginhof, who was previously aware of its existence. The discovery at Koniginhof immediately created great sensation even in countries very distant from Bohemia, a circumstance all the more worthy of note as Bohemia was then even more unknown than it now is. Goethe was greatly interested in the new discovery, to which he frequently refers in his writings, and he himself pub- lished a translation, or rather adaptation, of the Kytice (Nosegay), one of the lyrical poems of the Manu- script of Koniginhof. Numerous translations of these poems into English,^ German, Polish, Russian, Italian, and other languages soon appeared, and the interest was of course yet far greater in Bohemia itself, where they be- came the recognised models for the Bohemian writers who were then beginning to revive the national language. Though some doubts as to the genuineness of the manuscript were expressed from the moment of its ap- pearance, yet the majority of the Bohemian learned men, including such authorities as Palacky and Safafik, firmly maintained its ancient origin. Within the last twenty years a change has taken place. Perhaps the majority of the Bohemian philologists of the present day believe ^ Koniginhof is a small town in North-Eastern Bohemia. ^ Some of the poems of the Manuscript of Koniginhof were translated into English many years ago by the late Sir John Bowring, whose knowledge of the Bohemian language was, however, very slight. The late Rev. A. H. Wratislaw published in 1852 an English translation of the Manuscripts of Koniginhof and Griineberg. THE "QUESTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS" 3 the manuscript to be a forgery, that is to say, that it was written at the beginning the present century. Its genuineness has been attacked from the palaeographic point of view ; it has been attempted to prove anachron- isms in the manuscript ; and it has been asserted that it contains verbal formations unknown to the early Bohe- mian language. A chemical examination of the manu- script has, however, proved that it differs in no way from authentic Bohemian manuscripts of the fourteenth cen- tury, and it can therefore now be affirmed that the Manu- script of Koniginhof cannot be attacked from the point of view of palaeography.^ The defenders of the manuscript have been less successful in their endeavours to dis- prove the statement that it contains anachronisms, which could not have been committed by a writer of the thir- teenth or fourteenth century. The almost complete darkness which surrounds the condition of the Slavonic race in very early times renders it very difficult to form a judgment on many of the disputed points. The de- fenders of the manuscript also lay stress on its similarity to undoubtedly genuine collections of early Bohemian writings, such as those known as the Manuscript of Koniggratz and that of St. Vitus. It is true that the con- tents of these collections differ somewhat from those of the manuscript, and are mainly of a religious character. As regards the philological test, it is certain that the manuscript contains some verbal formations of which no other example can be found in the scanty remains of early Bohemian writings that have been preserved. On the other hand, in consequence of the very scantiness of these remains, a ^Aira^ Aeyofievov does not necessarily 1 My authority for this statement is Mr. Adolphus Patera, chief librarian of the Bohemian Museum at Prague, and one of the greatest living authorities on Bohemian palaeography. 4 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE prove the falsehood of the document in which we find it. The defenders of the manuscript have shown great in- genuity in proving that many of the locutions, unknown to ancient Bohemian, may be traced to the Moravian dialect, which at all times has differed somewhat from the language of Bohemia. They therefore maintain that the poems of the manuscript originated not in Bohemia itself, but in the sister-land, Moravia. If the falsehood of the manuscript be admitted, the question arises, Who was the falsifier ? who at the be- ginning of the present century, when the Bohemian language was at its lowest level, had a sufficient know- ledge of that language to have written these poems ? Hanka, of whom it is natural to think, has left us verses of his own so vastly inferior to some of the poems con- tained in the manuscript, that it is almost impossible to believe him to have been its author, i Whatever may be the final result of the discussion, the Manuscript of Koniginhof will always remain one of the curiosities of literature. The first part of the manu- script consists of six ballads, if we may thus describe them, five of which deal with warlike events ; the first, ^ which describes a battle between the Bohemians and the Germans, has a distinctly heathen character. The sixth ballad contains a description of a tournament, and is one of those pieces in which the opponents of the genuine- ness of the manuscript think that they have discovered anachronisms. The second part of the manuscript con- ^ Though the controversy concerning the MS. of Koniginhof or Kralove Dvur still continues, and its genuineness still finds believers, hardly any Bohemian scholars now believe in the authenticity of the MS. Strong and increasing evidence tends to the supposition that the poems are a work of Wenceslas Hanka. 2 I follow the classification of Dr. Jirecek's edition (1879) ; recent writers have divided the contents of the manuscript somewhat differently. THE MANUSCRIPT OF KONIGINHOF 5 sists of eight shorter songs. Some of them are by no means devoid of poetic merit, but they have a somewhat sentimental manner, which makes them appear rather modern to the reader. The adversaries of the manu- script have not been slow in noting this circumstance. I shall only translate one of the short poems of the manuscript, entitled ^^ The Cuckoo " : — " In the fields there stands an oak-tree^ On the oak-tree a cuckoo calls : He ever calls, he laments That spring does not last for ever. How could the wheat ripen in the fields If spring lasted for evert How could the apples ripe?i in the garden If summer lasted for everf Would not the ears of corn freeze in the stack If autumn lasted for everf Would not the maidefi be mournful If her solitude lasted for ever? " In view of the uncertainty concerning the authenticity of the Manuscript of Koniginhof, it is obviously impos- sible to assign a date to it. The writers who believe in its genuine character hold that the poems were tran- scribed and collected in their present shape at the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century, but that some of them are of far higher anti- quity. The distinctly heathen character of one of these poems renders this certain, of course, if only we can dismiss the supposition of a modern falsification. The second ancient Bohemian manuscript that was supposed to have been discovered at the beginning of the present century is that of Zelena Hora or Griineberg, which is generally mentioned in connection with the Manuscript of Koniginhof, and is printed together v>'ith it 6 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE in most editions. It has now been proved that the Manu- script of Griineberg is a falsification dating from the present century, and its genuineness is now no longer maintained by any scholars, though a natural patriotic feeling has rendered it painful to many to admit that this manuscript, which was attributed to the ninth cen- tury, and described as "the most ancient document in Bohemian, and indeed in all Slavonic literature," is nothing but a fraudulent imposture. It is proverbially easy to be wise post eventuiUy that is, in this case, after the fact of a forgery is recognised, but it is difficult to repress very natural surprise that the mysterious manner in which the Manuscript of Griine- berg first became known did not create greater suspi- cion than was actually the case. The manuscript was (in 1818) sent anonymously by post to Francis Count Kolovrat-Liebsteinsky, then high burgrave (or governor) of Bohemia. That nobleman had shortly before pub- lished an appeal to the Bohemians in favour of the National or Bohemian Museum, of which he was one of the founders, and which had as principal object the preservation of the relics of Bohemian antiquity. It was not until many years later that John Kovar, steward on Count Colloredo's estate of Griineberg, declared that he had found the manuscript in an outlying room of the castle of Griineberg ; he further stated that he had believed his master. Count Colloredo, to have been so thoroughly German in his feelings that he would have destroyed the manuscript had it been shown to him. It is difficult for others than Bohemians to realise the absurdity of such a statement. The strictly absolutist government of Austria during the first half of the present century inexorably suppressed all public demonstrations THE MANUSCRIPT OF GRONEBERG 7 of national feeling, whether German or Slavonic. It was thus impossible that literary controversies should assume a political aspect at that period, though this has certainly happened in more recent times. It was equally absurd to suggest that Count CoUoredo, a distinguished gene- ral during the Napoleonic wars, was likely to take any interest whatever in documents belonging to the early period of the Bohemian language — a language that then, and even far more recently, was almost unknown to the upper classes of Bohemian society. The Manuscript of Griineberg consists of two small fragments of parchment, one of which contains a few lines only, entitled '^The Decree of Domestic Law." The second larger fragment is called the "Judgment of Libussa." It deals with the semi-mythical Bohemian princess who is the heroine of many ancient tales. It is curious to note that many very grave disquisitions on the early social condition and judicial institutions of the Slavonic race have been based on this apocryphal manuscript. The "Question of the Manuscripts," at least with regard to that of Koniginhof, is yet undecided. The vast literature on the subject which has gradually accumulated has incidentally thrown much light on many social and philological questions concerning ancient Bohemia and its language. The committee of the Bohemian Museum no doubt indirectly expressed its opinion when the Manuscript of Griineberg was removed from public view, while that of Koniginhof continued to be exhibited in the hall of manuscripts in the museum. Several other Bohemian manuscripts purporting to be of very ancient origin also made their appearance 8 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE at the beginning of the present century, and modern additions were made to an authentic ancient manu- script. These falsifications were soon discovered, and in some cases suspicion undoubtedly points to Hanka. The earliest Bohemian writings, the authenticity of which is uncontested, have a distinctly Christian and religious character. One of the most ancient written documents in the Bohemian language is the hymn ^^ Gospodi pomiluj ny " (Lord have mercy on us). The earliest version is written in a language resembling the Old Slavonic, but with many specially Bohemian locu- tions. The authorship of the hymn has been attributed to St. Cyrillus and to St. Methodius, or to their early disciples, but there is no evidence to prove this con- jecture. The date of the hymn also cannot be fixed, but the chronicler, Comas of Prague, tells us that it was sung by the people at the installation of Bishop Dietmar of Prague in 973. The hymn is sung, in a modernised version, in the Bohemian churches up to the present day. Another very ancient hymn that has great historical interest is that to St. Venceslas. The date of this hymn also cannot be ascertained, but there is evidence that the veneration for the murdered Prince Venceslas was already very great in the eleventh century, and the hymn is certainly very ancient. The existent version dates from the thirteenth century. The composition of the hymn, which is rhymeless, but has frequent assonances, also vouches for its antiquity. The three original strophes run thus : — ^' Holy Venceslas — Duke of the Bohemian land — Our Prince— Pray for us to God— And the Holy Ghost— Kyrie Eleison. EARLY BOHEMIAN LEGENDS 9 " Beautiful is the court of heaven — Happy he who enters there — Into eternal life — And the clear light — Of the Holy Ghost — Kyrie Eleison. "Thy help we implore — Have mercy on us — Comfort the mournful — Deliver us from all evil — Holy Venceslas — Kyrie Eleison." Many further strophes were added to this hymn when it became famous. During the Hussite wars it was the favourite war-song of the "lords sub una" ( = Catholics), while the utraquists or Hussites sang the famous "All ye warriors of God."i Among the very ancient documents written in the Bohemian language are a considerable number of missals, psalm-books, and translations of portions of the Holy Scriptures, which, though of great archaeological and historical interest, hardly require notice in an account of Bohemian literature. Undeniable literary value, on the other hand, belongs to some of the many early Bohemian legends that have been preserved. Some have been known since the beginning of the revival of Bohemian literature, while others have been discovered quite recently, sometimes in parish churches or the libraries of remote monasteries. Such discoveries indeed continue up to the present day. A considerable number of these legends (with a few small writings of a more secular character) are contained in two collections, known respectively as the manu- scripts of Koniggratz and of St. Vitus, the cathedral church of Prague.^ Many of these legends are very similar in character, 1 See Chapter IV. ' Both manuscripts have recently been edited and published by Mr. Adolphus Patera. 10 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE and obviously adhere closely to Latin models. This, however, does not apply to all. The Legend of Judas differs greatly from other mediaeval legends that deal with the same subject. It has a distinctly Oriental manner, and a strange similarity to the Greek tale of CEdipus, This is one of the few early legends the date of which can be approximately fixed. The author alludes to the murder of the last Premyslide prince (1306) as to a recent event. After referring to the death of '* the hope of the Scariotic land " the author writes : " Let us on this occasion remember our country, that which has now happened in Bohemia, where there are now no kings descended from King Premysl." One of the saints whose martyrdom the Bohemian writers have specially celebrated is St. Catherine. A long legend on this subject, which formed part of the Rosenberg Library,^ was discovered at Stockholm, and has since been transported to Briinn. A more concise account of St. Catherine's martyrdom is preserved in the Church of St. Jacob at Briinn. Both legends have been published. According to the longer legend, Catherine, daughter of Kost, King of Cyprus, declared that she would wed no one but Jesus Christ. She therefore refuses to marry the son of the heathen Emperor Maxentius. After fifty of the wisest masters vainly attempted to persuade her to renounce Christianity, Catherine is cruelly tortured by order of the Emperor Maxentius, and finally decapi- tated. The description of her martyrdom gives a curious insight into mediaeval mysticism. By order of the Em- peror, who is enraged at her steadfastness, "the beadles whip her with threefold whips of horse-hair," which ' See Chapter VI. THE LEGEND OF ST. CATHERINE ii have " leaden knots and angles ; " then her snow-white nude body appears in six colours : her body appears white, her face green ; red the flowing stream of blood ; black the open wounds ; blue the stripes caused by the whip ; golden the plaits of her hair. All these colours of course have a mystical significance. When Catherine is decapitated, milk, as symbol of her purity, flows from her body. Less known than the legend of St. Catherine, but certainly equally valuable, is the Bohemian legend of St. Dorothy. The martyrdom of that saint has been a favourite subject for the painters and poets of many countries. In our time Mr. Swinburne has made it the subject of a beautiful poem. Several Bohemian versions of the legend have been preserved. The most interesting of them, though probably not one of the oldest, is the version contained in the manuscript of St. Vitus. It is written in short and somewhat irregular rhymes. The mediaeval mystical idea of the marriage between Christ and female saints appears here even more prominently than in the legend of St. Catherine. Dorothy, who is of royal blood, refuses to marry the cruel heathen King Fabricius and to renounce the Christian faith. The poem begins with a short invocation of St. Dorothy : — ^'' Dorothy^ O maiden fair^ The Holy Church celebrates thy festival^ For thou wast a maiden choice^ One chosen by God, Thy virtues^ beauty^ and purity No one ca?t describe; Adorned by these Thou wast wedded to Christ. Rejoicing now with thy husband^ Help us in our misery j Lead us to eternal bliss^^ 12 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE In consequence of her refusal to renounce Christianity, Dorothy is cruelly scourged by order of King Fabricius. The description of her sufferings is very similar to that contained in the legend of St. Catherine, but we miss the curious conceit of the six colours that suddenly appear on the body of the martyr. Dorothy is finally led out to execution, and on her way meets *^ Theophilus, the clerk of the land/' who mockingly asks her where she is going. Dorothy answers : — " To a garden^ a delightful one, In which manifold fn^its, Apples, flowers, and roses, I shall gather?^ Theophilus replies with a sneer, " Send me some of the fruits which grow in your lord's garden." After Dorothy's death "a child beautifully dressed in purple" (that is, an angel) appears to Theophilus, carrying a basket which contains three apples and three roses. The child says, '' My sister Dorothy sends you this fruit." Then, seeing this, Theophilus exclaims : — ^^ I believe in thee, O Jesus Christy That thou art the living Son Of the True God, For whose sake the virtuous Dorothy., Guiltless, was executed to-day. I the sinner beg, maiden, Earnestly for thy favour ; Deign to ititercede for me, Thai in the realm of thy husband I too may join thee." The legend of St. Prokop (which forms part of the Manuscript of Koniggratz) also deserves special notice. It incidentally throws considerable light on the condi- tion of Bohemia at the period when Christianity was THE LEGEND OF ST. PROKOP 13 introduced. There was then great antagonism between the partisans of the Greek ritual, which Cyrillus and Methodius had introduced, and the followers of the Latin Church, who from Germany had introduced their ritual into Bohemia. The monastery on the Sazava,^ of which Prokop became abbot, was the centre of those who sympathised with the Eastern Church. Up to the time when the Slavonic monks were replaced by priests of the Latin Church (in 1096), the religious services were held there according to the Eastern ritual, and when Charles IV. again established a community of Slavonic monks at Prague, he obtained for it the Pope's per- mission to use the Slavonic tongue in all ecclesiasti- cal functions and to employ the Glagolitic alphabet.^ The legend, written in an awkward and unattractive style, has little artistic value. The author was, no doubt, a monk, since the monastery of Sazava and its records were probably his source of information. As is the case with most early Bohemian legends, it is very difficult to fix the date of that referring to St. Prokop. The existent manuscript probably belongs to the early part of the fourteenth century, though the cir- cumstance that some rhymes have been corrupted and lines omitted has led Bohemian critics to the supposition that the legend was written a considerable time before, perhaps not long after the death of St. Prokop, who lived in the eleventh century. The legend,^ as already ^ See my Bohemia, an Historical Sketch, p. 39 and p. 93. ^ The Glagolitic alphabet is similar, though not identical with that of St. Cyrillus. It was used by those Slavs who were in communion with the Church of Rome, but enjoyed certain privileges with regard to the use of the national language in ecclesiastical functions. ^ It has recently been stated that this legend, as now preserved, contains modern interpolations. It is impossible at present to give a certain opinion on this subject. 14 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE stated, deals principally with the rivalry between the monks of the Eastern and those of the Roman ritual. Prokop, who had retired to the then desert region near the river Sazava, is found there by Prince Ulrick, who builds a monastery for him on the spot where they met. After Prokop's death, as well as that of Prince Ulrick, ^^ Germans of the Latin rite" take possession of the monastery on the Sazava. The ghost of Prokop three times appears to them, and on his third apparition the Germans return terrified to Prague. The author begins by thus addressing his readers : " Listen, old people and children — To what I wish to tell you — Of the patron of the Slavs — Of the holy Prokop — He who was born in Bohemia — Who propagated God's law in a saintly fashion — Who faithfully fulfilled the holy law — Who worked many miracles. ... St. Prokop is of the Slav race — Born not far from Cesky Brod. — That village did God well bless — In which this saint was born." The legend then proceeds to tell us of Prokop's youth and education, laying special stress on the fact that at the monastery on the Vysehrad he received instruction in the Slavonic language. Prokop obtains great favour among the monks, who wish to choose him as their provost. But Prokop flies from all worldly honours and retires to a desert district, "where is a river, and that river is called Sazava, and it still flows beneath the monastery." The meeting between the hermit and Prince Ulrick is thus described: "The Prince, named Ulrick — Called to the hunters, who were running in every direction — And speaking to them all said — ' In what woods shall we hunt ? ' — He said, 'We must begin — Where shall we begin?' — * Let us,' he said — 'try the THE LEGEND OF ST. PROKOP 15 hills near the Sazava. — Into these woods I desire to go — Let us go there ; that is my counsel.' — All run after him; all obey him — But when they penetrate into the forest — They all lose the prince. — By God's will it hap- pened — That not one of them remained with him. — To the prince a stag appears, beautiful — Large and very fleshy — Prince Ulrick is not frightened — And having his crossbow in his hand — He wished to shoot the stag — Which was running not far from him — Not fleeing hastily before him. — Just as if sense were given it — It placed itself on that rock — Where St. Prokop was working. — He was then felling an oak — And the stag sprang up behind him — Turning its antlers towards him. — Between the antlers it had a cross — Prince Ulrick well noticed this — Directly he drops his crossbow from his hand — And stops his horse — Seeing this wondrous animal — And the meek-faced monk — The prince begins to ask the monk — Having rapidly descended from his horse — * Who art thou who lives here in this solitude ? — How art thou called and what art thou doing here ?' — Holy Prokop directly — Answered him kindly — ^ I live in this solitude — As a sinner, and Prokop is my name.'" The prince then begs Prokop's forgiveness for having attempted the life of an animal evidently consecrated to Christ. He becomes yet more certain of the saintliness of the hermit when Prokop miraculously transforms into exquisite wine the water which the prince is drinking. Ulrick exclaims, "Such noble wine hast thou in this desert ? I have been in many lands, but never have I drank better wine." He then tells Prokop that he will build a monastery on the spot where they are standing. Of this monastery Prokop, in spite of his hesitation, becomes abbot. The legend then gives an account of 1 6 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE several other miracles wrought by him. Then *'in the year 1054 after the birth of Christ, he was, two days before his death, informed by a divine vision of his approaching end." Before dying Prokop foretells that troubles after his death will befall the monks. Under the reign of Ulrick's successor the prophecy is fulfilled. The Slavonic monks are expelled and Germans take their places. During the first night which the Germans spend in the monastery Prokop's ghost appears to them, warning them to leave instantly ; he again, equally without result, repeats his warning on the following day. Then ^'he shows himself to them on the third night — And shows them his power. — He begins to speak: — * Listen, ye Germans — I have fulfilled my duty (by giving them due warning) — But you heed not my words. — Not for you did I prepare this site — But I founded it for the sons of my own country — Not for you, faithless calum- niators — You are infamous Hungarians,^ come from anywhere. — If even the prince has given you this monas- tery — It will to-day be taken from you. — You would not listen to good words — I will now render your dwelling on the Sazava distasteful to you. — Quick, delay not your journey — Return in haste to Prague. — After he had said this, holding a large stick in his hand — He unmercifully thrashed the Germans with it." . . . The legend ends with the return of the Bohemian monks to the monastery on the Sazava. Early Bohemian legends, as already mentioned, are very numerous. Besides those already referred to, the legends of the "tears of St. Mary," the "joys of St. Mary," the " tears of Mary Magdalene," the " legends of ^ The monks were Germans, not Hungarians. The latter designation was then a term of reproach in Bohemia. CHIVALROUS POETRY 17 St. George and St. Anselm/' are among the best. The last-named legend expresses the characteristic opinion that Judas Iscariot was probably a German ! Two alle- gorical poems, of a religious character, entitled The Contest of the Body mid the Soul and Truthy are also very ancient. Though the chronology of early Bohemian litera- ture is hopelessly unreliable, it can, speaking generally, be stated — leaving the manuscripts of Griineberg and Koniginhof out of consideration — that the existent Bohe- mian writings of a secular character are less ancient than those dealing with entirely religious subjects. Here, too, the earliest writings have the character of poetic works ; for the first prose writings belonging to Bohemia were all in Latin. Among these early works should be mentioned several poems of an epic character, which are very similar to the chivalrous poetry of other European coun- tries. The literature of the period of the Crusades (wars in which the Bohemians took a considerable part) possessed, in many respects, an international character. Knights of many European countries met in Palestine. A brisk exchange of ideas between men whose tenden- cies and ideals were identical was but natural. The subjects of the songs and epics of chivalrous poetry are limited in number, and often belong to several countries when national particularities often influence the details of the narrative. Such heroes of chivalrous poetry are Alexander of Macedon, who is conceived as a Christian knight and a crusader, Tristram and Isolde, and the other heroes and heroines of the round table ; Theo- doric or Dietrich of Berne (Verona), and the other heroes of ancient Gothic tradition. B 1 8 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE In consequence of the geographical position of Bohemia, these tales reached the country later than lands lying farther west, and often from German sources. Yet the prejudiced attempts of German writers to prove that the Bohemian remains of chivalrous poetry are adaptations and translations from the German have in many cases proved unsuccessful. In consequence of the wholesale destruction of Bohe- mian literature, we are here also obliged to found con- jectures on a comparatively small number of fragments. Of only one of these epic poems has a considerable portion been preserved. This is the AiexajtdreiSy of which several manuscripts of different dates are in existence. From these fragments the erudition of Bohe- mian scholars has, to a great extent, reconstituted the poem : w^e now possess more than half the poem, and can, to a certain extent, conjecture what was contained in the still missing parts. The Bohemian Alexandreis is undoubtedly an adaptation of the Latin poem of Philip Gaultier (Walter) de Chatillon, also known from his birthplace, Lille, as Gualterus de Insulis, who lived in the twelfth century, and died about the year 1201. Chatillon's Alexandreis, based on the work of Quintus Curtius, enjoyed great popularity during the Middle Ages, and was generally adopted as the classical account of the career of the great Macedonian. The author of the Bohemian Alexandreis is unknown, but it is possible to fix an approximative date for the poem. It was undoubtedly written during the reign of King Premysl Ottokar II. (1253-78). Ottokar, who had ex- tended the frontiers of Bohemia from the Baltic in the north to the Adriatic in the south, was often compared to Alexander the Great, and that hero's history, there- THE "ALEXANDREIS" 19 fore, had great interest for the Bohemian writers of that period. Recent critics have attempted to fix the date of the Alexandreis yet more accurately. In the years 1264 and 1267 Ottokar undertook crusades against the heathen Prussians and Lithuanians, and seems even to have thought of rendering parts of those districts per- manently dependent on Bohemia, thus securing for the country an outlet towards the Baltic. It is conjectured that the passage in the account of Alexander's entry into Babylon, in which the author prays that ^'God may grant Bohemia a king who will subdue the Lithuanians, Tartars " (see later), refers to Ottokar's far-reaching plan. Generally speaking, the author of the Alexandreis follows strictly in the footsteps of Chatillon, or rather of Quintus Curtius, to whom so many of the mediaeval tales about Alexander can be traced. Yet the Bohemian Alexandreis has not only a distinctly Christian, but also a national (Bohemian) character. The Persians are heathens doomed to hell. Margraves, burgraves, and counts are found in the contending armies. The Bohe- mian nobles Jan, Radvan, Mladota, and Radota form part of Alexander's court. The account of the festivities on the occasion of Alexander's entry into Babylon (a portion of which I have translated) describes them as similar to those which took place at Prague on the occasion of the coronation of the Bohemian kings. For Chatillon's hexameters the author has substituted a rhymed metre, consisting of verses of eight syllables, which generally, though not always, have a caesura after the fourth syllable. The rhymes are very rugged and often irregular. The author's preface begins with a quaint attempt at disarming his critics. He tells us that Solomon, the 20 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE wisest of men, admitted that there were three things, and even four things that he did not know ; i '' if, then, he who surpassed all others in wisdom was liable to be mistaken, then I, should any one doubt my word, need not be offended ; I who compared to him am as a weary beast to a lion, a wax taper to the sun, or a shallow rivulet to the sea." The account of the deeds of the great Macedonian conqueror strictly follows the mediaeval tradition of Alexander's career. Beginning with his birth and youth, the author then gives a detailed account of his education by Aristoteles and the wise counsel given him by that philosopher. Then follows a full account of Alexander's campaigns and victories. Very interesting is the author's account of his hero's arrival at Troy. He here has an extensive digression concerning the destruction of that city, which is not contained in Chatillon's work. It is curious to meet with the world-old tale of Paris and the three goddesses in Bohemian literature. The Christian writer no doubt considered it more seemly to relate the appearance of the three goddesses in the form of a dream. He writes: ^'Now it happened to him (Alex- ander) to march — To the spot where are the bastions of Troy — Now the only traces — Are stones lying on the ground — If it does not appear idle to you 2 — I will relate to you — Why this destruction took place — Why all this happened. — Paris was the king's son at Troy — Brought up at home in honors. — His father and mother — Out of love for their child — Treated him so kindly — That they allowed him his will in all things — The prince prepared for the chace — Nothing else was on his mind. — Then it ^ See Proverbs, chap. xxx. vers. i8 and 19. ^ The author is addressing his readers. THE '^ALEXANDREIS" 2i befell — That when he was riding far away in the woods — He went astray from the other hunters — And his horse was very weary — He rode away from the path to a lonely spot — Where a fine beech-tree stood in a thicket. — Throwing his horse's bridle up to one of the branches — He fell asleep under the tree — It then befell him in this hour — That in his dream he saw three goddesses — The one who rules love — The other who rules over wisdom — And all warlike knowledge — The third who rules over ( = disposes of) riches — And they had a golden apple — Which each of them desired — For on it was written : — ^To her who is the most beautiful, this shall be given.' — They chose him as judge between them — Saying : ^ We give you this power — That we may dispute no longer about this — Give this apple to whichever one thou wilt — And over whatever thing each of us has power — In that will she aid you.' — Then at that moment the prince — Began to take counsel with himself — Saying : 'What is not due to me — According to my right as a prince ? — I have already too great riches — Also warlike spirit have I sufficient — And sense as great as others — Why then should I require greater wisdom ? — My fortune also is favorable to me — But I should wish to possess a fair woman.' — Saying this he awards the apple — To her who rules over love." The author ends his digression with these reflections : ''Oh, erring heart of man — Oh, restless designs ! — For the sake of one fair woman — For indeed her beauty was great — The whole world was in arms — For ten years it strove in war — Till in the eleventh year ! — How can we remember all the ills that then befell Troy ! " It is natural that in a work such as the AlexandreiSy dealing principally with the events of war, and written 22 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE for warlike knights, battle-pieces should be numerous, and indeed constitute the greatest portion of the work. The following is an extract from one of the best of these battle-pieces, the description of the battle of Arbela. Alexander has just killed ^' Aristomanes, prince of India." *' Easy," cry the Greeks, " easy will be for us glory and praise — Now that our king has obtained such glory ! — The fight was stubborn on both sides — Not few the mortal wounds — They then dealt each other — When they first met — Then the battle-axes, lances — Drew blood like water — And the Greek king rushing at the enemy — Struck at the foolish people. — Meanwhile sword, lance, and battle-axe — Aimed at him from every direction — Strike his head ; — Yet his mind remains undisturbed. — Thus did he bear himself in fight — As if he had been forged out of iron — And it was easy for him to bear all blows — While fortune in everything favoured him. — Thus did death refrain from him — Though it struck down many of the best men there. — Faros was the name of one of them — The second was called Eliphas — And he was Count of Egypt — While the former was Margrave of Syria — Both were valorous men — A great loss by their deaths — Befell that heathen king. . . . But ever, as was said — Nothing availed the heathens — When they attempted to destroy the Greeks — Everywhere on the sand, on the grass — A stream flowed, rendering the earth bloody — In it lay the wretched men — Like a forest or a grove that has been felled. — On both sides hundreds were killed — The fourfold gates of hell — Then were opened wide — Such a cry was raised by the devils — As if they thought that the earth had resolved — To drive them out of hell — Then the souls flew away quickly — Like herds that scatter. — So many fell that day — That THE "ALEXANDREIS'* 53 they would have been sufficient to fill Pluto's house — For in that battle rarely was any one spared — Until the Greeks were tired." Very interesting is the account of the festivities which took place at Babylon when Alexander entered the town. As I have already mentioned, many of the ancient Bohe- mian customs on the occasion of the coronation of their kings are here accurately reproduced. The author first describes a tournament ; he writes : " Already courage- ously and in a manner worthy of praise — Had they fought bravely — Striking with their heavy lances ; — Many a one on both sides, as may be believed — Had been unhorsed. — This knightly pastime — Lasted for some time — Till the king himself gave a sign to the people — And thus did the time pass away. — Then all the more important citizens — Nobles and men who held State offices — Ap- peared before their king — Bringing great presents — Honouring his dignity — Goods of various sorts (they brought) — Such as to the human eye — Give the enjoy- ment of pleasure — For their valuable presents — They received much praise. — In the meantime they lead in panthers — Lions and many great ostriches — And what- ever other birds they had collected. — The beasts shaking their cages — Began to bellow (literally neigh), not liking their imprisonment — How could they (the people) have had anything better ? — Anything more pleasant to see : — Many actors and jugglers — Various boxers — With whom the streets swarmed — Gave them pleasure — And they also enjoyed music of various sorts — The rejoicing continued so long — That the whole night passed; — Then only did the people go home — Never, I ween, was there so great a rejoicing in the world. — Not even when mighty Rome — Chose her king — Was there so great joy. 24 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE — Nor did they (the Romans) — With such overwhelming honours — Receive their emperor — As were then awarded to him (Alexander) — And rightly were they given to him, — The honours which he then received. — For start- ing with but a small force — And after enduring many troubles — He had struggled so vigorously for his cause — That the whole world bowed down before him — May God deign to listen to his Christian people and ordain this, — That there be such a king in Bohemia! — I warrant that then in a short time — Lithuania and the Tartars — Men of whatever name — The Besermans and the Prussians — Also the unconformed (not yet baptized) Russians — Would be in such a state of terror — That they would accept baptism — And renounce their idols — And this could happen — Were but one obstacle removed — That is, that the Germans, who are strangers here — Wish and hope — That on the bridge of Prague — [May God avert this] — No Bohemian be seen any longer ^ — And it may perhaps soon happen — That we shall see none of them (the Germans) any more — Admire your king, O city of Babylon — For, know it, he is worthy of wonder — He the conqueror of the whole world — The terror of all other kings ! " It has already been stated that the author of the Alexandreis is unknown. There is, however, no doubt that the book is the work of a Bohemian noble. The whole current of thought, the descriptions of battles and the pomps of chivalry, the author's pedantic accuracy with regard to the different grades of the nobility, his dislike of the German townsmen (up to ^ This appears to have been a proverbial expression. In DalwiiVs Chronicle (see later) King Ottokar is made to say that soon no Bohemian will any longer be seen on the bridge of Prague. EPIC FRAGMENTS 25 the time of Hus the Bohemian cities were mainly inhabited by Germans) — these and other circumstances tend to prove that this supposition is correct. Portions of other epic poems belonging to chivalrous literature have also been preserved ; among them are some belonging to the circle of legends of which Theodoric was the centre ; such are The Garden of Roses j Laurin, and others. They are evidently adaptations from the German, and possess little originality and less in- terest. Other fragments deal with the tale of the Round Table. Among these Tristi^am and Taftdarius and Flori- bella may be mentioned. The former poem, as the late Mr. Wratislaw has remarked, is strikingly similar to parts of the Morte d' Arthur, This specially applies to one of the fragments which contains a description of the combat between Tristram and the *^ noble from Ireland whose name was Morolt." Tandarius and Floribella also differs little from many other poems of chivalry. The heroine is imprisoned and eventually rescued by Tan- darius. Numerous descriptions of tournaments and single combats fill up the greatest part of the book. Closely connected with the chivalrous poetry of an epic character are some early lyric poems that have been preserved. They, however, all belong to a period considerably later than the Alexandreisy and Bohemian critics have no doubt correctly attributed them to the reign of King John. Here, too, the songs that have been preserved are not numerous. A favourite form of these early Bohemian lyrics were the so-called Songs at Daybreak (in Bohemian Svitanicka), which have a great affinity to the French aubades and to the albes of the Proven9al minstrels. The motive of these songs, several of w^hich have been preserved, varies but slightly. 26 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE They tell of the parting of two lovers, caused by the approach of dawn, and of the fears which they express with regard to the ^' false gossips/' rivals, or inquisitive people who may be watching them. A translation of the best of these songs may be of interest. " Dear clear day^ how have you surprised me^ You that have awakened the false gossip ; The day rises there Where two lovers live together. Almighty Lord God, Deign Thou to guard these two. From the east a breeze arises. Trembling over hill and vale; The moaning of the woods, their noise and crashing ceases; The game flees, the birds scream; Everythiftg tells us, everything shows That the night has vanished. Above us the morning star has disappeared. For into the distance it has vanished. Hastily retiring behind the hills. It aoes not stop. It wishes to rise higher. It is time for us, my beloved, to take leave. The heart of my beloved was aggrieved When, rising, she perceived the daybreak; Then spake my beloved: * Why have we two slept so long? Hasten, fny beloved. Lest disgrace may overtake us.^ Clear daylight is here, I know ; The sky appears light blue, The splendour of the sun is rising, Therefore my heart is in fear. Almighty Lord God, Deign Thou to guard us two. LYRIC POETRY 27 Oh^ my beloved^ listen to my advice : When you are with your lover^ hope in your heart That thy pleastire and mi7ie may not be changed to grief Because of the malice of the evil gossip^ For no one knows what his intentions are; Therefore it befits us to be on our guard. The gossip is fair to all i?t his speech^ But his heart is full of evil^ false craft. I should wish that maidens and matrons Would always hate the gossip. And that man shall be my comrade Who will never be at peace with such a one (as the gossip). For in this world there is nothing more difficult Than to beware of gossips j For he is friendly with you to your face ^ But^ like a snake., he bites you from the back; His speech is sweet as honey And his heart is as cruel poison. Dear God., do not grant success To him who troubles the comfort of lovers^ As his heart is endeavouring {to find) Where the two lovers live together. Almighty Lord God., Deign Thou to guard these twoP It will be noticed that the refrain "Almighty Lord God," &c. (slightly varying in the middle of the poem), recurs three times. It has been conjectured that these Songs at Daybreak^ which were discovered in the archives of Bohemian castles, were the works of knights or nobles, men somewhat similar to the '' Minnesanger" of Germany. By the song which I have translated it will be seen that these songs are tainted with the peculiar views concerning conjugal fidelity which characterise so large a part of chivalrous literature, where Tristram is so often the hero and King Mark so often the knave. 28 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE A few ancient love-songs which have not the character of the Svitanicka have also been preserved. Of these, the so-called Cantio Zavisonisy written in Bohemian in spite of its Latin name, deserves notice. It was formerly falsely attributed to Zavis of Falkenstein, the lover of Queen Kunegund, and one of the most celebrated Bohemian nobles of his time. The fact that Falkenstein wrote verses in prison shortly before his death (as the historians tell us) led to this supposition, which is con- tradicted by the manner of the poem. Nothing except the name ^^ Zavis" is known of the author of this strange love-song, one of the best of early Bohemian literature. I have translated a few of the best Hnes: — " Now all joy has left ine^ Now for me all comfort has ceased^ My heart swims in wistful bloody All this because of the beloved one for whom I long. By the gla7tce of her eye She has sharply struck my heart. I live in flaming yearnings My life sickens with love^ All for the sake of her dear beauty. My longing cannot decrease j Pity me, oh air I pity me, all creation / Carbuncles, sapphires, and all precious stones^ Rays of the sun and everything o?i the earth, Pity me, lilies I pity me, most precious roses ! My beloved wishes to take my little life ^ from me If she will not have compassion on me?^ Neither the mysterious Zavis nor the author of the Song at Daybreak which I quoted before were devoid of poetical talent. But they, as well as other writers whom ^ Zivdiek, the diminutive of }/». soldier or town official), he said with a loud and intelligible voice, so that he could be heard by his (followers), ' Lord Jesus Christ, I will bear patiently and humbly this horrible, shameful, and cruel death for the sake of Thy Gospel and of the preaching of Thy Word.' . . . When a rusty chain was placed round his neck, he said, smiling to the lictors, ^Our Lord Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, was bound with a harder and heavier chain, and I, a poor wretch, do not fear to be bound with this chain for His sake.' . . . When the lictors lighted the pile, the magister first sang with a loud voice, * Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me,' and then again, ^ Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me.' When he began again, now singing. WORKS OF HUS 117 'Who art born from the Virgin Mary/ the wind blew the flames in his face, and still silently praying and moving his lips and head he expired in the Lord. The space of time when he had become silent, but still moved before dying, was that required to recite rapidly two or at the utmost three Paternosters." The works of Hus, both Latin and Bohemian, are very numerous, and in recent times they have again attracted considerable notice. Still a complete modern edition of the works of Hus has not yet appeared, and the bibliography of the existent writings of the Bohemian reformer — for many of his works have entirely perished — is still very deficient. A complete edition of the exist- ing Latin works of Hus was published in Nuremberg in 1558, but it omits several works that Hus is known to have written, and includes works by Matthew of Janov and others. The various Bohemian works were also frequently printed both at Nuremberg and in Bohemia itself up to the beginning of the seventeenth century. I shall first mention the Latin works of Hus, but devote greater space to his Bohemian writings. This is not only in accordance with the general plan of this book, but also justified by the fact that the Latin writings of Hus have less interest, and particularly less originality, than those written in his own language. This applies even to the great treatise De Ecclesia, which, however, cannot be passed over, as it had so decisive an influence on the fate of Hus. The earliest Latin works of Hus are in complete con- formity with the teaching of the Roman Church. Such a work is the treatise De omni Sanguine Christi Glorificatay written during the time when Hus enjoyed the favour Ii8 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of the Archbishop, and probably by his order. Hus had been sent with two other priests to investigate so-called miracles which, as was stated, had been performed by a relic containing the blood of Christ, which was exhibited at Wilsnack, a small town on the Elbe. In his treatise Hus asserted that it was impossible that the blood of Jesus Christ should be materially contained in any one spot. It was, he said, only to be found in Holy Communion. Somewhat later — about the year 1410 — the tone of Hus's writings changes. He no longer writes as an unconditional adherent of the Church of Rome, and the influence of Wycliffe's ideas gradually becomes evi- dent. Hus's writings, still mainly Latin, are numerous at this period ; they deal with then current theological controversies, and it would be of little interest to enume- rate their titles. One of these treatises, addressed to a countryman of Wycliffe, entitled De Libris Hcereticorum Legendis; Replica contra Anglicum Joannem Stokes ^ deals almost entirely with Wycliffe's doctrine. John Stokes, a licentiate of law, was a member of an English embassy which was sent to Bohemia by King Henry IV. It was rumoured at Prague that Stokes had during his stay there stated that Wycliffe was in England considered a heretic. Hus immediately challenged the Englishman to a public disputation before the university in the then customary manner. On the refusal of Stokes to attend the meeting, Hus yet delivered his speech in defence of Wycliffe before the university, and afterwards founded his pamphlet principally on the contents of the speech. Many of the minor Latin writings of Hus are indeed based on speeches delivered before the university, and even in his larger Bohemian writings he has often intro- duced large portions of his sermons. THE TREATISE '' DE ECCLESIA" 119 Of Hus's Latin works, as already mentioned, the treatise De Ecclesia requires particular notice. The work, written when Hus was exiled from Prague, and probably finished in the year 141 3, is to a great extent a transcript of Wycliffe's work on the same subject, and has therefore little literary interest. But neither the events of the life of Hus nor the ideas expounded in his Bohemian works are intelligible without some knowledge of the treatise De Ecclesia. The Roman Catholic hierarchy, far more powerful and far less dependent on public opinion in the fifteenth century than in the present day, could not but see that — inde- pendently of all dogmatic differences of opinion — the acceptation of views such as those contained in the treatise De Ecclesia must necessarily produce a funda- mental change in the organisation of the Church. The keynote of the treatise De Ecclesia ^ is Hus's peculiar doctrine with regard to predestination. He divides all men into two classes, those who are — either conditionally or unconditionally — predestined {predesti- nati) to eternal bliss, and those who are '^ foreknown " {presciti) to damnation. The mass of the predestinati form the true Holy Catholic Church,^ but the Church as at present constituted mcludes the presciti as well as the predestinati. Of the true Church, Christ is the only Head. As man He is '^ Head of the Church within it" (caput intrinsecutn), as God He is "its Head without it " (caput extrinsecuni). Christ is the true Roman Pontiff, the High Priest, and the Bishop of Souls. The Apostles did not call themselves "Holy ^ I have borrowed this summary of the contents of the treatise De Ecclesia from my Bohemia: aft Historical Sketch. * See later, page 125. t20 A HISTORY Of BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Father" or '^ Head of the Church," but servant of God and servant of the Church. A change came with the '' donation of Constantine " (that singular fiction which played so large a part in the theological controversies of the Middle Ages). Since that time the Pope has considered himself as head {capitaneus) of the Church and Christ's vicar upon earth. It is, however, according to Hus, not certain that the Pope is Christ's successor in this world. He is then only Christ's representative and the successor of St. Peter, and the cardinals are only then the successors of the Apostles when they follow the examples of faith, modesty, and love which the former gave. Many Popes and cardinals have not done this, and, indeed, many saintly men who never were Popes were truer successors of the Apostles than, for instance, the present Pope (John XXIII.). St. Augustine did more for the welfare of the Church than many Popes, and studied its doctrines more profoundly than any cardinal from the first to the last. If Pope and cardinals give their attention to worldly affairs, if they scandalise the faithful by their ambition and avarice, then they are successors not of Christ, not of Peter, not of the Apostles, but of Satan, of Antichrist, of Judas Iscariot. Returning to his former point, it is not certain, Hus continues, that the Pope is really the head of the Church ; he cannot even be sure that he is not prescitusy and therefore no member of the true Church at all. St. Peter erred even after he had been called by Christ. Pope Leo was a heretic, and Pope Gregory was but recently condemned by the Council of Pisa. It is a popular fallacy to imagine that a Pope is neces- sary to rule the Church. We must be thankful to God that He gave us His only Son to rule over the Church, HUS AS A BOHEMIAN PATRIOT 121 and He would be able to direct it even if there were no temporal Pope, or if a woman occupied the papal throne.^ As with the Pope and the cardinals, so with the prelates and the clergy generally. There is a double clergy, that of Christ and that of Antichrist. The former live according to the law of God, the latter seek only worldly advantage. Not every priest is a saint, but every saint is a priest. Faithful Christians are therefore great in the Church of God, but worldly prelates are among its lowest members, and may indeed, should they be prescitiy not be members of the Church at all. The Latin letters of Hus will be mentioned later in connection with those written in Bohemian. Of greater literary interest than the Latin works of Hus are those written in his own language. The latter are written in a more independent and popular manner, and it is on them that his value as a writer depends. That Hus was a strong Bohemian patriot is, I hope, evident even from this short sketch of his life. Almost his first sermon referred to the oppression of his country- men by the Germans, and no one more energetically aided the Bohemians in their endeavours to secure the control over the national university. Yet Hus was by no means a national fanatic or a hater of Germans, as has been so often stated. It is sufficient to refer to his often-quoted words : " If I knew a foreigner of any country who loved God more and strove for the good more than my own brother, I would love him more than my brother. Therefore good English priests are dearer to me than faint-hearted Bohemian ones, and a good German is dearer to me than a bad brother." ^ An allusion to the story of Pope Joan. Vyklad, i.e. ** Exposition of the Ten Commandments," chap, xliii. 122 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Hus, like all Bohemian patriots, entertained a warm affection for the national language. One of his earliest writings deals with the correct spelling of the Bohemian language, and the diacritical signs still used in Bohemian are mainly an invention of Hus. He was also strongly opposed to the introduction of foreign words into the language, and refers to this subject frequently in his " Exposition of the Ten Commandments." In that work he sharply attacks the citizens of Prague who inter- spersed their Bohemian speech with numerous German words, and compares them to the ^'Jews who had married wives of Ashdod, and whose children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod." Hus's merits as regards the development of his lan- guage are also very great. That language had indeed already, principally by Stitny, been raised to a level that rendered it available for the exposition of theological and philosophical matters. But the style of Hus con- trasts favourably with that of his predecessors by its greater facility and simplicity. This may partly be attri- buted to the fact that Hus, particularly during the time of his exile from Prague, associated much with the humbler classes of the people, who, knowing no language but their own, naturally spoke it very purely and without interpolations from other languages. This spoken lan- guage was adopted by Hus for his writings. He indeed himself writes at the end of the Postillay ^^ That he who will read (my writings) may understand my Bohemian, let him know that I have written as I usually speak." As already stated, the bibliography of Hus is as yet very uncertain, and it is not easy to fix the exact dates of his works. It may, however, be generally stated that his earliest Bohemian writings were composed in the BOHEMIAN WRITINGS OF HUS 123 years from 1406 to 1410, that his most important works in that language date from the last years of his life (1412-1415), and that the period of his exile from Prague was that of his greatest literary activity. The earliest important Bohemian works of Hus are a series of Expositions ( Vyklad) dealing consecutively of Faith, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. Each Exposition is followed by a shorter, more con- densed treatise dealing with the same subject as the longer one that precedes. Of these Expositions the first one, dealing of Faith, has most interest. It consists of a continuous comment on the different articles of the Apostle's creed. Hus writes : " We believe that the twelve Apostles, immediately after Christ's ascension to heaven, composed this creed. And as there were then twelve Apostles, besides Paul and Barnabas, who were called after the ascension of Jesus, thus, according to general opinion, each article was expounded by one par- ticular Apostle. But be it known to you, that the learned do not agree as to what particular article each Apostle expounded." Hus then proceeds to attribute to each Apostle the exposition and defence of one of the articles, obviously following the method then usual at the theo- logical disputations at universities in which he so fre- quently took part. In Chapter XVIII. the defence of the tenth article, which refers to the Holy Catholic Church, is attributed to St. Simon. It is interesting as containing some of the very distinctive ideas of Hus. He writes : *' Every Christian must believe in the Holy Catholic Church. The reason is, that every Christian must love Christ, who is the husband of that Church, and that Church is Christ's spouse. . . . And as no one will honour his mother if he has no knowledge of her, 124 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE therefore it is very necessary to know the Holy Church through faith, for ignorance of the Church causes many errors among the people. Therefore be it known to you that the first Bohemian who translated the Greek word ecclesia misunderstood that word ; therefore he foolishly rendered it by the word ' church ' or * chapel/ as if he believed that the bride of Christ was a church made of stone or a chapel made of wood. But had he translated the word ecclesia by ^congregation/ then so many would not have erred. Others, again, err, saying that the Pope is the Holy Church ; others, that it is the Cardinals with the Pope; while others, again, say all priests together, and yet others (say) all Christians together, constitute the Church. *' Therefore be it known to you that all men from Adam to the last man form one congregation, which God has divided into two ; one division has been chosen (for salvation) from eternity, the other from eternity has been rejected, and it is known to God only which (division) each man belongs to. The first division is the universal community of saints, the second is the universal community of the damned. There can be no higher Church, according to God's will, than the first- named (community). It contains all the good, and the other all the evil, and yet these two (divisions) constitute one community, one assembly, just as sheep and goats form one herd, although the sheep are always in a way divided from the goats, and these from them. There- fore though ecclesia sometimes signifies a church of wood or stone, sometimes the Pope with the Cardinals, sometimes the priesthood generally, sometimes the whole community of Christians — as the Church of Prague may signify all Bohemians or a community only of good BOHEMIAN WRITINGS OF HUS 125 Christians — yet the Holy CathoHc Church is the com- munity of all those who have been chosen ; that Church is called the bride of Christ, of whom it is written in the verses of Solomon, 'I am His bride, He has adorned me with a crown.' " The other Expositions are inferior to the one just men- tioned, both as regards their interest and the style in which they are written. The Exposition of the Ten Com- mandments is in its teaching generally in conformity with the Roman Church ; only in occasional passages are the opinions peculiar to Hus evident. After dealing generally of the commandment "Thou shalt not kill," Hus discusses in a separate chapter its application to members of the clergy. It must be remembered that Hus's time was an age of warlike pontiffs and of bishops who commanded armies. Incidentally this chapter throws strong light on Hus's very elevated and ideal view of the duties of the priestly order. It is to this, no doubt, that his strong animadversions on the behaviour of some members of that order (for which he has been severely censured by hostile writers) should be largely attributed. The Chapter (XLVIII.) begins thus : "As in our times bishops and priests wage war, it is good for us to know whether it is fit that they should go to war and thus kill their fellow-creatures. It appears fit to some, firstly, from this reason, that the priests of the old law fought bravely according to God's command- ment ; why then should not the priests of the new law fight, who have to defend their faith as the others did, and a much higher one ? Secondly (you say), the Pope goes to war, and gives the other bishops power to go to war, and to speak against this is heresy ; and who speaks thus will become a heretic if he obstinately persists in it. 126 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Thirdly, St. Peter the Apostle fought bodily, when on Maundy Tuesday, being already a priest, he cut off the ear of Malchus. The fourth reason is that the priests, and specially the Pope, have two swords, the spiritual and the temporal one ; so also had the Apostles when they said to Christ, ^ Lord, behold here are two swords. And He said unto them, It is enough.' ^ The fifth reason is this : many priests are strong, and that strength were given them in vain, could they not use it for fighting ; why, therefore, should they not fight ? The sixth reason is : if bishops did not fight with temporal arms, the Church would be in an evil state ; for laymen would lay hands on priests, rob them and beat them ; who would then wish to be a priest ? *' But our Saviour Jesus, King and Bishop at the same time, is the best mirror in which we should seek for wisdom ; for every action of His is a lesson for us, as St. Augustine has said." Hus then proceeds to refute the arguments enumerated above, depending mainly on the example of Christ. The passage, written with singular lucidity and penetration, is unfortunately too long for quotation. Here, as in many places, Hus speaks strongly of the pride and arrogance of the clergy. At the end of the chapter Hus addresses a warning to the clergy. Should they persist in their pride, '^ you will," he writes, ^' be judged and condemned, and your prayer will be as a sin. Your days will be short, and another will take your place. O priest, give up your pride, be meek like Jesus, and you will be glorified like He (was) ! Suffer insult, robbery, abuse, blows. Be 1 St. Luke xxii. 38. THE "DCERKA" 127 ready to die for Christ, and give up warfare, which is a very uncertain path to salvation." The treatise entitled Dcerka (Daughter), also known as the treatise "on the true road to salvation," dates from about the same time as the Expositions. It was addressed to some pious ladies who lived in common in a house near the Bethlehem chapel, and to whom Hus also wrote a letter, which has been preserved. The treatise has been called the Daughter, from the fact that each of the ten chapters begins with the words, " Listen, daughter, and see, and incline thine ear." In a short preface Hus very clearly explains the purpose of the book. He writes : "Listen, daughter, who hast pro- mised Christ (to retain) virginity. Listen, daughter, and incline your ear, and know that I wish you to know yourself, knowing in whose similitude you were created ; secondly (I wish) you to know your conscience ; thirdly, the wretchedness of this world ; fourthly, the temptations of our earthly existence ; fifthly, the three enemies (the body, the world, and the devil) ; the sixth point on which I insist is that you should truly do penance ; the seventh, that you should value the dignity of your soul ; the eighth, that you should assiduously look to the coming judgment ; the ninth, that you should value the eternal life ; the tenth, that you should love our Lord God more than anything." Hus then deals with each of these points in one of the ten chapters of the book. Somewhat later than the Expositions, and the Daugh- ter, Hus published his celebrated treatise, Savto- kupectvi, on " traffic in holy things," or simony, which he completed on September 2, 1413. This valuable book is written in a manner similar to that of the works 128 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE mentioned above, but the polemical tendency is here yet more evident, for Hus is here treating of the great plague-spot of his time. The constant note of just indignation renders the book very striking, and it would — as Mr. Wratislaw has truly remarked — well bear trans- lation as a whole. I shall, from want of space, be unable to give more than one quotation. In Chapter IV. Hus deals with the question. Can a Pope be guilty of simony ? He writes : " Let us see if it is possible for a Pope to be a simoniac. Some say it is impossible, for he is the lord of the whole world, who is entitled to take what he wishes and do what he wishes. Therefore is he the most holy father whom sin cannot touch? Now, you must know that many Popes were heretics, and generally bad, and they were deprived of the papal dignity. Therefore be not in doubt that the Pope can be a simoniac. And if some one maintain that he cannot commit simony or any deadly sin, then he must desire to raise him higher than St. Peter or the other Apostles. And to the argument that he (the Pope) is the lord of the whole world, who may take what he will and do what he will, I will answer that there is but one Lord of the whole world who cannot sin, and whose right it is to rule and do as He will, and that Lord is the Almighty God. And further, if, according to the argu- ment, it is said that the Pope is the most holy father, whom sin cannot touch, I deny this ; for one only is our most Holy Father, the Lord God, whom sin cannot touch." After maintaining that it is possible for a Pope to be a simoniac, Hus continues thus : " Let us see in what manner he (the Pope) can be a simoniac. He can be so, firstly, if he desires the papal dignity for the sake of HUS'S TREATISE ON SIMONY 129 riches and of worldly advantage. No rank in Christen- dom, indeed, is nearer to a fall. For if he (the Pope) does not follow Christ and Peter in his way of life more than others (do), then he should be called not a succes- sor, but an adversary of the Apostles. Therefore every one who strives for this dignity for the advantage of his person or for worldly honours is infected with simony. The second manner of committing simony consists in the various regulations which he (the Pope) issues for his bodily advantage and contrary to God's law, perhaps not openly, but they are regulations that may lead to something contrary to God's law. And is it not contrary to God's regulations that the Pope should decree that his cooks, porters, equerries, footmen, should have first claim on the most important benefices, even in lands of which they do not know the language ? And again, that no one can announce anything (in church) if he has not paid down money, and whatever similar arrange- ments may be made. The third manner in which a Pope can commit simony consists in appointing bishops or rectors for the sake of money ; and that case has been made quite clear to us recently, when many thou- sands of florins were paid down for the Archbishopric of Prague." ^ At the end of the same chapter Hus refers to the question of indulgences, which from his time to that of Martin Luther was ever before the Christian world. He writes : *' With regard to the giving indulgences for money, St. Peter has sufficiently shown that they are worthless when he refused to give for money to Simon 1 This refers to the allegation that Albik of Uni^ov, the successor of Arch- bishop Zbyn^k, had paid a large sum for his investiture with the Archbishopric of Prague. I 130 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE the power to lay his hands on people^ so that they might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; no, the Apostles laid their hands on the people, not for money, but gratui- tously for their salvation ; obeying the words of their Saviour, who said, ^ Freely ye have received, freely give.' And thus they worthily received the Holy Ghost, for the Apostles were worthy bishops, and the people who truly believed truly repented their sins." The last of the great works of Hus, and also the last one which I shall mention, is the Postilla^ which Hus finished about the month of September 1413. It may be considered more popular in manner than his other Bohemian works, and, written so shortly before his death, it was long revered as the testament, or the '^ last will," of the great Bohemian divine. The book consists of expositions, or, as perhaps they should rather be called, sermons, explaining the evangel of each Sun- day in the year. The Bible being then very scarce in Bohemia, the text from the Bible which is referred to precedes in every case the exposition or reading (Ctenie), as Hus himself worded it. The indignation against the corruption of the Roman Church, which becomes more accentuated in each successive work of Hus, finds here its strongest expression. " The evil priests," he writes, "do not tell the people that Christ said, Mf you do not repent your sins you will all perish.' They have so obscured the truth, which is Christ, that preachers mention the Pope more than Christ, and they praise and defend the institution of papacy more than the law of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore are His faithful sons oppressed in the lands ; for in Bohemia, in Moravia, in Meissen, in England, and elsewhere there is much suffering, as I know. They murder, torture, LETTER TO RICHARD WYCHE 131 and curse faithful priests, and it is useless to appeal to Rome ; there indeed is the summit of the wickedness of Antichrist, that is, pride, lewdness, avarice, and simony ; thus has simony and avarice poured from Rome into Bohemia." Of more general interest than any other work of Hus are the collections of his Latin and Bohemian letters, and they are perhaps his only writings that will appeal strongly to modern readers. They also, more clearly than any other work, bring out the real individuality of the great Bohemian reformer. His sincere and unostentatious piety, his sometimes almost childlike simplicity, his very touching humility, the warm friend- ship of which he assures his friends, the unconditional forgiveness which he extends to his enemies, all these appear very clearly in these letters, in which Hus never writes ex cathedra, I nowhere more regret that limited space will oblige me to restrict my quotations. The letters of Hus that have been preserved extend from July 1408 to within a few days of his death. Those written while in exile from Prague and those from prison at Constance have the greatest value. Of the earlier letters a Latin one, addressed to " Master Rich- ard the Englishman," dating from the year 1410, de- serves notice. Though it is usually stated that the family name of Hus's correspondent was '^ Fitz," it appears very probable that the person addressed was Richard Wyche, a chaplain who was about this time accused of being a Lollard, and who was— according to Foxe — burnt for the same cause in 1439. Richard Wyche had sent a letter to Hus and the Bohemians, admonishing them to remain steadfast in the faith. In his answer Hus writes : " Preaching before nearly ten 132 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE thousand people, I said, 'See, beloved brethren, what interest in your salvation faithful preachers in foreign countries take, they who are ready to shed out their whole heart, if only they can preserve us in the law of Christ,' and I added, ' Our most beloved brother Richard, the associate of Master John Wy cliff e in his evangelical work, has written you such a comforting letter, that even had I no other written assurance, I should be ready to risk my hfe for Christ's Gospel, and I will do so with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ!' The faithful of Christ were so inflamed by this letter that they begged me to translate it into the language of our country. '* I do not know what further I should write to your reverence. I am not able to instruct those who are far more learned than I ; by what words can one who is weaker comfort those who are stronger soldiers of Christ ? What, then, shall I say ? You have taken all words of Christian instruction from my mouth. It only remains for me to beg of you help by means of prayer, and to render thanks for all the good which, through your labours and by the help of Jesus Christ, Bohemia has received from blessed {benedicta) England." Hus's letters from exile, as already mentioned, w^ere very numerous. During his absence the adherents of the papal party endeavoured to suppress the religious services in the Bethlehem Chapel, and some Germans had even made an attempt to destroy the chapel. In a Bohemian letter addressed to the citizens of Prague Hus refers to this matter: ''God be with you, dear sirs and masters," he writes. " I beg of you firstly to consider this matter before God, to whom great wrong LETTERS OF HUS 133 is done ; for they wish to suppress His holy word, to destroy a chapel that is useful for [the teaching of] the word of God, and thus to frustrate the salvation of the people ; secondly, consider the insult to your land, your nation, or race. In the third place, only consider the shame and wrong which undeservedly is done to your- selves. Fourthly, consider and endure cheerfully that the devil rages against you and Antichrist snarls at you, for he will not harm you if you are lovers of God's truth. Indeed he has raged against me for many years, and yet I trust to God he has not harmed a hair on my head ; rather has my happiness and content increased." The letter ends with these words : ^' Therefore, con- sidering these things, and placing truth and the praise of God foremost and living worthily in charity, let us resist the lie of Antichrist to the end ; for we have with us as a helper our Almighty Saviour, whom no one can vanquish, and who will not desert us as long as we do not desert Him ; He will then give us the eternal reward. ... I have written this down for you, as I cannot well come to you, so that the priests who endeavour to stop the religious services may not harm your minds." Many letters written by Hus at Constance have been preserved ; some date from the time when he was still at liberty, others from the period when he was im- prisoned in the Dominican monastery, and afterwards in that of the Franciscans. During his stay at Gottlie- ben he was, as already mentioned, entirely prohibited from writing. In the first of the letters written from the dungeon in the Dominican monastery addressed to the citizens of Prague, and dated January 19, 141 5, Hus refers to the severe illness which had befallen him in 134 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE consequence of the unhealthy condition of his prison. The letter, which is written in Bohemian, begins thus : " May the Lord God be with you that you may perse- vere in your resistance to evil, to the devil, to the world, and to the flesh. "Beloved brethren, I write to you while sitting in prison, but I am not ashamed, for I suffer hopefully for the sake of the Lord God who has graciously visited me with a severe illness and has again restored me to health, and who has permitted that those should become my bitter enemies to whom I have done much good and whom I have sincerely loved.^ I beg of you to pray for me to the Lord God, that He may deign to be with me ; for it is on Him and on your prayers that I rely to re- main unto death in His grace. If the Lord deigns now to call me to Him, may His holy will be fulfilled ; and if He deigns to return me to you, then also be His holy will fulfilled ! Verily I am now much in want of help ; but I know that God will submit me to no misfortune or temptation except such as are for my own and for your benefit, so that having been tried and found steadfast we may obtain a great reward. ... I have no one to advise me except our merciful Lord Jesus, who said to His faithful : I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist. Dearly beloved, remember that I have worked with you with great devotion, and that I am anxious for your salva- tion even now when I am in prison and suffering grievous persecution. Want of space obliges me to quote but from one other letter of Hus, written in prison, though they all well 1 This refers to Stephen Pale^ and other former adherents of Hus who had deserted the cause of Church reform. LETTERS OF HUS 135 deserve to be better known. This is the letter written on June loth, two days after his trial before the Council had ended. Hus was then in expectation of immediate death, though, as already stated, attempts were still made to obtain his recantation, and his execution only took place on July 6th. The letter, also written in Bohemian, is addressed "To the whole Bohemian nation." Hus writes : '^ Faithful in God, men and women, rich and poor, I beg and entreat you to love the Lord God, praise His word, hear it gladly, and live according to it. Cling, I beg you, to the divine truth, which I have preached to you according to God's law. I also beg that if any one has heard either in my sermons or privately anything contrary to God's truth, or if I have written anything such — which, I trust to God, is not the case — he should not retain it. I further beg, then, if any one has seen levity in me in word or deed he should not retain it ; but let him pray to God for me that God may forgive me. I beg you to love, praise, and honour those priests who lead a moral life, those in particular who strive for God's word. I beg you to beware of crafty people, par- ticularly of unworthy priests, of whom our Saviour has said they are clothed like sheep, but are invariably greedy wolves. I beg the nobles to treat the poor people kindly and rule them justly. I beg the burghers to conduct their business honestly. I beg the artisans to perform their labours conscientiously, I beg the servants to serve their master and mistress faithfully. I beg the teachers to live honestly, to instruct their pupils care- fully, to love God above all ; for the sake of His glory and the good of the community, not from avarice and worldly ambition should they teach. I beg the students and other scholars to obey and follow their masters in 136 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE eveiy thing that is good, and to study diligently for the praise of God, for their own salvation, and for that of others." Hus then mentions by name the Bohemian and Polish noblemen present at the Council who had afforded him aid, and expresses his thanks to them. He then refers to his sovereign, King Wenceslas, and more particularly to Queen Sophia, who had always aided the cause of Hus, as far as it had been in her power. He then continues : " I write this while in fetters, expecting my sentence of death to-morrow, full of hope in God, resolved not to recede from the divine truth nor to recant errors which false witnesses have invented and attributed to me. How God has acted towards me, how He is with me during all my troubles, that you will only know when, by the grace of God, we shall meet again in heaven." It is touching to notice that the imminent vicinity of death by no means lessened Hus's interest in his beloved Bethlehem Chapel. Towards the end of the letter from which I have already quoted he writes : " I beg all of you, particularly you men of Prague, to be careful of Bethlehem as long as the Lord God will permit that God's word be preached there. The devil has been much incensed against that spot, and he has stirred up parsons and canons against it, well knowing that that spot is hostile to his kingdom. I trust in God that he will graciously deign to preserve that spot, and that he will obtain there greater advantages by means of others than was possible through so feeble a person as I am." From the time of Hus to the present day it has con- stantly been attempted to define his doctrine, and to trace the origin of the opinions that are peculiar to him. According to one theory, the teaching of Hus did not INFLUENCE OF WYCLIFFE ON HUS 137 aim at a reform of the Church in the manner of the later Church reformers, but was rather an endeavour to return to the Eastern Church, from which Bohemia first re- ceived the Christian doctrine. In the seventeenth cen- tury Paul Stransky 1 wrote that even after the Latin rites had been generally accepted in Bohemia, 'Hiumble people and the populace, contented with the former religious institutions of their land, tenaciously adhered to the rites of the Greek Church." The same theory has in the present century been maintained by Eugene Novikov, Hilferding, and other Russian writers. The patient and thorough investigation of this matter by modern Bohe- mian historians, particularly by Palacky, Dr. Kalousek, and Dr. Goll, has, however, proved to a certainty that all reminiscences of the Eastern Church had in Bohemia died out before the time of Hus. It would be natural to attribute Hus's peculiar views principally to the influence of the writers of his own country who immediately preceded him and who have been noticed in the last chapter. It is therefore sur- prising to note that Milic, Stitny, and Matthew of Janov are scarcely noticed in the works of Hus that have been preserved. It has, however, been conjectured that further references to them may have been contained in the lost works of Hus. In sharp contrast with this independence of the writings of his countrymen is the strong influence of Wycliffe on the ideas and writings of Hus, which the recent publication of many of Wycliffe's works has rendered yet more evident. It is certain that the works of Hus, specially those written in Latin, contain lengthy extracts from Wycliffe's writings, and that many of the 1 See Chapter VI. 138 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE leading ideas of Hus can be traced to the same source. This fact has been strongly brought forward by Professor Loserth, who has quoted in parallel columns passages from Hus's treatise, De Ecclesia^ and passages from Wycliffe's treatise of the same name, which are identical. In a lesser degree Loserth has found this dependence on Wycliffe also in other works of Hus. The German professor, however, deals principally with the Latin works of Hus, whereas his Bohemian writings — though the influence of Wycliffe can here also be traced — are far more independent and original. It must also be remembered that in the fifteenth and even the sixteenth century the modern ideas with regard to literary property were unknown. Many writers, particularly on theology, incorporated with their works whole pages from the writings of their predecessors, and this without any acknowledgment. It would also be incorrect to imagine that Hus followed Wycliffe blindly. He indeed writes : '* I hold those true doctrines which Master John Wycliffe, professor of holy theology, held, not because he said these things, but because the Holy Scripture says them." On the important question of transubstantiation Hus, differing herein from Wycliffe, upheld the teaching of the Church of Rome. It must further be considered that in many cases ideas common to Hus and to the English reformer can be traced far farther back. This matter has been fully expounded by the recent foreign and Bohemian writers on Hus. It will here be sufficient briefly to state that the disapproval of the enormous riches, of the arrogance and avarice of the higher members of the Roman clergy — so constantly expressed by Hus — can be traced back as far as to the German THE LEADING IDEAS OF HUS 139 Emperor Frederick II. After Pope Innocent IV. had pronounced the Emperor's deposition in 1245 at the Council of Lyon, Frederick in a circular addressed to all princes declared ^'that it had always been his in- tention to reduce the ecclesiastics, particularly those of highest rank, to that state and condition in which they had been at the time of the primitive Church, that is, leading an apostolical life and imitating the humility of Christ/' In the following century Marsiglio of Padua in his celebrated work, Defensor Fidei, wrote strongly against the interference of the clergy in temporal matters. He already maintained that the Church consisted of the whole community of Christian men, be they ecclesiastics or laymen. The Pope, according to Marsiglio, can claim no right of supreme judgment in temporal matters, even over the clergy, and the " power of the keys " does not en- title him to place a man under civil disabilities by means of excommunication. Somewhat later, in his Dialogues, William of Ockham expressed similar opinions, though he did not go as far as Marsiglio. If we endeavour briefly to define the ideas of Hus as far as they differ from the tenets of the Church of Rome — for on most points he was entirely in accord with that Church — we may state that his two leading ideas, closely connected with one another, are his theory of ''Christ's law" and his conception of the "true Church." Ac- cording to Hus the law of Christ, or ''God's law" — an expression that afterwards became a watchword of the Hussites — is contained in the writings of the Old and New Testament, which contain all God's commands to man. The second fundamental principle of Hus is his conception of the true Church, which, according to 140 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE him, consists of the totality of the elect. It is doubt- ful whether this theory was in direct opposition to the doctrine of the Church of Rome, in the development which it had reached in the fifteenth century. Long before his rupture with the Church, Hus, speaking be- fore the archiepiscopal synod, had defined the *^ Eccle- sia" as '^ Praedestinatorum Universitas." The head of this Church, according to Hus, is Christ, not the Pope, whose predecessors held no higher rank than other bishops. It remains to cast a glance on the individuality and character of Hus. He has always been judged in a most opposite manner, according to the religious opinions of those who wrote about him. As Schiller has said of another very different, great Bohemian, it can be said of Hus too : — " Fo/i der Parteien Gunst und Hass verivirrt Schivajtkt sein Characte7'bild in der GeschichteP I must rely on what I have already written, but princi- pally on my extracts from the works of Hus, to bear witness for the sincere piety, the enthusiasm for the law of God, the patriotism, the humility and the sincerity of Hus. That he was faultless, I do not attempt to prove, and no one would have resented such an attempt more than the great Bohemian, who, in one of his last letters, begged those who might have heard that he had com- mitted some offence against God's law, not to follow his example, but to pray God to forgive him. It is certain that Hus was imprudent when, by high-coloured descrip- tions of the misdeeds of their priests, he incensed the ignorant and excitable population of Prague. Neither can it be denied that — no doubt influenced by his HUS ''THE MARTYR" 141 firm belief that he was speaking in the name of Christ, not in his own — Hus sometimes showed traces of the self-willed obstinacy which the enemies of Bohemia have ever declared to be characteristic of its inhabitants. Such slight blemishes, visible indeed to the modern writer, were not unnaturally ignored by the enthusiastic followers of Hus. To them he was "The Martyr," and the National Church of Bohemia, up to the time of its suppression in the seventeenth century, continued to celebrate the 6th of July, the anniversary of the death of Hus. If, neglecting for a moment the minutiae of mediaeval theological controversy, we consider as a martyr that man who willingly sacrifices his individual life for what he firmly believes to be the good of humanity at large, who "takes the world's life on him and his own lays down," then assuredly there is no truer martyr in the world's annals than John of Husinec. The name of Jerome of Prague was, particularly among older writers, so closely connected with that of Hus, that it would appear incorrect altogether to omit mentioning his name. He had by no means the great influence on the development of Hussitism in Bohemia — in which country he appeared but occasionally and for short periods — which was attributed to him before the studies of the present century had rendered the past history of Bohemia clearer. What influence he ob- tained was through his eloquence, not through his pen, so that his place in a history of Bohemian literature is a very modest one. One letter still preserved has been, on doubtful evidence, attributed to Jerome. It is more pleasing, at any rate, to doubt its authenticity. It is 142 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE supposed to have been written after he had recanted his former opinions. In this letter (dated August 12, 1415), addressed to Lord Lacek of Kravar, Jerome states that '^the dead man {i.e, Hus) wrote many false and hurtful things." CHAPTER IV THE PERIOD OF THE HUSSITE WARS The death, or, as his adherents considered it, the murder of Hus was followed by prolonged bloody wars, during which Bohemia, for a time, successfully repelled the forces of a large part of Europe. Such a period was naturally not fruitful of literary production. The writers deal almost exclusively with theology, and are, with a few very noteworthy exceptions, of secondary importance. This applies specially to the very numerous theological tracts or pamphlets, the names of which Jungmann has, in his great History of Bohemian Literature, rescued from oblivion. The adherents of Hus divided into two parties very shortly after the death of their great leader. The more moderate party, which always endeavoured to obtain a reconciliation with Rome, and some of the members of which only differed from that Church in their views as to the ceremony of communion, became known as the Calixtines, or as the '^ Praguers," from the fact that the town, and specially the university of Prague, was their centre. The more advanced Hussites received the name of Taborites, as the town of that name soon became their stronghold. There were minor differences of opinion in both camps. Some of the Calixtines or Utraquists, as they were also called, were prepared to accept the entire teaching of Rome if only the right of '43 144 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE receiving communion in the two kinds were granted to them. Other Utraquists, who maintained that they alone had preserved the teaching of Hus in its purity, differed from the Church of Rome on other points also, as had been the case with Hus himself. Among the Taborites also a more moderate party, led by Zizka, and known after his death as the "Orphans," disagreed with yet more advanced Church reformers. Finally, it should be mentioned that the intense religious excitement, and the widely spread belief in the approaching millennium, led to the formation of yet more advanced religious sects, against some of which even the Taborites had no hesitation in employing the "secular arm." All these parties found exponents of their views, but it will here be possible to mention only very few of the very many theological controversialists of this time. The principal champion of the moderate Utraquists was Magister John of Pribram, who is stated to have been a pupil of Matthew of Janov. His polemical works are all directed against the Taborites, and even against the more advanced members of his own party. His con- stant adversary was the English Hussite, Peter Payne, known to the Bohemians as " Magister Englis." Pribram endeavoured, not very successfully, to prove that the teaching of Hus was quite independent of that of " the foreigner Wycliffe," and availed himself of the national prejudices of the Bohemians for the purpose of alienat- ing them from the teaching of the English reformer and his pupil, Peter Payne. The most important work of Pribram bears the name Of the great Torment of the Holy Church, and was long attributed to Milic of Kremsier. One of his most noteworthy books also is his Lives of the MLADENOViC 145 Priests of Tabor^ written, like the first-mentioned book, in Bohemian. Pribram here violently attacks Nicolas of Pelhrimov, the ^' false and monstrous bishop of the Taborites," as he calls him. Other minor Bohemian works of Pi'-ibram, as well as some written in Latin, have been preserved. He died in 1448. To the moderate faction of the Calixtine party belonged also Peter of Mladenovic, who has already been men- tioned as one of the companions of Hus on his fatal journey to Constance. He wrote a Latin work entitled Relatio de Magistri Joannis Htis causa, which has been edited by Palacky, and contains a full account of Hus's journey to Constance, his imprisonment, and his death. This work — from which I have quoted in the last chapter — was very precious to the Hussites. Up to the time of the suppression of the National Church of Bohemia in the seventeenth century, it was customary in the Utraquist Church services to read a portion of the narra- tive of Mladenovic instead of the evangel on July 6, the anniversary of the " martyrdom " of Hus. Mladen- ovic also wrote a shorter Bohemian account of the sufferings of Hus. He died in 145 1 as administrator of the consistory of the Utraquist Church. Of the more advanced writers of the Calixtine or Utraquist Church, Magister Jacobellus of Mies (or Stfibro) is the most prominent. He became, imme- diately after the death of Hus, the leader of that party which adhered most closely to his teaching. He had already, during the captivity of his master, maintained the necessity of communion in two kinds, a doctrine which Hus had sanctioned in one of his letters.^ Like most Bohemian divines of his time, Jacobellus wrote a iSee Chapter III. p. II2. K 146 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Latin Postzlla, as well as numerous other polemical treatises, both Latin and Bohemian. Some Bohemian hymns written by him have also been preserved. Jaco- bellus is, however, most worthy of notice as being the principal author of the celebrated Articles of Prague^ that played so important a part in Bohemian history. After this event we find little mention of Jacobellus, and he died in retirement in 1429. Closely connected with Jacobelkis is his friend the Englishman, Peter Payne,^ whose name has already been mentioned. I have here no space to sketch out his adventurous career. He was obliged to fly from England, no doubt as being an adherent of Wycliffe, and settled in Bohemia, obtaining, in 1417, the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Prague. He belonged, like Jacobellus, to the more advanced Utraquists ; and when the ideas of Pribram gained ground in that Church, even joined the Taborites. Peter Payne was also one of the Bohemian envoys at the Council of Basel, where he was occasionally in violent conflict with his countrymen, the English bishops. Though living so long in Bohemia, Magister Englis appears never to have thoroughly mastered the language of the country. It is at least certain that when chal- lenged by Magister Pribram to a public theological disputation in that language, Peter was obliged to decline. Some religious treatises, written in Latin, in which Payne defends the teaching of Wycliffe, have been preserved. He appears toward the end of his life to have cast his lot entirely with the men of Tabor, and was still living in that town in 1452. Among the members of the advanced Calixtine party, ^ Mr. James Baker has written an interesting monograph on Peter Payne, entitled, A Forgotten Great Englishman, ROKYCAN 147 which was led by Jacobellus, and afterwards by Arch- bishop Rokycan, we must mention Vavrinec (Laurence) of Bfezova, who, though principally known as a his- torian, was as devoted to theological studies as almost all his contemporaries. His Chronicon, written in Latin, is perhaps the most valuable contemporary record of the Hussite wars. The book unfortunately ends abruptly with the year 142 1, perhaps in consequence of the death of the author, of whom, however, little is known. The Bohemian writings of Brezova are inferior in interest to his Latin work. He wrote in his own language a '' book expounding dreams," at the request of King Wenceslas IV., at whose court he probably held an appointment, and a Chronicle of the World. He is also the author of a Bohemian translation of the Travels of Sir John Mandeville, The leader of the more advanced Utraquists, after the death of Jacobellus, was Magister John of Rokycan, the first and last Calixtine Archbishop of Prague. The long and eventful life of Rokycan — born in 1397, ^^ ^^^^ ^^ 1471 — belongs to Bohemian history. It will here be sufficient to mention his writings. Rokycan was un- doubtedly a very voluminous writer, though probably the great majority of his works have been destroyed. Those still in existence are principally theological writ- ings of a controversial character. His most important work is his Postilla, written in Bohemian, which strongly recalls Hus's work of the same name, though, both as regards profundity of thought and style, Rokycan's work is far inferior to that of his master. The priests and other members of the Taborite com- munity were probably not inferior in literary activity to the adherents of the Utraquist Church. Unfortu- 148 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE nately, after the battle of Lipan (in 1434), and the capture of the city of Tabor by King Georg (in 1452), ahnost all these works were destroyed. The customs and con- stitution of that strange military-religious community, that in many ways recalls the later Puritans, will there- fore probably never be exactly known. We gather indeed some information from the writings of the enemies of the Taborites, such as -^naeas Sylvius. His account of his visit to the city of Tabor is very interesting. It appears particularly to have surprised the Italian humanist how general m the town the knowledge of the Bible was. ''The Italian priests," he writes, '' should be ashamed, they of whom it is doubtful whether they have even once read the New Testament ; among the Taborites you would hardly find a poor woman who could not answer any question referring to the Old or to the New Testament." With regard to the doctrines of the Taborites, we are also obliged to rely mainly on the statements of their enemies, particularly of Magister Pribram, who has already been mentioned. The leader of the Taborite party was Nicholas of Pelhrimov (Pilgram), surnamed " Biskupec," the only bishop of the short-lived community of Tabor. Little is known both of his life and of his writings. He was, like most Bohemian divines of his time, engaged in incessant theological controversies. Chelcicky's Reply to Nicholas has been preserved, but the letter of Nicholas in answer to which it was written is no longer in exist- ence ; a polemical work of Nicholas addressed to Rokycan has also been lost. The principal work of Biskupec, however, his Latin Chronicon Continents caiisam sacerdotum Tahoriensium, has been preserved, and was ZliKA 149 edited and published by Professor Hofler in the present century. It is interesting as being the only existent definition of the doctrines of the Taborites written by a member of the community. I follow the example of Jungmann and Jirecek, as well as of the most recent writers on Bohemian litera- ture, in including among the writers of the Taborite party the celebrated Bohemian warrior John Zizka of Trocnov, born about the year 1378. It has already been mentioned that Zizka was the head of the more moderate division of the Taborists, which after his death assumed the name of the " Orphans." Zizka's writings consist indeed only of the curious work en- titled Tke Regulations of War (Rad vojensky), four letters, and a war-song or hymn, but they are among the most precious relics in the Bohemian language. They give a thorough insight into the real nature and character of the hero of the Hussite wars, who has so often been compared to Oliver Cromwell. The Rdd vojensky is no mere collection of military regulations ; besides establishing the rule of an iron discipline, it also enforces religious practices, and repeatedly proclaims — in a manner very unusual in the fifteenth century — the absolute equality of the different classes of men who composed the Hussite armies. It is perhaps only after reading these regulations that the victories of the Hussites over immensely superior forces become intelligible. Of Zizka's letters, the most noteworthy is the cele- brated Letter to the Allies of Domazlice. The citizens of Domazlice (Tauss) had been attacked by the Germans, and applied to their Hussite comrades for aid. Zizka wrote to them : ^' Dear Brothers in God ! — I beg you 150 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE for the sake of the Lord God to remain in the fear of God as His most beloved sons, and not to complain if He chastises you. Remembering the founder of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ, you will defend yourselves bravely against the wrongs which these Germans en- deavour to inflict on you. You will thus follow the example of the ancient Bohemians, who, valiantly using their lances, defended both God's cause and their own. And we, dear brethren, seeking the law of God and the good of the commonwealth, will do everything possible, that every one of our men who is able to wield a club or even to hurl a stone should march to your aid. And therefore, dear brethren, be it known to you that we are collecting our men from all parts of the country against these enemies of God and devastators of the Bohe- mian land. Therefore instruct your priests, that they may when preaching rouse the people against the armies of Antichrist. Let it also be proclaimed in the market- place that all able men, young or old, must be ready at any moment. And we, God willing, shall be shortly with you. Have bread, beer, fodder for the horses ready, as well as all weapons of war. For indeed it is time (to march), not only against the internal enemies, but also against the foreigners. Remember your first campaign, when you fought bravely, humble men against the great, few against many, unclothed against men in armour. For the arm of God has not been shortened ! Therefore trust in God and be ready. May the Lord God grant you strength ! " Very similar to the Regulations of War and to the letters of Zizka are the sentiments contained in the well-known Taborite war-song, All ye Warrioj-s of God^ which has often been called the Bohemian Marseillaise ZI^KA'S WAR-SONG 151 of the fifteenth century. Want of space obhges me to quote only some of the first and the last lines of this spirited song, which, according to the most recent re- searches, is undoubtedly a work of Zizka : — " All ye warriors of God^ Fighters for His law^ Pray to God for help^ And trust in Him^ With Him victory ever will be yours. Fear not those, the Lord hath said, Who would your body harm. For love of your fellow-creatures He has ordered you to die ; Therefore strengthen manfully your hearts, Christ will recompense your sorrows. Hundredfold repay you, Who for Him doth lose his life Will win eternal bliss; Happy he who dies for the truth. Therefore manfully cry out : * At them! rush at themP Wield bravely your armsj Fray to your Lord God; Strike and kill! spare none!'''* The eventful life of Zizka belongs to Bohemian history, but it may yet not be out of place to mention here that his life and career have constantly been systematically misrepresented by writers hostile to his faith ; and particularly outside of Bohemia scarcely any other writ- ings referring to Zizka were known. He thus passed down from one generation of writers to another as a ferocious and bloodthirsty robber and fanatic. The real Zizka w'as, as repeatedly mentioned, the leader of the 152 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE moderate Taborites, and the contemporary writers men- tion several cases when Zizka reproved the barbarity of his soldiers. It is none the less impossible to acquit him altogether from the accusation of cruelty, but it is certain that his conduct in this respect was far more humane than that of his adversaries, the so-called crusaders, who several times invaded Bohemia and openly proclaimed their intention "to let no heretic live." The account of the death of Zizka, according to which he died blasphem- ing, and ordered that his body should be flayed, his skin used as a drum, and his body thrown to the wild beasts — first mentioned by -^naeas Sylvius, and since repeated by countless writers — is also totally devoid of truth. It may be of interest to quote the account of Zizka's death given by one of the contemporary chroniclers.^ It runs thus : " Here (at Pfibislav) brother Zizka was seized by a deadly attack of the plague. He gave his last charge to his faithful Bohemians, (saying,) that, fearing their beloved God, they should firmly and faithfully defend God's law in view of His reward in eternity. And then brother Zizka recommended his soul to God, and died on the Wednesday before the day of St. Gallus" (October ii, 1424). Even had we no historical evidence to the point, this tranquil death would appear a fitting end for the great Bohemian general. He who had so oft^i fought what he firmly considered God's battle, assuredly did not dread entering into God's peace. It has already been stated that besides the two great divisions of the Hussites, minor religious sects sprung up in Bohemia in consequence of the general religious exaltation which prevailed in the country, particularly in the earlier part of the fifteenth century. These sects * Stari Letopisove Cesti ('* Ancient Bohemian Chronicles") ; see later. CHELCiCKY 153 went far beyond the teaching of the CaHxtines, and even of the Taborites. They were frequently influenced by chiHastic ideas, which not unnaturally lead to socialism. Of such fanatics the one who attracted most attention was the priest Martin Huska, also known under the name of ^' Loquis." He obtained a considerable follow- ing among the people of Bohemia, who called him " the Lion of Daniel " and ^^ the Angel of God's Legion." His influence soon became prejudicial to the strict military discipline which Zizka maintained at Tabor. He was arrested by order of that general, and, after he had repeatedly broken his promise to discontinue his preach- ing, was burnt on August 21, 142 1. It is stated that Huska was the author of numerous theological treatises, but none of them have been preserved. The little we know of his opinions is derived from the writings of Pribram, who frequently quotes his works. I shall next refer to one of the most independent and original of Bohemian writers, Peter ChelCicky. Though only recently well known in Bohemia, and still almost unknown elsewhere, Chelcicky is well worthy of a far more extensive study than limited space will here permit me to devote to him. Though a contemporary of the theologians whom I have mentioned in this chapter, and on terms of acquaintance with some of them, Chelcicky everywhere impresses us as an independent thinker. As Professor jagic has recently written in his Russian preface to the Petersburg edition of the Net of Faith, it is difficult to calculate how great would have been the influence of Chelcicky's works had they been written in English, German, or French instead of in Bohemian. Chelcicky may be described as a socialist, but his social- ism was rather that of the primitive Church or of Count 154 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Tolstoy — to whom Chelcicky has often been compared — than that of the modern disturbers of public order. Horror of bloodshed and of all violence is indeed one of the distinctive tenets of Chelcicky, and absolute obedience to all, even the most unjust authorities, is enjoined by him. Chelcicky's ideal is the communism of the primi- tive Church such as he imagined it. The source of all evil is the '^ donation of Constantine." ^ When the Church was then for the first time enriched, an angel, Chelcicky tells us, spoke the words : " To-day has poison been infused into the Church of Christ." This mystical conception of the primitive Church is the foundation of most of Chelcicky's tenets. As the primitive Christians had no part in the government of the Roman empire, therefore no true Christian can hold any office of state. He may, indeed must obey, but he should not com- mand. In the primitive Church, according to Chelcicky, all were equal. Therefore the ^' bands," that is, the tem- poral and ecclesiastical grades and ranks among men, are hateful "to the meek and poor Lord Jesus." In his intense hatred of all temporal and spiritual authority, Chelcicky sometimes appears to expound very modern ideas, but we must always remember that we are reading the words of a writer of the fifteenth century and of a fervent Christian. Very characteristic of Chelcicky is his hatred of blood- shed. While the magisters of the Calixtine Church had, after a prolonged discussion, decided that war in self- 1 The fable of the "donation of Constantine " and its fatal consequences is met with constantly in mediaeval literature. Dante alludes to it in the Inferno (Canto xix. v. 115-118)— •' Ahi Constantin di quanto mal fu matre Non la tua conversion ma quella dote Che da te prese il primo ricco patre." CHELCICKY I 5 5 defence was permissible, and even a duty for those who held the true doctrine, Chelcicky maintained the abso- lute sinfulness of war under whatever circumstances. In his Reply to Rokycan he writes : '^ Has Christ re- pealed His command — ^ Thou shalt not kill'? If Christ has not revoked that order, then it must still be obeyed both at Prague and at Tabor." Chelcicky was, therefore, entirely out of sympathy with his countrymen during the momentous period (from 1420 to 1434) when their great victories attracted the atten- tion of all Europe. It is a natural consequence that even at a period of general national enthusiasm, Chel- cicky — similar in this respect to the socialists of all times — shows an almost complete absence of pride in his distinctive nationality. A result of Chelcicky's intense hatred of all social privileges and distinctions was his repeated quaint jibes against the nobility and the clergy, and his pronounced affection for the humble life of the peasantry, another of the many traits in Chelcicky in which he appears similar to Tolstoy. Though the uncontested fact that he was able to spend a considerable time at Prague at his own expense proves that Chelcicky was not entirely without means, and it is probable that he was a small land- owner, yet he always speaks of himself as a peasant. Thus, in his Reply to Rokycan he writes : '' If, there- fore, I, the peasant, strike out blindly with my club, your reverence must not be scandalised." Chelcicky has nowhere attempted to expound his views on the constitution of Church and State syste- matically. In the Sit Viry (" Net of Faith "), undoubtedly his masterpiece, we find the nearest approach to such an attempt. The sum of his teaching — as I have written 156 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE elsewhere — constitutes an attempt to establish a theory of religious nihilism, substituting for all secular and ecclesiastical authority the ill-defined " will of God." The details of the life of Chelcicky are still obscure, though the recent researches of Bohemian writers, specially of Professor GoU — to whose Bohemian and German works I wish here to acknowledge my indebt- edness — have established a certain number of facts as certain. It would perhaps be unnecessary again to mention that the foolish tale that Chelcicky was a cobbler is devoid of truth, had not this statement found its way into an English work dealing with Bohemia that has appeared within the last few years. Peter Chelcicky was born at Chelcic near Vodnan, in Southern Bohemia, towards the end of the fourteenth century, probably as the son of a small landowner. He proceeded to Prague early in life, and remained there for a considerable time occupied with studies principally of a theological char- acter. It is, however, certain that he never took orders, as was formerly supposed, and that he did not pursue his studies at the university. He was indeed debarred from doing so by insufficient knowledge of the Latin language. As he has himself told us, he acquired but a very slight knowledge of that language during his stay at Prague. He had, however, read portions of the works of Wycliffe, to whom he refers frequently, and who is probably the '' Magister Protiva " who is often quoted by Chelcicky. He, however, as he himself tells us, acquired most of his knowledge of the opinions of Wycliffe and other theologians from his frequent conversations with numerous Bohemian priests. It is specially recorded that he had frequent intercourse with the priests of the THE WRITINGS OF CHELCiCKY 157 Bethlehem Chapel, that stronghold of the Bohemian Church reformers. Neither the date of Chelcicky's arrival at Prague nor that of his departure is certain. It is very probable that he was in that city during the last years of the life of Hus, and a passage in one of his writings renders it probable that he was personally acquainted with the great Bohemian reformer. Chelcicky was in Prague during the stormy years 1419 and 1420, and the terrible scenes that he then witnessed no doubt intensi- fied his horror of bloodshed. He probably left Prague not long after the bloody battle of the Vysehrad (Nov- ember I, 1420), and spent the rest of his life on his farm at Chelcic. Though living in retirement, Chelcicky con- tinued to take part in the numerous theological contro- versies of his time, and it also appears that towards the end of his life some of his followers formed a small community known as the " Brothers of Chelcic," of which he became the head. Chelcicky died about the year 1460. There is sufficient contemporary evidence to prove that Chelcicky was a voluminous writer, but many of his works have been lost, and up to the beginning of the present century they had all fallen into almost com- plete oblivion. The strongly democratic character of these writings, and the bitter invectives against the aris- tocracy and clergy which they contain, rendered them specially obnoxious during the period of reaction that followed the battle of the White Mountain. It is indeed only within the last ten or twelve years that some of Chelcicky's works have been edited, and much further work is required before we can thoroughly appreciate his position in Bohemian literature. We possess four larger works of Chelcicky, the Reply to 158 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Nicholas of PelhrhnoVy the Postillay the Net of Faith, and the Reply to Rokycan, which, according to Dr. Goll, than whom there can be no higher authority on this subject, were probably written in the order in which I have enumerated them. Many minor works of Chelcicky are also still in existence, and may be considered as con- nected with one of the larger works, some part of which is in them treated in a more detailed manner. The Net of Faith (Sit Viry) is superior both as regards style and lucidity to the rest of Chelcicky's works, and I will therefore devote to it more space than to the author's other writings. The Reply to Nicholas (of Pelhfimov), bishop of the Taborites, who has already been mentioned in this work, is probably the first important writing of Chel- cicky, and dates from about the year 1424. Peter has himself told us how it came to be written. When Bishop Nicholas was passing through Vodnan, he sent a messenger to the neighbouring village of Chelcic in- viting the peasant-theologian to meet him. When Peter arrived, he found the bishop sitting on the dyke of a fishpond, and Nicholas asked him what the people thought of their {i.e, the Taborites) doctrine with regard to the sacrament of communion. Chelcicky replied that some approved of it, but others blamed it. The bishop then said that their teaching was in accordance with that of the Bible. This meeting was followed by several others, and a correspondence between Chelcicky and Nicholas sprung up. Chelcicky, in one of his letters which has not been preserved, appears to have written very sharply to the bishop, as in the existent Reply to Nicholas he refers to the fact that he had offended his correspondent. The subject of the Reply^ as probably CHELCiCKY'S ''POSTILLA" 159 of the whole correspondence, is the one that then absorbed all public interest in Bohemia : the correct definition of the real presence of Christ in the sacra- ment of communion. Chelcicky maintains the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, and lays stress on the fact that Wycliffe, whose immense influence on the religious views of the Bohemians is everywhere notice- able, held the same doctrine. He sharply attacks the view of the Taborite priests, which was similar to that afterwards adopted by the Calvinists. Though all dates concerning Chelcicky are very un- certain, it is probable that he ceased writing for some time after the appearance of his first treatise. He felt, as already stated, no joy in the victories of his coun- trymen, and therefore probably remained silent till comparative quiet returned to Bohemia. When this result was obtained in consequence of the battle of Lipan and the agreement between the Bohemians and the Council of Basel known as the '' compact," Chel- cicky again began writing. His first considerable work after the Reply to Nicholas is his Postilla^ written probably between 1434 and 1436. The Postillay though the largest, is far from being the most interesting work of Chelcicky. The Postilla, a commentary on the gospel of each Sun- day in the year, was a very favourite form of literary expression among the Bohemian theologians. Besides the Latin Postilla of Waldhauser, those of Hus and Rokycan — both written in Bohemian — have already been mentioned, and many others, the work of minor writers, are still in existence. The leading ideas of Chelcicky, his absolute objection to bloodshed, his detestation of all distinctions of rank and class, his contempt for the luxury of the rich, and love of a i6o A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE lowly life, these and other similar views are repeatedly — Chelcicky was indeed ever prone to repetition — ex- pounded in this as in his other works. It will, however, give a far truer insight into the ideas of Chelcicky if we dwell more lengthily on his master- piece, the Sit Viry, or '^ Net of Faith," where these views are far more clearly expounded than elsewhere. This book, which has only recently become widely known, is one of the most valuable that have been written in the Bohemian language. The democratic character of the Slav race is noticeable in almost every line of this book, and Chelcicky's very scanty knowledge of Latin, often disadvantageous to him when he attempted theological definitions, here is the cause of the indepen- dence and originality which characterise his work. Chel- cicky's descriptions of the habits and manners of the different classes of Bohemians in his time, though some- times coarse, are often quaint, and occasionally very witty. The practice acquired by his earlier writings had also greatly improved his style, and he writes here with a facility that we do not find in his other works. The subject of the Net of Faith is a passage from the Biblei — which the author quotes at the beginning of his work — which tells us how Simon, by order of Jesus, cast out his net and the net broke. As Simon Peter's net then broke in consequence of the multitude of fishes, thus since the donation of Constantine, ^' damned persons, heretics and offenders," have entered the net of faith, which has been pierced by ''the two whales," the Pope and the Emperor, the embodiments of spiritual and secular authority. The Net of Faith consists of two parts, the contents of which are thus described by the ^ Gospel of St. Luke, chap. iv. ver. 4-6. THE "NET OF FAITH" i6i author of the preface to the first printed edition [1521] : — *^The first part/' he writes, ^^ explains whence and how such fearful corruption entered the Holy Church, and also states that he who would dig out its true ground and foundation, which is Jesus, must first remove much rubbish, which has been brought into the Church by man ; and then only will you find its true foundation." ''The second part of the book explains how 'bands'^ addicted to various and manifold learning and un- christian religious practices sprung up and mightily increased ; and all these bands form a great obstacle to the true knowledge of the creed of our Lord Jesus, for they have clothed themselves with the spirit of haughti- ness, and are thus as adverse as possible to the humble and poor Lord Jesus." The first part of the work, as stated above, deals with the corruption into which Christianity had fallen, and at the same time formulates Chelcicky's ideal Christianity more clearly than the writer has done elsewhere. In chapter xi. Chelcicky writes of the primitive Church : '* Therefore, if we consider these early Christians, we will see that they were sufficiently guided in their faith by the Apostles according to the law of Christ ; for that law in itself is useful for the purpose of directing God's people to salvation ; for only by means of the direction given by that law can God's people be led to that true innocence which God loves in them ; they should in- ^ The Bohemian word rota is not easy to interpret. It can be translated by "bands" or "classes," but it has an invidious signification which the English word "classes" does not render. The word is frequently used by Chelfiicky with reference to the aristocracy and higher clergy. ChelCicky wrote a separate treatise, rotdch Ceskychy but it has not been preserved. L i62 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE fallibly seek Him with their whole heart, and preserve truth and affection towards all people, friends or enemies ; they should wish or do evil to no one ; and if such things are done to them, they should suffer without revenge, returning evil for evil neither to the good nor to the evil ; for such and similar matters does the law of Christ enjoin. And those who will not be bound by such injunctions cannot be justified before God. There- fore is it impossible that worldly people, who love the world and wish to live for the world, should submit themselves to this law, for they would have to give up the world if they wished to fulfil this law. Thus, indeed, the first godly assemblies progressed in Christ's law : abandoning totally the errors of the heathens, the in- credulity of the Jews, and all the vanities of this world, they . . . rapidly progressed without any of the rights of citizens, and without the rule of a high priest, guided only by the law of Christ." " But later, when these twofold laws, those of the State and those of the Pope, were established, then immediately the state of Christianity was diminished and it declined. And those who write chronicles reflect on this, and we see it with our eyes that these two laws produce the most harmful disturbances and death of faith and of God's law. ... I therefore ask. Is the law of God sufficient without worldly laws to guide and direct us in the path of truly Christian religion ? Then, though with trembling, I say. It is so, for Christ's law w^as sufficient to guide Christ's manhood {i.e. Christ as a man), as well as all His disciples, without the inter- ference of any worldly institutions." The subversive character of these theories, which lead to the assertion that the necessity of secular authority THE ''NET OF FAITH" 163 is only founded on the wickedness of humanity, and that the ideal state should be ruled by Christ alone, did not escape Chelcicky. In the last chapter of the first part of the " Net " he writes : '^ From these things (/>. statements) some one might say that I insult the (worldly) power. Let him say nothing of the sort, though he may wish (to do so); for I do not insult it {i.e, power), but honour it, as is seemly, and I say that it is good when God uses it well, and through it carries out what He considers good. But the evil which men do and wish to carry out through it (worldly power), that I blame before the people. . . . God is Lord of the world, and could rule and restrain it without that power if He wished to do so ; therefore if we maintain that He wishes to rule the world by means of temporal authority, and that those men rule the world as officials of the Lord God, then those who have power over the world can restrain and command it easily if they ordain that which they see is good for the world." It is evident that this passage is evasive, and contains no answer to the questions to which the former quotation naturally gives rise. The second part of the Net of Faith has as a second heading the words, "Of the bands, and of each of them separately ; " but it must not be confused with Chelcicky's lost work. Of the Bands in Bohemia, Chel- cicky deals first, and deals very severely, with the "band" of the nobles. His animosity against those who bear arms is sometimes very quaintly expressed. He writes: "All the value of noble birth is founded on an unjust invention of the heathens, who obtained coats of arms from emperors or kings in reward of some deed of prowess. And some buy these coats of 1 64 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE arms for the sake of their vanity, such as a gate,i a head of a wolf or of a dog, a ladder, or half a horse, or a trumpet, or a knife, or a pork sausage, or something of that sort. In such coats of arms lies the value and dignity of noble birth. And this nobility has the same glory as the arms from which they derive the value of their nobility. But if money did not fall to them as well as noble birth, hunger would soon make them ready to abandon their coats of arms and seize the plough ! . . . Therefore he who can prove that he is well born, and has (in his arms) a ladder or half a horse, receives letters {i.e. patents of nobility) declaring that he is better born than Abel, the second son of Adam, and he obtains such consideration that he is always considered as being good ; should he even commit the worst actions, his coat of arms does not permit that he should be bad." These attacks on the nobility continue during three chapters. The following passage contains a curious description of the dress worn by the nobles of Bohemia in the fifteenth century. Chelcicky writes: "The men wear copes reaching to the ground, or they wear a short round jacket and a hood which reaches down to the saddle of their horse, and with it a monk's cowl and a neckerchief, or a short cloak, and with it long hair reaching down to their shoulders, and on it a small rough hat like a cone ; they look out from under it as from a dovecot, for verily they do not know what monsters they make of themselves. The abominable women also deck themselves out with so many petticoats that they can hardly drag themselves along in them, and 1 Some of the objects enumerated above really formed part of the coats of arms of Bohemian noble families. THE ^'NET OF FAITH" 165 with fanciful toilets and graces that are not graceful. Their head-dress is broad and high, and ends in a horn. Thus do they walk about like the celebrated courtesans of the Pope, to the surprise and offence of the whole world. And all this is in consequence of their noble birth, which reeks of injustice. Therefore can the true faith never be insulted by heathens or by Jews as it is by this race (the nobles), who found their claims on their coats of arms, and who have unjustly entered into the realm of the faithful. And they are odious in par- ticular to the crucified Jesus ; for their proud ways are contrary to the shame which He endured on the cross ; they who, acting in everything in a manner contrary to Him for the purpose of worldly glory, yet wish to sit at table with Him and share the gain of His suffering. Therefore from all these causes they are displeasing to God, and harmful and burdensome to men. For the toiling community bears a heavy burden in the nobles ; for they devour the poor, and everything good that is found in the land, that they grasp and devour, and greatly do they harm the whole people." It must not be thought that Chelcicky's democratic views were opposed to the privileges of the nobility only. The special rights enjoyed by the citizens of some Bohemian towns, the privileged position of the clergy, even the intellectual superiority of the masters of the university, all were equally odious to the fanatical leveller Chelcicky. Of the citizens he writes thus : " I shall now speak of the knavery of the citizens, who are the strength of Antichrist, adverse to Christ, an evil rabble, who are full of boldness in committing bad actions, and help one another in vigorously combating truth and in cunningly suppressing it by means of hypocrisy ; they speak well 1 66 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of it (= truth) yet they are guests at the assembHes of evil people, and of the shameless knaves who follow the path of Judas. Therefore have these knavish townsmen too grievously torn the net of faith when they resisted the faith ; they with their special town-privileges, which are similar to the government of the heathens and founded on the same principle ; they are similar to the bands who have coronets and crests, and in many matters they draw at the yoke (that is, act) together. Too much, indeed, has the knavery of the townsmen increased, too strong are the worldly institutions, and too great is the power of Antichrist ; for through them (the townsmen) he is prosperous in his war against Christ. Therefore faith, like a net, could not contain these many knaveries and remain intact ; they have torn it open by their opposition to Christ's truth ; only the lying and dead phantom of faith have they left, and the false name of Christianity." Somewhat later Chelcicky develops his views on the foundation of cities. It has been conjectured that he derived these views from the Waldenses ; but the influence of the Waldenses on the Hussite movement, and on Chelcicky and the Bohemian Brethren in par- ticular, is a question on which the principal Bohemian authorities disagree. A similar theory as to the origin of cities can also be traced to Wycliffe, who is perhaps the "Magister Protiva" whom Chelcicky quotes. In any case, the theory of an original communism, which was destroyed by the murderer Cain, is very characteris- tic of Chelcicky. He writes : " Magister Protiva, dealing with the foundation of cities, spoke thus : Cain, after the murder of his brother, built a town, the foundation of which was the cause that he acquired goods by means THE *'NET OF FAITH" 167 of robbery and violence. Thus was he enabled to enjoy the fruits of his thievery, and by the invention of land- marks he changed the former simplicity of men's lives, of their weights and measures, into craftiness or cunning, and he introduced corruption. He first laid down land- marks, and he first fortified towns with walls ; and being afraid of those whom he and his band had offended and robbed, he assembled his followers in his towns." Chelcicky then deals with the clergy. He is particu- larly severe on the mendicant friars, of whom he writes thus : " It is thus as regards the poverty of the monks : If it were true poverty it would be blessed, but their poverty is insatiable and endures no want ; therefore has it only the name of poverty. Although they may not have many good treasures, yet they can gather together so much that they can live in abundance just as he who possesses treasures. Thus (such a monk) is called poor though he is free from all the privations which poverty causes. Many citizens indeed would accept this sort of poverty if they could — relying on the regulations that permit constant begging — gather together so much money that they could have a more abundant fare than their neighbours, even should the latter earn much money by usury. And if a poor monk obtains such abundance for his dinner-table that he disdains beef and delicious peas with fat bacon, but wags his tail when he sees game, birds or other delicacies that are better than peas, then he has got himself a good liveHhood by his begging ; and he and his companions the other monks have made a better business out of begging than some squire who has a plough and two fields, or even a large farm. Far indeed is such a mendicant friar from poverty ; as he is always begging, 1 68 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE he would not scorn it should some one offer him gold ; the covetous monk would stick it into his bag, buy him- self value (that is, an annuity), give up the obligation of begging and rather become a lord, winning from God with a trump." After passing judgment on the priesthood, Chelcicky proceeds to criticise the men of learning, or rather the theologians, for in his time, particularly in Bohemia, scarcely any other learning was known. He writes : " As regards the bands of masters of colleges, they are among Christians, those of whom, one would think, that they were as a light of the world, and that the faith of Christ had in them its strongest pledge ; (this) in con- sequence of their sure faculty of judgment and of their virtues, and also (would one hope) that in time of per- secution the faithful people would find support among them. When, in time of persecution, the frivolous run away, they who are stronger in faith should take the weight on themselves; for one would think that they only studied science so zealously — and gave it to be understood that they do so for the sake of faith — because they washed to defend the faith against heretics, and against the other enemies of the Christian truth. But these their speeches which they boastfully deliver are not true, and they have given no proof (of their zeal) during the present time of persecution. I know of no one whom, with all their learning, they have assisted. That is a living proof. As to Hus, he had the faith in himself. Had he not been granted special strength by God, the learning of the colleges, all of them that there are in the Romish Church, would have stifled the faith in him ; for all these colleges flocked together to Constance against him. But dear God gave him so much holy THE "NET OF FAITH" 169 learning, that the Antichristian spirit of all those ravens did not possess sufficient learning to extinguish in him the true faith. . . . What the principal Antichrist's popes, cardinals, bishops, abbots, the bands of monks and parsons, could not obtain for their own advantage, and for the benefit of their dishonest cause, adverse to Christ, that the masters of colleges have succeeded in obtaining. Thus these college-men, as if they grieved for their father Antichrist, and for the shame that befell him when truth was proclaimed, have employed all their learning at two councils, which lasted several years, one at Con- stance and the other at Basel, for the purpose of skilfully laying snares against the truth ; and for this have they sought the aid of worldly power, that they might carry through that which their learning had discovered, and on which they had deliberated, and thus prove the truth of their teaching, and they had already won over to their side ^ the entire might of the empire, so that having pronounced the truth heretical and condemned it, they might destroy it by means of the imperial power. But God, who observes the thoughts and counsels of the wicked, did not allow them to obtain that which in their deliberations they had aimed at, and for which they had employed their learning." I will give a last quotation from the Net of Faithy illustrating Chelcicky's views as to the manner in which the Church first became possessed of worldly goods. It will be noticed how naively he here refers to the griev- ances of the Bohemian peasants of his time, and without ^ In this passage ChelCicky's style, as is frequently the case, is rather involved. His meaning is that, in distinction from all other ecclesiastics, the doctors of theology had been successful in obtaining the aid of the temporal power for the purpose of suppressing the views which they had declared heretical. lyo A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE hesitation speaks of them as existing at the time of Constantine. ''The emperor/' Chelcicky writes, "having made a lord of the Pope by means of the gift of a royal estate, and having given him the honour of royal glory, ordered that everywhere in his dominions churches should be built, and fields with ploughs attached to them. Then the apostles of Antichrist, having settled down in these churches, and being clever and thrifty men, amply enlarged the gift of Constantine ; besides their (church) farms, they obtained lordly donations, woods, fishponds, taxes on the people, rich tithes ; they taxed all religious functions and their services, and for the purpose of obtaining money they introduced the ringing of bells, and in all the land near their church they sell (religious rites) at the burial of the dead." I have dealt somewhat more fully with the Ne^ of Faithy as being Chelcicky's most valuable and most char- acteristic work. It will therefore be sufficient to notice but briefly his remaining writings, particularly as there is a marked decline in the interest of what he composed after the year 1340, when the Net of Faith appeared. Of the four books which — following Dr. Goll — I have called Chelcicky's principal works, it only remains to notice his Reply to RokycaUy which is generally con- sidered the most important of his polemical writings. While Rokycan, the Utraquist archbishop, was in exile from Prague, he met Chelcicky, and a conversation be- tween them began concerning " the men who are called priests, and the slight advantage they have conferred on men." The conversation was followed by a correspon- dence of which only this treatise has been preserved. It is a lengthy diatribe against the *' band " of the eccle- siastics, and attacks not only the Roman clergy, but also ANCIENT BOHEMIAN CHRONICLERS 171 the priests of the Bohemian National (Utraquist) Church, whom Rokycan, now returned from exile, was endea- vouring to organise hierarchically. As already mentioned, many minor works of Chelcicky have become known, some quite recently. Of these, the most important are the Exposition of the Passion accord- ing to St, John and the treatise O71 the Beast and its Image, They are commentaries, the former on the last chapter of the Gospel, the latter on the Revelation of St. John, a saint whose particular influence on Chelcicky is often noticeable. Of other minor works, the treatise On the Body of Christ and that On the Foundation of Worldly Laws are most worthy of notice. Though he cannot be considered its founder, Chel- cicky's influence contributed greatly to the formation of the society of the " Bohemian Brethren." I have, how- ever, preferred to deal with the " Unity," as it was called, in the next chapter, when I shall consecutively deal with its theological writers from the founders of the associa- tion down to Komensky, In other than theological works the period of the Hussite wars is very poor. Of historians, Lawrence of Bfezov and Mladenovic have already been mentioned. It remains to notice a series of chroniclers, whose writ- ings I have already quoted, and who are known as the Stafi Letopisove Cesti, or "ancient Bohemian chroni- clers." These writings, the work of different authors, many of whom were probably eye-witnesses of the events which they describe, form a chronological account, written in the national language, of the occurrences in Bohemia from 1378 to 1526. The most interesting part of these chronicles refers to the period of the Hussite 172 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE wars, and to Zi^ka's campaigns in particular. A con- siderable portion of the graphic account of Zizka's cam- paign in Hungary and his retreat from that country has been translated into French by Professor Leger in his Nouvelles Etudes Slaves, " Written by a Xenophon/' the learned Professor truly says, '^in good Greek of Athens, it would no doubt have become classic." The account of the campaign is unfortunately not adapted to quotation on a small scale. One legal work also belongs to this period, The Book of Law of Ctibor Cimburg of Tovacov, generally known as Kniha Tova- covskdj or the Book of Tovacov. The same writer has left an allegorical dialogue entitled Truth's Quarrel with Falsehood, The period of the Hussite wars produced but few poetical works, and these, with the exception of Zizka's beautiful war -song, have little value. They consist mainly of coarse invectives exchanged between the Romanists and the Utraquists. Far more songs written by the friends of Rome than by their adversaries have been preserved. This is, however, probably a conse- quence of the fact that for a long period every Bohemian work written in a sense hostile to Rome was sought out and destroyed. A curious Romanist song is the one that has the words, ^'Woe to you, Hus," as a refrain. I will quote the last strophe, in which the writer thus addresses the Hussites: — " You are wanton like bulls ^ Cows, micey Moors; Murder, robbery, unchristian craft, These form your religion : Woe to you, Hus I " A curious satire on two monks who had fled from their SATIRICAL VERSES 173 monastery to join the Hussites, entitled The Painted Monksy is also written from the Roman standpoint. A few ballads describing warlike events of the period have also been preserved. The best is that which describes the battle of Aussig (Usti) in 1426. It is evidently the work of an enthusiastic Hussite. CHAPTER V HUMANISTS AND THEOLOGIANS The comparative tranquillity in Bohemia which was the consequence of the battle of Lipan (1434), and of the agreement between the Bohemians and the Church of Rome which is known as the ^' compact/' naturally had a favourable influence on the intellectual development of the country. The period which, beginning with the last years of the fifteenth century, ends with the downfall of Bohemia in 1620, is the one in which the Bohemian language obtained its greatest extension, I shall again refer to this point at the beginning of Chapter VI. Two events of the greatest importance to the develop- ment of Bohemian literature occurred in the latter half of the fifteenth century. The one is the growth of the humanist movement in Bohemia ; the other is the foun- dation of the sect of the " Bohemian Brethren." Utterly opposed to one another as the views of the humanists and the Bohemian Brethren were, the two currents of thought were not quite without reciprocal influence. Some of the best writers of the ^^ Unity," as the associa- tion of the Bohemian Brethren was generally called, such as Blahoslav and the translators of the Bible of Kralice, show proof of thorough study of the Bohemian writings of the humanists. On the other hand, even such an extreme ^' ultramontane " as the humanist Bohn- slav of Lobkovic does not display such absolute and 174 BOHUSLAV OF LOBKOVIC 175 abject submission to the Church of Rome as we find in Southern Europe. Lobkovic admits, to a certain extent, the corruption of the Church of Rome, on which his countrymen laid so great stress, and his lan- guage when referring to Pope Alexander VI. is very outspoken. Though, in consequence of the Hussite wars, the humanist movement was late in reaching Bohemia, it had there a considerable influence, though of a rather indirect nature. No great original work can be attri- buted to the Bohemian humanists, and when they used their native language it was generally for the purpose of translations, by which, it is true, they greatly enriched and developed it. In no country had the humanist great sympathy with the national language. In Bohemia the early human- ists, whose representative man is Bohuslav of Lobkovic, positively detested it. Lobkovic's often-quoted epigram on Gregory Gelenius,^ who had translated some of his Latin verses into Bohemian, clearly expresses his feeling on the matter. He wrote : " Into the national language has some one translated my verses. Now the people read them, the lords and nobles. But I am indignant at this work of the two-legged donkey,^ and I commend his wit and his muse to perdition." If the early humanists had little sympathy for Bohe- mia, the national or Utraquist party felt the strongest distrust of the " new learning." A movement that origi- nated in Italy, the site of the Papal power, to which Bohemia refused allegiance, and reached the country through Germany, the ever-hostile neighbour-land, could not appeal to the Bohemians. It must, however, be re- ^ See later, ^ " Irascor facto bipedis vehementer aselli." 176 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE marked that the undoubted feeling of antipathy which existed between Lobkovic, Slechta, and other early humanists on one, and the mass of the Bohemian people on the other side, did not include many well- known humanists who adhered to the then predomi- nant Utraquist Church of Bohemia, and did much, at least by means of translations, to improve the language of their country. Among the early strictly ** ultramontane " Bohemian humanists, the most prominent personage is Bohuslav HasiStein of Lobkovic. Born about the year 1460, he was educated in the doctrine of the Utraquist Church, to which his father, a firm adherent of King Georg, had belonged. It is not quite certain when he was formally received into the Roman Church, but this no doubt hap- pened during his stay in Italy. At a very early age he proceeded to the University of Bologna, where he pur- sued his studies for some time, and no doubt also became acquainted with the teachers of the humanist learning, of which Bologna was then a stronghold. Henceforth Bohnslav is for his whole lifetime a human- ist, with all the qualities and defects which belonged to that state of life. Towards the end of the year 1482, Bohuslav returned to Bohemia, and here, at an exceptionally early age, obtained the dignity of provost of the Vysehrad at Prague. Humanism had by this time spread in Bohe- mia, and he became the centre of a small society which devoted itself entirely to the study of the classic languages. Of this small group the shining light, of course after Bohuslav himself, was Victorin Cornelius ze Vsehrd, the friend and afterwards the detested enemy of Bohuslav. One of the minor lights of this cenacle BOHUSLAV OF LOBKOVIC 177 has described the position of the two leading Bohemian humanists in the following Latin verses : — " Primus BoleslauSy Cornelius altera Lux est Sidera nos alii, sed sine luce suinusP In the year 1490 Lobkovic undertook an extensive voyage to Palestine and Egypt. On his return to Europe, Lobkovic, who, as his correspondence very clearly proves, was by no means devoid of political ambition, attempted to play a more important part in the affairs of his country. For this purpose mainly Lobkovic aspired to the important bishopric of Olmiitz in Moravia, and he was unanimously chosen by the chapter, which, according to very ancient regulations, had the right of election. Unfortunately about this time Alexander VL was chosen as Pope, and he immediately appointed to the see of Olmiitz the Cardinal of Monreale, a relation of the Borgia family. Even the strongest partisans of the papal cause were incensed at this decision, which intrusted the bishopric of Olmiitz to an Italian, ignorant of the Bohemian, and even of the better- known German language, at a moment when the influence of the Bohemian Brethren was very strong in Moravia. A letter of remonstrance was, in the name of the principal Moravian nobles, addressed to Pope Alexander. This remonstrance, couched in rather strong language, was probably the work of Lobkovic, and has been printed by Professor Joseph Truhlar in his recently published collection of the Latin letters of Bohnslav of Lobkovic. This letter had no result, and Lobkovic appears never to have forgiven Pope Alexander. We possess several Latin epigrams written by him on that pontiff, in which Lobkovic has followed Juvenal and Martial so faithfully that I must refrain from quotation. Even after the death M 178 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of Alexander, Lobkovic in his Farragines published an epigram stating that even the guardian of hell had de- clined to admit Pope Borgia, as he might corrupt the other inmates of the infernal regions ! That Lobkovic, however, remained a stanch adherent of the Church of Rome is proved by an occurrence that took place somewhat later, and caused great excite- ment among the small group of Bohemian humanists. It is very characteristic of the times. Some citizens of Prague, who belonged to the most moderate faction of the Utraquist party, had, in 1493, presented an address to the Roman pontiff. With little political foresight, Lobkovic, thoroughly believing that the separation of Bohemia from the Roman Church had now at least come to an end, wrote an enthusiastic letter to John of Domoslav, a writer in the law-courts of Prague, and one of his very numerous corre- spondents. In this letter, written in his best Latinity, Lobkovic rejoiced over the final suppression of heresy, and enclosed a prayer in verse in which he invoked the aid of Providence for the purpose of the restoration of Bohemia to Catholicism. What followed is not very clear, but it seems that Domoslav showed Lobkovic's poem to Victorin Cornelius ze Vsehrd, who had that year been appointed to high office in the law-courts of Prague, and was his official superior. Vsehrd, a fervent Utraquist, was indignant at the suggestion of a reunion with Rome, and, as a true humanist, he also imme- diately composed a Latin poem, parodying that of Lob- kovic. The poem ended with the words : — " Boemicus sanguis si quid tibi restal aviti Roboris^ indigno subtrahe colla jugo ! Qui dotnini tanto servasti jussa supertii Tempore^ papalibus contaminari cave J " BOHUSLAV OF LOBKOVIC 179 This parody Vsehrd communicated to Domoslav, who — it is difficult to understand from what motive, unless it was sheer love of mischief-making — immediately for- warded it to Lobkovic. The indignation of Lobkovic was very great, and he expressed it in a lengthy very Ciceronian letter to Domoslav, which is contained in Professor Truhlar's collection of the letters of Lobkovic. He regrets that Domoslav should have sent to him '' the blasphemies of one who, with sacrilegious mouth, raves against the Church of Christ."^ Lobkovic then proceeds to com- pare his former friend to Dathan and Abiram, Wycliffe, Arius, and the Emperor Julian. After a long and tedious polemical discourse, Lobkovic very characteristically ends his letter by stating that the heretic, besides his other misdeeds, had '^ placed a tribrachys in the fifth place of his first verse ; " a lengthy list of similar errors follows, and concludes with the remark that Vsehrd had, at the end of the last line of his poem, used the second syllable of the word "papalibus" — in the passage I have quoted — as long, contrary to what he had done in an earlier passage of the poem. In his later years Lobkovic spent most of his time at his castle of Hassistein, and does not seem to have con- tinued his attempt to obtain political influence. He collected a large library at his castle, and devoted his time to study and to the company of the humanist friends who visited him at Hassistein. He died there in 1512. As Lobkovic wrote only in Latin, a writer on Bohe- mian literature can deal with his works very briefly. The fact that a Bohemian noble of high rank wrote in a ^ " Blasphemias cuiusdam in ecclesiam Dei ore sacrilege debacchantis." i8o A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE sense favourable to Rome at a time when almost the whole of his country was opposed to that Church, has caused Lobkovic to receive much exaggerated praise from writers whose literary judgment was guided by their poli- tical and religious sympathies. His works, both in prose and in poetry, are numerous, but have little value. Even in the best of his elegies he is far inferior to his contempo- rary Sannazaro. The Latinity of his letters is certainly very good, and he ranks very high among the humanists in this respect ; but the elaborate style hardly dissimulates poverty of thought and narrow-minded prejudice. His letter or harangue to King Vladislav, written 1497, is in itself sufficient to convict Lobkovic of incapacity as a politician. The purpose of the letter was to entreat the king to re-establish the Roman Catholic archbishopric of Prague, but Lobkovic proceeds to beg the king to extirpate heresy in Bohemia entirely. He quotes, as examples for the king, Charles the Great, who forcibly converted the heathen Saxons, and Ferdinand of Arra- gon, *' who alone among kings emulates you in virtue," by whose agency Baetica, the noblest province of Spain, was restored to our Christian fold. It is, of course, a matter of opinion whether the forcible reconversion of Bohemia to the Roman Church, such as actually took place in the seventeenth century, was desirable or not ; but it requires but a very slight knowledge of Bohemian history to realise that such an attempt at the time of the reign of Vladislav was doomed to most certain failure. It is, however, possible that the letter was intended merely to be a rhetorical exercise. The influence of Lobkovic on the development of Bohemian literature was undoubtedly harmful. The outspoken contempt for the national language expressed JOHN OF LOBKOVIC i8i by so renowned a humanist could not but discourage its cultivation by others. Lobkovic, in his strange identifi- cation of Bohemian writings with what he considered heretical opinions, is an undoubted forerunner of the Jesuit book-destroyers of the seventeenth century. A recent critic writes : " These Latin works of Bohemian humanists appear as a vast sepulchre, bearing the epitaph : * Here, under an elaborate Latin monument, true Slav hearts lie buried.' " Though he can scarcely be considered as a humanist, John of Lobkovic should be mentioned in connection with his brother Bohnslav. Differing in most things from his brother, with whom, in consequence of questions of succession, he was for some time on bad terms, he used the Bohemian language for his two works which we possess. He wrote a curious work entitled Knowledge and Instruction for my son JaroslaVy as to what he should do afid what omit. The book, written in 1504, was after- wards printed under the less unwieldy title of the True Bohemian Mentor, It enjoyed great popularity in Bohe- mia, and a copy of this book was a frequent gift of fathers to their sons. As a proof of the noble spirit in which the book is written, I shall quote a portion of the chapter entitled "On subject people {i.e. serfs), and how you should behave towards them." John of Lobkovic writes : " Be gracious to your subjects, if you wish that the Lord God should be gracious to you. For if you forgive them their offences, then will the Lord God forgive you your offences. For we say in the Lord's Prayer, ' Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.' Thus we ourselves, when we sing the Lord's prayer, 1 82 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE submit to this, saying, ' Forgive us as we forgive.' And thus if we do not forgive their offences to those who have offended us, our own sins will not be forgiven to us by God. " Hear cheerfully every one, rich or poor, on his re- quest, and either help him to justice or order those whose business it is to do so. By this you will obtain the love of the people and their prayers to God for your long life and happiness in everything. '^ If some poor man of yours (subject or serf) has committed some not very great offence against you, for- give him once and twice ; even if he offends a third time, be merciful. Only if it is a serious matter, justly meriting the penalty of death, then act towards him as is fit. . . . Give just judgment on your subjects and every one on whom you sit in judgment, for that is God's command. ^^ When sitting in judgment, pay no regard to the person if he be rich or poor, or to favour or disfavour, or to presents, which blind the judge and disgrace jus- tice. Deliver judgment impartially to every one, this one or that." Lobkovic's advice as to the treatment of serfs is very interesting, as having been written only a few years after the Diet of Bohemia had in 1487 established serfdom, which was contrary to the original customs of Bohemia. It is certain that the rule of the Bohemian nobles over the peasantry belonging to the same race was very mild, and that the condition of the peasantry became far worse when, after the battle of the White Mountain, the land- owner was almost always a foreigner, generally a German. John of Lobkovic is also to be mentioned as a traveller. In 1493 he undertook a journey to Palestine by way of VICTORIN CORNELIUS ZE V§EHRD 183 Venice, Dalmatia, and Greece, of which he has left us a description entitled A Pilgrimage to the Grave of God, Of Bohemian humanists the most important one next to Bohnslav of Lobkovic is Victorin Cornelius ze VSehrd, born at Chrudim in 1460. His friendship with Bohnslav of Lobkovic, which was ended by a bitter religious dis- pute, has already been mentioned. Vsehrd for some time held an important office at the law-courts of Prague, which he lost in 1497, it is said through the influence of Bohnslav of Lobkovic. Vsehrd was one of the most learned lawyers of his time, and he has left us a legal work in Bohemian entitled Ten Books on the Rights of the Bohemian Land, which has great historical value. After his rupture with Bohnslav Lobkovic, Vsehrd seems to have abandoned his exclusive devotion to Latin. Belonging to the National Utraquist Church, he was devoid of the dislike to the national language which up to the beginning of the seventeenth century was general among the adherents of the Roman Church. He, however, attempted no original work, but en- deavoured to aid the development of the Bohemian language by enriching it with translations from foreign authors. He has himself explained his purpose in the preface to his translation of St. John Chrysostom's work On the Amendment of the Fallen, He writes : " I have gladly translated (this book) for this reason also, that I hope thus to extend, to ennoble, to increase our language ; for it is not so narrow and unpolished as it seems to some. Its abundance and richness can be seen by this, that whatever can be expressed in Greek or in Latin can be so in Bohemian also. . . . May others compose new books written in Latin and — pour- ing water into the sea — extend the use of the Roman I §4 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE language. I wish, by translating the books and works of really good men into Bohemian, rather to enrichen the poor than that, flattering the rich with bad and unwelcome presents, I should be despised and insulted. I could indeed write Latin as well as others who are my equals ; but knowing that I am a Bohemian, I will indeed learn Latin, but write and speak in Bohemian." Besides the above-mentioned translation, Vsehrd also translated into Bohemian several works of St. Cyprian. It must be mentioned that when translating from the Greek, Vsehrd used Latin versions. With the exception of Pisecky, the knowledge of Greek which the Bohemian humanists possessed was not very extensive. Vsehrd did not confine himself to humanistic studies, but con- tinued to practise as a lawyer up to his death in 1520. Among other Bohemian humanists, Gregory Hruby z Jeleni and his son Sigismund — both are better known under the Latinised name of ^* Gelenius " — deserve special notice. Gregory Gelenius, born about the year 1450, was one of the most industrious translators of classical works into the Bohemian language, and as such has deserved well of the language of his country. The works of Cicero particularly appealed to him, and he not only translated several of them into Bohemian, but also published an Admonition to the Citizens of Praguey which is an adaptation of Cicero's speech Pro Lege Manilia. Gelenius did not limit his translations to the classical writers. He translated several of the Latin works of Petrarch, the Encomium MoricB of Erasmus, whose fame in Bohemia was very great, and some of the Latin poems of Bohnslav of Lobkovic. I have already alluded to the indignation with which Bohnslav received this attempt to translate his verses THE GELENIUSES 185 into his national language, which he so greatly despised. Gregory Gelenius died in 15 14. Gregory's son, Sigismund Gelenius, was perhaps the most learned of the Bohemian humanists. Born in 1497, he travelled in Italy when very young, and during a stay at Venice acquired a thorough knowledge of Greek. He also seems to have been acquainted with the Semitic languages. Sigismund endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to obtain a professorship of Greek at the University of Prague. Disappointed by his failure, he left Bohemia, and, on the suggestion of Erasmus, proceeded to Basel, where he was employed by the publisher John Frobe- nius, who was then preparing a series of editions of classical authors. Sigismund Gelenius is one of the greatest philologians of the sixteenth century, and ob- tained special notice as editor and annotator of the works of Ammianus Marcellinus, Pliny, and Livy. He spent his whole life at Basel, and refused repeated invi- tations to return to his country. The celebrated Bohe- mian Brother, Blahoslav, who visited him at Basel in 1550, has recorded that he still *^ spoke Bohemian very well." Sigismund Gelenius died at Basel in 1554. In connection with the two Geleniuses I shall mention Wenceslas Hladic, or Piseck^, as he called himself, from the town Pisek, where he was born in 1482. He studied at the University of Prague, and there took his degrees as Bachelor and as Master of Arts. He afterwards travelled in Italy, having been chosen by Gregory Gele- nius as tutor or companion to his son Sigismund, who was to pursue his studies there. Pisecky and his pupil proceeded to Padua, and from there to Bologna. Bologna was then a centre for the numerous Greek refugees who had after the fall of Constantinople left their country. 1 86 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE As a true Bohemian of his time, Pisecky, while in Italy, engaged in a theological controversy with a monk at Bologna on the subject of communion in two kinds. The Latin treatise which he published on this subject was afterwards translated into Bohemian by Gregory Gelenius. Wenceslas Piseck^ was indeed not influenced in his religious opinions by his stay in Italy, and always remained faithful to the Utraquist Church. In one of his letters he complains that his country is little known in foreign lands — a complaint that a Bohemian of the present is unfortunately still entitled to echo — and writes bitterly of ^naeas Sylvius, whose book on Bohemia was then and long afterwards considered the standard autho- rity on the subject. He writes: ''^naeas Sylvius, who was ignorant of the laws of historical writing as they have been transmitted to us by the Greek writers, deals in the manner of a gladiator (gladiatorio prorsus animo) with the Bohemians." The most important result of Pisecky s Greek studies was a Bohemian translation of Isocrates's oration to Demonikos, which his protector, Gregory Gelenius, pub- Hshed in 15 12, a year after the premature death of Pisecky, who died suddenly at Venice from the plague, or, according to other accounts, from poison. Pisecky s version, in which for the first time a Greek work was translated directly into Bohemian, still has great value, and has by a recent critic been described as a model of Bohemian diction. As a proof of the importance that was attached to the translation, we may quote the very simple Bohemian '' Epitaph " which Gregory Gelenius prefixed to the work of Pisecky. It runs as follows : — " The town of Pise k was my birthplace; The University of Prague gave me learning; 5LECHTA 1 8; The Italian land taught 7ne Greek. Therefore have I left a mejnorial behind me^ Isocrates translated into Bohemian speech. More work I cantiot undertake^ for I am dead. Good Bohemian^ be thankful that I accomplished this^ Now that my earthly life is ended." Another very distinguished Bohemian humanist was John Slechta, who was afterwards ennobled and re- ceived the title "ze Vsehrd." He must not, however, be confused with Viktorin Cornelius ze Vsehrd, who has already been mentioned. Born in 1446, Slechta was like Bohnslav of Lobkovic, with whom he was on terms of friendship, and many of the early Bohemian humanists, a fervent adherent of the Church of Rome. Like Lobkovic, also, he had a strong dislike to the language and to the religion of his country. Like most humanists, he was a great letter-writer, and many of his letters, some of which are in his own language, have been preserved. A curious proof of the intense dislike which some, though by no means all, Bohemian humanists felt for the peculiar religious views which attracted the attention of foreigners to their country can be found in the correspondence of Slechta with Erasmus of Rotterdam. Slechta, in a letter referring to the '^Bohemian Breth- ren," informed his correspondent that ^*an emissary of 'Pikardus'^ had infected first Zizka's army and then all Bohemia with pestiferous doctrines of sin ; thence the * Bohemian Brethren ' proceeded to recognise communion in the two kinds, and to choose as bishops and priests 1 This imaginary personage was supposed to have been the founder of the sect of Pickhards or Beghards, a vague designation which was applied to many mediaeval heretics, but more particularly to the Waldenses. 1 88 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE rude laymen who had no culture, were married, and had children." The answer of Erasmus is very characteristic ; he regrets that the Bohemians do not conform to the universal custom as regards communion, but he openly states that he does not understand why Christ's original regulations on this subject have been changed. As to the choosing of their own bishops and priests, this does not, to Erasmus, appear contrary to the early regula- tions (consuetudo veterum). The most ambitious work of Slechta was, no doubt, his Microcosmus, The book, which was written in Latin, has been lost, and we can therefore only judge of it from the preface that is still existent, and from the numerous references to it that can be found in the correspondence of Slechta and his friends. Slechta appears to have forwarded copies of his book to many of his friends, wishing to obtain their opinion as to its contents. In his preface Slechta declares that he intended dealing with the relations of the body to the soul according to Plato's works, of which, by means of a Latin translation, he appears to have had some knowledge. Another Bohemian humanist who, by means of trans- lations into his native language, has deserved well of his country, is Nicolas Konac, or Finitor, according to the Latinised version of his name. Bohemian writers on the hterature of their country devote much space to notices of the numerous translations made by Finitor, but it will here be sufficient to mention that the most important of these Bohemian translations was that of -^naeas Sylvius's work on Bohemia. Late in life Finitor wrote, in Bohemian, an allegorical work of mystic ten- dency that enjoyed great celebrity in its time. The THE VELESLAVINS 189 work, that only appeared after the death of Kondc in 1546, is entitled The Book of Lamentation and Complaint of Justice y the Queen and Mistress of all Virtues. It would be easy to continue this enumeration of Bohemian humanists. Though these translators devoted themselves rather too much to the works of the fathers of the Church and to contemporary writers such as Erasmus and Sebastian Brand, and too little to the real classics, yet their work greatly contributed to the im- provement and development of the Bohemian language. The study of ancient literature, which was undoubtedly furthered by their work, had a refining and elevating influence on some of the men who, in the last years of Bohemian independence, played a prominent part in the politics of their country, I shall return to this point in the next chapter. Writing for readers who are not Bohemians, it will be sufficient to mention but two other Bohemian humanists, the two Veleslavins. They enjoyed great celebrity, and it became customary to call the period in which they flourished — the last years of the sixteenth and the first of the seventeenth century — ^^ the age of Veleslavin." Adam Daniel Veleslavin, born in 1545, studied at the University of Prague, and took his degrees there. He afterwards for some time lectured on history at that university, but after his marriage in 1576 to the daughter of the celebrated printer and publisher, George Melan- trich, he became a partner in the business of his father-in-law. In this capacity he greatly furthered the development of Bohemian literature, and it is due to him that many books in that language were printed. Thoroughly acquainted with the art of writing his own language, he thoroughly supervised all the books that 190 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE issued from his press, and, as Dr. Jirecek writes, there is not one of them that doesn't show traces of having been corrected by him. He was occupied with lexico- graphic works in his own language, and with translations from other languages. Of his many works we may mention his Politia Historical a translation, or rather adaptation, of the vast German work of Lauterbeck, which is entitled Das Regentenbuch^ and his translation of the work of -^naeas Sylvius on Bohemia, which, in spite of its hostility to their country, greatly interested the Bohemians. The preface to this edition, Veleslavin's own work, contains an interesting account of the early historians of Bohemia. Of his mainly philological works, Veleslavin's Silva Quadrilinguis and his Novienclator Quadrilinguis are the most important ; both contain alphabetic vocabularies of the Bohemian, Latin, Greek, and German languages. The works issued from the Veleslavin press are so nume- rous that it seems certain that he had many collaborators in his critical work. Bernard of Hodijov and William Ostrovecky are specially mentioned as having acted as " sub-editors " to the works published by Veleslavin. Though he appears to have by no means been a man of genius, the influence of Veleslavin on Bohemian litera- ture was very great, and it was an undoubted loss to the country that he died prematurely in 1599. The son of Adam Daniel, Adam Samuel Veleslavin was born in 1592, only seven years before the death of his father. In his youth he was involved in the domestic quarrels and civil war which troubled Bohemia in the years 1618 to 1620. He was an enthusiastic adherent of the '^Nationalist" party, to use a modern expression, and was obliged to fly from Bohemia after the fatal LOMNICKY 191 battle of the White Mountain. We have no record of him from the time that his exile began. His fortune was confiscated by the triumphant Catholics, and his printing-presses, which he had inherited from his father, were made over to the Jesuits. He had up to the down- fall of Bohemian independence continued the editorial labours of his father, and had completed the publish- ing of several works begun by him. He also published in 1613 an edition of the Bible dedicated to the "de- fenders," that is, the leaders of the Protestant movement. In connection with the humanists, who also wrote much Latin verse, we now turn to the Bohemian poetry of this period. But even the "golden age" of Bohe- mian literature, as the sixteenth and the first years of the seventeenth century have often been called, pro- duced little valuable poetry. It is indeed only in the earliest times and again in the present century that Bohemia has been distinguished through its poetry. The sixteenth and seventeenth century produced indeed a certain amount of satirical poetry, but it requires no further notice. The only writer of this period who composed a large amount of Bohemian poetry was Simon LOMNiCKf of Budec, born in 1552, who was much praised as a poet by his contemporaries. Though most of his poetical writ- ings, particularly his more ambitious efforts, are devoid of true poetic feeling, yet, as being the one poet of that time who wrote in the national language, his place is marked in an account of Bohemian literature. He en- joyed, as already mentioned, great celebrity, and was often described as "the poet of the Bohemian land," "Poeta Cechicus," or the "founder of Bohemian song." More interesting than his larger works are his shorter songs, 192 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE vers d' occasion as they may be called, which he sent to his patrons, the Bohemian nobles. In Bohemia, as in Italy and in other countries, it was then the fashion that im- portant domestic events, such as marriages or deaths, which occurred in noble families should be celebrated in verse, and many poets, of whom Lomnicky was one, obtained rich gifts from their patrons in remuneration of verses of this description. Lomnicky is also interesting as being the type of a very numerous class of Bohemians — particularly of the middle class — during the last years of independence. Many Bohemians shared Lomnicky s sensual and material view of life, and his inability to feel any genuine political or religious enthusiasms. This fact indeed convicts as utter idealists, and therefore unpractical politicians, men such as Harrant and Budova, who believed that their countrymen were prepared to sacrifice their lives for a Church similar to that of Geneva, and for a constitution similar to that of Venice. Though perhaps only Lom- nicky welcomed in 1619 Frederick of the Palatinate, and celebrated in 1621 the "just punishment " of his adherents, yet the feeling of indifference to everything beyond personal, mainly material, advantages which Lomnicky so cynically displayed, was shared by many Bohemians at the moment when they were confronted with the most decisive crisis in their history. Lomnicky is a voluminous writer, and, as already men- tioned, found it advantageous to be so. Besides the numerous gifts which he received from the noble patrons to whom he dedicated his works, he was also ennobled by Rudolph II. in recognition of his poetical works. Of his larger works, one of the earliest is his Advice to a Young Landowner (or farmer), which has always been THE "ADVICE TO THE LANDOWNER" 193 the most popular of Lomnicky's writings, and has in recent times, since the revival of Bohemian literature, been twice reprinted. The book is devoid of poetic merit, but is curious as a study of the social life of Bohemia. In the preface Lomnicky has explained the purpose of the book, which is personified, and thus addresses the reader : " God be with you, gentle reader — And you in particular, young farmer. — I am again sent out to you — If you will take me to yourself — We will converse together — Rhyme together in Bohemian. — You will, I am sure, say that I am right — And occasionally even smile at my remarks — Through me you will learn — What is beseeming for your household — You will not require much patience — For I have but little to say — For only to a moderate extent — And having regard to brevity — Will I teach you husbandry — You may imagine what I leave unsaid." The reader of this singular book will sometimes regret that Lomnicky did not leave more things unsaid. Lomnicky begins his book by moralising on the in- equalities of fortune. He writes in the first chapter of his book : " It is a well-known thing in the world — Both in winter and in summer — Both when buying and when selling — That no one always possesses happiness — With one man everything succeeds — With another everything goes amiss — In every sort of trade — One has gain, the other loss. . . . Thus too with agriculture — As with every other description of work — One is successful in everything — With another everything is failure — One man has a virtuous wife — Faithful, bashful, loving — Another marries so slatternly a drab — That all food be- comes nauseous to him — One has obedient servants — Requiring but little correction — Another may scold as N 194 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE much as he likes — Nothing will be better — His house will be hell — They ( = the servants) will take no notice of him — Perhaps even laugh at him. — In your own children too — You can see how different they are — Some give pleasure — Others cause but grief." This quotation is sufficient to prove that Lomnicky extended his reflections far beyond the domain of agriculture. His book contains chapters "on wisdom," "on enemies," " on ill-conducted old women/' " on female servants and their punishment," "on conjugal fidelity," "on dress," and on many other matters as little connected with his subject. Somewhat later Lomnicky published his Cupids Arrow {Kupidova StHld)^ a poem which contributed greatly to his fame among his contemporaries. Though the book was not, as has been frequently stated, dedicated to Rudolph II., but to Lord William of Rosenberg, it found great favour with the King of Bohemia, and probably induced that prince to confer on Lomnicky the rank of a noble, which he had long desired. In this book also Lomnicky poses as a moralist, and inveighs against the vices of his age. Bohemian authors, perhaps the only ones who have seriously criticised Lomnicky's writings, have generally, and perhaps rightly, doubted whether his virtuous indignation was sincere. Lomnicky, indeed, in this very book, confesses that he was a "lover of sweet Venus," and all his works — not even the Advice to a Landowner excepted — show a predilection for risque subjects and situations. Similar in tendency to the Arrow is Lomnicky's book entitled Dance ^ a short treatise on dancings considered as an exaggerated exertion of the luxurious body, which was dedicated to his most prominent patron, Lord Peter of Rosenberg. A con- LOMNICKY'S SMALLER POEMS 195 siderable number of religious poems from the pen of Lomnicky have also been preserved, mostly in MS. only. They are written from the Roman Catholic standpoint, which the author generally recognised, though he seems at the time of the coronation of Frederick of the Palatinate to have developed a sudden zeal for com- munion in the two kinds. 1 have already mentioned that in my opinion the minor works of Lomnicky possess far greater value than his more extensive works. Of such poems the song in celebration of the marriage of Joachim Ulrick, Lord of Hradec, and the recently printed Epithalamium on the marriage of William, Lord Stavata of Chlum, to the noble Lady Lucy of Hradec, have great interest. The last-named song contains a good deal of coarse wit, and offensive allusions to members of the Bohemian nobility who were present at the wedding. The recent editor of this curious poem remarks, that on this occasion the only remuneration which Lomnicky deserved from his noble patrons was a sound thrashing ! It must not, however, be forgotten that Lomnicky held somewhat the position of a licensed buffoon in the houses of the great Bohemian nobles. Very different from this and similar writings of Lom- nicky is the burial-song which he wrote on the occasion of the death of his principal patron. Lord Peter Vok of Rosenberg,^ in 161 1, and which, it is said, he recited when walking in the funeral procession. It is character- istic of the enigmatic nature of Rosenberg that, though perhaps not generally popular, he should yet have in- spired with a sincere feeling of affection not only men such as Bfezan, but even so thoroughly egotistical and un- 1 Sec Chapter VI. 196 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE principled a time-server as Lomnicky. Yet no one who reads this poem in its entirety can doubt that here, at least, Lomnicky is thoroughly sincere. The poem loses greatly by quotation ; yet I shall translate a few lines from a song that undoubtedly shows us Lomnicky at his best. It begins thus : — " There was once in this Bohefnian land a noble lord well known to all the people, Whose glory was great, whose name, Peter Vok of Rosenberg, was everywhere celebrated. . . . Ne was as a shining light to this country, for which the race of Rosenberg u ill no longer shine?- The father of the fatherland is dead! No more, Bohemians, will you be able to lay on hi7n the bur deft of power. Already is he buried in the monastery of Vyssi Brod, which his ancestors erected and founded. At that monastery many noble lords assembled; much grief had they at this funeral. On Candlemas Day was he sorrowfully buried; Let every one record the day When death deprived us of this glorious lord; a great loss have we felt, a great grief has God inflicted on us. When seventy-two yea?'s of age he finished his earthly course, left this world. Born at Krumlov, he died at Trebon; suddenly struck by illness, he saw the day of death. In worthy old age he left this world; departed from earthly misery to eternalfame!^ Somewhat later, Lomnicky, addressing the other mourners, writes : — " /, the founder of so7ig, lament for him together with you, for 7ny love drives me {to do so). Saying: ''My benefactor, too deeply for me do you sleep; but thou, the friend of the poor, k7towest thy {heavenly^ reward.^ That I 77iay yet serve his me7nory, I have written this short si77iple song. * Lord Peter was the last of the illustrious family of Rosenberg. DIRGE ON ROSENBERG 197 Weeping has moistened my pen, more tears have I shed than any one who before me sang and wailed. Bend your heads downward, dear friends ; sprinkle with your tears the 7nuch-beloved rose. ^ Pray faithfully for it to the Heavenly God, that it may blossom and grow for ever in His paradise.^'' At the end of his poem Lomnicky reflects on the short- ness of human Hfe, and alludes to the curious tradition, that appears then to have been prevalent in Bohemia, that the extinction of the house of Rosenberg would be the prelude to great troubles and changes in Bohemia. Lomnicky writes : — " Our lifetime here becoines shorter; it perishes like a flower ; we must betake ourselves hence into that other world. Little ti?ne will pass till they carry us frofn our house; like a little leaf we fall from the tree. But you, O Bohemian land, be careful of your fate, for all the words of Christ will be fulfilled; Many wonders happen; the people murder one another ; foul pes- tilences arise everywhere. Frequently very noble lords leave us ; the able and leading men dis- appear. Thus this noble who lies on the bier, let him be an example to us; for we must remonber That there is a prophecy that when this family is extinct there will be no peace i?i the Bohemian kingdom ; Indeed, that after the departwe of this most glorious rose, things will go from bad to worse? Let no one be surprised that I dare to write thus, for this disorderly world cannot exist long. We also must all die, must go to the distant land, taste death. Nothing remains but to prepare for it; however much a man may cry he 7nust pay his penalty. ^ The red rose was the device of the lords of Rosenberg. "^ Rosenberg died in 1611. The Bohemian uprising against the House of Habsburg began in 1618, and the battle of the VV^hite Mountain — the term of Bohemian independence — was fought in 1620. 198 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Let us then do penayice^ lead a virtuous life, if we wish to be with God. Death and misery cannot harm tis, for it (i.e. death) brings us from death to {eternal) life. O Jesu Christ! Thou who art our highest Lord, when we die deign to be with us; Receive our spirit in Thy most holy hand. Deliver us from Satan; do not let us go to torment; Rather deign to allow us to behold Thee with our eyes, and to meet Lord Peter again in heaven^ I have already alluded to Lomnicky's political rhymes, which deserve some notice, though their poetic merit is slight. Lomnicky's rhythms have at least the merit that they lose little by translation. When Frederick of the Palatinate arrived in Bohemia in 1619, Lomnicky, with his usual facility, immediately began singing the praise of the new sovereign. His verses for a time obtained great popularity at Prague, and — what was probably of greater importance to the needy poet — he received a considerable remuneration from the treasury of the king. Some of these verses have been preserved in the vast historical work of Skala ze Zhofe.^ On the arrival of Frederick, Lomnicky welcomed him with these words : '' O King Frederick — We entreat thee with all our might — Drive the enemies from our land — Do not let them rob us any more.— May God give you His blessing— -And grant you a happy reign— And also a glorious victory — Over those who are our enemies — Then may we have true freedom. — Receive in the tw^o kinds — The body and the blood of our Lord Jesus. — Do thou effect this O King Frederick !— Confound the re- bellious ones {i,e, the Austrian party) — Then ever more and more — Shall we praise you according to God— Cele- brate your dignity." 1 See Chapter VI. POLITICAL POETRY 199 Several other poems in the same sense, and dating from about the same time — the end of the year 1619 — have been preserved. The battle of the White Moun- tain, in the following year, produced an immediate change in the views of the unscrupulous time-server Lomnicky. He celebrated the executions at Prague on June 2ist, 1621, in a ballad, of which I shall quote a few lines. The song begins thus : — " W« evil beginning almost always has an evil end: He that writes this song knows that this is no lie. Ill began the Calvinists, ill cftded the Estates^ Rebels all. VeSf they roused up the whole world from vain pride^ from wickedfiess; They conspired together against his Highness (i.e. Ferdinand). Having a king^ their lordy already lawfully chosen And crownedy They yet chose another for themselves^ one of their band^ Who was of the Calvinist faith, of that blind cofnmunity; They wanted to have superiority in everything, to be lords and freemen. To insult the others P After this not very veracious account of the origin of the Bohemian troubles, Lomnicky refers to the details of the executions. He writes :— " Every one received punishment according to his offence. He also did not remain without torment who had sinned with his tongue^ And, as the right demands, who had committed greater offence Had severer punishment. * In Bohemian rota (see note, p. i6i). ' Probably an allusion to the celeljrated Doctor Jessenius, rector of the University of Prague, whom the Bohemians employed in their negotiations with Plungary, and who was famed for his eloquence. His tongue was cut out before he was decapitated, and his body was quartered after death. 200 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Some were exiled for everfro^n the country; Others in prison still hope for mercy; Others^ again^ have been whipped: it is the fault of the rebels That this happens. O most mournful spectacle ! many were amazed^ Many a heart fainted^ many shook from horror^ For there is no record that there ever occurred before So great woe. Twelve heads were placed on the bridge-gate^ That it might be proclaimed to every corner of the world Who were the rebels^ the wretched " directors ^^ ^ The cause of all evil. The retnains of those who were quartered were placed at the cross- ways in the streets ; The hands of some were chopped offt having those fingers Which had sworn falsely^ which had been raised To promise faith.^^ The song ends thus : — ■ " O Jesus ^ we pray to Thee, listen to our voices. Grant to us that we may shortly behold our beloved sovereign {Ferdinand /I.). And, rejoicing with him, together praise and honour you, Glorify you for ever. This story will be the wonder of the whole world. And wherever the news reaches it will displease the evil-minded^ For no one before ever heard or read in the chronicles That the deviPs pride was so greatly humiliated. Many, many people then perished in a short time; Their day was ended, they came to the tertn of their life. God! fro7n a similar evil end Deign to preserve us alU^ Though severely reprimanded, Lomnicky himself es- caped punishment, perhaps in consequence of his speedy recantation. The quaint tale that Lomnicky was sum- moned to the preserice of Ferdinand, reminded of the ^ This was the name given to the members of the Provisional Government formed at Prague in 1618 after the Defenestration. THE "UNITY" 201 benefits that he had received from Rudolph, the sove- reign's ancestor, that he had returned an impertinent answer, and that Ferdinand had then ordered him to be immediately whipped in his presence, has no historical foundation. Lomnicky's last years were spent in great poverty. His former patrons, the great Bohemian nobles, were either dead or were penniless exiles in distant countries. The new Austrian authorities, whom he now pestered with demands for pecuniary aid, took little notice of Lomnicky. The year of his death is uncertain, but was probably not later than the year 1623. The foundation of the community — or " Unity," as it was generally called — of the Bohemian Brethren is of the greatest importance for Bohemian literature as well as for Bohemian history. It can be generally stated that, with a few exceptions, all the men who, during the last years of Bohemian independence, were most promi- nent in literature and in politics belonged to the " Unity." It is true that this is partly due to the fact that the community soon mitigated its original extreme severity, abandoned the views, derived from Chelcicky, that all participation in public life and all "worldly wisdom" is forbidden to the true Christian. It thus became pos- sible that great nobles, politicians, and men of learning should join the community. The foundation of the Bohemian Unity, the consecration of the earliest priests, and the exact tenets of the first members of the com- munity, are still very obscure, and even Dr. Goll, the recognised authority on this subject, declares that many points are doubtful. The foundation of the Unity was undoubtedly an out- come of the great religious convulsion in Bohemia that 202 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE was caused by the death of Hus. The intellectual originators, though not the actual founders, of the Unity were Chelcicky and Rokycan. It is difficult to do full justice to Rokycan. His energy and courage were indefatigable, and had it been possible to found in Bohemia a Church agreeing mainly with the doctrine of Rome, but not recognising the papal authority and retaining its independence with regard to certain points of ritual, Rokycan alone could perhaps have achieved this object. It was a necessary consequence of Roky- can's difficult position — he was Archbishop-elect of Prague, but never recognised by the Papal See — that his teaching somewhat differed at times in accordance with the state of public affairs. When an agreement with Rome seemed possible, his eloquent sermons dwelt rather on the points in which the Utraquists agreed with Rome. When, as always happened when the negotia- tions with Rome had lasted some time, the Papal See declared itself resolutely opposed to all the demands of Bohemia, Rokycan preached strongly against the tenets of Rome, and particularly against the avarice and immo- rality of the Roman clergy. It is a peculiarity of the Bohemian Church reformers that, from the days of Hus to the time of the complete suppression of religious liberty, they always laid great stress on this point. During the reign of King Ladislas Posthumus (1439- 1457), who, in consequence of his early education, was hostile to the Utraquist creed, then professed by the great majority of the Bohemians, the preaching of Rokycan, whom the king viewed with marked disfavour, was of a very advanced character. Following directly in the footsteps of Hus, Rokycan in his sermons strongly de- nounced the corruption of the times and laid particular ROKYCAN AND BROTHER GREGORY 203 stress upon the worthlessness of the Roman clergy. Many of his remarks on this subject have been recorded by the writers of the Unity. ^^A stag with golden antlers on the bridge of Prague," he declared, "was not so great a rarity as a good priest." These sermons made a great impression on the vast audiences to whom they were delivered ; for the almost exclusive interest in religious matters was then characteristic of most edu- cated Bohemians. Among the listeners who were most impressed by Rokycan's fiery eloquence was a young man known to us by the name of '^ Brother Gregory," who was destined to become the founder of the Unity. Even after the careful researches of recent years, Gre- gory's life is still surrounded by mystery. It is stated that he was a nephew of Archbishop Rokycan, and also — what renders that statement at least improbable — that he belonged to a noble though poor family. His family name, according to some accounts, was Krejci, which in Bohemian signifies " tailor." It is, however, more pro- bable that he received that name because, after the foun- dation of the Unity, he sometimes practised the trade of a tailor. The strict rules established by Gregory him- self obliged the priests of the Unity to live in poverty and by the work of their hands. In his earlier years Gregory appears to have lived at a Utraquist monastery at Prague, that had been founded by Magister Pribram. It is, however, certain that he had not been ordained as a priest. Gregory, accompanied by some friends, visited the Archbishop, and sought his advice on religious matters, and specially on the subject of unworthy priests. To understand the importance of this constantly-recurring subject, it must be remembered that Hus, Chelcicky, and 204 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE other Bohemian reformers denied all ecclesiastical powers to unworthy priests, whom they considered as ** not the clergy of Christ, but of Antichrist." The Archbishop's answer appears surprising, even if we consider that the ever-varying relations between the Pope and the Church of Bohemia were then at their worst. He advised his visitors to study the works of Chelcicky and to visit him. Gregory followed this advice, and travelled to Chelcic, where he visited Chelcicky shortly before his death. There is no doubt that the aged theologian's opinions greatly influenced Gregory, and some of Chelcicky's adherents were no doubt among the first members of the Unity. The relations between Gregory and Rokycan did not long continue friendly. After the death of King Ladislas, George of Podebrad was elected King of Bohemia. The new king endeavoured, at the beginning of his reign, to obtain a reconciliation with Rome. He was ready to conform to the Roman doctrine if that Church recog- nised Rokycan as Archbishop of Prague, permitted communion in the two kinds, and accepted that part of the ^' Articles of Prague " which enjoined poverty on the Bohemian clergy and opposed their notorious im- morality. While these negotiations were proceeding, Rokycan advised Gregory and his friends to leave Prague and to retire to a more secluded spot. He had obtained permission from King George, who owned the estates of Litic and Senftenberg in Eastern Bohemia, to allow Gregory and his friends to settle in the secluded village of Kunwald, near the small town of Senftenberg. It has been stated by many historians, including Palacky, that Rokycan had suggested this emigration to Gregory, wishing to be rid of allies who had now become unwel- GREGORY AT KUNWALD 205 come. Dr. GoU has recently expressed his doubts as to this conjecture. It is certain that no immediate and complete rupture between Gregory and Rokycan took place. Gregory arrived at Kunwald towards the end of the year 1457, and was soon joined by many enthusiasts, who desired to lead a simple life, according to the customs of the primitive Christians. Among the early disciples of Gregory was Michael, the parish priest of Senftenberg, and another priest named Matthew. After the death of Chelcicky, some of the " Brothers of Chel- cic " ^ also joined the community of Kunwald, as did some of the remaining Taborites, and probably, though this point is doubtful, some Austrian Waldenses also. The new community soon became obnoxious to the Government of King George, and the ^* first persecution," as it is termed in the writings of the Unity, began in 1460. Some of the fanatics, known at that period all over Europe as the ^^ Pickharts " or " Beghards," had about that time joined the community of Kunwald, and drew on it the indignation of the Bohemian authorities. In 1461 Gregory returned for a short time to Prague. It has been suggested that he did this in opposition to a promise made to Rokycan ; but of this there is no suffi- cient proof. At Prague Gregory held secret meetings of his adherents, among whom were a considerable number of students of the university. Gregory received notice — perhaps from Rokycan himself — that these gatherings were being watched. He therefore, at a meeting on March 15th, begged all present to disperse immediately. Some did so, but others declared that they were doing no wrong ; and when Gregory drew their attention to the fact that they were risking imprisonment, and even tor- 1 See Chapter IV. p. 157. 206 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE ture, they answered, "Well, we will have torture for breakfast, and the funeral pile for dinner." The Govern- ment officials shortly afterwards arrested the remaining members of the assembly, and several underwent the torture of the rack. Not all displayed fortitude ; several, as a member of the Unity, writing shortly after these events took place, quaintly expresses it, "having break- fasted, did not wait for dinner." Those who dreaded further punishment were obliged to pronounce a solemn recantation in the presence of Rokycan. Whether Gregory himself underwent torture is un- certain, though most of the writers of the Unity, from Brother Lucas to Brother Jaffet, state it is a fact. Brother Jaffet ^ tells us that Gregory " was tied to a post, placed on the rack, and burnt. Weakened by long fast- ing, he then fainted, and no longer felt pain ; only when he had been released he felt his side, and understood what had been done to him." Rokycan visited Gregory in prison, and, to use Brother Jaffet's words, condoled with him with the " compassion of a crocodile." Seeing the traces of his sufferings, he exclaimed, "Dear Gregory, how I pity you. Remember that I always told you if you pursued your endeavours you would suffer and it would fare badly with you." Dr. GoU has recently expressed doubts whether tor- ture was inflicted on Brother Gregory, though he admits that his followers were tortured. There is, however, no doubt that the tradition of the sufferings of Brother Gregory, the founder of the Unity, can be traced back to the earliest records of the community. It is, therefore, difficult to believe that the traditional account is a mere ^ Historic o puvodu Jednoty (" History of the Origin of the Unity"), quoted by JireCek. THE FIRST PERSECUTION 207 fiction. Of modern writers Palacky and Jirecek main- tain the truth of the ancient record of the Unity. What is, however, certain is that Rokycan's part in these events has been misrepresented. PoHtical reasons at that moment rendered it advisable for King George to appear as the enemy of the extreme antagonists of Rome. Rokycan's influence on the king was then very slight, but such as it was, it induced George after a time to liberate Brother Gregory from prison. Difficulties had meanwhile arisen in the small com- munity, of which first Kunwald and then the neighbour- ing small town of Reichenau (Rychnov) on the Knezna was the centre. Gregory was indeed the intellectual leader as well as the founder of the community, but the priests Michael and Martin seem, probably in consequence of their having been ordained as priests, to have claimed a certain superiority over the other brethren. To obviate these difficulties, Gregory re- sorted to what must then have appeared a most venture- some step. He decided that his followers should, in accordance with the example of the Apostles, elect priests from among their number. The doctrine of the necessity of the apostolic derivation of the clergy was then held even by sects that were strongly opposed to Rome. This is no doubt the reason why, according to most accounts, the new priests were subsequently con- secrated by a Waldensian priest or bishop. It must be added that the part played by the Waldensian in the first ordination of the clergy of the Unity becomes much more prominent in the works of later writers than it was in those of contemporaries. Dr. Lechler has re- cently expressed doubts as to whether the intervention of a Waldensian at the first ordination that took place 208 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE in the Unity is a historical fact. Such an intervention appears to him to be in contradiction with the previous decision of the brethren to elect priests on the strength of divine inspiration. It must, however, be noticed that in Brother Gregory's account of the ceremony, written in Bohemian, and therefore perhaps unknown to Dr. Lechler, who was a German, the Waldensian priest is already mentioned. The point, like many others con- nected with the origin of the Unity, will perhaps never be settled. It has given rise to an extensive controver- sial literature.^ A meeting of the brethren of the Unity took place at Lhotka, a small village near Reichenau, in 1467. I will quote a portion of Gregory's account of the proceedings to which I have just referred. Gregory's Bohemian is very rugged and lends itself but little to translation. Following the example of Dr. Goll, who has translated a large part of the account contained in Gregory's Fourth Letter to Rokycan into German, I give a nearly literal translation. It would be easy to smooth down Gregory's style, but at the risk of not conveying the exact meaning. He writes : '' Among us some doubt and irresolution sprung up. We therefore conformed in everything to the Acts of the Apostles and the example of the first saints, wishing to act in every- thing in the name of God both in word and deed. Therefore, trusting to His promises contained in the words, * Whatsoever you will ask of the Father in My ^ Of English works on this subject, I may mention the "Extract of the Letter of the late Bishop Jablonsky to his Excellency C. Zinzendorf: As touching the succession of Episcopal Consecration ; the Bohemian Brethren have got their Ordination from the Waldenses about the year 1467, and have kept the same carefully and without interruption." Printed in Acta Fratrum Unitatis in Anglia, 1749, as Appendix VH. GREGORY'S LETTERS TO ROKYCAN 209 name, He will grant you/ and again, * Whenever two or three are gathered together,' and so forth, we deliberated as to whether God wished that we should separate en- tirely from the jurisdiction of the Pope and of his priest- hood, and secondly, whether God wished that we should establish a separate organisation on the model of the Primitive Church. We further deliberated as to what persons should arbitrate in disputes and have such authority that all should maintain peace and submit to their verdict. And further, who should serve and who obtain the first places and possess the power of office, according to the words, ^To you I give the keys,' and again, * Whom you forgive their sins.' "And w^e, many of us from Bohemia and other lands, decided to pray to God, should He then wish it {i.e. that they should establish a separate organisation), that He might give us a sign, according to the example of the Apostles when they chose a twelfth. And we ordered all brothers in the different districts to pray and fast in view of this. Then we assembled in numbers and prayed to the Lord God that He might give us a sign whether He then wished this or not. And it so happened that He did wish it, and we had the faith that it was God's will that it should happen thus. . . . And when the day came, many of us again assembled from Bohemia and Moravia, and we prayed to God with the same confi- dence as before, and we chose nine men, of whom three, or two, or one were to be it {i.e. the head of the new Church). But if God had not wished it that year, then no one would have been chosen. We should have re- mained without priests till God, in consequence of our prayers and of our faith, had shown us that He wished it, and also what persons should be chosen. But as we O 2 10 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE had abandoned the priests who derive their power from the papal office, firmly believing that God did not desire that we should heed them in regard to our obedience ( = obey them), therefore we firmly believed that God would grant us what we prayed for. And the Lord did so, because of our faith and our prayers, and ordained that it (the choice) should fall on all three.^ And God thus manifested His wisdom and power to us in such a manner that we all felt clearly that God had visited us, and had done great things to confirm us in the faith. More than sixty brethren were assembled, and with full confidence and joy we received the Holy Ghost, and thanked God that He had visited us at the end of days and done His work. " We then conversed together on the confirmation of their priestly office {i.e» that of the three who had been chosen as priests), how it could be done in the most seemly manner and without offence to the people ; though we believed without doubt that they were already ordained and confirmed by our Lord Christ, as God had shown us. But we wished to appear righteous, not only before God, but also as far as possible before all men. Therefore we sought it {i.e. confirmation) from one (priest) whom we had received from the Romans, and from another who belonged to the Waldenses, who spring from the primitive Church, a man of whom we were confident that he was in the state of grace. And ^ That the choice was made by the drawing of lots, which is here only hinted at, is more fully explained in the later accounts of Brother Jaffet and Komensky ; they tell us that the brethren chose nine of their number, and then intrusted a boy who was unaware of their intentions with twelve slips of paper ; of these, nine were blank and three contained the word "Jest." The nine chosen men then drew the slips of paper, and all those containing the word "Jest" were drawn; this was considered as signifying that God wished the Unity to have three spiritual chiefs. GREGORY'S LETTERS TO ROKYCAN 211 we took these two for the ordination of the three. If God wishes it so, we said, let Him show it. And we prayed to God that He might, should He desire this confirmation by the Waldensian, give such grace to that elder that he might do it from love and in true faith. " And God gave it (grace) to him, that he did it in true faith ; and, encouraging us, he spoke good words and praised God, saying, ^ God has done this for the benefit of our salvation.' And then he confirmed these three in their priestly office by laying his hands on them and by prayers, according to the example of the primitive Church and the instructions of the Apostles. And as regards Jesus's having from on high pointed out the three that were chosen, and the one of them who was to have highest rank, he to whom it had been disclosed (perhaps Gregory himself) said, * Believe firmly that this is so.' " Though the later members of the Unity studied the art of literary composition, and indeed attained mastership in it, this was not the case with Brother Gregory. His writing shows that he was entirely absorbed in his endeavour to place his religious views before his former friend and present antagonist, Rokycan, to whom the letter is addressed. It has been very difficult to render Gregory's words clearly without entirely altering his manner of writing. The passage quoted above, and indeed the whole Fourth Letter to RokycaUy is, how- ever, worthy of notice. It is the only account by an eye-witness of the meeting at Lhotka, which marks the beginning of the Unity, and was written by Brother Gregory in 1468, only a year after the assembly. The consequence of the meeting at Lhotka was a renewed persecution of the members of the Unity. 212 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Rokycan published a very severe edict against them, for their attempt to establish an independent clergy was as obnoxious to the Utraquist as to the Roman priests. Brother Gregory lived for seven years after the assembly at Lhotka, and as he is stated to have been over fifty when the community of Kunwald was founded in 1457, he must have attained a considerable age. His entire energy and activity were to the last devoted to the Unity. Its constitution, which conferred the principal power on the so-called smaller^ council, at whose head was a presi- dent Coordinator"), often, though not in the fifteenth century, called ^^ bishop," is the work of Gregory. Though in every respect the leading spirit of the Unity, Gregory never aspired to be the recognised leader of his Church. That rank was from the time of the meeting of Lhotka assumed by the priest Matthew, who at the time of that meeting was a young man of the age of twenty-five. Whether the fact that Matthew had been ordained as a priest by the Church of Rome was not one of the causes of his election, cannot perhaps now be ascertained. The remarks of Gregory, quoted above, seem to be in opposition to this view. Matthew was on terms of friendship with Brother Gregory, and accepted his guidance on all matters of doctrine and discipline. He is described as a man of weak character, and the discord that broke out among the brethren after the death of Gregory seems to confirm this view. The small town of Brandeis on the Adler,^ situated in the picturesque valley of the Orlice or Adler, was one of the early centres of the community of the brethren, and it was here that Brother Gregory spent the greater part ^ In Bohemian tizky, literally "narrow." 2 In Eastern Bohemia, between the towns of Wildenschwert and Pardubic. BROTHER GREGORY 213 of his last years. He continued, however, to the end of his life to pay frequent visits to other communities of the brethren. Brother Gregory died at Brandeis on August 12, 1474, and was buried, 'Mike the prophets of the Old Testament, in a rock-grave near the bank of the Orlice, that is, opposite the castle." Gregory, the patriarch of the Unit}^, as he called himself in his later years, was certainly one of its greatest men. He combined the most fervent religious enthusiasm with the talents of a clear-headed and indefatigable organiser ; and though changes took place in the institutions of the Unity after his death, yet on the whole the structure erected by Gregory continued to exist till the time when the battle of the White Mountain destroyed all communities that were opposed to Rome. Dr. Goll, who has given a masterly sketch of the career of Gregory, thus describes him : ^ " Gregory had created for himself the ideal image of a true Christian, an abste- mious, kindly, patient, gracious, merciful, economical, pure, humble-minded, peaceful, worthy, zealous, yielding, compliant man, qualified and ready to do all good works. But this model was not for Gregory a model only. He believed that Christians can come near to the model, nay, even attain it. * We believe this, he writes in the Fourth Letter to Rokycan, ' that he who has God's true and living faith has the power also to mortify the evil in himself and to act righteously ; his faith by means of love will induce him to do what is pleasing to God, good actions and such as are useful to his fellow-creatures. . . . Though by nature hasty and irritable, a true Christian must be abstemious, meek, and silent. A model for this model is 1 In the Journal of the Bohemian Museum {dasoJ>is JIfusea Krdlovstoi Ceskeho) for 1886, 214 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE found in our Saviour Himself. He suffered for us and gave us an example in His acts, accomplishing the work that His Father had laid upon Him. A true Christian must take on himself those burdens which were Christ's also ; he must endure adverse things and injuries affect- ing his estate, his honour, and his life quietly, considering that it must be thus.' " After reading Dr. Goll's definition of the doctrine of Brother Gregory it is scarcely necessary to state that theological controversy plays a very small part in Gre- gory's writings. The imitation of Christ was the purpose of his life and is the leading motive of his writings. Readers of the portions of the Fourth Letter to Rokycan which I have already quoted will have noticed how little importance Gregory himself appears to attach to the confirmation of the priests ; it was sufficient for him firmly to believe that the choice had been made in accordance with God's own command. The literary remains of Gregory, all written in Bohe- mian, are considerable. There are seven so-called Letters to Rokycan^ which, though they were all undoubtedly sent to the Archbishop, were yet intended for a wider circle of readers. Two of these letters, the fourth, from which I have quoted extensively, and the sixth, were afterwards republished by Gregory in an enlarged form, the former under the title of The Sufferings of the Brethren under King George, the latter under that of The Answer of tJte Ancient Brethren. We have letters also addressed to other people. The form of a letter was then a very favourite one for ex- pounding theological views. Other writings of Gregory are The Book on Good and Evil Priests, On the Holy Church, and On the Narrow Path, A treatise, evidently dating from the first days of the Unity, and entitled How DISCORD IN THE " UNITY '» 215 People should Behave tvtth regard to the Roman Churchy is also generally attributed to Gregory. Recent research renders it probable that it is not his work. It is, of course, out of place to give here an his- torical account of the development of the Unity, though such a work would have great interest. The brethren were, however, such indefatigable writers that it is necessary frequently to refer to the history of the com- munity. Discord broke out among the brethren, who had already become numerous, shortly after the death of Gregory, probably about the year 1480. Matthew, who had been the nominal head of the community during Gregory's lifetime, appears to have been a well-meaning man of weak character, who became helpless after the loss of his sagacious adviser. Several different causes of discord are mentioned as appearing at about the same time. A theological controversy as to the means of salvation was indeed settled by means of a compromise proposed at one of the numerous meetings of the brethren by Brother Prokop, noticeable also as one of the theological writers of the Unity. Shortly afterwards, however, discussions as to "worldly power" led to a rupture. Gregory had, on the whole, held the opinions of Chelcicky/ according to which no true Christian should take part in the government of the State, nor should he take oaths or possess worldly goods. Gregory also shared Chelcicky's dislike to towns, "the founda- tions of Cain." These views had been strictly carried out during the first years of the Unity. The new mem- bers had, on joining the community, been obliged to despoil themselves of all worldly possessions and con- 1 See Chapter IV. 2i6 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE form to the other doctrines of Chelcicky mentioned above. In the last years of the fifteenth century men of higher rank, townsmen and nobles, of whom Kostka of Postupic was the first, began to join the community. It now became more difficult to maintain the early regulations in their entire severity. Some of the brethren com- plained that they incurred persecution on the part of their fellow-citizens because they had refused to hold municipal offices or to appear as witnesses in the law- courts. Two parties soon formed themselves in the Unity. One, known as the " large party," was in favour of somewhat relaxing the rigour of the original regula- tions ; this was evidently necessary if the community was to expand and to acquire the protection of some of the nobles, without which it could hardly have continued to exist long in Bohemia. The other party, known as the "small party," adhered strictly to the original regula- tions. Many attempts at a reconciliation were made, and frequent meetings of the elders of the Unity took place for this purpose, generally at Reichenau on the Knezna, or at Brandeis on the Orlice. A last effort of reconciliation was made in 1496, when numerous members of both parties met at Chlumec. Here, as at the previous conferences, both parties maintained their previous views, and the discussion only proved that the standpoints were entirely different and an agreement impossible. Though even after this attempts at media- tion were made, the " small party," led by Brother Amos, now seceded from the main body of the community, and after a few years it entirely disappears. The " large party," on the other hand, freed from the original exagge- rated regulations, obtained great and deserved fame in PROKOP OF NEUHAUS 217 Bohemia ; it became the cradle of almost all those who, in the last century of Bohemian independence, were prominent as statesmen or authors. Among the early writers of the ^' large party," Prokop OF Neuhaus or Jindfichuv Hradec deserves mention, though his fame has been obscured by the greater name of his successor, Brother Lucas, who finally secured the victory of the "large party." Prokop appears to have been one of the original members of the community of Kunwald. When the controversy as to the means of salvation sprung up among the brethren, Prokop, as already mentioned, succeeded in inducing the contending parties to accept a compro- mise. When the discussion whether the brethren were entitled to possess worldly property and to hold state offices began, Prokop expressed views which, though they were not quite in accordance with either party, really prove him an adherent of the 'Marge party." It was on this subject that Prokop wrote his Explanation of the Fifth Chapter of St, Matthew. He here writes that, ''though difficult, it is admissible that nobles and mighty men should be received into the Unity and be considered members of it, if they avoid deadly sins, for which poor men also go to hell, and if in all important matters they conform to Christianity and lead a Chris- tian life." Prokop continues to state "that, speaking generally, the brethren may exercise the duties of town- councillors and of other offices, and that they may appeal to the temporal power for aid ; for this is for the general good." It will be seen by this quotation that Prokop gene- rally agreed with the views of the " large party," though he sometimes differed from Brother Lucas, with whom 21 8 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE he was indeed several times engaged in controversies. Prokop was the principal orator of the ^Marge party" at the meetings at Reichenau in 1494 and at Chlumec in 1496. He was then, as Blahoslav tells us, "the fore- most man of the Unity." Prokop spent the greatest part of his life at Brandeis, and died there in 1507. He has left a considerable number of works, all written in Bohemian. Besides the Explanation of the Fifth Chapter of St. Matthew, which has already been men- tioned, he wrote Five Letters to Brother Lucas on his {Lucas's) work entitled * The Bark, and the Book against Antichrist, Better known than Prokop is Brother Lucas, the foremost representative of the "large party" during its struggle ; he is yet more noteworthy as the man who after its victory reorganised the Unity, and, to a certain extent, altered its institutions in a more en- lightened and liberal manner. The works of Lucas, all written in Bohemian, are numerous ; he is indeed, next to Komensky, the most voluminous writer of the Unity. Lucas, generally known as Lucas of Prague, was born about the year 1460. He was greatly im- pressed by the writings of the early members of the Unity, and, together with his friend the young noble- man Lawrence of Krasonicky, he joined the community about the year 1482. He soon attained a prominent position among the brethren, and in 1490 was already a member of the " smaller council." When the differ- ences of the Unity between the "large" and the "small" party arose, Lucas declared himself energetically in favour of the former, and was indeed one of its repre- sentatives at several assemblies. The discord among the brethren, and the religious uncertainty which was BROTHER LUCAS 219 one of its results, seems to have rendered yet stronger the desire for a return to the primitive Church, which, sometimes more obvious, sometimes scarcely percep- tible, can yet be traced in the writings of all Bohemian reformers. Some of the brethren maintained that in distant Eastern lands Christians yet existed who had retained the purity of the primitive Church, both as regards doctrine and the conduct of life. The Unity decided to send out several brethren, who were to discover these communities which entirely conformed with the primitive Church. Lucas, with two compa- nions, started for this purpose for Constantinople, where they separated. Lucas himself appears to have visited Mount Athos and the communities of the Bulgarians, and of the Bohomils in Bosnia. Fertile writer though he was, Lucas has unfortunately left us no account of his travels, for which we could well have spared one or two of his sixty-eight theological works. The first of these works, entitled The Barky was written shortly after his return from his journey. As already men- tioned, it involved him in a controversy with Brother Prokop. After the assembly of Chlumec and the final victory of the more enlightened party among the brethren, it was resolved to reorganise the community, and to model their institutions to a certain extent on those of the Waldenses. The exact relations between the two com- munities will perhaps never be known, particularly as the history of the Waldenses or Vaudois is itself very obscure. It is, however, certain that the brethren were fully conscious of an affinity between themselves and the older community. Lucas was intrusted with the mission of visiting the Waldensian communities, and 2 20 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE started for Italy and Savoy accompanied by Brother Tuma of Landskron, known as *' Nemec " (or the German). Among the places they visited was Florence, where they were present at the death of Savonarola (May 23, 1498). Of this journey also Lucas has left us no account. On his return to Bohemia, Brother Lucas obtained a yet more important position in his community. After the death of Matthew an assembly of the brethren which met at Reichenau in 1500 de- cided to elect several bishops. Lucas was one of those chosen, and appears to have exercised greater influence than his colleagues. The Roman CathoHc monk Wolf- gang, with whom Lucas engaged in one of his many theological controversies, indeed describes him as ^' the anti-pope." During the persecution which again befell the Unity at the beginning of the sixteenth century Lucas dis- played admirable courage and energy. Rightly believ- ing that ignorance was the cause of many of the attacks on the brethren, he was indefatigable in expounding their real teaching. He wrote an appeal to the king and a letter to the people of Bohemia, protesting against the judgment of those who had declared that the brethren were ^^ worse than Jews and heathens, indeed equal to devils." Lucas also appealed to Erasmus of Rotterdam against the ignorant misjudgment which resulted in so much suffering for the brethren. He despatched two members of the community to Erasmus as bearers of a written ^'confession" or '' apology" of the Unity. Erasmus, with characteristic prudence, de- cHned to be entangled in the controversy. About the year 15 14 the attitude of the Bohemian officials became less hostile to the Unity. Contemporary LUTHER AND LUCAS 221 records give no reason for this change ; but Blahoslav's statement that ^^the king investigated the doctrine of the Unity and decided in its favour" is most impro- bable. The influence of some powerful noblemen who had joined the brethren probably secured for the Unity what was really only the tacit toleration of its exist- ence. The fiction that only the Utraquist Church, which was the ^* State Church/' and the Roman creed were recognised in Bohemia was maintained up to a far later date. The last years of the eventful life of Lucas were influenced by the appearance of Luther. Luther's teaching soon became known in Bohemia, and was welcomed by the people of that country. They felt as if their isolation, which had long weighed on them, was ended when even the Germans, the mortal enemies of Utraquism, communicated in the two kinds. The more advanced Utraquists specially sympathised with German Protestantism, and it did not for a moment seem im- possible that Bohemia should adopt the teaching of Luther. The brethren, and Brother Lucas in particu- lar, however, declared that they should always maintain their own community distinct from both the German Pro- testants and the Bohemian Utraquists. They have often been praised for this, but it is very probable that by joining the German Protestants the Bohemians would have obtained powerful allies when, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Jesuit reaction attacked their country. The isolation in which the Bohemian brethren, and to a lesser extent the Bohemian Utraquists, continued, alone accounts for the incredible apathy with which the German Protestants viewed the sup- pression of Protestantism in Bohemia. At the nego- tiations which preceded the Treaty of Westphalia, the 222 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Swedish envoys alone made an ineffective appeal in favour of the Unity and the other non-Roman inhabi- tants of Bohemia. In a treatise published in 1522 Lucas attacked Luther's teaching on several points, but on receiving a concilia- tory answer from the great German reformer he de- cided on entering into negotiations with him. He sent a member of the Unity, Brother Roh^ or Horn, to Wittenberg with copies of several of his works. Luther does not seem to have had a very clear idea of the identity of the community which wished to enter into relations with him, for he addressed his answer to " his dear nobles and friends the brethren called Waldenses living in Bohemia and Moravia." The contents of the letter appear to have displeased Lucas, who wrote several treatises for the purpose of ^' strengthening" the brethren against the teaching of Luther. Lucas, indeed, somewhat later sent a second messenger to Wittenberg, but the disagreement continued, and sub- sequently a complete rupture took place. To the end of his life Lucas continued to labour at the reorganisa- tion of the Unity. One of his latest and most important works was his Zprdva Knezka (*' Instruction for the Clergy of the Unity"), published in 1526; he died two years later. It has already been mentioned that Brother Lucas was a voluminous writer. Dr. Jirecek in his biography published in 1875 enumerates sixty-eight works of Lucas, some of which, it is true, are known only by repute and have not been preserved. Since the appearance of Dr. Jirecek's book. Dr. Goll has discovered works of Lucas that are not included in his list. Among the works of 1 The Bohemian word roA signifies " horn" in German and English, BROTHER LUCAS 223 Brother Lucas known now only by name but enumerated in Dr. Jirecek's list is an ^^ Answer to the ten articles of Master Jerome Dungesham ^ of Oxford, (written) against the apology of the Brethren published in 15 14." The first work of Lucas, was as already mentioned, his Barka or " Bark." This work too was believed to be lost, but within the last years Dr. Goll has discovered a MS. which contains this once celebrated work of Lucas. The allegorical name of the book is thus explained by the author. He tells us that in the first part of his work the bark signifies the Unity, and that it is his purpose to explain out of what planks it is constructed, what are its requirements, who is its captain and guide, and what is the destination of its course. In this first part of the work the captain is Jesus Christ. The second division of the book deals with '* The Bark of Antichrist," with the foolish and misguided people who occupy it, and with the weighty reasons for flying from that bark, the course of which leads to perdition. Like so many Bohemian works of this period, the " Bark " treats mainly of Antichrist. It is interesting as being very similar, and in parts identical, with one of the ancient books of the Waldenses. It undoubtedly throws some light on the obscure question of the relations between the Bohemian brethren and the older community. Of the many other works of Lucas I shall be able to notice even briefly but very few. The two Professions of the Faith of the Unity y addressed to King Vladislav, and similar documents addressed to Erasmus and Luther, have been already mentioned. Very curious is Lucas's work entitled The Revival of the Holy Churchy and the reasons ivhich render it certain that such a revival has ^ I quote the name as given by Dr. Jiret^ek, 2 24 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE taken place in the shape of the Unity, Lucas draws a curious mystic parallel between the life of Christ and the development of the Unity. He also refers to the simplicity of the primitive Church, and to the gradual increase of the power of the Bishops of Rome. In dis- tinction from his predecessors, Lucas no longer believes in the ^' donation of Constantine." He only tells us that Constantine placed the Bishop of Rome before all other bishops. " Constantine," Lucas tells us, '^ seated Syl- vester on a white horse. This appeared wonderful to the people, and in their Latin or Italian speech they exclaimed, ' Pape ! Pape ! ' ^ that is, * What a great, great wonder 1 ' " Only Charles the Great, Lucas tells us, added temporal power to the ecclesiastical supremacy. It is particularly noticeable that in this book also Lucas does not allude to his travels, though on several occasions it would have been natural to do so. It is almost certain that this silence is intentional. Dr. GoU has, with great sagacity, suggested its cause. The brethren now be- lieved that the true primitive Church had been revived in their own community, and did not wish to recall the fact that they had formerly sought for it elsewhere. The polemical works of Lucas are very numerous, and are directed indifferently against all those who did not accept the doctrine of the Unity as expounded by him. His controversies with Luther have already been men- tioned. A work of Lucas's is directed against Zwingli, whose teaching had also penetrated into Bohemia. He also engaged in a theological controversy with ^'Wolf- gang, the barefooted friar." Wolfgang, one of the earlier champions of the Church of Rome, played a ^ This passage recalls Dante's " Pape Satan ! Pape Satan Aleppe 1 " (/«- ferno. Canto VI I. ). BROTHER LUCAS 225 curious part in the great theological controversy that absorbed almost the whole intellectual activity of Bohe- mia during two centuries. I shall again refer to him. Another controversial book of Lucas's directed against Brother Kalenec, a member of the " small party " in the Unity, is interesting as containing the author's opinion on Chelcicky, whose memory was naturally very popular with the smaller and more retrograde fraction of the Unity. Lucas writes : " You take refuge with Peter of Chelcic, and recommend to others his books, such as the Net of Faiths I, who have read and copied out many of his books before I joined the brethren, will say that in many matters he thought wrongly, and in a manner contrary to Scripture, and that he wrote ob- scurely and without moderation. I have also heard from those brethren that were with him much that was not praiseworthy, particularly that he was very irritable and vindictive. Thus, having fallen out with a priest, he would not forgive him till his death ; so that priest himself told me. And he (Chelcicky) unjustly defamed the Taborite priests, particularly as regards their teaching on the sacrament." A year before his death. Brother Lucas again returned to his favourite subject, the identification of the Unity with the primitive Church, in his treatise On the Origin of the Unity. Dealing with the manner in which the con- sciousness of the corruption of the Church reached Bohemia, Lucas writes : " The movement began through the Waldenses in England, where Wycliffe was the king's chaplain, but only read mass. And a Waldensian with whom he was acquainted said to him that he only fulfilled half the duty of his office, because he did not preach ; and he proved this from Scripture. . . . Then P 2 26 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of those who at that time (in England) suffered much adversity and martyrdom, some went to other countries, and particularly to Dresden, and thence some of them afterwards proceeded to Bohemia." Though unhis- torical, this account is curious as containing what was probably a very old tradition. Lucas here, as was fre- quently the case with Bohemian writers of his time, describes as ^^Waldenses" all early opponents of the Church of Rome. Brother Lucas was certainly one of the greatest men of the Unity, probably the greatest theologian whom the community produced. It was principally through the reorganisation of the community, that is his work, that the brethren were able to play a considerable part in Bohemian history. It is, however, an exaggeration to consider Lucas as a ^* second founder " of the Unity. The main lines of Brother Gregory's great structure remained. Of Lucas as an author. Brother Blahoslav^ writes as follows : '^ Brother Lucas wrote a great many books, but he was not a very good Bohemian (writer) ; he imitated Latin more than is befitting, and his know- ledge of German was also harmful to him, for his family came from a place where much German was spoken. * In summe Latinismos et Germanismos plurrimos admit- tere solebat.' ^ Therefore, and also for another reason,^ his works appeared to many not clear and displeasing." In connection with Lucas I shall briefly refer to his associate Krasonicky. Krasonicky was, like Lucas, an adherent of the ^* large party." He appears to have * See later. 2 The Latin passage is written in that language in Blahoslav's (Bohemian) work, which I quote. The Latin spelling is also that of Blahoslav. ^ This, no doubt, refers to some theological difference between Lucas and Blahoslav, KRASONICKY 227 been a fertile writer, but many of his works are known only by name. Among those that have been preserved is a treatise addressed to Brother Amos, the leader of the " small party." Another work of Krasonicky, recently discovered by Dr. Goll in the town-library of Gorlitz, is addressed to Cahera, then administrator of the Utra- quist consistory. Its subject is the sacrament, a question on which so large a part of the theological controversy of the period revolved. Krasonicky s treatise, however, goes far beyond the immediate limits of his subject. Of the foundation of the Unity he gives an account that is far more detailed than that of Brother Gregory, from which I have quoted, though it does not contain many facts that are found in the writings of yet later writers. Krasonicky also refers to the then all-important ques- tion of apostolic succession, the existence of which he altogether denies. Even should it yet exist, he writes, it certainly cannot be found within the Church of Rome. Like Brother Lucas, Krasonicky maintains that St. Peter never visited Rome. When referring to those who had borne witness to the corruption of the Roman Church, he mentions " Dr. Jerome Savonarola." He writes of him : " The works that he composed, his letters to the emperor and others, prove what his opinions were. Half the city mourned over him when the Pope first caused him to be tortured, then publicly proclaimed what torture had forced him to confess, and at last caused him on the public square of Florence to be first hanged on a cross with two companions, and then to be burnt." Dr. Goll is, no doubt, right in conjecturing that this accurate account of the death of Savonarola is derived from Brother Lucas, who was an eye-witness of that event. Other existent theological works of this period 228 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE are ascribed both to Krasonicky and to Prokop, who has already been mentioned. Blahoslav describes Kraso- nicky as " a sensible and learned man, a friend of ancient simplicity." Even in Blahoslav's days many of Kraso- nicky's works had already been lost. Of the writers of the *' small party " it will be sufficient to mention Brother Amos, its first leader. He is known to have written three theological treatises, one of which has been partly preserved in a work of Brother Lucas, written for the purpose of refuting it. Amos, like Kraso- nicky and the majority of the writers of the Unity, wrote only in Bohemian. The life of Bishop Augusta (born 1500, died 1572) belongs, like that of Archbishop Rokycan, rather to the political history of Bohemia than to literature. Though his fame as a preacher is far greater than as a writer, he was the author of a large number of theological works. Born in humble circumstances — his father was a hatter — and not having received a very extensive education, Augusta's talents, and yet more his indomi- table energy and determination, soon brought him to the fore. Born a member of the Utraquist Church, he joined the Unity at the age of twenty-four. He was pre- pared for his clerical duties by Brother Lucas, and in 1532 became one of the elders — or bishops, as they were often called — to whom the entire government of the Unity was intrusted. His influence soon became pre- dominant among the brethren. While Brother Lucas and Augusta's younger contemporary, Blahoslav, wished above all to preserve the separate character of the Unity, Augusta was in favour of a close alliance, if not of a union, with Luther and the German Protestants. Augusta, for this purpose, twice visited the great German BISHOP AUGUSTA 229 reformer at Wittenberg, and also had, in 1546, an inter- view with the Protestant Elector of Saxony. In the following year war broke out in Germany between the Emperor Charles V. and the German Protestants, whose leaders were the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse.^ After the defeat of the Protestants at the battle of Miihlberg, Charles's brother, Ferdinand, King of Bohemia, dealt severely with their Bohemian sympa- thisers. Augusta was arrested and imprisoned for a long time in the castle of Piirglitz or Kfivoklat. His com- panion, the young priest Bilek, has left us a very inte- resting account of Augusta's prison life.^ During the whole term of his imprisonment, which only ended in 1564, Augusta maintained his claim to the leadership of the Unity. When the only other bishop died, the brethren, who had established secret communi- cations with him, asked if they should elect new bishops, but Augusta refused his consent. After his liberation he resumed his rule over the community, residing first at Brandeis-on-the-Adler, aftei-wards at Jungbunzlau. The obstinacy and tenacity, not to say narrow-mindedness, which is ever characteristic of Augusta, involved him in incessant controversies during the last years of his life. It is perhaps to his opponents that should be traced the rather unfavourable account of his last years, accord- ing to which he ^^ found great pleasure in expensive clothes and furs, as well as in select dishes, handsome carriages, and generally in an ostentatious manner of Uving." Like so many members of the Unity, Augusta was a voluminous writer, but some of his works have been lost, and many of the others have remained in MS. Of » See Chapter VI. 2 gee Chapter VI. 230 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE one of them, the Sumovnik (Summary), Blahoslav, who had seen the MS., writes : '' As that book, the Summary^ has already come into the hands of many pious and sensible people, it will, if it sees the light, cause the members of the Unity and others also to jump up from terror. The book is indeed remarkable, great, and no doubt for many of great value ; and I do not doubt that this manner of writing Bohemian and the style of writing will also please many. And some of the young, no doubt, will be found whom not only these many unheard- of things, but also the new words and phrases will please, and they will with pleasure wish to use them. But as I write my judgment on this book, also non ut theologus sed ut granvnaticiis^ that is to say, (I write) not of the contents of the book, quod non est hujus loci^ but only of the form of language de genere sermonis de verbis et pkraszbus''^ The continuation of Blahoslav's com- mentary on the '^ Sumovnik " is rather disappointing. It consists merely of critical remarks on the diction and style of Augusta. With the exception of the remark that heretics who love impious speeches generally also write in a monstrous style, we are told nothing of the ^' unheard- of things " contained in the book. It must, however, be remembered that Bohemian theologians of the sixteenth century — to whom every one who differed from their opinions was ^^ Antichrist " — were very much given to expressions of horror and terror in their writings. Of Augusta's other works, his Profession of creed sent in the name of the whole Unity to his Majesty at Augsburg y his ^ The passages quoted in Latin are in that language in Blahoslav's Bohe- mian book. I shall continue quoting Blahoslav's writings as he published them, without further mention of the fact. The constant use of Latin words and phrases is a particularity of Blahoslav. BROTHER BLAHOSLAV 231 Dispute of Brother Augusta with the Calixtine {Utraquist) Clergy, and more particularly his collection of hymns, enjoyed for a time great popularity. The hymns of Augusta, in particular, were widely used by the brethren up to the time of the dissolution of the Unity. Blaho- slav, the only literary critic of this period, gives his opinion of Augusta in these words : *' Brother John Augusta," he writes, " was a remarkable and great man, who wrote many books as well as hymns. All that he wrote before he was imprisoned was written in good Bohemian; phrases excultcB, verba selecta ; delectabatur admodum archaismis, tamen decenter. In summa totum genus dicendi fuit Jloridum atque excultum. Valebat ingenio et memoriay ac diligenter legebat bonos authores in our Bohemian language. Fluebat igitur sua vis copiosius et exultans, though he sometimes wished to be too lepidus et asiaticus. ... In his sermons he seemed somewhat coarse though fervent. Ardebant omnia^ words, pro- nunciation, and gesticulation. Referrebat zelo illo magna ex parte Lutherum. When, twenty-six years ago, I heard Augusta, and shortly afterwards Luther, it appeared to me that I had never heard two such enthusiastic preachers, nor two who in every way so greatly resem- bled one another." A somewhat younger contemporary of Augusta was Brother Blahoslav, whom I have just quoted, and who, like him, also became one of the bishops of the Unity. His writings differ somewhat from those of the brethren I have mentioned above. The influence of human- ism, absent from their works, is distinctly noticeable in Blahoslav. He also wrote on theology — what Bohemian writer of that period did not ? — but it is evident that other studies were far more to his taste. He tells us, indeed. 232 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE in the last chapter of his Grammar^ that, in consequence of the state of his health, ^' writing on more serious, and ever on theological matters, was beyond his strength ; " but there is no doubt that this statement should be con- sidered as apologetic. Many of the brethren probably thought that their bishops should devote themselves exclusively to theological studies. From the same rea- son, also, Blahoslav mentions, in justification of his philological studies, that the Unity had intrusted him with the task of translating the New Testament into Bohemian. Blahoslav was born at Pferov (Prerau) in Moravia, then one of the centres of the Unity, in 1523, In early youth he studied at the school which the brethren had established there. He then travelled to complete his studies ; visited Wittenberg — where he heard Luther preach — Konigsberg, and Basel. On his return to his country, he was first employed as teacher at the school which the brethren had established at Prostejov. He here had as a pupil John of 2erotin, member of a family that always supported the Unity, the father of Charles of ^erotin,^ who was famous during the last years of Bohemian independence. The authorities of the Unity afterwards sent Blahoslav to Jung Bunzlau (or Mlada Boleslav) in Bohemia, where he was employed in arrang- ing the archives of the community. He here began the composition of the great historical work that was in his own time his principal claim to literary fame, but which has perhaps irreparably been lost. In the year 1557 Blahoslav became an elder or mem- ber of the smaller council of the Unity, and somewhat later on he was chosen as one of the bishops, when ^ See Chapter VI. BLAHOSLAV'S " FILIPICA " 233 Eibenschlitz (Ivancice) in Moravia became his habitual residence. Like all the bishops of the brethren, he, how- ever, spent much of his time in travel, visiting the scat- tered communities. He soon became one of the foremost members of the Unity, and in consequence of his enlight- ened and conciliatory nature was often employed as a negotiator. In 1555 and on several subsequent occasions he visited Vienna, where Archduke Maximilian, afterwards the Emperor Maximilian II., who had by the Estates al- ready been recognised as heir to the Bohemian throne, then resided. The mediator between Blahoslav and the Archduke was the Lutheran preacher Pfauser,^ who for a time had great influence over Maximilian. The ability of Blahoslav on several occasions protected the Unity from the dangers to which, as a community not recog- nised by Bohemian law, it always was exposed. When Augusta returned from prison, differences of opinion between the two bishops arose, of which we have no exact account. It is, however, certain that Blahoslav disapproved of Augusta's sympathy with the German Pro- testants, particularly Luther and Melanchthon. Blaho- slav's intense devotion to his own language no doubt rendered him hostile to everything that tended to in- crease German influence in Bohemia. Augusta, to win over to his side some of the oldest among the brethren, in whom Chalcicky's hatred for the *^ band of masters of colleges" was yet not quite extinct, expressed in his ser- mons great contempt for learning and culture. In answer Blahoslav wrote his Filipika proti Misomusum (the enemies of the Muses), which I shall presently notice. Blahoslav, whose health had long been failing, died at Krumau in 1571, a year before Bishop Augusta. ^ See my Bohemia^ an historical Sketch, p. 270. 2 34 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE According to Dr. Jirecek, the total sum of the works of Blahoslav amounts to twenty-eight ; many of them, however, including his most important work, have been lost. His controversial writings on theology, as was then usual, mostly took the form of letters. Such writ- ings are the letters to Brother Zachary, to Martin of ^atec (Saaz), to the Lord Marshal Berthold of Lipa, &c. Like Augusta, Blahoslav was a great writer of hymns, many of which are preserved in the Kancionali or hymn-books of the Unity. The composition of these hymns no doubt induced Blahoslav to write the curious treatise entitled Musky or, to give the full name as pre- fixed to the second edition of Blahoslav's book, " Music, that is, a small book containing the information neces- sary for singers. Written in the Bohemian language on the wish of several good friends, and first printed in the year of the Lord 1558 at Olmiitz ; now carefully cor- rected and reprinted ; rules and instructions necessary to chanters and composers of hymns are added." In the preface to this quaint work Blahoslav writes : *^ A branch of pride, and not the least one, consists in the desire to be known to many, to be considered witty and sensible, and to be esteemed in consequence. The desire to obtain distinction by one's virtues and other similar things is indeed praiseworthy. Yet it is senseless to undertake too difficult a work and strive with much effort for an object as vain as the steam of smoke. There are many, too, who might be compared to that Herostratus, who, w^ishing to obtain great fame, burnt down the great Temple of Diana at the risk of his life. . . . Those only will I mention who, in our days, pub- lish books in the Bohemian language, wishing thus to obtain great fame for themselves ; some who wish to BLAHOSLAV 235 help their neighbours as much as they can, from sincere love and in a beseeming manner, I do not allude to ; on the contrary, I praise their pious undertakings and holy labour ; but many are guided and incited by that branch of pride which I have mentioned above, which drives them to attempt that also which is beyond their power. Thus they do what they are unfit to do, thinking it sufficient that they have done it. But how? that they don't think of or care. Many out of good Latin or German books make bad Bohemian ones, serving no other purpose than that the noble Bohemian language, already somewhat spoilt, should become yet more corrupted. This will perhaps bring matters to that point that the Bohemians will become unable to speak Bohemian correctly and rightly to understand their language and its peculiarities. Thus did it happen to the Italians, who had so amended their language that when the old Italians — that is, the Latinists, Cicero and the others — came to them, they could not understand them. And what happens with regard to translations from other languages, that happens also with regard to the composition and publication of various little songs, particularly when those who undertake this task do so not for the purpose of stirring up others to piety and godliness ; often indeed they (the writers of verses), on the contrary, seek and desire by means of their useless, mischievous, and even obscene verses, which pre-occupy men's minds, either to obtain the praise of men and worldly advantage, or even to insult and injure their guiltless fellow-creatures. Who can doubt that such men should be classed with the senseless Herostratus, and that they deserve derision and contempt rather than flattering praise ? 236 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE " For such godless people I should not wish to work ; nor do they require it. Nature itself entices a man to frivolities, the world gives sufficient evil example, and Satan himself drills them and whispers in their ears what they are to do and when. Thus that Naso, an excellent master of the devil's works, wrote well when he said : — * Est deus i?i nobis^ agitante calescimus illo Impetus hie sacrce semina mentis habet} Satan excited him (Ovid), and sharpened his wits to enable him to write those insidious and penetrating carniina on matters of love, by means of which he then caught young men, just as a bird-catcher catches titmice on a sticky lime-twig. Why, even among those of our own language {i.e, nation) there were similar verses, before the devil induced the people of our corner of the world to give way entirely to gluttony and drunken- ness. Such worldly songs, written down in musical notes or in words in a masterly manner, we remember to have heard in our childhood, and we wondered at them. Such people (the writers of worldly songs) then I do not endeavour to instruct. They have their own good teacher who incites them." Blahoslav's views expressed in his preface are infinitely more interesting than the contents of the little book itself. Blahoslav deals in separate chapters with the subjects of songs, the words, the rhythm, the ^^ clauses," and the syllables. The Replika proti MisomusUm — written, like all the existent works of Blahoslav, with the exception of a small Latin historical treatise, in the national language — has already been mentioned. Bishop Augusta had, in his sermons and elsewhere, spoken contemptuously of BLAHOSLAV 237 learning, and it was believed among the brethren that he had Blahoslav particularly in view. The latter re- pelled these attacks in the treatise which I have just named. *^ It is, and has been for years," he writes, '^ the custom of some somewhat prominent men to quote, for the purpose of disparaging the ancient teachers (i.e. the fathers of the Church), a saying of Brother Lucas, ac- cording to which he had written nothing which he had not found within the Unity. And they explained it thus : that Brother Lucas had taken nothing from the ancient teachers, but that he had learnt what the Unity pos- sessed when he joined it, and then wrote, &c. I also a year ago heard Brother Augusta state this. Most certainly those who thus expound Brother Lucas did not understand, and do not understand his words. Could but Brother Lucas hear them, what evil thanks would he render them ! Where is that saintly man. Brother Lawrence Krasonicky, that he could by word of mouth vividly explain this to them. What he has written in his books they will not read, because of the weakness of their intellects, and because their minds are full of vanity. " But as those men who could have treated this sub- ject usefully are no longer with us, I will write down briefly what is now on my mind. " In the days of Brother Lucas the Unity had many enemies against whom he had to write by order of the elders. He had to write in a fashion that did not stir up enemies nor open the gates of the Unity to the foe, but rather reduced to silence, and even to assent, one opponent by this, another by that argument. That he continued obnoxious to some in spite of his labours is known. There were also some who feared that he would 238 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE lead them back to Rome, the doctors {i.e. the ecclesi- astics of the Church of Rome), &c. And because of these foolish and false ideas about him he had to make such speeches as should close the mouths of some. Real truth did Brother Lucas speak when he said that he wrote nothing that he did not find in the Unity. He found in it truth as the essence (of doctrine) as to service (ritual), &c. This truth he wrote, he adorned, he spread, explaining its various branches wisely and to many. . . . Some one will perhaps say that I praise learning and the learned. Yes, it is true that I praise both learning or knowledge and cultivated people. But I do not praise those who use their learning or knowledge for evil pur- poses. I will say, as an example, * We praise wine, and we praise also drinking or the use of wine, but drunken- ness and drunken people we do not praise.' Gene- rally we do not praise the evil use of God's good gifts. ^ Abusus non toUit rem.' The sword is good, but it can serve one to good, another to evil purposes. '^ Others again may say : ^ You attach too much im- portance to learning and the learned.' Indeed some good men say that through learning discord has entered into Churches, and that this might happen to the Unity also. He would indeed attribute too much importance to learning and knowledge who should fancy that with- out the ' seven arts ' God's truth, that is, the Gospel, cannot be preached, or that our salvation is founded on this learning or knowledge. But he who would say this must indeed be very silly." ^'I, on my part, hold that those who work for the word of God require for that purpose a special gift of God which is called eloquence, which enables them to declaim, to teach, to admonish, to warn. The Lord at BLAHOSLAV'S "GRAMMATIKA" 239 first gave eloquence to His servants as a gift in so miracu- I us a manner, that it was not necessary that they should learn. But then wonders and miracles ceased. Hence- forth, as the Spirit of God recognised that eloquence is necessary to the Church, it is not harmful to teach eloquence whenever and to whatever person it is possible (to do so). Surely a man cannot wait till God miracu- lously throws down eloquence to him from heaven ! That would indeed be as if a peasant neither sowed nor ploughed, but waited till manna rained down on him from heaven." " Do not our young men, I say, when they are taught to preach, learn besides piety and knowledge of God's word, eloquence as well ? It is obvious to all that many of these young men, though they do not know Latin, are more learned in their speech, and more eloquent than some fairly learned Latinists. Still it is certain that if, besides their other studies, they also learnt Latin and were acquainted with dialectics and rhetoric, they would be much more intelligent, more capable, readier for all work, and more useful." Blahoslav here expresses the views of the more culti- vated members of the Unity, men to whom to so great an extent the literary development of Bohemia is due. That it was necessary that Blahoslav should write such a treatise proves, on the other hand, that the ideas of Chelcicky and the ^* small party " still found adherents among the brethren. Another work of Blahoslav that has been fortunately preserved is his Gra^nmatika Ceskd. Only one MS. of this work is known, and that was only discovered by Mr. Hradil in 1857 ^^ ^^ library of the Theresian College in Vienna. This book is indeed an example of the 240 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE obscurity which still covers ancient Bohemian literature, and of the possibility that, of the many other ancient books that are known to have existed but have been lost, some may be yet recovered. The condition of Bohemian literature in this respect recalls rather that of ancient literatures than that of other modern European countries. Blahoslav's Grammar has great interest in spite of its rather unattractive name, which is not indeed quite correct. Besides a full account of the construc- tion of the Bohemian language based on Latin grammar, with which Blahoslav was thoroughly acquainted, the book contains a series of short but very pertinent critical notes on some earlier Bohemian writers, beginning with Hus. I have already quoted Blahoslav's criticisms on Lucas, Krasonicky, and Augusta. It may be interesting here to quote his self-criticism also. Under the heading of ^^The Works of Blahoslav" he writes: "It seems to me, if some think that my opinion on this subject is just, that no good Bohemian can blame my manner of writing Bohemian, as shown in my version of the New Testament, which has been twice published and printed at Ivancice. Also of the little book called Additzojis to {i.e, notes on) Music, or simply Music. I think that, particularly in its last edition, it contains good and also graceful Bohemian writing. Of other similar works of mine I am silent ; let the result show the truth. ' Decere nam mihi videtur ut de metipso quam modestissime loquor, cum mihi sim bene conscius, quam et mihi sit curta suppellex.' We know that we are all imperfect, but yet to a different degree, some more and some less." Posterity has on the whole confirmed Blahoslav's judgment. His works, particularly his translation of BROTHER JAFFET 241 the New Testament, are still considered models of Bohemian writing. One cannot, however, help regret- ting that he, who was so severe on ^* Latinisms," should have interspersed his writings with Latin words, and sometimes with Latin sentences, that are most disturb- ing and irritating to the reader. Blahoslav seems to have inserted these patches of Latin as evidence of his learning, in the same manner as English novelists some time ago were given to introducing into their writings fragments of French as evidence of their knowledge of the ways of society. Of later writers of the Unity I may mention Brother Jaffet. He entered the ecclesiastical service of the Unity in 1576, and afterwards became a member of the ^' small council." He also was a voluminous author, but many of his works have been lost and the others remain in MS. His most important works were the Voice of the Watchman^ which appeared about the year 1600, and a work which he published in the year 1607 under the somewhat long-winded title of The Sword of Goliath for the defence of Gods people against their enemies y that is^ the Description of the . . . constant succession , , , of true and genuine bishops and priests within the Unity of the Brethren. In the preface to this work Jaffet declares that his purpose is to prove that the brethren have always preserved the apostolic succession which they received from the Waldenses. As a proof of this asser- tion, Jaffet published a list of the ordinations which took place within the Unity from its beginning. This list Dr. Gindely, who had thoroughly studied the history of the Unity, declared to be spurious. Brother Jaffet died at Horazdovic in 1614. He was one of those enemies of Rome on whom vengeance was wrought after their Q 242 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE death. When his burial-place, the former Minorite monastery of Horazdovic, was in 162 1 returned to the monks of that order, the remains of Brother Jaffet and of three other Bohemian brethren were disinterred and burnt in the churchyard. It would be very easy to continue this account of the theologians of the Unity. All their writings still have an intense interest for Bohemians. Writing for other readers, I shall limit myself to the authors already mentioned, who are indeed the most prominent and representative members of the Unity. It would, however, be impossible to pass in silence the name of Wenceslas Budovec of Budova. He was a prominent leader of the Brethren, a very striking figure in Bohemian political life, and belongs to litera- ture also, as the author of several Bohemian works, mostly of a theological character. He was born in 1547 as a member of a noble but not opulent family, and was educated in accordance with the doctrine of the Unity. When eighteen years of age, Budova, as was then customary for young Bohemian nobles, undertook extensive travels, visiting Germany, the Netherlands, England, France, and Italy ; that he visited Rome also is specially recorded by his biographers. Shortly after his return to Bohemia in 1577, he was attached to the embassy which Rudolph II., German emperor and King of Bohemia, despatched to Constantinople. A man of studious nature, and, like most Bohemians of his time, intensely interested in theological research, Budova employed his spare time — always granted amply to an able man who is member of an embassy but not the ambassador — in endeavouring to obtain informa- tion on the Mohammedan religion. The result of these BUDOVEC OF BUDOVA 243 studies was his celebrated Anti-AlkoraUy which I shall again refer to. It may here be mentioned incidentally, as a proof of the bitterness of religious animosity in Bohemia at the beginning of the seventeenth century, that Budova was afterwards accused by the Romanists of having written a book in praise of Mohammedan- ism ; whereas the mere name of the book should have been sufhcient to disprove so absurd an assertion. After spending about seven years in Turkey, Budova returned to Bohemia, and took an important part in the political events that led to the granting of the " Letter of Majesty " to the Bohemian Protestants^ by Rudolph II. in 1609. He acted, indeed, not only as leader of the brethren, but of all those who were opposed to the increasing preten- sions of the Church of Rome. The Bohemian national movement, as Dr. Gindely has remarked, acquired through him a somewhat Puritan character. When Budova presided over the Protestant meetings, he always called on all present to pray before he opened the pro- ceedings. All then fell on their knees and sang a hymn. The signing of the ^' Letter of Majesty," and of the agree- ment that was drawn up simultaneously,^ is principally due to Budova. Though the force of circumstances pre- vented these enactments from entering fully into prac- tice, and the events of 1618 and 1620 swept away all religious liberty in Bohemia, they might, had time per- mitted, have established in Bohemia a just and fair system of religious toleration. In the events which followed the memorable Defenes- ^ Following the Bohemian writers, I thus describe jointly the Lutherans, Utraquists, and Bohemian Brethren, who were united in their opposition to Rome. ^ See my Bohemia^ an Historical Skekhy p. 299 et seq. 244 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE tration of Prague in 1618, Budova played a less prominent part. He was, however, chosen as one of the " directors," ^ and was also a member of the deputation that welcomed King Frederick at the Bohemian frontier. The new king appointed Budova president of the Court of Appeal, and in consequence of his former relations with Turkey he was attached as special commissioner to the Turkish ambassador who appeared at the court of Prague. He was present at the banquet given to the Turkish embassy by Count Thurn, of which Slavata has left us so insidious, and probably mendacious, an account.^ After the battle of the White Mountain, Budova accompanied his wife and other members of his family to the frontier, where they were in safety. He then returned to Prague, stating that he could not abandon the Bohemian crown that had been intrusted to his custody. When asked why he had not fled, he spoke the often-quoted words : " I am weary of my days. May God deign to receive my soul, so that I may not behold the disaster which, as I know, has overcome my country." Budova was one of the Bohemian leaders who were decapitated on June 21, 1621, and is mentioned in Skala's account of that tragic event.^ He refused the assistance of both Capuchins and Jesuits, and as no member of the Unity was allowed to assist the dying brethren, he walked resolutely and alone to the scaffold. Of several religious works of Budova that have been preserved, the already-mentioned Anti-Alkoran is most worthy of notice. In the preface Budova explains how the book came to be written. The firm and intense 1 See Note i, p. 200. 2 ggg Chapter VL ^ See Chapter VI. THE '' ANTI-ALKORAN " 245 religious feeling of the man is noticeable in every word. '^ From my earliest youth/' he says, " God influenced my parents to that purpose that they sent me out of Bohemia to distant countries that I might acquire learning, and this happened in 1565. After having viewed the most prominent Christian countries, and having spent some time studying at academies, and seen the courts and governments of the foremost potentates, kings, and princes, and also the Italian land and Rome, I by God's grace returned to Bohemia and to my dear family in 1577. Then, however, I became very desirous of visiting the Eastern countries — those that the Turk, that Gog and Magog, who is the chief enemy of Christendom, has taken from the Christians, and now rules — and of seeing what the manner of the infamous Turkish religion is, and how the work of God continues among those Christians who live under the Turkish yoke, as it were in a Babylonian captivity." Budova then tells us how he became a member of the numerous embassy that accompanied the ambavS- sador John of Zinzendorf to Constantinople. While most of his companions, after a short stay at Constanti- nople, continued their travels to " Jerusalem, Damascus, Babylon, Arabia, and Persia," Budova was detained there, for he had accepted the position of hofmistr (mas- ter of the ceremonies) to the ambassador. " I then," Budova writes, '^decided to make inquiries as to what the religion, or rather irreligion, of the Turks really was, and, as it were, to outline and depict for others that Turkish Antichrist with his fables and other frauds. It was of great assistance to me that I had with me a copy of the Alkoran (Koran), which in Spain had been trans- lated from the ancient Arabic, such as it was at the time 246 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of Mahomet, into the Latin speech. This book was then, at the time of Luther, about the year 1550, printed with a preface by PhiHp Melanchthon. I, possessing this work, often entered into discussions, not only with the Turks, but also with the renegades — that means those who have fallen from the Christian faith, and of such there are here not hundreds but thousands. The result was that they themselves were surprised, and had to laugh at those most foolish fables (of the Koran), which are sillier than an^^thing that has been taught by any heathens since the beginning of the world. Then, overcome by their consciences, they arrived at this conclusion — that they did not believe in God and in eternal life, but that, in accordance with Epicurus and the Sadduceans, they considered every religion as a political institution, and favoured such religious doc- trines as were convenient to their bodily welfare, and contributed to their glory and advantage in the world. And as at Constantinople I saw all this with my eyes, that * Gog and Magog,' which in Bohemian can be de- scribed as the secret building, the extraordinary edifice composed of parts of the New and Old Testament, in which that Satan (z.e. the Sultan) endeavours to hide himself with his Alkoran — as I talked much on these subjects with Turks and renegades, that is, men who have abandoned the Christian faith, therefore am I better able to write on these subjects than those who only write what they have heard at second-hand." The Anti- Alkoran is divided into three parts. The first con- sists of copious extracts from the edition of the Koran mentioned in the preface ; the second contains a re- futation of the Mohammedan creed. The third part, scarcely connected with the others, consists of nine BUDOVA'S LETTERS 24; small treatises, which prove that the inclination to mysticism, that proved so harmful to Komensky and many brethren, existed in Budova's mind also, and that, like so many of his contemporaries, he was given to the study of astrology. Budova's letters, some of which, addressed to Peter of Rosenberg and preserved in the archives of Wittin- gau (Tfebon), have recently been published, bear wit- ness to the fervent piety so characteristic of Budova. In a letter addressed to Lord Peter in 161 1, Budova informs his correspondent of the state of public affairs in Bohemia; he adds: '^The Poles have obtained a victory over the Muscovites, and the German Electors will meet shortly at Nuremberg. May God deign to grant that all these matters may, to His honour and glory, be settled in a manner conducive to the general welfare, and above all, to concord, love, and enduring peace ; then may we in Bohemia also be able, after all these incessant tempests, whirlwinds, and storms of the last three years, to obtain rest, and, as it were, to recover a little. But God threatens us with the plague, perhaps wishing to rescue us from the evil things that are pre- paring and to render us more obedient to His will and counsel. I constantly commend your Grace to God's mercy. May God's love render your Grace and all those who through God's favour believe in the Lord Christ day by day more able to find and expect those eternal heavenly blessings to which with certain faith we look forward." This short notice of Budova's literary work would be incomplete if I omitted to mention that many of the state papers published by the Provisional Government of 161 8, and by the Government of King Frederick — 248 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE which both displayed a feverish but futile diplomatic activity — are the work of Wenceslas of Budova. Before referring to Komensky, the last great Bohemian writer of the Unity, mention should be made of some fruits of the literary activity of the brethren which were the joint works of several members of the community. Of these, the most important is the translation of the Holy Scriptures known as the ^* Bible of Kralice." From the time of Hus, when the Bohemian people obtained free access to the Bible, parts of the Scriptures had been frequently translated into Bohemian, and Brother Blahoslav, as already mentioned, published the whole New Testament in the national language. To- wards the end of the sixteenth century the authorities of the Unity decided on publishing a complete Bohemian version of the Bible. Several clergymen of the Unity took part in the labours necessary for this purpose, which began in 1577 ^^^ ended in 1593, when the com- plete version was printed and published at Kralice in Moravia. Other editions followed in 1596 and 1613. The New Testament was printed in these editions exactly according to Blahoslav's already existent trans- lation. The translation of the Old Testament was the joint work of several divines. The Bible of Kralice endeared itself to the Bohemian Protestants in the course of a very few years. With Komensky s Laby- rinth of the World, that will be mentioned presently, it was the only book that many Protestants whom the Austrian Government expelled from Bohemia after the battle of the White Mountain took into exile wath them. This is referred to in the well-known song of the Bohemian exiles, in which they are made to say — THE BIBLE OF KRALICE 249 " Nothing have we taken with us^ Everything is lost; We have but our Bible of Kralice, Our ' Labyrinth of the World.' " After the forcible re-establishment of the doctrine of Rome, it became a grave offence to be found in posses- sion of a copy of the *' Bible of Kralice." The lesuits in particular were indefatigable in their endeavours to discover and destroy all copies of the book. The '' Bible of Kralice" has recently been reprinted by the British Bible Society exactly from the edition of 1613. Another interesting record of the Unity is the collec- tion of reports of the proceedings at the general meetings of the community. It has already been mentioned that these meetings were very frequent. The numerous hymn-books ('^ Kancionaly/' as they were called) of the brethren also deserve notice. They contained hymns by Brothers Lucas, Augusta, Blahoslav, and many others. The last Bohemian Kancional was published by Komen- sky in 1659, when the brethren had already long been expelled from their native land. I have now to deal with KoMENSKf, who, under the Latinised name of Comenius, is widely known beyond the limits of Bohemia. The value of Komensky's writ- ings has been judged very differently at different periods. His mystic, not to say superstitious and credulous, nature was particularly antipathetic to a French writer such as Bayle. The latter has, therefore, in his Die- tionnaire Historique et Critique judged the whole work of Komensky very unfavourably, and this judgment has often been repeated. With time opinion changed. His educational works, though for a long time only those that are little more than school-books were well known. 2 so A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE began again to attract attention. In the present century the first Bohemian edition of the Didactica Magna was rediscovered, and extracts were made from the almost inaccessible Amsterdam folio of 1657, in which alone some of his educational works are contained. The very great merits of Komensky as an instructor of the young are now recognised by most prominent teachers, who alone are competent to give an opinion on this point. Recently pubHc opinion has perhaps veered too much in the contrary direction. Not content with declaring, what is undeniable, that Komensky w^as a learned and original writer on educational matters, and the author of one of the most fascinating allegorical tales that have ever been written, great importance has been attributed to his WTitings on philosophy, or, as he would have called it, *^ Pansophy." No one can impartially claim for Komensky high rank as a philosopher, and it is cer- tainly a mistake to speak of Komen sky's system of philo- sophy. There is no philosophical system of Komensky in the sense that there exists a philosophical system of Spinoza. Komensky is not only, when writing on ^^ pan- sophy," constantly carried away by mystic ideas — the idea of " light," which he interpreted in a mystic manner, seems ever to have pursued him — but his '' pansophic " works constantly encroach on the domain of natural history. This is the more to be regretted, as Komensky's views on natural history were very often incorrect, and the fatal credulity which induced him to study the " prophecies " of Kotter, Ponatovsk^, and Drabik here also led him to accept as true the most absurd state- ments. The life of Komensky is a very sad one, and his KOMENSK^ 251 patience, resignation, and unlimited trust in God must win for him the esteem of all sympathetic readers of his many works. An exile from his country early in life, only once the hope of a return to Bohemia appeared to him. It was when, after the victories of Gustavus Adol- phus, his Saxon allies for a time expelled the Catholics from Bohemia. Komensky was then already celebrated as a writer on educational topics, and he would pro- bably, had the task of reorganising the schools of Bohemia been confided to him, have rendered these schools models for all Europe. He indeed confidently expresses this idea in his writings. But Wallenstein soon drove the Saxons out of Bohemia, and it is in any case doubtful whether the Lutheran Saxons would have intrusted Komensky with the mission which he so ardently desired. Fate willed it that he was only able to make isolated attempts at establishing his new system of education in various countries and without continuity. The circumstances of his life were also as unfavour- able as possible to his career as a writer. Travelling from Moravia to Bohemia, thence to Poland, Germany, England, Sweden, Hungary, Holland, ever unable to obtain tranquillity, often in financial difficulties, twice deprived of his library by fire, forced to write school- books when he was planning metaphysical works that he believed to be of the greatest value, he always undaunt- edly continued his vast literary undertakings. The critic who judges Komensky from a purely literary standpoint will probably give preference over all his other works to the thoughtful, pessimistic, yet sometimes playful, alle- gorical narrative which he has called the Labyrinth of the World, This opinion coincides with that of the people of Bohemia. Since they have been free to read the 252 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE works of their ancient writers, no book is more con- stantly in their hands than the Labyrinth, Before noticing a few of the many works of Komen- sky, I shall give a brief account of his adventurous life.^ John Amos Komensky was born at Ungarisch Brod in Moravia, or, according to some authorities, in the small neighbouring town of Nivnice, in 1592. He received his first education at Ungarisch Brod, and after the early death of his parents visited the school of Straznic, where Drabik — destined to have so fatal an influence on Komensky — was also then studying. Komensky's early impressions of the schools of the Unity were decidedly unfavourable. He complained that the masters made no attempt to attract the interest and attention of their pupils, overburdened their memories by insisting on unneces- sary mechanical enumerations of words and facts, and stimulated the failing memory by the incessant and exaggerated application of corporal punishment. In the Labyrinthy written in Komensky's youth, he graphically describes his school experiences. It is probable that these experiences first suggested to him his vast plan of remodelling the then accepted system of education. From Straznic Komensky proceeded to Prerau (Prerov), ^ Those who wish to study the life of Komensky in greater detail should read Mr. Keatinge's biographical and historical introduction to his recently published English version of the Didactica Magna. The biography of Komensky is founded on the best German and Latin authorities. It is only occasionally that mistakes occur, as when it is stated (on page i of the introduction) that the Unity " took a position midway between the Utra- quists and the Roman Catholics." The Utraquists were, on the contrary, nearest to Rome, and some of them were indeed prepared to accept all its teaching if the right to receive communion stib nlraque, in the two kinds, were granted them. The Brethren were of all Bohemian reformers most antago- nistic to the Church of Rome, and refused to recognise all institutions which, according to their views, had not existed in the primitive Church. KOMENSKY 253 then one of the centres of the Unity. He here continued his studies in view of becoming a member of the clergy of the community. He seems when very young already to have resolved to adopt this career. For the purpose of completing his studies Komensky was by the chiefs of the Unity sent to the University of Herborn in Nassau. That university, founded at the end of the sixteenth century by John the Elder, Count of Nassau, was then at the height of its fame. The religious teaching there was in accordance with the " Catechism of Heidelberg," that is to say, mainly founded on Calvin's views. The Unity was more in sympathy with these views than with the teaching of the Utraquist University of Prague. The brethren, therefore, often sent their promising youths to Herborn, though the regulation that the students dined at three different tables, where different meals were served according to the payment made by each student, offended their democratic views. At Herborn Komensky became acquainted with Altsted (or Altstedius), who, though still a young man, was already celebrated as a writer on educational subjects. His theories had a considerable influence on Komensky. From Herborn Komensky proceeded to Heidelberg, where he also pursued his studies for some time. Before returning to his country he made a somewhat extensive journey through Germany and the Nether- lands. Writing forty years later, he tells us that at this time (in 1613) he first visited Amsterdam, ^^the pearl of towns, the ornament of the Netherlands, the delight of Europe." In 1614 Komensky returned to Moravia, and was ordained a minister of the Unity in 1616, as soon as he had attained the necessary age. He was first sent to the 2 54 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE small town of Fulneck in Moravia, where he married and spent the happiest and almost the only tranquil years of his life. It was not his destiny to continue long undisturbed in the pursuit of his religious duties, and of the studies to which he was already devoted. The events of the Bohemian war cast their shadow even over the peaceful community of Fulneck. Rumours of the events of the war between Bohemia and Austria occa- sionally reached the brethren. As Komensky^ wrote : " Lightning shines before it strikes, and by its light we could see the glooming, gathering clouds of persecution." After the battle of the White Mountain the brethren, as the most decided opponents of Rome, were naturally the first to suffer. Detachments of troops, generally Spaniards, who were chosen for this purpose because of their greater bigotry and ferocity, scoured Bohemia and Moravia in every direction, burning down the settle- ments of the brethren, and killing or driving from the country the members of the communities. In 162 1 a Spanish detachment attacked Fulneck and burnt down the town, forcing the brethren to fly for their lives. The MSB. and library of Komensky were here for the first, but unhappily not for the last time burnt and destroyed. Komensky himself managed to escape and sought refuge in Bohemia at Brandeis-on-the-Adler, which has already been mentioned as one of the centres of the Unity. The little town then belonged to Charles, Lord of ^erotin.i Though during his whole life a devoted member of the Unity, ^erotin had remained faithful to the House of Austria during the war that had just ended, and had even been menaced by the Moravian nobles, who had adopted the cause of Frederick of the Palatinate. In 1 See Chapter VI. KOMENSK^ 255 acknowledgment of his services, he was not by the Catholics included in the general decree of exile, and the Austrian authorities at first even overlooked the fact that many members of ^erotin's Church, among whom was Komensky, sought refuge at Brandeis. Komensky's intense literary activity, that had already begun at Ful- neck, continued at Brandeis. There, besides minor works, the Labyrinth of the World was written, though the book was afterwards enlarged. All Komensky's writings while at Brandeis bear witness of an intense mental depression. Not only did he feel deeply the ruin and dispersion of the religious com- munity which he had just begun to serve, but he also about this time lost his young wife, probably during the flight from Fulneck to Brandeis. Writing of this period about ten years later Komensky says : ** God willed it that, not only through the lamentable war, but also through the plague that spread throughout the country, great slaughter took place. I thus lost miserably my wife and my children, relations, connections, and kind bene- factors. I suffered anxiety on anxiety that filled my heart. But what was harder to bear than all else was that God appeared to have abandoned our country and Church and left us orphans, for all the churches of Bohemia and Moravia were deprived of their faithful spiritual guides, many subjects lost their evangelic lords, these again lost their beloved subjects,^ and the servants of God lost their churches." The respite granted the brethren through the inter- ^ Komensky alludes to the confiscation of the estates of the nobles who belonged to the Unity. The peasants on their estates were generally of their faith, and were treated more mildly than on other estates. Komensky there- fore uses the word. ** subject " [oddany) instead of " serf," 2 56 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE cession of ^erotin did not last long. Every year the persecution of all in Bohemia who were outside the pale of the Church of Rome became severer and their posi- tion more precarious. At a secret meeting of the brethren in 1625, at which Komensky was present, it was decided altogether to abandon Bohemia, and a discussion arose as to the country where the members of the Unity should seek refuge. It was finally decided that the brethren should separate, some proceeding to Poland, others to Hungary and Transylvania. Poland then had a large Protestant population, and this is still the case as re- gards the two other countries mentioned. Before finally leaving Bohemia, it was decided that messengers should be sent out in different directions to obtain informa- tion as to where the brethren could find quarters. Komensky, with two companions, started for Poland. In that country Count Raphael Lescynski, himself a member of the Unity, was known as a warm friend of the brethren. During his journey Komensky first heard of the so- called prophecies of one Christopher Kotter. Charac- teristically enough Komensky immediately forgot all other preoccupations and obtained an interview with the " prophet." Henceforth his belief in Kotter was implicit, and he immediately decided on translating into Latin and into Bohemian the German prophecies, which are a tissue of absurdities.^ The fact that a generally respected Protestant divine as Komensky had desired an interview with Kotter of course greatly increased the man's cele- brity. Even the Elector of Brandenburg, and Frederick, ^ See my Bohemia, an Historical Sketch, pp. 397 and 398. Want of space prevents my repeating the short account of Kotter's ** prophecies " given. there. CHRISTINA PONATOVSKA 257 ex-king of Bohemia, requested that he should be presented to them. From Germany Komensky continued his jour- ney to Poland, and having, as he tells us, received satis- factory assurances from Count Lescynski, he returned for the last time to Bohemia towards the end of the year 1626. He here again fell under the influence of a visionist, in whom he thoroughly believed, and whose hallucinations he even many years afterwards considered worthy of being recorded in print. Julian Ponatovsky, an impe- cunious Polish nobleman, had been received as a member of the Unity and appointed preacher at Mlada Boleslav. When the communities of the brethren were dispersed, Charles of Zerotin secured Ponatovsky's safety by appoint- ing him to the office of librarian at his castle at Namest in Moravia. Christina, Ponatovsky's daughter, appears to have been of a highly hysterical nature, which, added to the intense religious excitement of the times, induced her to deliver ^' prophecies," which were generally received with the greatest interest. The pathological side of the question need not be dealt with here. It is sufficient to state that Christina, who had recently been reading the Revelation of St. John, declared that she had heard the voice of the Lord, who had chosen her as intermediary for the purpose of informing the faithful of the approach- ing defeat of Rome. It was the misfortune of Komensky to be brought accidentally into contact with the " prophetess." Chris- tina had not joined her father in Moravia, but remained at Branna in Bohemia, not far from Tremesna, where Komensky was then staying. Christina suddenly became dangerously ill at Branna, and as the minister of the Unity who resided at Tremesna happened to be absent, R 258 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Komensky was sent to Branna in his stead. He has given a rather curious account of his visit to the pro- phetess. She appeared to be in a state of ecstasy, and constantly repeated the words '^ Bridegroom, bride- groom ! " Somewhat later she began to communicate her prophecies to Komensky and the other persons present. She again prophesied that the Protestants would shortly obtain a complete victory over Austria and the Pope. To these prophecies also Komensky gave immediate implicit faith. Though he soon left Branna, he remained in communication with Christina. The latter soon recovered from her illness, but continued to prophesy ; her prophecies, indeed, became even more definite. She now announced that, through the will of her heavenly bridegroom, Jesus, Papacy would be abol- ished ; that the Turks would be converted to Christi- anity, and that Ferdinand II. and Wallenstein would perish by violent deaths. Wallenstein was then residing at Jicin in Bohemia, and Christina, accompanied by a female friend, proceeded there to acquaint him with her prophecies. The great general was not at home, but Countess Wallenstein, who saw Christina, was greatly embarrassed, and consulted some Jesuits on the subject of her visionary visitor. The Jesuits advised that Chris- tina should immediately be sent to jail ; but it was finally agreed merely to remind her of the decree that had already banished from Bohemia all members of the Unity. Wallenstein was, on his return home, informed of the visit of the prophetess. He smiled, and remarked that the Emperor indeed received messages from Rome, Constantinople, and Madrid, but that he had received one from heaven. Christina returned to Branna, and as her father CHRISTINA PONATOVSKA 259 had died meanwhile, she decided to join Komensky and his wife — he had remarried very shortly after the death of his first wife — and a party of other exiles, who were on the point of leaving Bohemia. They set out in January 1628, and on crossing the frontier of their country in the direction of Silesia, " they all knelt down and prayed to God with cries and many tears, entreating Him that He would not finally avert His mercy from their beloved country nor allow the seed of His word to perish within it. In February Komensky arrived at Lissa, a small town in that part of Poland that is now known as the Prussian province of Posen. Ponatovska for some time continued a member of Komensky's house- hold, and the controversy concerning the true inspiration of her prophecies raged for a considerable time. A joint meeting of doctors and ministers of the Unity did not settle the question, as the opinion of the doctors was in direct opposition to that of the ecclesiastics, of whom Komensky was one. The latter never wavered in his belief in Christina's prophecies.^ He maintained that it could nowhere be proved that the Church had been deprived of the gift of prophecy. Before dismissing Christina Ponatovska it should be stated that some time after these events she married a young man employed at the printing-work of the Unity at Lissa, had two sons and three daughters, and in later years " disliked all reference to her prophecies." It would, however, be doing Komensky bitter wrong if we supposed that he was, while at Lissa, exclusively occupied with the prophecies of Kotter and Ponatovskd. ^ As late as in 1657 Komensky, in his Ltix in Tenebris^ republished the prophecies of Kotter, Ponatovska, and Drabik. The last-named disreputable prophet will be mentioned later. 26o A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE The period of his first residence at Lissa was, on the contrary, one of incessant and fruitful hard work. His duties as a preacher and schoohnaster were fulfilled with equally great conscientiousness, and, from the few sermons that have been preserved, it appears that in this respect also his ability was exceptional. It was also at this time that most of Komensky s educational works were written, though many were re-modelled later. It is therefore very difficult to fix the chronological order of Komensky's works, and even to decide whether the Bohemian or the Latin version of some of them is the original one. The beginning of the ^' pansophic " studies also dates from this time, and the Physical Komensky s first philosophical work, was completed as early as in 1632. Of external events there is at this period of Komensky's life little that requires mention. The monotonous life of the brethren was only occasionally interrupted by the echoes of the events of the Thirty Years' War. In 1631 the news of Gustavus Adolphus's great victory at Breiten- feld, and in the following year that of the occupation of Bohemia by the Saxons, reached Lissa. I have already noticed the brief and vain hopes that Komensky founded on these events. It is worthy of notice that even in those troublous times Komensky's literary work soon became known. His " pansophic " studies, that appeal so little to modern readers, then attracted almost more attention than his really valuable educational works. Among those who appear to have taken an early interest in Komensky's "pansophy" was Samuel HartHb, a learned Englishman, who was probably of German origin, 'Svho resided in London, and took a keen interest in everything that KOMENSKt AT LISSA 261 savoured of intellectual progress."^ Hartlib seems, indeed, first to have heard of Komensky as the author of the Jatiua Linguaruniy an educational work that then, and even long after, enjoyed great celebrity ; but he was principally interested in Komensky s philosophical studies. Hartlib entered into correspondence with him, requested information on the subject of "pansophy," and offered pecuniary assistance should Komensky wish to visit England. The latter seems to have received these proposals favourably, and he forwarded to Hartlib a sketch de- scribing all the pansophic works he intended to write. Many of these works perished afterwards when the town of Lissa was burnt down, and it is therefore a mere matter of conjecture how many of them already were in existence. It is, however, certain that Komensky at that time had already compiled a complete table of contents of his pansophic works under the name of Synopsis Operis Consuliatorii,'^ Hartlib appears to have been delighted with Komensky s communication, and, contrary to the author's wishes, he published his pan- sophic sketch at Oxford in 1637. Komensky does not seem to have resented this breach of faith. He had perhaps already made up his mind to visit England, where the publication of his work was likely to increase his fame. Disputes with other ministers of the Unity, who disapproved of Komensky s visionary opinions, had rendered residence at Lissa distasteful to him. The death of Count Lescynski in 1637 was also a reason 1 Mr. Keatinge : The Great Didactic. Mr. Keatinge's preface contains much interesting information concerning Hartlib and his friends. - This table of contents can be four^d in my Bohemia^ an Historical Sketch, p. 403. 262 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE for leaving Lissa, though his son and successor, Count Bohnslav Lescynski/ continued to afford protection to the brethren even after he had adopted the Roman faith. In the year 1641 Komensky started for England, and, after a very perilous journey, during which his vessel was once driven near to the Norwegian coast and he was once nearly shipwrecked, he arrived in London on September 21st of that year. The description of the perils of the sea, which Komensky introduced into the later editions of the Labyrinth^ is founded on these per- sonal experiences. Of the small coterie that welcomed Komensky in London, Mr. Keatinge gives the follow- ing interesting account. ^^ Komensky," he writes, " was received with open arms by the little band, of which Hartlib was the centre. A man of great enthusiasm but less judgment, Hartlib knew everybody in England who was worth knowing. ... At that time in easy circum- stances, he was living in Duke's Place, Drury Lane, an address which, we may be sure, was the centre of Komenskys London experiences. Here would have met to discuss the intellectual and political problems of the day men like Theodore Haak, John Durie, John Beale, John Wilkins, John Pell, and Evelyn, who had just returned to London after a three months' journey through Europe. Milton was living in London, and must certainly have met and conversed with the illus- trious stranger." Komensky's impressions of England are contained in an interesting letter which, shortly after his arrival on the i8th (old style 8th) of October 1641, he addressed to ^ Bohnslav Lescynski was the grandfather of Stanislas Lescynski, for some time Iving of Poland. KOMENSK^ IN LONDON 263 his friends at Lissa.^ After describing his journey and the kind reception given to him by his Enghsh friends, Komensky writes : " What, after having now spent nearly a month here, I have been able to see, hear, and understand, I will briefly report, dealing first with public affairs and then with my own. ^' This nook of the earth has much that differs from other countries, and is worthy of admiration. What interests me most are those matters which concern the glory of God and the flourishing state of the Church and the schools (both now and, it is to be hoped, yet more in the future). *^ If I enumerate some points specially, I know it will not be displeasing to you and to the friends of God. " 1.2 The ardour with which the people crowd to the churches is incredible. The town has 120 parish churches, and in all of them — of all those which I have visited, I state this as an ascertained fact — there is such a crowd that space is insufBcient. " II. Almost all bring a copy of the Bible with them. . . . Therefore the preacher, when reading his text, twice mentions book, chapter, and verse. If the text is short (for he often chooses a single line), he reads it twice over also. ^MII. Of the youths and men, a large number copy out the sermons word by word with their pens. For here, thirty years ago (under King James), they dis- covered an art which now even the uneducated practise, that of ^ tachygraphia,' which they call stenography. . . . " IV. After the sermons, most fathers of families repeat ^ Published in Mr. Patera's Korrespondence Kotnenskiho. 2 I have retained Komensky's plan of dividing his letter into numbered paragraphs, but want of space has obliged me to abridge the letter consider- ably, and I have omitted altogether one or two paragraphs of little interest. 264 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE the sermon at home with the members of their house- hold. Sometimes two or three famiHes meet for this purpose. " Of books on' all subjects in. their own language they have an enormous number, so that I doubt whether any country is equal to them, particularly as regards books on theology. There are truly not more bookstalls at Frankfurt at the time of the fair than there are here every day. Verulamius's (Bacon's) work De Scientiarum Augmentis has also recently appeared in English. "VI. Their thirst for the word of God is so great, that many of the nobles, citizens also and matrons, study Greek and Hebrew to be able more safely and more sweetly to drink from the very spring of life. Do not think that only one or two do this ; there are many, and day by day this holy contagion spreads farther. '^VII. Some select men designated by Parliament are now working that they may have the text of the Bible as accurate as possible, corresponding in everything with the sources, and furnished with very short marginal notes. Here, however, political considerations have somewhat interfered, for they have fixed them a term of a few months only ; but I hope the time will be prolonged. "VIII. They are vehemently debating on the reform of the schools of the whole kingdom in a manner similar to that to which, as you know, my wishes tend, that is, that all young people should be instructed, none neglected, and that their instruction should be such that it lay down the foundations of Christianity more deeply and more solidly in the tender minds, thus afterwards render- ing greater the efficacy of religious ministration. " IX. They are endeavouring to found a special illus- KOMENSK^ IN LONDON 265 trious school — whether in London or elsewhere has not yet been settled — for young men of noble birth, separated from all mixture with plebeians. '*X. An instruction for parents as to the provident care of their children in infancy and their wise prepara- tion for further culture in accordance with my Instruc- tion ^ . . . had been prepared here before I arrived." . . . Paragraphs XL and XII. have little interest, but the last part of the letter, which deals with the political situation of England, and reflects, no doubt, the opinions of Komensky's English friends, is worth quoting. Para- graph XI 1 1, begins thus: "The questions concerning episcopal rank give much trouble here ; some wish to preserve it in its entire former dignity, others to abolish entirely both the name and the office ; others again wish to retain the episcopal name and office, but to suppress the worldly pomp, the too great luxury and the uncalled- for interference in temporal matters, which are too often the results of the episcopal system. The larger part of the nobles, however, and almost all the people, desire the complete suppression (of the episcopal rank) ; so hated has the whole order of bishops become because of the abuse of their office, and because of their endeavours to rule men's consciences and oppose the liberty of the people. Even our own Bishop of Lincoln (of bishops the most learned, the most cultivated, and politically the most sagacious), who was three years ago deprived of his office by the Archbishop, imprisoned, but then libe- rated by Parliament, is beginning to be badly spoken of, and there are some who predict evil for him. They say he will not only be deprived of his office together with the other bishops, but also that he will again be im- 1 See later, p. 286. 266 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE prisoned. For new plots against the Parliament have been discovered, some secret, some almost open. But I hope and believe in better things for the good bishop. When, the other day, he invited me as well as Duraeus (Durie) and Hartlib to dine and discuss with him, he spoke most reservedly on all these matters. He only remarked that he did not know whether he and his colleagues should be reckoned among the dead or among the living. Should things take a more peaceful turn, he promised great aid to us and to ours. . . . "XIV. Archbishop Laud is detained in prison, with no hope of Hberation. For while Parliament is pro- rogued, commissioners have been appointed who will inquire into his acts and be informed of the various grievances against him, which Parliament had not time to hear. This has been done. They also say that such matters have been produced that there is no hope for his life. " XV. The decision of the Parliament, published be- fore its prorogation, which decreed the removal from all churches of such * articles of ceremony ' as altars, crosses, &c., which had been introduced by the Archbishop, has within the last days been carried out almost everywhere, In one of the churches here in London there was a win- dow, the religious and very artistic painting of which, they say, cost ;^4000, that is 16,000 imperials. The am- bassador of the Spanish king who resides here offered to pay the whole of this sum if he could have the win- dow intact. But the somewhat exaggerated zeal of the people despised the proffered money and broke the window, considering that it was wrong to obtain gain by means of idolatrous objects." Komensky s visit to England was, like so many of his THE ^^ CHRISTIAN ACADEMY" 267 undertakings, a complete failure. He seems indeed to have realised this soon, and to have acquired in a short time a considerable insight into the state of affairs in England. Komenskys plan of founding a *^ Christian Academy of Pansophy" was at best absurd, but it was doubly so at a moment when England was drifting rapidly towards civil war. Quite at first, however, Komensky appears to have believed in the feasibility of his favourite plan, and he even meditated whether ^' the Savoy in London, Winchester, outside of London, or Chelsea, very near the capital, would be the best site for the academy." The question naturally arises. What was the object of the academy that Komensky, Hartlib, and other enthusiasts planned ? Mr. Keatinge suggests that the academy had no further purpose than " to organise a collection of laboratories for physical research." This, though undoubtedly part of the plan, was certainly not the whole plan. The academy, according to Komensky, was to be composed of the wisest men of all countries, who, among many other things, were to elaborate a uni- versal language. They were to meet in England "be- cause of the heroic deeds of the Englishman Drake, who by five times circumnavigating the world furnished, as it were, a prelude to the future holy unity of all nations." Komensky's plans are so obviously Utopian that it is scarcely necessary to mention that they came to nothing. An universal language will never be accepted, and uni- versal peace, or the '' holy unity of all nations," as Kom- ensky termed it — though the events of the last few months prove that that ideal still has believers — was certainly impossible in Komensky's time, and probably will continue an impossibility. Though long convinced that his fantastic plans found 268 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE little favour in England, Komensky yet remained in London up to June 1642. He here wrote, for the benefit of Hartlib and his other English friends, his Via LuciSy in which millennarian views are very noticeable. Soon after his arrival in London, Komensky had re- ceived a letter from Louis de Geers, a rich Dutch merchant, who had important business connections with Sweden. He had already entered into correspondence before, and the letter of De Geers was forwarded to Komensky from Lissa. De Geers in his letter suggested that Komensky' should proceed to Sweden for the pur- pose of reorganising the schools of that country accord- ing to his new educational theories. It is a proof how soon he had lost his hope in English aid for his pan- sophic plans that in November 1641 Komensky already conditionally accepted the offer of De Geers. The latter had really thought of Komensky only as a man who was already an authority on matters of educa- tion ; but Komensky himself, sanguine as ever, saw in a visit to Sweden an opportunity of expounding his pansophic views to the Chancellor Oxenstiern, and also — a more sensible object — of enlisting the sympathies of the Swedish statesman for the Bohemian exiles. In June 1642 Komensky left England, and first pro- ceeded to Holland. It is a proof of the great celebrity that he had already attained that he here received yet another invitation. While travelling in Holland, Kom- ensky met Richard Charles Winthrop, formerly Governor of Massachusetts, who suggested to him that he should proceed to America and become rector of Harvard Col- lege, that had been founded six years before. Komensky, who was bound by his agreement with the Swedish Government, in the name of which De Geers had KOMENSKt IN SWEDEN 269 negotiated with him, declined the offer. In September 1642 Komensky arrived in Sweden, had an interview with De Geers, and afterwards at Stockholm met the Chancellor Oxenstiern. Komensky has left a detailed and very interesting account of the latter interview, from which want of space unfortunately prevents my quoting. Komensky, of course, laid great stress on his visionary views and on his ^^ pansophic " — philosophical one can hardly call them — writings. The great Chancellor, on the other hand, warmly praised Komensky s educa- tional works, and suggested, as De Geers had already done, that he should write a series of Latin school- books for the use of the Swedish schools. With char- acteristic tact, Oxenstiern remarked that if he facili- tated the study of the Latin language, Komensky would prepare the way to further more profound studies. As Komensky refused to remain in Sweden, it was decided that he should settle at Elbing, in Prussia, not very far from Sweden. Komensky spent six years (1642-1648) at Elbing, occupied partly with the preparation of the school- books he had been commissioned to write, partly with his favourite ^^ pansophic" studies. His life here, as almost everywhere, was a troubled one. The agents of the Swedish Government urged him, in a manner that was not always delicate, to proceed with the task he had accepted and not to waste his time on w^orks of a different nature. On the other hand, Hartlib, with the characteristic inability of a rich man to understand that others have to work for their living, bitterly re- proached Komensky with having abandoned the sublime works that had been planned in London for the purpose of writing school-books. 270 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE In 1648, on the death of Bishop Justinus, the members of the Unity assembled at Lissa chose Komensky as one of their bishops. He outlived all his colleagues, and eventually became the last bishop of the Bohemian Brethren. On receipt of the news of his election, Komensky started for Lissa, but not until he had for- warded to Sweden some of the school-books which he had been commissioned to write. The year 1648 brought a great blow to the members of the Unity and to the Bohemian Protestants generally. The Treaty of Westphalia was signed in that year, and no stipulations in favour of the Bohemian exiles were contained in it. At the risk of prolonging the war, the Austrian Govern- ment maintained its principle that no one who did not profess the creed of Rome should be allowed to reside in Bohemia or Moravia ; to Silesia slight concessions were granted. All the hopes of the exiles that they might once be able to return to their beloved Bohemia were now destroyed for ever. Oxenstiern had to the last defended the cause of the exiles, and did not de- serve the severe reproaches that Komensky addressed to him. All hopes of worldly aid having vanished, Komensky relied more than ever on the intervention of God, and on the visions and prophecies which announced that such an intervention would shortly take place. " If there is no aid from man," he wrote to Oxenstiern, ^' there will be from God, whose aid is wont to com- mence when that of men ceases." Komensky's relations with Kotter and Ponatovska prove sufficiently that it was not now that mysticism and credulity first obscured his generally clear brain ; but it is evident that Komensky never quite recovered from the blow inflicted by the KOMENSKY IN HUNGARY 271 Treaty of Westphalia, which to his generally optimistic nature appeared unexpected. His reliance even on the prophecies of an impudent liar and humbug such as Drabik injured his reputation in the learned world, and threw obloquy even on his masterly, wise, and perfectly sane educational works. Ever restless, Komensky was not prevented, even by the responsibilities of his new dignity, from undertaking new wanderings. It has already been mentioned that when the members of the Unity were expelled from Bohemia many brethren sought refuge in Hungary. They now complained that for many years they had not seen their brother Komensky, who had meanwhile ac- quired such celebrity. Komensky was already medi- tating a visit to Hungary when he received a letter from George Rakoczy, prince of Transylvania, inviting him to visit his domains, and to introduce there the educational reforms which had rendered him celebrated. Rakoczy then ruled not only over Transylvania, but also over a considerable part of Northern Hungary, including the towns of Tokay and Saros Patak ; the latter of these towns was indeed a frequent residence of the Transyl- vanian princes. Having obtained the consent of the other seniors or bishops, Komensky in 1650 again set out on his travels. On his journey he passed through Pucho, a small town in Northern Hungary, and assisted at a meeting of the members of the Unity which took place there. Among those present was Nicholas Drabik, a former school-fellow of Komensky, who proposed to accompany him on his farther journey. Drabik had already some years previously forwarded some ^^pro- phecies" to Komensky, and the latter now fell entirely under his influence. 272 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE It is with pity and shame that I refer to Drabik's prophecies in connection with so great and good a man as Komensky ; their vakie was about the same as that of the political predictions of a third-rate writer of leading articles ; the style is a vile imitation of that of the Revela- tion of St. John. The leading idea is the destruction of the House of Austria, which is described as the bestia of the Apocalypse. The nations that were to effect this downfall varied in the predictions according to the political situation of the day. Turkey was then almost always at war with the House of Habsburg, and therefore always figured among these nations. At this moment Drabik announced that he had just had a vision in- forming him that enemies coming from four directions were surrounding "the beast." They were the princes of the House of Rakoczy, "the dearest instruments of God/' from the east ; the Greeks and Servians from the south ; the Poles, Lithuanians, Russians, Tartars, and Turks from the north ; the Swiss from the west ! The Hungarian crown was assured to Sigismund Rakoczy, at whose expense Drabik was then living. Komensky, who had received former " prophecies," ventured to re- mark that in them the crown of Hungary had been assured to Sigismund's father. Prince George Rakoczy (who had died in 1648). Drabik then "burst out into tears," and thus pacified the kind-hearted Komensky. It may incidentally be remarked, that when Prince Sigis- mund died in 1652, Drabik again calmly transferred his prophecy, this time to that prince's brother and successor, George II. of Transylvania. While Kotter may have believed in his visions, and physical circumstances pro- bably explain those of Ponatovska, Drabik was simply an impostor, who managed not only to live at free THE ''PROPHET" DRABIK 273 quarters, but also to obtain considerable sums of money as a remuneration for alleged negotiations with Turkey. It was indeed through him that Komensky, who was integrity personified, was at Saros Patak accused of indelicacy in financial matters and of greediness for money. These accusations were afterwards echoed by the divines with whom Komensky was engaged in con- troversies during the last years of his life, and they also found their way into Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, It must be sufBcient to note the enormous influence Drabik acquired over Komensky ; to account for it is impossible, unless we assume that much suffering and disappointment had weakened his intellect. This is, however, disproved by the fact that the educational works which Komensky continued to write nearly to the end of his life show little trace of waning mental power. It must be taken into account, also, that visions and prophecies found very general belief in those days. Mr. Keatinge, in his interesting book to which I have already referred, mentions several instances of learned Englishmen who had read the prophecies of Drabik (or Drabicius, as he was called in England), and fully be- lieved in them. Bayle also writes that when, in 1683, the news that the Turks were besieging Vienna reached Paris, the name of the prophet Drabik was in every mouth. Drabik at last came to an evil end. A few months (fortunately) after Komensky s death, Drabik was arrested as a swindler and conspirator. He confessed his impostures and was executed, though he had ac- cepted the creed of Rome in the hope of saving his life. Komensky's activity as a teacher while at Saros Patak was indefatigable. He attempted to improve and re- S 274 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE organise the " gymnasium " of the town, and also wrote several new educational works during his stay in Hun- gary. He encountered, however, many obstacles ; the local teachers were opposed to him, and reproached him with his intimacy with Drabik ; linguistic difficulties also arose. If Komensky yet remained four years in Hungary, it was mainly for political purposes. He still hoped to contribute to the formation of a Protestant League which would drive the Austrians out of Bohemia, and thus enable the brethren to return to their beloved country. Komensky now hoped for aid from England, since Crom- well was famed all over the Continent as the protector of persecuted Protestants. After the death of Sigismund Rakoczy, Komensky actually succeeded in inducing his brother and successor, George II., to endeavour to negotiate an alliance with England and Sweden against Austria. When the Transylvanian embassy started for London, it was instructed to pass by Lissa to consult with Komensky, who had already returned to Poland. His knowledge of English affairs would, it was thought, prove useful, and it is probable that the state paper which the ambassadors presented to Cromwell was from the pen of Komensky. Komensky, indeed, always seems to have continued to communicate with his English friends. As late as in 1658, Cromwell and Thurloe, no doubt through the intermediation of Hartlib, suggested that the Bohemian Brethren, together with the Vaudois or Waldenses, whom the Duke of Savoy was then per- secuting, should be established in Ireland. Lands formerly belonging to Roman Catholics were to have been given to them, and it was thought that the Pro- testant element in Ireland would thus be strengthened. Komensky, perhaps injudiciously, declined the proposal. KOMENSKt'S LAST YEARS 275 He stated, either in consequence of his own conviction or because of his belief in the wretched Drabik's pro- phecies, that the brethren would shortly return to their own country, and therefore could not travel to distant lands. In 1654 Komensky returned to Lissa, but his stay there was now short and troubled. War between Sweden and Poland broke out in the following year, and the victorious Swedes occupied Lissa in August 1655. The only policy for the homeless community of the brethren evidently was to remain neutral in these alien quarrels. Unfortunately, Komensky employed his ever-ready pen in composing a panegyric on Charles Gustavus, the victorious Swedish king. In the following year the town of Lissa was retaken by the Polish army, pillaged, and burnt down. Komensky's library and his MS. were again destroyed. The brethren, perhaps not without reason, accused Komensky^ of having, through his injudicious writings, caused the downfall of the community of Lissa, to which the Poles had never been hostile before, Komensky^, now sixty-live years old, was again home- less, and he was at first uncertain where he should seek refuge. He proceeded to Hamburg, but there re- ceived an invitation to Amsterdam from Lawrence De Geers, the son of his old patron Louis De Geers. Komensky started for Amsterdam, and here spent the latest years of his life. His literary activity continued to the last. He published at Amsterdam the only com- plete edition of his educational works, and even wrote new "pansophic" books. Differing on this point from his father, Lawrence De Geers took great interest in these studies, and even in the writings of the " prophets," 2/6 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE ill whom Komensky obstinately continued to believe. De Geers was foolish enough to invite Drabik to Amsterdam, and it was through his financial aid that Komensky was enabled to publish in 1657 ^^^ ^^-^ ^'^ TenebriSf a book in which all the prophecies of Kotter, Ponatovska, and Drabik were again brought before the public. The mystic and now openly professed chiliastic views of Komensky involved him during the last years of his life in numerous theological controversies. Detailed ac- counts of them have recently been published in Bohe- mian, perhaps rather because everything concerned with Komensky is valued by his countrymen than because these controversies now have much interest. Among Komen- sky s theological antagonists were Nicholas Arnold, Daniel Zwicker, and Samuel Des Marets, a professor at Gron- ingen. The last-named attacked the aged bishop of the Unity with great violence, calling him '^ a fanatic, a visionary, and an enthusiast in folio." He also accused him of obtaining large sums from the De Geers family by means of ^' pansophic hope and chiliastic smoke." A polemical essay directed against Descartes also belongs to Komensky's last years. These years were very melan- choly, though the old man, characteristically enough, found great relief in the society of an aged French pro- phetess and visionist named Antoinette Bourgignon. His old comrades died off one by one. Of the bishops of the community, Gertichius died in 1667, and Figulus (Komensky's son-in-law) in January 1670. In the same year, on November 15th, Komensky, the last bishop of the Bohemian Brethren, ended his long and troubled life. It would require a book larger than the whole of this THE " LABYRINTH OF THE WORLD " 277 volume to give even a slight account of the 142 works ^ of Komensky. Such a book would hardly have much general interest. The enormous total includes prayer- books, lists of regulations for the Unity, mere school- books, sermons, works on natural history that long since have become valueless, and so on. These lists, however, which include only books that are still in existence, do not comprise the entire fruits of the literary activity of Komensky. Several '^ pansophic " works that are enu- merated in a table of contents, to which I have already referred, are no longer in existence, and were probably destroyed when the town of Lissa was burnt down. While at Fulneck, Komensky was already busy writing works on grammar as well as a Bohemian translation of the Psalms. The melancholy events of the year 1621, when he lost his wife and his home at Fulneck and be- gan his many wanderings, inspired him to write several religious books, all bearing witness to the deep depres- sion of the author. Such works are the Help for the Soul, The Impregnable Castky which is the Name of the Lord, The Dismal Complaint of a Christian, The Centre of Secnrity, and others. All these writings are in Bohe- mian, as also is the far better known Labyri7ith, which Komensky wrote at Brandeis-on-the-Adler shortly after his arrival there, and dedicated to his patron. Lord Charles of Zerotin. The Labyrinth of the World, perhaps one of the best allegorical narratives that has ever been written, professes the same pessimism, combined with a fervent belief in the revelations of the Christian faith, which can be found in the other works also which I 1 According to Dr. Kvacsala's calculation. Dr. Zoubek only enumerates 137 books. The difference is caused by the uncertainty whether certain re-written books, sometimes republished in a different name, should be counted twice. Mr. Keatinge's book contains a list of 127 books of Komensky. 278 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE have just mentioned. The Labyrinth from its first appearance obtained an immense popularity with the Bohemian people,^ to which I have already referred. Since the Bohemians have again been able to read freely the records of their ancient literature, the Labyrinth has regained its former popularity, as is proved by the numerous recently published editions. The Labyrinth of the Worlds written in Komensky s youth, is, from a literary point of view, undoubtedly his greatest achievement. Rarely perhaps has the vanity of all worldly matters, the hopelessness of men's struggles, the inevitable disappointment which is the result of even the most successful ambition, been more clearly ex- pounded than in this small and unknown work. Were we not constantly reminded that we are reading the book of a devout Christian and member of the Unity, we should fancy that we were reading the work of a fore- runner of Schopenhauer. Komensky s Labyrinth^ in fact, reeks with pessimism, though his admirable religious faith and piety enabled him to give a supernatural and consolatory ending to his book. Happiness, unattainable here, is to be found elsewhere. The little book is well worth being translated into English, and I hope some day to attempt that task.2 It will here only be possible to give an outline of the tale and a few quotations. Komensky tells us of the adven- tures of a young man who, *'when arrived at that age when the human mind begins to understand the differ- ence between good and evil, sees how various are men's stations and ranks, their vocations, and the works and undertakings which occupy them." He then meditates 1 See p. 248. * My translation of the Labyrinth of the World was published by Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein in 1901. The book now forms part of Messrs. Dent's *' Temple Clasoics." THE "LABYRINTH OF THE WORLD" 279 as to "what group of men he should join, and with what subjects he should occupy his life." The youth then starts on his wanderings, having accepted " Impudence" and " Falsehood " as his guides. They conduct him to the summit of a high tower. He now beholds a city which appeared to him " beautiful, splendid, and broad, with countless streets, squares, houses, smaller and larger buildings, all swarming with people." The six principal streets, his companions tell him, are inhabited respec- tively by married people, tradesmen, scholars, priests, rulers, and soldiers. To the west of the city he is shown the " Castle of Fortune." In the middle of the city is a vast square, in the centre of which is the residence of the " Queen of Wisdom." The pilgrim is then shown two gates : the first, that of life, through which all must pass ; the second, that of separation. Before entering this gate, all must draw lots and accept a career in the world in accordance with the lot they have drawn. They arrive at the gates of separation, and then the pilgrim, or rather Komensky, tells us : " We went downward by a dark winding staircase, and before the door there was a wide hall full of young people, and on the right side there sat a fierce-looking old man, holding in his hand a large copper jar. And I saw that all those who came from the gate of life stepped up to him, and each one put his hand into the jar and drew from it a scrap of paper on which something was written. Then each of them went down one of the streets, some running and shouting from joy, while others crept along slowly, looked around them, groaned and lamented. " I also then came nearer, looked at some of the scraps of paper, and noticed that one contained the word * Rule ! ' another ' Serve ! ' another ^ Command ! ' 2 80 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE another ' Write ! ' another ^ Plough ! ' another ^ Learn ! ' another ' Dig ! ' another ^ Judge ! ' yet another ' Fight ! ' and so forth. Impudence said to me : ^ Here vocations and work are distributed, and according to this distribu- tion every one has to fulfil his task in the world. He who distributes the lots is called Fate, and from him in this fashion every one who enters the world must receive his instructions.' ^' Then Falsehood nudged me at my other side, thus giving me notice that I also should stretch out my hand. I begged not to be obliged to take any one lot directly without first examining it, nor to intrust myself to blind fortune. But I was told that without the permission of the Lord Regent Fate this could not be. Then stepping up to him, I modestly brought fonvard my request, say- ing that I had arrived with the intention of seeing every- thing for myself, and only then choosing what pleased me. ^' He answered : ^ My son, you see that others do not this, but what is given or offered them they take. How- ever, as you desire this, it is well ! ' Then he wrote on a scrap of paper, ^ Speculare,' that is to say, ^ Look round you or inquire,' gave it to me and left me." The pilgrim and his two companions now enter the city, and proceed first to the street of the married people. Here Komensky gives us what, for one who was married three times, and is not known to have been unhappy in marriage, seems an intensely gloomy and pessimistic view of married life. He dilates on the uncertainty of choice in marriage, on the trouble caused by children, on the disappointment felt by the childless, on all that is unlovely in love. The pilgrim then proceeds to the street of the tradesmen, and the many troubles, anxieties, and disappointments to which commerce is exposed are THE "LABYRINTH OF THE WORLD" 281 eloquently described. Komensky, in the later editions of the Labyrinth J here inserted a curious passage refer- ring to his own sea-voyage, from which I can only quote a few lines. " The wind/' he writes, " had meanwhile increased so rapidly that we were tossed about in a manner that horrified our hearts ; the sea rolled round us in every direction with such gigantic waves that our course was, as it were, up high hills and down deep valleys, once upward and then again downward ; some- times we were shot upwards to such heights that it seemed as if we were to reach the moon, then again we descended as into a precipice. . . . This continued day and night, and any one can imagine what anguish and fear we felt. Then I said to myself, ^ Surely these men (the sailors) must be more pious than all other men, they who never for an hour are sure of their lives ; ' but look- ing at them, I observed that they were all without excep- tion eating gluttonously, as in a tavern, drinking, play- ing, laughing, talking in an obscene manner, in fact, committing every sort of evil deed and licentiousness." The pilgrim next visits the scholars or learned men. Komensky, here quite in his element, passes judgment on many savants of his time, and gives his opinion on astronomy, history, natural history, poetry, and philo- sophy as they appeared to him in the writings of his con- temporaries. His erudition, judged, of course, by the standard of his time, does not appear profound, but he sometimes, in few words, describes epigrammatically cur- rents of thought that had importance in his day. The chapters which deal with the priesthood are closely connected with those that tell us of the pilgrim's visit to the men of learning. As Komensky had, when describing the former, laid stress on the many follies of 282 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE philosophers and the vanity of human le^irning, he now deals severely with the professed teachers of religious truth, noting their obstinacy, their want of erudition, their constant reciprocal animosities. The pilgrim and his companions now proceed to the street of the rulers. Here, in accordance with the pessi- mistic note which characterises the book, we are told that all earthly authority is evil, but that if it did not exist, the condition of the world would be yet worse. We here find interesting allusions to contemporary events, the sudden appearance and downfall of King Frederick of Bohemia and the executions at Prague in 162 1. Komensky lays stress on the uncertainty of royal power. He writes : ^' Then the royal throne (that of Ferdinand of Austria is meant) suddenly shook, broke into bits, and fell to the ground. Then I heard noise among the people, and looking round, I saw that they were leading in another prince and seating him on the throne, while they joyously exclaimed that things would now be different from what they were. They flatter the new prince and all who can strengthen the throne for him to sit on. I, thinking it right to act for the advantage of the general welfare, also contri- buted a nail or two to strengthen the throne ; for this some praised me, while others looked at me with dis- approval. But meanwhile the other prince recovered himself, and he and his men attacked us with cudgels, thrashing the whole crowd till they fled, and many even lost their necks." Komensky here alludes to some ser- vice which he had rendered to the government of King Frederick, of which nothing is otherwise known. He no doubt sympathised with that government and was on terms of acquaintance with administrators of the Utra- THE "LABYRINTH OF THE WORLD" 283 quist Consistory of Prague. One of the administrators, Cyrillus, who assisted the president, Dicastus, at the coronation of King Frederick, was the father of Kom- ensky's second wife, whom he married about the time when he wrote the Labyrinth, After the rulers, the pilgrim visits the soldiers. Komen- sky here gives a very lifelike description of the brutal ways of the soldiery at the time of the Thirty Years' War. His battle-picture is also striking. " Then suddenly," he writes, ^' the drums beat, the trumpet resounds, noisy cries arise. Then, behold, all rise up, seize daggers, cutlasses, bayonets, or whatever they have, and strike unmercifully at one another till blood spirts out. They hack and hew at one another worse than the most savage animals. Then in every direction the cries increased ; one could hear the tramping of horses, the clashing of armour, the clattering of swords, the growl of the artillery, the whistle of shots and bullets round our ears, the sound of trumpets, the crash of drums, the cries of those who urged on the soldiers, the shouting of the victors, the shrieking of the wounded and dying ; an awful leaden hailstorm could be seen, fearful fiery thunder and lightning could be heard ; now this, now that man's arm, head, leg, flew away ; there one fell over another ; everything swam in blood ! * Almighty God ! ' said I, 'what is happening ? Must the whole world perish ?' " The pilgrim now tells his companions that he has everywhere found but vanity. They answer him by informing him that those who have laboured hard even- tually find their way to the castle of Fortune, w^here happiness, honour, and pleasure await them. The pil- grim is now conducted to this castle, but here also finds nothing that attracts him. He reflects on the many 284 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE cares that are the consequence of riches, the misery that ever threatens Hbertines, gamblers, and gluttons, the vanity of glory and of ancient lineage. The pilgrim's guides, uncertain what to do with him, now lead him to the castle of the goddess of Worldly Wisdom. They bring him before the goddess and thus accuse him: ^' Most serene queen of the world," they say, *^ most brilliant ray of God's light, magnificent Wisdom ! The young man whom w^e bring before you has had the fortune to receive from Fate (the regent of your Majesty) the permission to view all the ranks and conditions in this kingdom of the world. . . . But he always com- plains to us of everything ; everything displeases him ; he is always striving for something that is unattainable. Therefore we cannot satisfy his wild cravings nor under- stand them, and we bring him before your serene grace, and leave it to your prudence to decide what is to be done with him." The queen receives the pilgrim graciously and invites him to remain at her court. Shortly afterwards Solomon appears at the queen's court with the intention of wed- ding her. He is accompanied by a large crowd of courtiers, among whom are Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, Seneca, many Christians and Jews. In their presence the queen receives numerous deputations, all bringing petitions, beggars, philosophers, who are represented by Theophrastus and Aristotle, judges, lawyers, and others. At last the queen receives a deputation of women. They state that it would be fair that they and men should alternately have dominion. Some even say that they alone should rule, as their bodies are more agile and their minds quicker than those of men. As men for so many years have ruled women, it is, they say, time that THE "LABYRINTH OF THE WORLD" 285 women should take superior rank. A few years ago, they add, a noble example of this was given in the kingdom of England under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for she decreed that all men should give their right hand to women, a worthy custom that still endured. Solomon, who had hitherto listened attentively to the petitions and to the queen's answers, now suddenly exclaims, " Vanity of vanities, and everything is vanity." He then tears away the mask which the queen wore, and she appears as a hideous hag. Yet shortly afterwards Solomon is, by means of flattery, again won over to her side and conducted to the street of married people, where he is unable to resist the female attractions that offer themselves to him. Fearful calamities are the conse- quence of Solomon's weakness, and the pilgrim despair- ingly exclaims, " Oh, that I had never been born, never passed through the gate of life ! for after having surveyed all the vanities of the world, nothing but darkness and horror are my part. O God, God ! If thou art a God, have mercy on wretched me ! " The pilgrim, whom his companions have meanwhile abandoned, now hears a voice from on high which exclaims, '^ Return whence thou camest into the house of thy heart, and then close the doors." The voice is that of Christ, who appears to the pilgrim and instructs him in true religion ; the teach- ing, needless to say, is strictly in accordance with the doctrine of the Unity. The pilgrim is then received into heaven, and the last chapter consists in a prayer to Christ, ending with the Latin words, Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonce voluntatis. It is impossible to render justice to the Labyrinth in a few pages, and no book lends itself less to quotation. Komensky, who is generally diffuse and addicted to repe- 286 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE tition, has here given us an enormous amount of thought and experience in a very small volume. The great educational works of Komensky, on which his principal claim to posthumous fame is founded, but which do not perhaps require lengthy mention in a work that deals mainly with literature, were principally written during the author's first prolonged stay at Lissa. Though the order in which Komensky s educational works were written cannot always be ascertained with certainty, there is little doubt that one of the earliest was the Informatorium ^koly MateTf-ske ( = instruction for mother-schools).^ It first appeared in Bohemian in 1628. The little book deals with the earliest instruction which a child receives from its mother. It soon obtained great popularity, and was speedily translated into German, Latin, and English. Anticipating Rousseau, Komensky lays great stress on the duty of mothers to nurse their children. The Instruction for Mother - Schools is still much read in Bohemia, and some of the regulations contained in it have been adopted for the modern " Kindergarten." Many other educational works of Komensky appeared in rapid succession during his stay at Lissa. The most valuable of them is the Didactica Magna^ which, like the Informatorium y was originally written and first published in Bohemian. Komensky here establishes four degrees of education : the mother-school, the vernacular school, the Latin school or gymnasium, and the academy or university. The earliest education in Germany and 1 The book has recently again been translated into English (probably from the German version) by Mr. W. Monroe, under the name of the School oj Infancy. The book contains a '* bibliography of Comenian literature," from which one would fancy that Bohemian works were purposely excluded, if two books written in that language, published respectively at Omaha and Racine, U.S., did not figure in the list KOMENSKY'S EDUCATIONAL WORKS 287 Austria is, except in the case of the Kindergarten, still left to the mother's own discretion ; but it is interesting to note that the three other divisions of educational estab- lishments suggested by Komensky are almost exactly in accordance with the present system of education in these countries. It is beyond the purpose of this book to give a detailed account of Komensky s educational theories. I must refer those who are interested in the subject to Mr. Keatinge's excellent introduction to his recently pub- lished English version of the Didactica MagnUy which I have already mentioned. The writer here gives us a concise but very clear sketch of these theories. One of the best known, probably formerly the besi known, work of Komensky is also of an educational character. I am referring to the celebrated Janua Linquarum Reserata, which was first published in 1631. The book was an attempt— somewhat anticipating Ollen- dorf's method — of facilitating the study of Latin, and in the enlarged editions that of other languages as well.^ The book immediately obtained an enormous success, and was constantly republished even up to the begin- ning of the present century. Philology and the science of languages generally have made such gigantic pro- gress since Komenskys time that the modern reader has the impression that the book was immensely over- rated. Komensky's peculiar system of introducing as many different words as possible, and of avoiding as far as possible the repetition of a word that had already ^ The first edition of the book was Latin and Bohemian. Anglo-Latin versions are numerous, the last having been published at Oxford in 1800. There are also French, Greek, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, and Hungarian editions of the Jaitiia, as well as some that, besides the Latin version, are printed in several modern languages, 288 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE been used, give the book an appearance of artificiality and constraint. The real leading idea of Komensky's Janua is an attempt simultaneously to teach a language and to enlarge as far as possible the extent of the pupil's ideas. I have elsewhere translated a portion of the curious chapter De Statu Regio, I shall here quote the first introductory chapter, which gives some idea of Komensky's method. It is written in the form of a dialogue between the reader and the author. The latter begins thus : — " Welcome, friendly reader ! If you ask me what it is to be learned, receive this answer : It means to know the differences between things, and to be able to name and designate all things by their right names." The pupil answers, ^^ Nothing more than this ?" '^No, certainly nothing beyond this. He who has learned the nomenclature of all things of Nature and Art has laid the foundation of all erudition." " But that must surely be very difficult." " It certainly is so if you attempt it unwillingly, and if you allow your prejudiced imagination to frighten you. Besides, if there is any difficulty, it will be at the beginning. Do not the shapes and characters of letters also appear to children who first see them singular, wonderful, and monstrous ? But when they have taken some trouble and pains, they understand that they (the letters) are but a play and a recreation. The same applies to all things ; they appear superficially more difficult than they are. But if you not only begin a work but also persevere, there is nothing that will not yield and submit itself to your intellect. Who wishes to do so can understand everything.^ Therefore, who- ^ In the Latin version of W^q Janua this reads as follows:— "Qui cupit capit omnia," a rather contestable statement, that is very characteristic of Komenbky. THE "JANUA" 289 ever you are, I order you to hope; I forbid you to despair. See this small work (the Janua), Here — I say this without boasting — I shall place the whole world before your eyes and show you the Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and German languages ^ as in a sum- mary or handbook. Therefore strive to obtain instruc- tion. Open this book, peruse it, and learn it by heart. Having done so, you will, with the help of God, find that you understand all arts and letters." Many other educational works of Komensky could be enumerated ; such are The Violet Bed of Christiaii Youth, The Gaj^den of Letters and of Wisdom, &c. Kom- ensky worked with particular energy at these works when he, about the year 1632, hoped, as already men- tioned, to be able to return to Bohemia and reorganise the schools there. A similar motive induced him to write the curious work entitled HaggcBus Redivivus, which, in spite of its Latin title, was written in Bo- hemian, and which has quite recently been published for the first time. In this book Komensky endeavoured to instruct the brethren as to the manner in which they should reorganise their ecclesiastical institution after their return to Bohemia, for which Komensky still hoped. Komensky, probably soon after his arrival at Lissa, began his philosophical, or rather ^' pansophic " studies ; for philosophy was to him still the handmaiden of theology, then already a rather belated standpoint. It has already been mentioned that at Lissa he composed a general plan and a table of contents of his future pansophic works, to which he gave the name of Synopsis 1 I quote from the Elzevir edition of i6ii, edited by Duez, which is written in the languages mentioned above. The passage, of course, varied in each edition according to the languages in which it was published. T 290 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Operis Consultatorii> Some of these works, such as the Panegersia and Panaugia, were afterwards published at Amsterdam ; others were destroyed by the fire at Lissa. The first complete philosophical work of Komensky, the Pliysica^ was published during his stay at Lissa. The work has now no interest, and is, indeed, a token of Komenskys superficiality and credulity as regards matters of natural history. Statements concerning this subject are by Komensky constantly proved by texts from the Bible in a manner irritating to the modern reader. One of the early '^pansophic" works also is the Via Lucisy written principally during Komensky's stay in London. The pansophic plans, such as the foundation of a universal language and a universal academy, the mystic use of the word light, occur in this as in all the pansophic works. A short account of the Via Lucis will be my only attempt to elucidate the mysteries of ^' pan- sophy." Arid and unattractive as the subject must necessarily appear to the modern intellect, no account that altogether ignored " pansophy " could claim to give a truthful representation of Komensky. The writer begins his book by naming, in his mystical manner, the three " books " (that is to say, three systems of educating humanity) which God has established ; they are instruction by means of the world, by means of man, and by means of universal "light" (or enlightenment). Education by means of the world has failed, as worldly wisdom, atheism, and epicureanism, introduced by Satan, have crazed men's minds. Instruction from man by means of laws and punishment, and the endeavours of philosophers and founders of sects, has also resulted in failure ; all attempts to amend humanity by human ^ See note 2, p. 261. ''PANSOPHY" 291 means have had no result, for they were isolated and relied on violent means. There remains a third *^ school," the only successful one, which instructs by means of the "universal light." This light, or rather enlightenment, consists in the complete collection of God's revelations to man by means of Scripture, which through God's power will become intelligible to all. There is no doubt that this "universal light" will one day appear to the whole world. Komensky quotes the Revelation of St. John in support of this statement. He then proceeds to define this light, which is " a brightness that flows on things, discloses and discovers them, and through the influence of which spectators realise shapes, positions, movements, the distances of things, and their reciprocal relations." Light is threefold — eternal, ex- terior, and interior light. Besides the eternal divine light, there is the exterior light proceeding from the sun and the stars.^ The interior light illuminates the mind, will, and heart of man. The interior light passes through seven gradations, the last of which, immediately pre- ceding the end of the world and to be expected shortly, is " panhiirmony." The state of "panharmony" will be shortly attained, and we must prepare for it. This should be done mainly by the foundation of a universal academy, a universal language, and universal schools. When all this has been done, the whole world will be "one race, one people, one house, one school of God. The heathens will be converted. The Jews will perceive that they are still in darkness. All lands will become subject to God and Christ. In accordance with the ^ Though nothing would have appeared more revolting to the pious Komensky, his ideas here somewhat recall the twofold sun of the Emperor Julian. 292 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Revelations and the Acts of the Apostles, Satan will be taken prisoner and shown in triumph. The whole world will have peace ; (there will be) one truth, one heart, one path. Thus will Christ's prophecy of ^ one shepherd, one flock' be fulfilled. This will be the true Golden Age. It will be the Sabbath of the Church, the seventh period of the world, preceding the octave that will resound in happy eternity." ^ The last years of Komensky^ were principally occupied in collecting, and sometimes re-writing, his works. The enormous collection of educational books was during Komensky's stay at Amsterdam republished in Latin in a gigantic folio volume under the name of Opera Didactica. The collection included books such as the Didactica Magna, the Jaiwa, and the ScJiola Materni Greniii (information for mother-schools) that had long before been pubHshed in the Bohemian language.^ ^ I have written with more detail on Komensky's " pansophy " in my Bohemia^ an Historical Research. Further study of Komensky's works on pansophy has not given me a higher opinion of their value. 2 It may interest some readers to know the complete table of contents of the enormous volume, which is divided into four parts : — Part I. I. De primis occasionibus . . . relatio. 2. Didactica Magna. 3. Schola materni gremii. 4. Scholse vemaculce delineatio. 5. Janua Latinse linguae, primum edita. 6. Vestibulum. 7. Proplasma templi Latinatis. 8. De sermonis Lat. studio dissertatio. 9. Prodromus pansophise. 10. Variorum de eo censurse. 11. Pansophicorum conatuum dilucidatio. Part II. I. De novis . . . occasionibus. 2. Methodus linguarum novissima. 3. L. L. vestibulum. 4. L. L, Janua nova. 5. Lexicon Januale Latino-Germani- cum. 6. Grammatica Latino-vemacula. 7. De atrio relatio. 8. Qucedam de his doctorum judiciis, novteque disquisitiones. Part III. I. De vocatione in Hungariam relatio. 2. Scholse pansophicae delineatio. 3. De Pans, studii obicibus. 4. De ingeniorum cultura. 5. De libris. CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS 293 Other late pansophic works of Komensky were the Lux in Teneb7'tSy consisting mainly of a collection of prophecies which have already been mentioned, and the Umim NecessariuiUy dedicated to Prince Rupert, and published in 1668. The writers of the Unity are, during the last century, so infinitely superior to all others, that little space remains to mention theologians who belonged to other communities. The early writers of the Utraquist Church were mentioned in the last chapter, and I have in this chapter again referred to Archbishop Rokycan. The numerous later polemical writings of the Utraquists are infinitely inferior to the best works of the members of the Unity, which of course are the only ones to which I have made reference. Of Roman Catholic theologians in Bohemia also scant mention at this period is required. In most countries the salutary deliberations of the Council of Trent, which so entirely reorganised and reformed the Cathohc Church, were followed by the appearance of numerous brilliant Catholic theologians, who, both in their sermons and their writings, energetically defended the dogmas of their Church. Such was not the case in Bohemia. It was the sword, not the pen, that was destined to reconquer that country for the Church of Rome. Of 6. De schola Triclassi. 7. Erudit schol. pars I. Vestibulum. 8. Erudit schol. pars II. Janua. 9. Erudit schol. pars III. Atrium. 10. Fortius redivivus. ii. Prsecepta morum. 12. Leges bene ordinatae scholse. 13. Schola Ludus. 14. Laborum schol. coronis. Part IV. I. Vita gyrus. 2. Vestibuli auctuarium. 3. Pro Latinate Januse apologia. 4. Ventilabrum sapientiae. 5. E, labyrinthis scholasticis exitus. 6. Latium redivivum. 7. Typographseum vivum. 8. Paradisus ecclesiae reductus. 9. Traditio lampadis. 10. Paralipomena didactlca. 294 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Catholic writers we may mention Paul ^idek, a Jew by birth ; Henry Institoris, who was intrusted by Pope Alexander VI. wnth the task of recovering Bohemia for the Church of Rome, and wrote polemical works against Chelcicky and the brethren ; and the barefooted monk, John of Vodnan, a voluminous writer, who has already been mentioned as an antagonist of Chelcicky. The works of Vodnan are an extraordinary tissue of absurdi- ties written with an almost inconceivable degree of self- confidence. He maintains theories such as that of the immaculate conception of the Virgin (then by no means a dogma of the Roman Church), by arguments and in a tone that are equally unworthy of the dignity of the subject. His books teem with the most absurdly super- stitious anecdotes. The Pope, he tells us, is always accom- panied by two special angels, one who advises him on all occasions, and one who informs him of all occurrences. A more dignified defender of the Church of Rome was the Jesuit Wenceslas Sturm (born 1533, died 1601), who has left a considerable number of theological works, mostly of a polemical character. CHAPTER VI BOHEMIAN HISTORIANS OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY The period subsequent to the Hussite wars was very favourable to the development of the Bohemian lan- guage, and especially to that of historical studies. The stirring events of the times directed general interest to the great political and religious struggle ; for these words are nearly synonymous when we deal with the century that preceded the battle of the White Mountain (1620), with which the aspirations of the Bohemians for ecclesi- astical as well as for political independence ended for a time. The constant references to the Divinity, the prayers and hymns which are inserted in historical works of a mainly secular character, prove that in Bohemia political and religious controversies were at that period even more closely connected than in other countries. Other causes also contributed to the increase of intel- lectual activity which we find in Bohemia at the begin- ning of the sixteenth century. I have already referred to the "humanist" movement, which, in consequence of the religious isolation of Bohemia, reached that country late, but for a time had the greatest influence on the intellectual development of the land. I have also already alluded to the foundation and beginnings of the com- munity of the Bohemian Brethren, which greatly in- 296 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE fluenced the literary as well as the political condition of Bohemia. The brethren from the first attached great importance to the study of history, and they had estab- lished archives at Senftenberg, and afterwards at Leito- mischl. A school of writers on history sprung up among them whose works — judging by the scanty remains that have reached us — possessed both great value and great beauty of style. The greater part of these works has been lost long ago. The brethren who constituted the most advanced fraction of the party which desired Church reform were naturally most hated and dreaded by the Jesuits, to whom the return of Bohemia to the Roman Church must principally be attributed. The writings of the brethren were thus specially marked out for destruction. Among the historical works that are probably irretrievably lost is that which was, according to all accounts, the most valuable, Blahoslav's History of the Unity, Yet even the existent works of members of the brotherhood, such as Bilek, Blahoslav, Bfezan, Zerotin, to speak of historians only, sufficiently vouch for the high degree of culture which the brethren had attained. They attached great importance to the grammar of their language, and many of their works were, as already recorded, models of Bohemian style. The political condition of the country also then favoured the development of the national language, which was during this period — and during this period only — almost exclusively used by historians. During the reigns of the kings of the House of Luxemburg the Bohemian language had to a great extent lost ground. King John was known to dislike the Bohemian lan- guage, and though this dislike was by no means shared by his son Charles, yet even the foundation of DEVELOPMENT OF THE LANGUAGE 297 the University of Prague (though that university after- wards became a national one) was not at first favourable to the development of the Bohemian language. It was at first principally frequented by foreigners, and German and Latin were almost exclusively used there. Of the contemporary chroniclers of the Hussite war many still wrote in Latin. Yet the Hussite movement undoubtedly favoured the development of the Bohemian language, if it was only by the isolation from the rest of the Western world which the religious separation pro- duced. A great impetus was also given to the cultivation of the national language by the circumstance that a few years before the beginning of the sixteenth century (in 1495) the Bohemian law courts decided to carry on their proceedings in the national language. The law courts of Silesia and Moravia had already previously substituted Bohemian for the Latin language, which they had pre- viously used. Of yet greater importance was the fact that Bohemian at this period became the language ex- clusively used at the "diets" or meetings of the three " Estates " of Bohemia. In the minds of many Bohemians the preservation of the national language was closely connected with the conservation of their political and ecclesiastical independence. As late as in 1615, only five years before the final collapse of Bohemia, the Diet decided that all those who became naturalised Bohemians should be bound to instruct and educate their children in the language of the country. It may be noticed that this fervent devotion to the national language, which has often astonished foreigners, is a marked feature also in the revival of Bohemian literature and in the present nationalist movement. Among the most recent writers on Bohemian history 298 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE it has become the fashion to depreciate the social and intellectual condition of Bohemia in the years that pre- ceded the battle of the White Mountain ; they perhaps endeavour thus to attenuate the sentimental feeling of regret for the great defeat which a few Bohemians still cherish. That the political results of the battle of the White Mountain, which consisted in the establishment of an absolute but orderly government, were advan- tageous to Bohemia, and, indeed, saved the country from anarchy, is certain. Yet it is no less certain that nobles and citizens, such as Peter of Rosenberg, Charles of Zerotin, Budovec of Budova (mentioned in the last chapter), Harant of Polzic, Bartos Pisar, Sixt of Otters- dorf, Skala ze Zhofe (who all belong to the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century), were intel- lectually vastly superior to the men of similar rank and position who lived a century later, after many years of absolutist government. It is noteworthy that among the historians of the period with which I am dealing, the majority are men who themselves played a part in the political life of their time. The Bohemians of this period were — partly, though by no means exclusively, through the influence of " humanism," — penetrated with a blind, almost super- stitious, love of learning for its own sake. They seem always to have aspired to the " tall mountain citied to the top, crowded with culture." This, indeed, applies not only to the humanists, literary men, or translators of classical works, but also to many of the practical and matter-of-fact politicians of the time. Witness Peter of Rosenberg, who died deploring "that he had not suf- ficiently cultivated the study of literature ; " or Harant of Polzic, whose constant show of classical erudition is BARTOS 299 striking, if sometimes tedious, and who, even when in immediate peril of life, could not refrain from a classical allusion. The two earliest historians who belong to this period both sprang from the class or " estate," as it was called, of the citizens ; they both held important municipal offices at Prague, and they have both described short but momentous episodes in Bohemian history, in which they had played a conspicuous part. Bartos PisAf^ (Bartholomew the writer), author of the Chronicles of Prague ^'^ may be considered one of the most valuable Bohemian historians. Bartholomew obtained the by-name by which he is known because he had, though a linen-draper by trade, frequently sought em- ployment of a literary character. We are, indeed, told that he neglected his business for his literary pursuits, and that whilst his wife was selling linen in the market- place, Bartholomew spent a large part of his time in transcribing ancient manuscripts. He held a municipal appointment at Prague for some time, and documents are still existent which were copied out by Bartholomew. It is certainly a proof of the extension of education and of the intellectual activity of the time, that Bartos, a tradesman, should have undertaken, and successfully undertaken, to write an important historical work. Bartholomew's chronicle deals indeed with a very limited subject, the troubles which, during the years 1524 to 1537, occurred in Prague ; they were caused by the rivalry of two ambitious upstarts, John Pasek and John Hlavsa. During the weak reign of King Louis these men both strove to obtain supreme authority in the city of Prague, which thus became the scene of great 1 Edited and published by Dr. Erben in 1 85 1. 300 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE tumults and disturbances. Though dealing with an apparently unimportant subject, Bartholomew's book is of the greatest interest in giving a striking picture of the town-life of Bohemia in the sixteenth century. Religious controversy was the one engrossing interest among the citizens, and the " Catilinarian individuals " (as a recent Bohemian writer has called them), who contested for the government of Prague, used religion as a pretext for their ambitious endeavours. The rivals, indeed, both belonged to the so-called Utraquist Church, which prided itself in being directly based on the teaching of Hus. This Church was the Established Church of Bohemia, from the time of the Council of Basel and the signing of the so-called '^compacts" (1436), to the battle of the White Mountain (1620). Very characteristic of Bartholomew's manner are his accounts of the disturbances of Prague, which formed the original motive for his book. It is very evident to a student of Bohemian history that in this portion of Bartholomew's work light and shade are very unequally divided; there was really very little to choose between the two demagogues, Pasek and Hlavsa, whose rivalry caused the disturbances at Prague. But Bartholomew's style is here often quaint and pictu- resque ; and I think I could give no better specimen of it than by translating his portraits of the rival Cleons of Prague. Bartholomew writes: "Concerning those two persons, John Hlavsa and Master John Pasek, they both appeared as two brilliant lights, not only in Prague, but also within the ' estate ' of the townsmen generally ; for God had granted to both of them an enlightened intellect, and eloquence greater than is usual among men ; yet they differed greatly with regard to their BARTOS 301 character. Though in his manner Pasek appeared in- clined to kindliness, yet the immense and inexorable malice of Cain ruled him, while on the contrary Hlavsa was guided by his peaceful and yielding nature. '' Pasek was born at Old Knin, of poor parents ; his mother had been a huckstress ; as to his father, I have been unable to ascertain anything certain. Therefore, to avoid erring against truth, it is often fitter to give room in my book only to the statements of men who are trust- worthy and sensible, rather than believe the assertions of certain people. Pasek then was a poor school-ser- vant, and later on a schoolmaster. Afterwards he pro- ceeded to the University of Prague, where he became a bachelor and master of arts. Then, ever rising in the world, he was chosen by the citizens of the old town of Prague as their chief town-clerk. . . . He was afterwards chosen as alderman, and by his practice in the law courts also gained large possessions, and his general fortune in the world ever increased ; for God is able to raise a needy school-servant to high rank, as is said in God's Scripture in the Psalms. And now, besides the coat-of-arms which he had already received, a title, as a further honour, was bestowed on him. He thus ac- quired the right of calling himself John Pasek of Vrat, obtaining thus a name that well befitted his individuality, for it is true that he overturned and overthrew much.^ He then became excessively cruel, immoderately severe, and tormented the people intolerably and unjustly. . . . Indeed, he once said openly to some people (for he was un- able to conceal his revengefulness, in which few were 1 It is impossible to translate this pun. Bartholomew plays on the simi- larity of the name * * Vrat " to the words zvratiti zx\Aprevratiti (to overturn and to overthrow). 302 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE equal to him), ^ Do not quarrel and dispute much in words with your enemy, but wait till he is crossing a bridge ; then draw away his feet from under him so that he may fall in.' This also he said boastingly : ^ I am unable to be so good a Christian as that I could forgive my ene- mies what they have done against me.' " Of Hlavsa Bartholomew writes : " John Hlavsa was born in the town of Stfibro (Mies), of honest and orderly parents, who belonged to the estate of the townsmen. He also, having previously been a needy scholar, after- wards became a schoolmaster. Then, after he married, he rose in the world, and during the reign of King Vladislav obtained a coat- of -arms with the title of ^ Liboslav.' Having an enlightened intellect and great talents, he was elected an alderman, and soon obtained the highest rank in that court. How much good he did for the king and the estate of the townsmen, that is known to many in Bohemia and elsewhere ; but as to the merits of the other (Pasek) there is silence. Thence, in consequence of the king's taking away his appointments from the one (Hlavsa) and giving them to the other (Pasek), great hatred and jealousy sprung up between them and spread widely ; for it is the result of vain worldly vanity that every one desires honours for himself and not for others. And yet we must truthfully admit (let who will be angry with me) that through these discords much benefit and profit was obtained, rather from the deeds of the one who had not obtained the degree of master ^ (Hlavsa) than from those of the other, as I have already stated. In consequence of the differ- ences between these two parties arose, one called that ^ It is impossible to paraphrase in fewer than eight words the Bohemian word nemistrovany. SIXT OF OTTERSDORF 303 of Pasek and the other that of Hlavsa, and this extended to many. Many also took part in these dissensions, and were enraged against one another ; the conse- quence was a lamentable persecution of one party by the other." Bartholomew, like most Bohemian historians of his time, lays no claim to impartiality, and he attacks the Utraquists of the moderate faction almost more fero- ciously than the partisans of Rome. Bartholomew was certainly *^ a good hater," and his portrait of Archbishop Rokycan is distinctly unfair. He indeed gives a totally incorrect account of the negotiations of the Bohemian Utraquists with the Eastern Church,^ for the purpose of discrediting Rokycan by insinuating that he had been treated with contempt by the dignitaries of the Greek Church. Bartholomew, as already noticed, often extends his narrative beyond its immediate subject, and he has the taste for theological controversy which was innate in almost all Bohemians at that time. The last part of Bartholomew's book deals with the election of Ferdinand I. as King of Bohemia in 1526 ; it has con- siderable historical value, and has been largely used by the writers who have reconstructed Bohemian history in the present century. Bartholomew died in 1535, it is not certain at what age. The political career of the next historian with whom I shall deal, SiXT of Ottersdorf (born about the year 1500), was similar to that of Bartos the Writer ; but Sixt appears to have taken a more prominent part in the events which he related, and, differing herein from Bartos, he is by no means chary of references to his own person. Like Bartholomew, Sixt belonged to the estate 1 See my Bohemia^ an Historical Sketch, pp. 231, 232. 304 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of the citizens. His talents and learning — we are told that he studied for some time in foreign lands for the pur- pose of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the Greek language — raised him to a prominent position among the citizens of Prague. As early as in 1537 we hear of him as town-clerk of the old city of Prague, and he was chancellor of the town in the momentous year 1546. His political career as well as his writings prove him to have been a zealous partisan of the ancient privileges of the Bohemian " Estates." Ferdinand I. of Habsburg had in 1526 succeeded the weak sovereigns of the Jagellonic dynasty as ruler of Bohemia. His constant though often occult purpose was to strengthen the royal prerogative and to limit the power of the Bohemian Diet or Parliament. It seemed indeed at one time probable that Ferdinand I. would accom- plish this task, which his grandson finally successfully achieved after the battle of the White Mountain. In this struggle between the king and the ^'Estates" Sixt took an active part, and an episode of this struggle (which lasted intermittently from 1526 to 1620) is the subject of his memorable work, entitled the History of the Troubled Years in Bohemia^ i£^6 and 154.7* To no literature is the sentence ^' Habent sua fata libelli " more truly applicable than to that of Bohemia. While the writings of Bartos and Sixt, and indeed those of the other historians also with whom I shall deal in this chapter, remained almost unnoticed up to the beginning of the present century, Hajek of Libocan's Bohemian Chronicles were widely known and circulated from the moment that the book appeared. Hajek's work was dedicated to Ferdinand I., and produced under the auspices of that sovereign, who, indeed, appointed HAJEK 305 officials for the purpose of examining the contents of the book before its appearance. When, after the battle of the White Mountain, all independent works of an historical character were sup- pressed and many were completely destroyed, Hajek's chronicle became, and continued for nearly two cen- turies, the one source of information to which the few writers on Bohemian history went. Many of the foolish, displeasing, and untruthful tales referring to his country, which a Bohemian so often finds in the writings of foreign lands, can be traced to Hajek. It is in his work that we find that account of Zizka's death which has been so often repeated, though it is as entirely contrary to all we know of that great warrior as it is to the reports of the contemporary chroniclers. Hajek tells us that Zizka, when dying, ordered that his body be flayed and then thrown to the wild beasts, and that his skin should be used as a drum.^ This and so many other foolish tales have greatly contributed to the totally false interpretation of ancient Bohemian history that is current up to the present day. The Hussitenkrieg of Theobaldus, and Lenfant in his Histoire des Guerres Hussites (George Sand's authority for hQV Jean Zyska and her Comtesse de Rudolstadt), both borrow extensively from Hajek. As the works of Theo- baldus and Lenfant were recognised authorities on Bohemian history up to the end of the eighteenth cen- tury, Hajek's tales have been repeated by many writers (for instance, Carlyle), who had probably never heard of his name. Since the beginning of the present century it has become possible to study freely the documents that refer 1 See Chapter IV. U 306 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE to the ancient history of Bohemia. The result has been that the glory of the " Bohemian Livy," as Hajek was formerly called, has been completely obscured. It has been proved that Hajek's work is totally untrustworthy, and that he not only copied from earlier writers without any attempt at criticism, but that he was often intention- ally mendacious, and for party purposes distorted his account of historical events. The great Bohemian his- torian Palacky's judgment on Hajek has often been quoted. Palacky wrote : '^ Hajek is the most narrow- minded slyboots, the most naive humbug, and the ap- parently most innocent calumniator whom I have met in the course of my historical studies." It is hardly necessary to mention that at a period when the rule '^ Scribitur ad narrandum, non ad pro- bandum," was ignored by all Bohemian historians, Hajek's work shows traces of party spirit almost on every page. The author, who was a Romanist priest, writes as a strong Catholic, and as a strong partisan of the Bohemian aristocracy. Among the adherents of Rome, who were then few in number in Bohemia, and who were Hajek's principal protectors, were found several of the greatest Bohemian nobles. These Catholic lords were always the most decided enemies of the Bohemian cities, while the Utraquist and Protestant nobles — though their caste pride may have been as great — regarded the townsmen as valuable allies in their struggle against the sovereign, while the democratic character of the community of the " Bohemian brethren " naturally also influenced the nobles who belonged to it. In his preface already Hajek enters into the question of the rank and precedence among the Bohemian estates, of course in a sense favourable to his patrons. He HAJEK 307 writes : " Some have, for the purpose of disparaging the estate of the nobles and that of the knights, dared to maintain that the estate of the townsmen is the first, and dates from the foundation of Prague. The estate of the nobles, they say, sprung up afterwards, when they (the nobles) acted as officials, and other men were intrusted to their rule ; then, they say, many years later the estate of the knights was created, when the king allowed them (the knights) to bear a device on their shield because of certain deeds and brave exploits. But both these statements are untrue." Hajek here writes in contradiction to a Utraquist historian, Martin Kuthen, who had stated that the origin of the Bohemian estates was that mentioned above. Kuthen's work, which has little value and requires no further notice, was then very much read, and it has even been said that Hajek was instructed to write his work as a refutation of that of Kuthen. Of Hajek's chronicle, which (as was customary in those days) begins with the deluge, and which ends with the coronation of his patron Ferdinand I., the earliest part is by far the most attractive. Dealing with an almost entirely mythical period, and one in which it was nearly impossible to introduce political and ecclesiastical con- troversies (though even here Hajek occasionally does so), the author is at his best. He borrows largely from Cosmas and from Dalimil, whose influence even on Hajek's manner of writing can be traced in the early part of his book. Hajek's style, indeed, always varies greatly according to the authorities which he is using. His account of the foundation of Prague is very curious. But even in Hajek's accounts of semi-mythical occur- rences the insincerity and dishonesty that characterise 3o8 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE him are often apparent. Cosmas and Dalimil related the legends and traditions of their land just as they had reached them from the earliest available oral or written depositions. Hajek, on the contrary, always assumes the part of a conscientious and systematic historian. He indeed mentions Tacitus, Ptolemy, Strabo, Orosius, and a limited number of medieval writers among the autho- rities whom, according to his statement, he had con- sulted. Hajek's object was to join together various, often contradictory, tales, and to give them the shape of a chronologically consistent record of the lives of the Premyslide princes. Was it for this purpose necessary to alter traditional dates ? That appeared to Hajek a matter of no great importance ! Writing as a fervent partisan of Rome, Hajek of course judges Hus and Jerome of Prague severely. Of the latter he tells us : '' In 1400 there arrived in Prague, coming from England, a young man who had gone there for the purposes of study, Jerome by name, a citizen of the new town of Prague, the son of one Albert (Vojtech). . . . This Jerome had brought books with him from England, into which he had copied out some of the writings of 'John the Englishman,' whom they call Wycliffe. This man had by his teaching corrupted first a town in England called ' Oksa ' or ' Oksonia,' and afterwards the whole English kingdom." Of Hus, Hajek tells us that he was originally a good and pious man, but that he came under the influence of two Englishmen, ''Jacob the Bachelor" and "Conrad of Kandelburgk" ( = Canterbury). These men used to visit (according to Hajek !) the young masters of the uni- versity, spreading Wycliffe's teaching and perverting many from the true faith. At last " Master John of HAJEK 309 Husinec, Master Jerome of Prague, Jacob of England, and Conrad of * Kandelburgk ' were like one man." This account of the origin of the Hussite movement — totally incorrect, as so many of Hajek's statements — yet proves that the writer was indeed the ^^narrow-minded sly- boots " Palacky has called him. By greatly exaggerating the English influence on the foundation of Hussitism, and stigmatising it as a foreign movement, Hajek, as he well knew, greatly injured the Hussites ; for the intense national feeling that has always animated the Bohe- mians has produced among them an often exaggerated distrust of foreign interference. With all its faults, Hajek's work will always find readers. His style, though varying according to the authorities which he is using, is generally animated, a priceless merit in his pedantic age. An interest also is connected with Hajek's chronicles which the author could not have foreseen, and would not have desired. Hajek's work, sanctioned by the Roman Church, and therefore accessible to the people, continued to be read when every other book on the early history of Bohemia disappeared. It is thus to a large extent through Hajek's chronicles that the Bohemians preserved some recol- lection of their former greatness. A copy of Hajek's chronicles went down from generation to generation among the Bohemian peasantry, and was cherished as an heirloom. As a lover would rather that evil be spoken of his love than that her name remain unmentioned, thus the Bohemians welcomed eagerly even hostile ac- counts of the deeds of Zizka, Prokop, and the other leaders under whose guidance Bohemia had once defied all Europe. Of Hajek's life little is known, and that little is by no 310 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE means to his credit. The year of his birth is uncertain, but we know that when very young he left the Utraquist Church, in which he was born, became a Roman Catholic, and took orders in that Church. We read of him as preaching in the Church of St. Thomas at Prague in 1524, and by the aid of some Catholic nobles he obtained m 1527 the deanery of Karlstein. Later he obtained other ecclesiastical dignities. Of all these honours he was subsequently deprived in consequence of an accu- sation of having embezzled money belonging to the Church. It has been suggested, though on insufficient evidence, that Hajek wrote his chronicles for the pur- pose of regaining the lost favour of his patrons. In 1544 Hajek, perhaps as a reward for his book that had ap- peared in 1541, obtained the provostship of Stard Bole- slav (Alt Bunzlau), but of this dignity he was again deprived in 1549 because of various offences against canon law. Hajek died in 1553. Several minor historians belong to this period. I have already mentioned Martin Kuthen. The History of the Emperor Charles IV., King of Bohemia y by Prokop Lupdc (published in 1584), also deserves special notice. The book is of interest to English readers, as the author has inserted in it a considerable portion of a ballad describ- ing the death of King John at the battle of Crecy, which was probably written shortly after that event. The most prominent historians of this period were probably the members of the community of the ^' Bohe- mian Brethren." This is, however, unfortunately little more than a conjecture. The works of the brethren were specially singled out for destruction during the Catholic reaction. Mere fragments remain, and even with regard to these doubts as to their authorship often HISTORIANS OF THE *' UNITY '» 311 exist. The writings of Professor Goll, who has with admirable skill and ability reconstructed the early history of the brotherhood, also throw incidentally much light on the literary activity of the brethren. The greatest historian among them was probably Brother Blahoslav, whose Historie Bratrska ('^ History of the Brotherhood") was greatly admired ; the book is known to us only by quotations in some contemporary works which have been preserved. As already mentioned, Blahoslav de- voted much time to the study of the grammar of the Bohemian language, and he was celebrated for the beauty of his style. It is, therefore, probable that in the History of the Brotherhood we have lost not only a valu- able historical document, but also a masterpiece of Bohe- mian prose-writing. With the exception of a short Latin treatise on the history of the brotherhood, the writings of Blahoslav that have been preserved are not of a historical character ; I have therefore referred to him more fully in the last chapter. In connection with Blahoslav I shall mention a work that was formerly often attributed to him ; this is the Captivity of John Augusta, Recent research has proved that this book was really written by the young clergyman John Bilek, Augusta's companion during his captivity. It is, however, probable that the first part of the work was revised by Blahoslav. The book deals with the imprisonment of John Augusta, bishop of the Bohemian Brethren, who was accused of having participated in the negotiations with the German Protestant princes, into which some Bohemians had entered in 1546 and 1547.^ Bilek, Augusta's companion in captivity, has with touching simplicity described his sufferings, the treachery ^ See page 229. 312 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of Schonaich, town-captain of Leitomischl, the tortures which Bilek and Augusta underwent, their long impri- sonment in the castle of Purglitz (or Kfivoklat), their attempts to communicate from their prison with their brethren who were at large, the relief of their sufferings through the intercession of Philipina Welser, wife of the Archduke Ferdinand, and their final liberation. The book, written in a truly saintly spirit, never reveals the slightest animosity against the officials who were treating Augusta and his companion so cruelly. When narrat- ing the tortures that were inflicted on Augusta for the purpose of forcing him to admit the complicity of the Brotherhood in the supposed conspiracy, Bilek simply writes : ^^ The officials then ordered that he (Augusta) should again be put on the rack, because of the questions mentioned before ; but it did not last long, as he had become quite silent and sw^ooned away. I think, had they but continued a little longer, he would have died during the torture." Bilek's simple account of the daily routine and the little incidents of prison life, often recalling Silvio Pellico, is both interesting and touching. I will give one quota- tion referring to the attempt of the prisoners to establish communications with their friends outside the prison. Bilek writes : *' After they (the prisoners) had been in prison some time, a year and a half and ten weeks, in the year 1550, God our Lord wrought a great miracle ; He opened to them in their solitude and concealment a secret and concealed path, by means of which their friends could visit them, receive news of them, and also convey news to them. And this happened thus. Among the warders who guarded them, and who had received rigid instructions how they were to guard them, was BILEK 313 a servant who knew them slightly, and knew also what sort of men they were ; for he had formerly been an artisan at Leitomischl. He knew that they were enduring all this suffering, not because of any crime, but for the sake of the religion ; and he felt a certain compassion for them. This man risked all, and permitted that they should receive from the brethren and from their friends everything they required ; and he also undertook to forward secretly their friends' communications to them, and their own to their friends. He began doing this in 1550, before the Vigil of St. Paul's Confession, and continued doing so up to the year 1553. He conveyed to them the letters and communications of their brethren and dear friends, and he supplied them with ink, paper, and everything that is required for writing. A few books also he brought them and other things which they required, money and tapers ; and they accepted these things with no slight fear, principally with regard to the servant ; for he might have forfeited his life had it been discovered that he had given us these things. As regards themselves, they had commended their souls to God and His grace, whatever might befall them ; they knew that they were acting rightly, and had therefore little fear for their own persons ; rather did they rejoice that God had granted these things to them, and they accepted them with gratitude and thanksgiving, and praised their Lord God for this." The fact that so large a part of the historical as well as of the theological writings of the brethren has been destroyed enhances the value of Bilek's book. The passages quoted above give a true insight into the inner life of the Brotherhood ; they give evidence of their invincible courage and abso- lute reliance on God, which gave them great strength, 314 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE as well as of their exaggerated subserviency to even unjust temporal authorities, which sometimes made them poor politicians. Of Bilek little is known but what he himself tells us in his book. He was a clergyman of the Brotherhood, and acted for a considerable time as secretary to Augusta, the head of the community. He died at Napajedl in Moravia in 1581, at the age of sixty-five. As already mentioned, his book was formerly attributed to Blahoslav, and only recent researches have awarded the authorship to Bilek.i Very noteworthy among the historians of the Brother- hood is Wenceslas B^ezan. To him Palacky's remark, that the Bohemians cared more for their history than for the biographies of their historians, is particularly applicable. Neither the year of the birth nor that of the death of Bfezan can be accurately ascertained ; it has been conjectured that he was born about the year 1560, and died about the year 1619. Peter Vok, Lord of Rosenberg, the greatest of the Bohemian nobles, and a strenuous friend and protector of the Brotherhood, appointed Bfezan ^^ archivarian, librarian, and historio- grapher of the House of Rosenberg." Most of his works deal with the annals of that great House, which for centuries figured so prominently in Bohemian history. The writings of Bfezan, like those of so many other Bohemian writers, have been only partially preserved. Besides minor works referring to the annals and the genealogy of noble Bohemian families, Bfezan wrote a large History of the House of Rosenbergs which is said to ^ The Life (or rather Captivity) of John Augusta was edited and published by Franta-Sumavsky in 1837. The work has recently been translated into German by Dean Joseph Miiller of Herrenhut. BftEZAN 3 1 5 have consisted of five volumes. Of this work only por- tions, containing the biographies of William of Rosenberg and of his brother, Lord Peter, the last of the Rosen- bergs, have reached us. From recent researches it, however, appears probable that the German Rosen- bergische Chronica of Heerman, a monk of the monastery of Wittingau (Tfebon), is an abridged translation of the lost parts of Brezan's book. In any case, the parts of Brezan's work that have been preserved in Bohemian are sufficient to prove that the work was far more than a mere family record, and that it is of great value for the social as well as for the political history of Bohemia. The two biographies convey a vivid impression of the court life (for it can hardly be otherwise described) of the great Bohemian nobles during the period that pre- ceded the battle of the White Mountain. It is true that the position of the Lords of Rosenberg, the first of the Bohemian nobles, was a somewhat exceptional one. This appears very clearly from the letters, published by Brezan, which were interchanged between the members of the imperial family and the Lords of Rosenberg. Of the two biographies, that of William of Rosenberg, the less interesting of the two brothers, is the more valuable one. William held several important appointments under the Imperial Government, and Brezan gives a very clear outline of his official career. Very interesting are Brezan's notes, which refer to the proposed election of Lord William to the Polish throne. He tells us that ^'the Lord of Rosenberg had then many adherents among the Polish nobles, more indeed than the House of Austria ; and I do not say this to harm or disparage that illustrious House." Brezan further tells us that ''the Poles, after they had thus been mocked (by the 3i6 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE flight of their king, Henry of Valois), searched for a new king. Some favoured the House of Habsburg, others desired Lord WilHam as king, particularly as he was a descendant of the ancient family of the Orsinis, as by his ancestry, several centuries back, he was a Bohemian, and therefore belonged to a cognate country ; also be- cause he was a sensible, learned, temperate. Catholic noble." The election of Stephen Bathory to the Polish throne (1576) destroyed William of Rosenberg's hopes. Bfezan's biography of Lord Peter of Rosenberg is a very disappointing book, if we consider that he was dealing with an intensely interesting subject. The semi- independent position of the great Bohemian nobles, who lived principally on their vast estates, surrounded by dependents and servants, free from the control of a court, and to a great extent even from the criticism of their equals, in some cases greatly developed their in- dividuality. To no one does this apply to a greater extent than to Lord Peter of Rosenberg. The heir of the great family that had supplied so many leaders to the Romanist Church, Peter joined the community of the Bohemian Brethren, it is said through the influence of his wife, who belonged to that Church. Whether there is any connection between this change of creed and the scandalous stories which Catholic writers (whose works alone were known in Bohemia during two cen- turies) have circulated I do not wish to determine. They tell us that Lord Peter established a "harem" at his castle of Wittingau, to which the fairest women from all parts of Europe were conveyed. This is obviously an absurd exaggeration, though it is probable that Lord Peter had in his youth led an immoral life. With regard to the accusations of intemperance and of cruelty to his BftEZAN 317 servants, it is probable that Peter of Rosenberg was in such matters neither better nor worse than the other great Bohemian nobles of his time. Where he indeed differed from many of them was in his taste for literature and art. The Rosenbergs had at all times taken much interest in the archives of their family, and indeed preserved them so carefully that most of these documents are even now in a state of perfect preservation. Palacky, who examined them in the present century, witnesses to this, as well as to their great importance for the history of Bohemia, in which the Lords of Rosenberg played so large a part. Peter showed the same interest in the family archives as his predecessors. When selling one of his castles to the Emperor Rudolph II., he stipulated that he should retain possession of one thousand documents which he con- sidered of historical value. In printed works also Lord Peter's interest was great. As early as in 1573, twenty years before he acceded to the family estates, Peter had collected 243 printed volumes. Brezan, who had charge of Lord Peter's library, and was authorised to enlarge it, tells us that it was from this modest beginning that the far-famed Rosenberg library sprang. Many books were inherited from Lord William, and many purchased from monasteries and elsewhere. The library at last became a very extensive one. The Rosenberg library, in conse- quence of the events of the Thirty Years' War, eventually found its way to Stockholm, where Bfezan's catalogue of the library is also still preserved. Peter of Rosenberg is notable also as a patron of literature, and, among others, the poet Lomnickyi enjoyed his protection for many years. Lomnicky showed his gratitude by writing on 1 See Chapter V. 3i8 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE the death of Peter of Rosenberg perhaps his one touch- ing and heartfelt poem. That Peter was, Hke his brother, interested in alchemy, hardly requires mention, for almost all the great Bohemian nobles then followed the example of Rudolph, their sovereign, who delighted in the study of alchemy. Peter's interest in music was also very great. Even before inheriting Wittingau from his brother William, he had established a small orchestra at Beychin, and he afterwards devoted much time and expense to the im- provement and aggrandisement of the magnificent orchestra which Lord William had founded at Wittingau. Bfezan, in his biographies of both brothers, gives an interesting account of the cultivation of music in Bohe- mia in the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. Lord Peter also undoubtedly showed a consi- derable amount of interest in other arts. In Bfezan's biography, written in chronological order, we read under " December 19, 1598. — The Lord of Hradec sent our sovereign lord (Lord Peter) eighteen pretty painted figures, very poetical, and representing Venus." In Bohemian politics Peter of Rosenberg played a very important part, and his change of creed appeared as an event of the greatest importance on the ever-vary- ing stage of Bohemian political life. Peter of Rosenberg was on terms of intimacy with Christian of Anhalt, per- haps the greatest statesman of the seventeenth century. He acted as Anhalt's representative in Bohemia, and was no doubt initiated into his far-reaching plans. Anhalt, as recent research has sufficiently proved, intended to use the dissensions between Rudolph and his brother Matthew for the purpose of totally destroying the power ot the House of Habsburg. On these and similar subjects of BftEZAN 319 the greatest interest Bfezan has Httle or no information to give, and his biography, as already stated, is disappointing. The book, written in chronological order, contains accounts of Lord Peter's travels, but here, too, a mere outline of the occurrences is given. When mentioning Peter's journey to England, Bfezan merely tells us (under February 1563) that ^' after Lord Peter had been received in England with Christian kindness by her royal majesty Queen Elizabeth, and had then been kindly and graciously dismissed, her majesty was graciously pleased to grant him a royal decree addressed to all her officials and to those of all the towns." Bfezan then gives the full wording of this passport, if we may thus call it, in which Lord Peter is described as " one of the chamberlains of our good brother the King of the Romans." Bfezan devotes much space to detailed accounts of the domestic arrangements at the castle of Wittingau, and his book is a treasury for those who would study the social condition of Bohemia at this period. Bfezan's style has little grace, partly no doubt in consequence of the chronological form which he has given to his book. The following portrait of Lord Peter of Rosenberg is a characteristic specimen of Bfezan's style : " Lord Peter's motto was ^ In silentio et in spe.' It should be mentioned that this lord, for the purpose of living wisely, prudently, and in a way that beseems a Christian, and also that he might constantly remember death, always had a death's head placed on a board over the table in his apartment. He even founded an association, the device of which was a golden death's-head of the value of eight ducats. This badge he himself usually wore round his neck. It had on one side the inscription, ' Memento mori/ and on the other, ' Cogita aeternitatem.' And this order he distri- 320 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE buted among his friends, both lords and ladies, and he ordered me to keep a special register, where the names of these persons were entered." " He was a nobleman of well-shaped figure, and more refined than his brother William. His features were charming, his manners dignified and truly princely, his speech was sensible, he was compassionate and affable, and though he was sometimes angry, whenever he had scolded or cursed some one he always afterwards ex- cused himself with mild words. He was a gay and jocose nobleman, though in his old age he gave himself up entirely to piety, read religious books with pleasure, and listened eagerly to the word of God. He was keen for all novelties, a lover of all sciences and arts, and he spent large sums on them. He had a special fancy and predilection for building, and in this resembled his brother William. He was in the habit of standing oftener than sitting, and of walking constantly, and so quickly that it was difficult even for young men to keep up with him. By a bequest in his will he provided for the maids of the woman-apartments, and freed them (from bondage), ordering that each should receive a sum of gold as a present ; and as trustees for this bequest he appointed Albert Pauzar of Michnic and Volesna, Henry Caslav of Podol, and Frederick Frokstejn of Naceslavic, his servants and courtiers." '^ He was a very valorous nobleman, courageous and even somewhat venturesome ; for he boldly approached wild beasts, bears, wolves, horses, and dogs without feel- ing any fear. And, on the whole, I do not know that anything was wanting in this heroic personage, except that which he himself deplored on his death-bed, that he had not sufficiently cultivated the study of literature." CHARLES OF 2EROTIN 321 Peter of Rosenberg died in 161 1, only a few years before the momentous events which so completely changed the destinies of his country. It is a natural and easy transition from Peter of Rosen- berg to another great Bohemian nobleman, Charles of 2erotin, who indeed was often politically associated with Rosenberg, particularly during the contest between King Rudolph II. and his brother Matthew, which occurred in the early years of the seventeenth century, ^erotin was, it is true, a maker rather than a writer of history. On two occasions, in 1608 when Rudolph was contend- ing with his treacherous younger brother Matthew, and in 1619, when Frederick of the Palatinate attempted to oust the house of Habsburg from the Bohemian throne, ^erotin's attitude to a great extent decided the fate of his country, ^erotin's numerous writings may also be con- sidered materials for history rather than historical works. Yet no outline of Bohemian literature would be complete were the name of 2erotin omitted. Charles of 2erotin was born in 1564 at Brandeis, on the Adler, one of the Bohemian estates of his powerful family. Like many Bohemian noblemen of this period, Charles spent a considerable part of his youth in foreign countries, both as a student and as a soldier. At Genoa he fell under the influence of the Calvinist divine Theo- dore de Beza, but he never (as has been stated) aban- doned for Calvinism the Church of the Bohemian Brethren, to which his family had belonged from the time that the Brotherhood had been founded. His writings as well as his political career prove that he was a faithful adherent of that community, of which he was one of the most illustrious members. In the year 1591 he took service under Henry IV. of X 322 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE France, whom all Protestants then recognised as their leader, ^erotin's correspondence, which is very exten- sive, is particularly interesting when he refers to this period of his life.^ He appears to have felt very little sympathy for the French prince, to have distrusted him, and almost to have foreseen his conversion to the Church of Rome. 2erotin, whose motives were always disinterested and elevated though often unpractical, could not have felt much sympathy for an " opportunist." ^erotin's later life was spent almost entirely in Bohemia and Moravia, the countries where his ancestral estates were situated. He favoured the cause of the Archduke Matthew against King Rudolph in 1609, and in 161 8 was one of the few Protestant noblemen who remained faithful to the House of Habsburg. As reward for his fidelity, he was allowed to remain in his country after the battle of the White Mountain, when most Pro- testants had already been expelled. He was even able to afford aid and shelter to many other members of the Brotherhood. Among these was Komensky. He sought refuge at Brandeis, and wrote there his Laby- rinth of the Worldy which was dedicated to Zerotin. The increasing persecution of all who did not belong to the Church of Rome finally induced Zerotin to leave Bohemia and Moravia and to retire to Breslau. It was here that he spent the last years of his life, and he left his extensive library to that city. Zerotin was, how- ever, still permitted to visit occasionally his extensive estates. During one of these visits he died at Prerov in Moravia in 1636. His body was interred at Brandeis on the Adler, his ancestral home. ^ Professor Leger in his Nouvelles Eludes Slaves has translated into French some of Zerotin's letters which refer to his French campaign. CHARLES OF 2ER0TIN 323 2erotin has left voluminous writings. His corre- spondence, to which I have already alluded, was very extensive. Continued, as it was, during the whole of his life, it is, of course, of the greatest value for the history of his time. Zerotin has also left several volumes of memoirs, referring principally to the doings of the Diet of Moravia during the period that he presided over that assembly. He also wrote a very curious work entitled Obrana or Apologyy addressed to George, Lord of Hodic. It appears that Hodic had blamed Zerotin publicly for having temporarily retired from political life. This work, written in a pure but eloquent manner, showing traces of profound study of the classical writers, is a recognised masterpiece of Bohemian prose. The original great reluctance of the members of the Brother- hood to enter the stormy arena of political life had indeed decreased since many nobles and other influen- tial persons had joined their Church, but traces of this feeling appear in Zerotin's work. He writes : '^ You were pleased, my Lord of Hodic, to remark of me at the meeting of the Estates that ^ I act wrongly in stifling the gifts which God has given to me.' By these words — few and quickly spoken, yet containing much mean- ing — you were pleased to attack me sharply and to deal me a severe blow ; for what else is stifling God's gift but refusing to remain in that state in which God has placed us ? And what, again, is not remaining in the state in which God has placed us but not being as I should be ? What conclusion then can be drawn other than that if I am not as I should be, then — though I declare that I am a lover of my country, her true son, an own limb of her body, sharing her wounds — in fact, her twin-brother, who was born with her and will die 324 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE with her — my pride is idle and my word worthless if my acts are not in accordance with my sentiments. Idle indeed would it be if I could bring nothing for- ward and give no proof that I am what I say that I am. Then indeed your argument would be powerful and your words conform to truth and justice, and I myself should then agree with them. For it is my firm conviction that no man is good but he who by his deeds proves that he is good. ^^ But I — deign to excuse me — have given no cause for your judgment on me. That my manner is somewhat different from what it was some time ago, and that I do not labour so assiduously for the welfare of my country as I did some time back, that is no proof that I have lost and abandoned all my innate love and affection for it. As the sun does not cease to be the sun when for a moment it sets in the midst of clouds, and as a fire does not lose its heat if it does not immediately pierce through cold tiles, and as a field also must not be con- sidered barren when for a time it lies fallow, and so to speak rests ; so I also ought not and should not be de- clared wanting in the love and care for my country which it is my duty to have, because I do not try my skill on every course ( = take part in every political contest). " For as prudent sailors are carried, when the sea is calm, here and there and catch the wind in their sails, and then, when a storm arises, and for a time drives them from their straight course, they yet remain out at sea and guard themselves as best they can with the com- pass till a more favourable wind guides them to their destined port ; thus I also avoid the present evil times and their difficulties, and conceal myself from the storm as under a roof till more convenient times arise." VRATISLAV 325 2erotin has here in beautiful words expressed thoughts that almost condemn him as a statesman. It is true that shortly after the publication of the Obnma he appeared more prominently on the political scene than at any other time during the struggle between King Rudolph and his brother Matthew ; but during the far more momentous struggle of the last years of Bohemian independence (1618-1620) ^erotin as far as was possible chose the part of the prudent mariner, but the port which he finally reached was exile ! Before mentioning the latest historians of this period, I must notice a considerable number of accounts of travels, books which are closely connected with history. The Bohemians were great travellers in those days, and a considerable number of them have recorded their journeys and adventures. I have already referred to John of Lobkovic when dealing with his more cele- brated brother Bohnslav,^ and the travels of Zerotin and Rosenberg have also been already mentioned. Of other records of travel, it will be sufficient to mention those of Prefat, Vratislav, and Harant of Polzic. Ulrick Prefat of Vlkanov, a citizen of Prague, undertook in 1546 a journey to Venice and Palestine, of which he has left us an interesting account. His descriptions of the Holy Land are, however, inferior to those of Harant, written somewhat later. Venceslas Vratislav of Mitrovic, born (1576) of a Roman Catholic family, was educated by the Jesuits, and had from his earliest youth a strong desire to visit distant lands. When not yet eighteen years of age he obtained permission to join the staff of Baron Krekvic, whom the Emperor Rudolph was sending as ambassador to Constantinople. He has left us a record 1 See Chapter V. 326 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of his journey and imprisonment ;^ for the Turks of that period had Httle regard for international law and diplo- matic privileges. Vratislav's book has a certain youthful grace and simplicity, and he was by no means devoid of the gift of observation. Vratislav, on his return to Bohemia, published in 1599 the description of his travels and adventures. He after- wards, not unnaturally, took part in several campaigns against his old enemies, the Turks. Educated by the Jesuits and a staunch Romanist, he was, of course, on the side of the Archduke Ferdinand during the Bohemian troubles of 1618 to 1620. Far more interesting as an author, and far more repre- sentative of his time than the two last-named writers, is Christopher Harant, Lord of Polzic and Bezdruzic. It is therefore perhaps not amiss to study his work and his life somewhat more in detail. Harant was born in 1564, of an ancient knightly family of Bohemia. He received the thorough education and literary training which was then customary with many of the Bohemian noble fami- lies. Harant, we are told, possessed a thorough know- ledge of Greek, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, as well as, of course, his own language. It has even been said that it was out of patriotism that he published his celebrated book of travels in Bohemian instead of in German, though that would, of course, have secured for the book far more numerous readers. Harant's classical erudition was considered extensive even at that period, when in Bohemia the almost superstitious veneration for the great writers of Rome and Greece was at its height. Harant's own list of his authorities includes 1 This work has been translated into English by the la'.e Rev. A. H. Wiatislaw. HARANT OF POL^IC 32; almost all known writers, both Greek and Latin, from Homer and Herodotus to Statins and Claudianus. Later Latin writers, such as Gregory of Tours and Orosius, are also quoted by Harant ; his vast erudition included even Byzantine writers such as Suidas, Zonaras, and Chalkokondylas. More recent works, such as the writings of Guicciardini, were also well known to Harant; he quotes even from such (now) little known works as the French histories of Du Tillet and Bernard de Girard, and the Res BurgundiccB and Res Austriacce of Pontus Heuterus. Harant's education was completed at the court of the Archduke Ferdinand at Innsbruck. When referring to his passage through Innsbruck on his way to Venice, Harant gives an interesting account of his stay at the archducal court. The years 1591 to 1597 were spent by Harant in the service of the Emperor Rudolph, who, in his capacity of King of Bohemia, had demanded aid from that country in his wars against the Turks. Harant appears greatly to have distinguished himself in these campaigns, and we are told that Rudolph, in consideration of his services, granted him an annuity chargeable on the Bohemian revenue. Harant's campaigns in Hungary (a large part of which country was then under Turkish rule) may have sug- gested to him the idea of visiting countries yet farther east. He tells us in his preface to his book of travels that he wished ^^ to see those countries which were the scene of the holiest, wisest, and most celebrated events mentioned in the Old and in the New Testament . . . those lands which were once an earthly paradise. These lands," he continues, " I purposed to visit with special ardour and with great danger for my Hfe, and I set out with God's help." A family bereavement — Harant's first 328 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE wife died in 1597 — probably confirmed him in his de- cision, and he started from Pilsen in April 1598 on his long and perilous journey, accompanied by his friend Herman Cernin, Lord of Chudenic, and only one servant. Harant's account of this journey, published as Chris- topher Harant's Journey to Veftice, and thence to the Holy Lajid a?id to Egypt ^ has assured to the author a not in- considerable place in the annals of Bohemian literature. Harant undoubtedly possessed the gift of observation to an unusual extent, and his descriptions of the scenery he viewed and the men he met are often very vivid. Though the book is generally written in a grave and somewhat pedantic manner, yet some passages show that Harant was by no means devoid of humour. The work has, however, the fault of being somewhat long- winded, and Harant is too fond of lengthy historical digressions, introduced for the purpose of exhibiting his learning. This is particularly true of the part of the book which deals with Harant's visit to Egypt. He here introduces a lengthy treatise on the early dynasties of Egyptian rulers, which is, of course, valueless from the point of view of modern research. Harant was very fond, almost too fond, of quoting ; yet his quota- tions, chosen from many writers in various languages, are often quaint and amusing, and remind the reader of Montaigne. On the whole, Harant's work is one of those ancient Bohemian books that can still be read with amusement as well as interest. From Pilsen, Harant and his companions travelled through Tyrol to Venice, where they stayed some time. The indefatigable Harant studied not only the monu- ments, but also the constitution of Venice, which he ^ Edited and published by Dr. Erben in 1854 and 1855. HARANT OF POL^IC 329 greatly admired. The Venetian constitution in many ways resembled that which Harant and his party wished to establish in Bohemia, and he gives a full account of it, " as an example for us and for our benefit," as he writes. Harant and his friend were obliged to remain some time in Venice before they found other pilgrims to the Holy Land, with whom they jointly chartered a ship to Jaffa. Among these new companions was '^ Lambert the Dutch- man," who appears to have been a constant cause alter- nately of indignation and of amusement to the other travellers. On leaving Venice the pilgrims sailed along the coast of Dalmatia, and by way of the Ionian Islands, Candia, and Cyprus, finally reached the harbour of Jaffa. From here they proceeded to Jerusalem. Harant thus describes their arrival there : — '^ When we had arrived within four Bohemian miles of Jerusalem, we noticed everywhere the industry of the Jews and former inhabitants of the land ; for they had laid out all those hills in vineyards, gardens, and fields, though they are now deserted and overgrown with thorns, yet the traces of the former divisions of the fields by means of low wells and small steps still remain ; we can thus know how full of cities this land was ; and on this short journey we remarked the astonishing laziness of the present inhabitants, of whom the country now feeds about ten to a thousand formerly. Yet the northern side of the hill has remained tolerably fertile in vine- yards, olives, figs, pomegranates, and other fruits. '* When we were about two miles from Jerusalem the dragoman ^ from that town came out on purpose to meet us ; for our dragoman from Rama had hurried on, leav- 1 It is not easy to recognise this word in Ilarant's self-coined translation or ratiier adaptation, trucelmav.. 330 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE ing us behind, and had informed the guardian of the monastery (of St. Salvador) and the other dragoman of our arrival. *' With the guardian the vicarius of the monastery also appeared, and when they came near us they greeted us in Italian and asked us many questions ; for instance, from where we came, how we had fared on our journey, and what had happened during our travels in our own country and the lands through which we had passed. And thus continuing our conversation we arrived at the gates of the city of Jerusalem about vesper-time. Our whole journey from Venice to Jerusalem had lasted forty- four days ; we had then travelled 458 Bohemian miles from Venice and 582 from Bohemia, both by land and by sea." Harant and his companions spent a fortnight at Jerusalem as guests of the monks of the Monastery of St. Salvador, and he gives a detailed account of their visits to the historical spots in the city and neighbour- hood. Harant's description of his visit to the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre is interesting. He writes: ^^When we approached these Turks (there were eight altogether, some of whom sat on stone benches covered with car- pets, which since ancient times have been placed beside the gates of the church), one of them came forward with the keys and opened the locked gates of the church ; then they immediately let us into the church one by one, counting us till they had got us all in line, then they hastily closed the gates and sealed them ; there are two gates, one next to the other, made of fine marble, on which costly figures are carved. That gate which opens on the right into the church is walled up, but the other one opens by halves, and in the lower HARANT OF POL^IC 331 half there is a gap or window through which one can see into the court, and from the court into the church. And having entered the church, we next arrived before the chapel or cell in which is the grave of our Lord, and then we all immediately knelt down piously. But Master Antonio Donato (one of Harant's fellow-travel- lers) fell to the ground heavily as soon as he entered the chapel, just as if he had fainted, and we, seeing this, were greatly frightened, for we knew of no other cause of his fall except his great religious ardour ; but he soon recovered, and, after he had recited some prayers, he rose together with us. The guardian then put on his vestments . . . and first led us to a cupboard in the wall, similar to a blind window. There we saw a portion of a pillar of stone similar to marble ; to this column the holy body of Christ was bound while he allowed himself to be scourged and cruelly flogged in the house of Pilate. This portion of the column is three spans in length, and the breadth is somewhat greater ; it stands behind a very thick iron trellis fastened to the wall. There is a small window opposite, which opens with a lock, and before the pillar there always hangs a lamp, which continually glistens and burns. At this spot we began to sing the hymn — * Eia Fratres Charissimi Christe Christi mortis mysteria Canamus^ &c." Of all other memorable sites in Jerusalem itself, as well as of those at Bethlehem, Jericho, and elsewhere, Harant gives equally detailed and accurate accounts ; his book is indeed still of value for the topography of Palestine. Harant also gives a very curious description 332 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of the city of Jerusalem as he himself saw it. He writes : *' In the town of Jerusalem there are some streets that are vaulted over, and in some of these shop- keepers, Christians, Jews, and Turks, in others trades- men such as shoemakers and weavers, and yet in others cooks have vaulted stalls, just like the booths in the old town of Prague. . . . The houses in the town are mostly tolerably solid ; the greater part are without roof, and have only terraces ; others have vaulted roofs. A third part of the houses in the town are deserted and in ruins. There are many open spaces, and they occupy a third part of the city. Of wood there is very little in the buildings, indeed there is less in the whole town than in some houses at Prague ; the town is therefore very safe from fires. Its size is about that of Kuttenberg (Kutnd Hora) here in the Bohemian land." Harant's account of the different Christian communi- ties, the members of which then visited Palestine, and who had religious foundations there, are still of the greatest interest. He enumerates, "besides the Latin, that is to say, Roman Catholic Christians, many other sects. Christians belonging to various nationalities, such as Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, Syrians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Abyssinians, Maronites, and others." In the Greeks, Harant, as a lover of classical antiquity, naturally took far greater interest than in the adherents of the other churches which he enumerates. Harant's chapter on the Greeks is written with interesting and very evident enthusiasm. " The Greek nation," he tells us, " was in former days far superior to all others in matters of government and politics. Among them first arose law- givers, from whom others took and acquired the true rules of government. Among them (the Greeks) were HARANT OF POL^IC 333 wise men, ' sapientes Graecise/ famous all over the world, and the most learned of men in all sciences ; they first of all discovered botany and medical science ; they divided time by months and years. Arithmetic, geometry, physics, ethics, and other kinds of philosophy they improved and advanced ; they then faithfully and care- fully preserved all these things, so that they were called the mother and origin of all literary and other free arts ; and thus they were superior to all other nations. " Besides this, for many centuries they knew neither kingly nor monarchical rule ; they governed themselves according to their own constitutions, some in a demo- cratic, others in an aristocratic manner (what the latter was I have explained in my description of Venice) ; therefore all the neighbouring kings in every direction were their mortal enemies, whom they had to encounter in many great wars." From Palestine the travellers proceeded to Egypt, embarking at Gaza for Damietta, then the principal seaport of Egypt. The sea-voyage was tedious and unpleasant. Harant (from whose mind Bohemia was hardly ever absent) described the passengers who em- barked with him and his companions as a ^' Senftenberg rabble." 1 After a short stay in Egypt, Harant and his companions returned to Venice, and thence to their own country. In 1608 he published, on the request of his friends, the graphic description of his travels, which fortun- ately has been preserved. Harant appears to have en- joyed great favour with King Rudolph, who raised him 1 A proverbial expression. Senftenberg is a small town in North-Eastern Bohemia. I don't know how its inhabitants acquired this invidious distinction. 334 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE to the rank of a noble. Harant had hitherto belonged to the " estate " of the knights. Somewhat later, Harant, who had been brought up as a Romanist, joined the Utraquist or Calixtine Church, probably mainly from political motives. Harant was a zealous partisan of the ancient Bohemian constitution and of the national lan- guage. The Jesuits, then the most prominent leaders of the Roman party in Bohemia, well knew that it would only be possible to destroy the old Church of Hus and to re-establish Romanism if the ancient constitution were suppressed, and the Bohemian language and litera- ture also, as far as possible, destroyed. In the stirring events of the last years of Bohemian independence (1618-1620) Harant played a very promi- nent part. He commanded the artillery of the Bohe- mian army which, under Count Thurn, invaded Austria and besieged Vienna in 1619 ; it is stated that he ordered his gunners to point their cannon against the windows of the palace (Burg) in Vienna in which the Emperor Ferdinand had taken refuge. This probably caused Harant to be singled out as one of those Bohemian nobles to whom the severest punishment was awarded, and in fact sealed his fate. During the short reign of King Frederick, Harant held high office, and when the battle of the White Mountain ended that prince's short reign, he sought refuge in his castle of Pecka. He was there taken prisoner by the Austrian troops in March 1 62 1. It is characteristic of the man that on the day when the troops arrived he should, when, on his leaving his castle for an early walk, a gust of wind blew off his hat, have remarked : ^Mf I were a Roman, I should imme- diately turn back and not stir a step from the house to- day." Harant was one of the Bohemian leaders who SKALA ZE ZHOftE 33 5 were decapitated on June 21, 1621. I have quoted^ Skdla ze Zhore's account of his last moments. Of the latest historians of this period, Paul SkAla ze ZuofiE is certainly the most important. Palacky has called him ^' not only the most voluminous, but also the most valuable historian of Bohemia ; " he might per- haps have been considered the foremost historian of his country before the present century, since which time that rank belongs uncontestedly to Palacky himself. I cannot formulate my opinion of Skdla more accurately than I did some years ago, when I wrote : " Skala's de- scription of the turbulent scenes on the Hradcin on the day of the defenestration, and the truly pathetic account of the last hours and execution of the Bohemian leaders in 162 1, are masterpieces of historical writing. I may confidently say that they would do credit to the literature of a larger and better known country than Bohemia." Paul Skdla ze Zhofe, born in 1583, belonged, like Bartos and Sixt, to the '^ estate " of the citizens or towns- men. He was educated at the then very celebrated Pro- testant university of Wittenberg, and his life and writings both prove that he was a staunch adherent of the Pro- testant faith. He was for some time employed in the municipal offices of the town of Saaz (or ^atec), and he held a Government appointment at Prague during the Provisional Government of 1618 and the short reign of Frederick of the Palatinate. He was an eye-witness of some of the events of that memorable period. He left Bohemia after the battle of the White Mountain and the flight of King Frederick, at whose court he remained during the first years of his exile. He afterwards settled 1 See pp. 343 and 344. 336 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE at Freiberg in Saxony, not very far from the frontier of Bohemia, to which country many of the exiles still hoped once more to return. It was here that Skala undertook his great historical works. He first wrote a Chronology of the Church, This book is a mere compilation of dates, including some that are of a very fantastic character. Skala counts 1656 years from the creation of the world to the deluge, and 1717 thence to the foundation of the first Chal- daean monarchy. This book seems only to have been intended to be a preparation for his great historical work, the Historic Cirkevni (^^ History of the Church "), a book which, in spite of its title, deals as much with political as with ecclesiastical matters. This colossal work is preserved in MS. in ten enormous volumes (the largest contains 1700 pages, the others but little fewer) in the library of Count Waldstein at Dux. The part of the book that refers to the Bohemian events of the years 1602 to 1623 has been edited and published by Dr. Tieftrunk in two large volumes. It is, of course, the most interesting part of the enormous work, as Skala here writes as a contemporary, and sometimes as an eye-witness. Skala of course writes as a staunch Protestant and an enemy of the absolutist party. No Bohemian his- torian of this period, as I have already remarked, was without a strong political and theological bias ; yet Skdla tells us at the beginning of his account of the Bohemian movement of 161 8: ^^\ have not the inten- tion, either here or in any part of my narrative, of writing anything whatever under the inspiration of par- tiality or of good-will or ill-will towards this party or that. Neither will I personally endorse the praise or SKALA ZE ZHOftE 337 blame which others have expressed. I only state those various facts which I have found in other authors' writings (printed or in manuscript) which are conform to truth. Judgment I leave to prudent, truth-loving men, who have a more profound knowledge of these events than I, in my exile, have been able to obtain." These statements, written to prove Skdla's impartiality, are not entirely correct, or at least apply only to the years after 1620, when Skala, an exile from Bohemia, had to rely on the authority of others. Of previous events he frequently writes as an eye-witness. Thus, when referring to the removal of the altars and paint- ings from the cathedral-church of St. Vitus at Prague in 1619, Skala writes: ^^ Though I and other officials were working in the neighbouring state offices between one and two o'clock, we heard nothing of what was happening in the royal church (St. Vitus); only next morning, when I entered the church, I saw that the pictures had been removed." Skdla gives a very able account of the ancient Bohe- mian constitution, of which he writes as a fervent ad- mirer. He then states what in his opinion was the cause of the destruction of that constitution. ^^ The Bohemian nation," he writes, ''has indeed this pecu- liarity, that it can endure neither complete tyranny nor complete liberty unfettered by law. And as the Bohe- mians defended their ancient liberties with such true zeal, they might have been happier than other nations had they but at home maintained sincere concord among themselves. I doubt that any one would have been able to overcome them by force of arms if they had been bound together by the bond of patriotic mutual confi- dence ; but in consequence of religious differences, great Y 338 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE discord reigned among them, and therefore mutual dis- trust. One section, which conformed to the Church of Rome, assumed the name of CathoHcs or communicants in one kind. The other section, which loved to worship and serve God according to the definitions and rules of the Holy Scripture, and not according to the fancies of men, are called communicants under both kinds (Utra- quists), or Evangelicals or Hussites, from the name of their teacher, that true martyr for Christ, John Hus, or ^ of Husinec,' who in his time re-established pure doc- trine in the Bohemian land, and from the darkness of Papacy raised it to light. . . . Many years ago regula- tions, which the Bohemians obtained by the bravery with which they defended God's truth, stipulated that nobody who did not receive the flesh and blood of our Lord Christ in both kinds should occupy the offices of the state and of the towns. . . . Thus almost all men acknowledged the salutary doctrine that man is redeemed by his faith in Christ and through His holy merit, and that he thus obtains eternal salvation." But afterwards Skala says : "The Jesuits endeavoured, with all their might, to disseminate among imprudent young men, whose confidence they obtained by flattery, not only the teaching of the Roman school, but also hatred against the National Church and contempt for the glorious rights, regulations, and constitutions of the land ; and thus they strove to form them according to their own will ; but yet more they approached with flattery the highest officials and judges of the land also, as well as some of the greatest lords ; and then, when they had inspired them with their own Jesuitical spirit, then, as if they had been soulless bodies, possessing neither reason nor common-sense, they ruled them ac- SKAlA 339 cording to their own will . . . and they thus obtained that all real strength and ruling power was concen- trated in them {i.e. the Jesuits), though the name and appearance of power and political importance was retained by the officials. Then only the Roman religion, which had almost died out in Bohemia, seemed sud- denly to bloom again and to recover its power. On the other hand, the respect for the royal majesty constantly decreased ; the kingdom, hitherto peaceful, became tur- bulent and seditious ; the estates not only differed among themselves, but were also irritated against the king their lord, when under cover, and in the name of the royal majesty, evil and turbulent men artfully carried out their knavish plans and endeavours ; in fact, every sort of licentiousness appeared openly and without re- straint among the people." But of greater interest than any other part of Skdla's book are the pages that deal with the closing days of Bohemian independence. In writing of the tragedy that opened with the defenestration in 1618, and ended with the executions at Prague in June 162 1, Skala is always graphic and often pathetic. I shall quote a short portion of Skala's account of the events that mark the beginning and the close of the Bohemian movement. In his account of the defenestration Skdla writes : *'. . . Then Joaquin, Count Schlick, ardently and with tears in his eyes, for he was a true and zealous follower of the religion, addressed the assembly and violently attacked Martinic and Slavata.^ He reminded them of the wrongs which they had inflicted both on Utraquists individually and on the whole Evangelical Church, and 1 See p. 345. 340 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE of how they had dealt with them according to the suggestions of those maHcious teachers of theirs, the members of the sect of the Jesuits. He said that they had unlawfully attempted to deprive the Protestants of their offices, and that they had given proof of this when they deprived that noble Bohemian hero, Count Thurn, of his office as burgrave of the Karlstein, which office the Lord of Smecno (Martinic) had usurped ; he had done this contrary to the constitution of the land. For who had ever heard that in Bohemia officials could be dismissed and offices redistributed without the consent of the Diet and a vote of the three Estates ? ^ But you,' he said, ^ worthless disciples of the Jesuits, you with your followers and little secretaries,^ you have dared to take it on yourselves to do this, not knowing how other- wise to harm us and to disparage our party. But you shall learn that we are not old women ' — and here he snapped his fingers at them — 'and that we shall not allow you to deceive us. For we consider you as of rank equal to our own, but we recognise his Majesty as our most gracious lord, and being now well satisfied with him, we shall undertake nothing against his Majesty. As long as old men, honest and wise, governed this kingdom, everything went well in it ; but since you, disciples of the Jesuits, have pushed yourselves forward, the contrary has been the case. You will not be able to take from us the privileges which God has given us and our gracious sovereign has confirmed ; we will not till we are conquered consent to this.' " The indignation of Count Schhck and his intense excitement, which render his speech at times incoherent, appear very clearly from Skala's account. The various ^ In Bohemian sckretaricky^ THE DEFENESTRATION 341 opinions of the nobles assembled in council are very clearly and minutely set forth. I have only space for the final passage: "Then while he (Kinsky) still wished to continue his speech, Count Thurn quickly approached Slavata and seized him by the hand, while Ulrick Kinsky seized Martinic — but many nobles did not yet know what would be done with them, whether they would be thrown into a dungeon or merely put under arrest ; then they (Thurn and Kinsky) led them right through the crowd of nobles ; and only then did every one know that they would be thrown from the windows. They also now understood that the Estates were not jesting with them, though in consequence of their haughtiness and obsti- nacy they had as yet spoken to no one ; they now began to entreat that their lives be spared ; wringing their hands and invoking the name of God, they strove to keep their feet on the ground and begged for mercy. "The Lord of Smecno mournfully entreated that he might be granted a confessor ; he received the short answer that he should commend his soul to God. Slavata did not ask for a confessor, but prayed to the Lord to be with him. " But no mercy was granted them, and first the Lord of Smecno was dragged to that window near which the secretaries generally worked, for Kinsky was quicker and had more aid than Count Thurn, who had first seized Slavata. Then they were both thrown, dressed in their cloaks and with their rapiers and decorations, just as they had been found in the Chancellor's office, one after the other head foremost out of the westward window into the moat beneath the palace, which by a wall is separated from the other deeper moat. They loudly screamed, 342 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE 'Ach, ach, ouv6/ and attempted to hold on to the window-frame, but were at last obliged to let go, as they were struck on the hands. They were thus punished for having been unworthy of their offices and positions, which they had not sufficiently valued, and had indeed used to the detriment of His Imperial Majesty and to the ruin of their country ; and this, said the Estates in their larger apology, was done according to ancient precedents in the Bohemian kingdom and in the city of Prague, and following the example of that which was done to Jezebel, the tormentor of the Israelite people, and also that of the Romans and other celebrated nations, who were in the habit of throwing from rocks and other elevated places those who disturbed the peace of the commonwealth." As already stated, the part of Skala's enormous work which is of general interest ends with the execution of the Bohemian leaders, which took place at Prague on June 21, 1621. Skala had fled from his country imme- diately after the battle of the White Mountain, and thus undoubtedly escaped sharing the fate of those whose last moments he has so graphically described. He had there- fore to rely on the information from Bohemia that reached him in his exile at Freiberg. He tells us, however, that he has ^' given word by word the narrative of three clergymen who were with the prisoners to the end and pre- pared them for the violent and, in the eyes of the world, dishonourable death that awaited them." Here also I can only give a short extract from Skala's very lengthy account. He writes : ^' Then the imperial executioners appeared before the lords, saying that the hour of death had come, that they should be ready, and that each one whose name was called should come out (of the prison). Immediately afterwards the judges entered the prison THE EXECUTIONS AT PRAGUE 343 and called out the name of Count Schlick. With them arrived four German priests, and when they had de- scended the steps, two Jesuits stood there, one of whom was called Sudetius. He said to the Count, * Domine Comes recordare adhuc' But the Count answered sharply, ' Jam me facias missum/ '' After him they called out the name of Venceslas of Budova. He took no clergyman with him. " Meanwhile Harant of Polzic sent for John the clergy- man, asking him to come, as it would soon be his turn. . . . Then Lord Harant said, sighing, 'O my dear God, through how many lands have I travelled, how many dangers have I encountered, for how many days have I not seen bread ; once I have been buried in the sands. From all these perils God has rescued me, and now I must die guiltless in my own dear land. Forgive my enemies, O my dear Lord.' Then they called out his name, and he started for that mournful stage and slaughterhouse of Antichrist.-^ '' But this is worthy of notice, that when one of these holy men and martyrs for God's cause was called forth, then to our great astonishment a leave-taking occurred in a pleasant manner, which rejoiced our hearts, just as if they were preparing to go to a banquet or some pastime. * Now, my dear friends, may our Lord God bless you, may He grant you the consolations of the Holy Ghost, patience and courage, so that you may be able to prove, now also in the moment of your death, that you have heartily and bravely defended the honour of God. I go before you that I may first see the glory of God, the glory of our beloved Redeemer, but I await you directly after me ; already in this hour earthly grief ^ The Altstadter Ring, where the executions took place. 344 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE vanishes, and a new heart-felt and eternal gladness begins.' The other prisoners who remained behind answered, ' May our Lord God bless you on your way for the sake of the guiltless death of Christ ; may He send His holy angels to meet your soul. You go before us to the glory of heaven. We also will follow you, and we are certain because of Him in whom we have be- lieved, Jesus Christ, that we shall all meet again to-day and rejoice for ever with our beloved Redeemer, the angels, and the chosen of God.' . . . But let us return to the account of the last journey and the words of the dying. When leaving the prison-room Harant said, ^ In thee, my God, I have believed since my youth ; do not let me be disgraced for all ages.' Meanwhile, John the clergyman was saying prayers till they reached the place of execution, then Harant said, lifting his eyes heaven- wards, ^ Into your hands. Lord Jesus Christ, I commend my soul.' He then took off his cloak, and then again prayed, ' In you, O God, I have believed since my youth, and therefore I now and ever believe and feel certain that, in memory of the shameful death of your Son and my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, you will deign to recom- pense me for this temporary disgrace by perpetual glory; and therefore, O God, I commend my soul into Thy hands, for Thou hast redeemed it. True God ! Lord Jesus Christ ! Son of the living God ! Receive my soul ; I commend it to you, O Lord Jesus Christ.' And then he was beheaded, and exchanged this wretched earthly life for a glorious and heavenly one. ''And the executioner, who was himself a Utraquist, was careful not to interrupt their prayers ; and he always waited till each of them had finished his devotions." SLAVATA 345 Of the last years of Skala we have Uttle knowledge ; the last documents referring to him mention him as still living at Freiburg, and date from the year 1640. It is probable that he died shortly after that time. William Count Slavata (born 1572, died 1652), aeon- temporary of Skala, was also a very voluminous writer. His life belongs to the political history of Bohemia, and I shall here only allude briefly to it, because of its close connection with the writings which Slavata has left. Slavata's father belonged to the community of the Bohemian Brethren, and he was himself educated in the doctrines of that Church. He afterwards proceeded to Italy for the purpose of study. He there joined the Roman Church, which obtained in him a most able and enthusiastic adherent. With the proverbial zeal of a convert, he, almost alone among the Bohemian nobles, refused to affix his signature to the celebrated ^Metter of majesty," by which King Rudolph, in 1609, granted, in agreement with the Estates, considerable rights and privileges to the Protestants. When the weak and sickly King Matthew, during the last years of his life, fell more and more under the influence of his heir. Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, Slavata rapidly obtained high office. He held the office of Lord Chief-Justice at the beginning of the Bohemian troubles in 1618. On the memorable day of the defenestration, Slavata was thrown from the windows of the Hradcin together with his colleague, the burgrave of the Karlstein, Martinic, Lord of Smecno. After the re-establishment of the Habsburg dynasty in Bohemia, Slavata was rewarded for his fidelity by the victors. He held various important offices of state under the Emperors Ferdinand II. and Ferdinand III., and was one of the most trusted councillors of both these sove- 346 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE reigns. His literary work is an incidental and accidental episode in his momentous career. When accompanying the Emperor Ferdinand II. to Regensburg in 1636, a pamphlet written by his old antagonist, Count Thurn, came into Slavata's hands. It dealt with the recent assassination of Wallenstein,^ but Thurn's pamphlet went far beyond the immediate subject, and, in fact, contained a defence of the author's political career. Slavata immediately resolved on re- futing this work, written by the originator of the de- fenestration. Though sixteen years had passed since that event, and both Bohemian Protestantism and Bohemian independence had been totally suppressed, the memory of his ignominious exit from the windows of the Hradcin still rankled in Slavata's mind. It should also be mentioned that several of his friends, his old companion Martinic in particular, had previously urged him to write memoirs of his time ; he had, however, always declined to do so because of the stress of public business. Slavata's work, intended merely as a refutation of the statements of Thurn (whose pamphlet he has in its entirety incorporated into his book), became a histori- cal work consisting of two volumes of considerable size.^ The book, entitled Pamlty or memoirs, deals only with the events of the years 1618 and 1619. Founded, as it undoubtedly is, on notes taken by Slavata at the time of the stirring events which he relates, it has the greatest historical value. Slavata was in correspondence 1 It has often been asserted that Slavata, who was a personal enemy of Wallenstein, was the cause of the estrangement between him and the em- peror, and indirectly of Wallenstein's murder. ^ This portion of Slavata's works has been edited and published by the late Dr. Jirecek. SLAVATA 347 with most of the leaders of the ^' Catholic reformation," as the suppression of Protestantism in Bohemia was officially designated. He has also transcribed many of the state documents which in his official capacity were accessible to him. His book is therefore valuable as a " Quellenwerk," and the historians who have in the present century rewritten the history of Bohemia have availed themselves largely of these memoirs. The whole system of the '^Catholic reformation" appears very clearly in Slavata's book. It should be stated — though I run the risk of transgressing on the domain of history — that in the question which immediately caused the Bohemian movement the Protestants had the law on their side. The defenestration, in fact, only precipitated a conflict that was in any case inevitable. The only alternative would have been peaceful submission to the Church of Rome, such as Ferdinand had obtained in his hereditary lands, Styria and Carinthia, It was, of course, Slavata's task to prove that the Pro- testants had been the aggressors, and he devotes much ingenuity and more sophistry to that task. I have before stated that in my opinion extensive quotations are an absolute necessity when writing of a literature such as that of Bohemia, where it may be assumed as a certainty that almost all the works mentioned are entirely un- known to the reader. This is, however, particularly difficult in the case of Slavata, whose writings are dis- tinctly and constantly controversial, and whose style is entirely devoid of grace. I shall, as characteristic of Slavata, translate a portion of his account of the ban- quet which the officials of King Frederick gave to the Turkish ambassador on his arival at Prague. Slavata is as long-winded as most of his contemporaries, and 348 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE even a very condensed extract of his account may, I fear, appear lengthy. Slavata writes : ^' Some of the officers of the so-called King Frederick, Bohemians of the Utraquist Church, gave in the evening a banquet to the Turkish ambas- sador, and among them was Henry Matthew, Count Thurn. The envoys of the Prince of Transylvania were also present, and of others Bohuchval of Berka, master of the ceremonies; Venceslas William of Ruppa, high chancellor ; Venceslas of Budova, president of the court of appeal ; Peter Miller, vice-chancellor of the Bohemian kingdom. At this banquet various speeches were made. There w^as one present who has reported that he heard with his own ears these words that were spoken there. *' The Turkish ambassador, holding a glass of wine in his hand, drank it off to the health of Berka, begging him to consider him as his son, for both alive and dead, he said, he would be an obedient son to him. Berka gave as answer that he did not consider him- self as being worthy that the ambassador and envoy of the great and powerful Turkish emperor should accept him as his father, he would rather wish to be his (the ambassador's) willing servant and menial.^ The Turkish ambassador accepted this, and answered further, saying that he was a Turk by birth and would die as such ; he, however, firmly and certainly thought that those who believed in Christ will be redeemed, even though they differed in opinion among themselves. Of the Emperor Ferdinand, however, he did not believe that he would be redeemed, for he had been the cause that the blood of many innocent people had been shed 1 Siavata uses the German word Knccht, SLAVATA 349 and of their destruction. He therefore thought that the devil would fry him on a spit in hell. Berka then said that he hoped the Lord God would bless his beloved lord for this pledge ; no toast had ever yet pleased him so much as this one, and his only wish was that that should happen to the Emperor Ferdi- nand, the greatest enemy of the Bohemians, which the Turkish ambassador had said ; and he added, * Amen ! Amen ! Amen ! ' "The same Turkish envoy then exhorted the Bohe- mian nobles that they should never submit to the Emperor Ferdinand ; if they were not sufficiently strong, his emperor would send 60,000 men to their aid. . . . Berka further said that he knew for a certainty that the Emperor Ferdinand would willingly give 50,000 ducats so that he might obtain his head ; but that his friends would give the troops 200,000 ducats that they might fight Ferdinand till he was totally defeated and driven to despair. To this the Turkish ambassador answered that he would act wisely and justly in doing so, for Ferdinand had not held his word and promise, just as his predecessors of the House of Austria, Rudolph and Matthew, had not kept their promises to his Majesty, the Ottoman emperor. "Berka then declared that the House of Austria had always been the ruin of Bohemia, because by its false Spanish practices it had sold the kingdom, his beloved fatherland, into perpetual servitude and made slaves and serfs of the Bohemians. Therefore the kind Lord God would not allow this any longer, nor permit that such tyranny and cruelty should be practised against them ; but He in His great mercy had opened their eyes, and they had therefore taken up arms against 3 50 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Ferdinand and began war against the House of Austria. And rather than succumb to Spanish tyranny they would a thousand times rather submit to the rule and govern- ment of the Turkish emperor, their powerful lord. . . . Venceslas of Budova, then president of the court of appeal, who was attached to the Turkish ambassador as special commissioner, declared that the lords and other members of the Estates of Bohemia belonging to the Utraquist creed had arrived at this resolution and deci- sion, that they would rather be cut to pieces together with their wives and children than submit to the rule and domination of Ferdinand, or of any other member of the House of Austria. . . . Peter Miller, then vice- chancellor of the Bohemian kingdom, said to Budova : * My kind lord father, we Bohemians have resolved, rather than that the Emperor Ferdinand should be our king — and supposing that the Turkish emperor is not able to help us sufficiently — we will seek refuge with the devil in hell and supplicate him to help us.' ** At last Count Thurn spoke, saying that the Lord God was his witness how truly he regretted with his whole heart that the Emperor Ferdinand should have been spoken of in such a manner ; but that Ferdinand had been misled by listening to the counsels of the Jesuits ; neither he nor the other Bohemians were re- sponsible for his fall; rather should he attribute it to himself. Then Thurn ordered three small glasses of wine and one larger glass that was empty, and said, addressing the Turkish ambassador : ^ I drink these three glasses with you, one to the health of his Majesty the Emperor (of Turkey), one to the health of our own most gracious King, and one to that of the Prince of Transylvania,' And raising the three glasses he poured SLAVATA 351 their contents into the large empty glass, and then con- tinued : ' As with wine mixed out of three glasses it cannot be known what wine was in the first, what in the second, and what in the third glass, and only one sort of wine appears in this full glass, thus I begin to drink this glass full of wine in the name of the most Holy Trinity, consisting of three persons, but one Divinity, in the hope that these three potentates to whose health I am drinking will be of one accord, of one heart, and of one will ; so that they may triumph over and defeat all their enemies.' Then he emptied the full glass of wine. The Turkish ambassador answered that he had great pleasure in emptying his glass to this toast. " From this account and information we can under- stand to what evil, heresy especially that of Calvin, leads people ; yet Count Thurn in his pamphlet attempts to prove that the Bohemians and he, their leader, were not rebels. I do not endeavour to exaggerate the shameless rebellion of the Bohemians of those days ; for every one who has read these lines must shudder at the speeches that were made at Count Thurn's banquet. Nothing more shameless or wicked can be imagined ; nor is it true that his Majesty Ferdinand II. had not kept his word and promises." As Slavata and all his friends were then in exile, it is not very clear to whom this highly-coloured and obviously exaggerated account of Count Thurn's ban- quet should be attributed. It is possible that some traitor may have been present who was Slavata's autho- rity. It is, however, far more probable that the account is founded on the report of some servant who waited at table. In consequence of the habit of drinking freely at banquets, which was then very prevalent in Bohemia, 352 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE much political information could be obtained by listen- ing to the conversation at the dinner-table. The Pro- testants frequently accused the Catholics of employing servants as spies on such occasions.^ Whatever Slavata's authority may be, the passage describing the Bohemian leaders as cringing in a servile fashion before the repre- sentative of the enemy of Christianity, while displaying bhnd and brutal hatred of the House of Habsburg, is a masterpiece of skilful animosity. The composition of these memoirs seems to have inspired Slavata with a taste for historical studies. In the last years of his life he wrote a vast history of all the lands ruled by the House of Habsburg, from the reign of Ferdinand I. to Slavata's own time. This book, entitled Historicke Spisovani (^^ Historical Works "), con- sists of fourteen volumes, and the earlier memoirs were incorporated with it, forming (of course not in chrono- logical order) volumes i. and ii. The work includes a lengthy treatise on the long-disputed question whether the Bohemian kingdom was an elective or a hereditary one, a question which the battle of the White Mountain settled '^by blood and iron." Slavata here displays a considerable amount of erudition, though the arguments founded on his accounts of the reigns of the almost entirely mythical early Pfemyslide princes are, of course, valueless. Generally speaking, Slavata's record of earlier events, based principally on such doubtful authorities as ^naeas Sylvius and Hajek, do not possess the histo- rical value which undoubtedly belongs to his personal recollections. ^ Readers of Schiller's Wallenstein will remember the sctne at the banquet at Pilsen {Die Ficcolomini , act iv. scene 5), when the servants are listening to the conversation of the generals. HABERNFELD AND STRANSK^ 353 Though written in Latin, Andreas ab Habernfeld's Bellum Bohemiann and Paiiliis Stransky's Respublica Bojema should at least be mentioned, as they belong to this period. Habernfeld, who himself took part in the last war waged by Bohemia as an independent country, and was present at the battle of the White Mountain, has left us a clear though prejudiced account of the events of the years 161 8 to 1620. Paulus Stransky, one of the many Bohemian Protestants who ended their lives as exiles, has given a short but lucid account of the ancient Bohemian constitution, and in the same volume a short history of his country. CHAPTER VII THE REVIVAL OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE The misery and degradation of Bohemia that were the result of the battle of the White Mountain are beyond all description. Perhaps no country has, in compara- tively modern times, suffered as Bohemia did at that period. Gindely, than whom no historian is less given to exaggeration, has written : ^' The misery under which the land (Bohemia) groaned can, as regards its extent and its depth, be compared only to that which, at the time of the migration of nations ( Volkerwanderung)^ was inflicted on the inhabitants of Gaul and Northern Italy by their Frank and Lombard conquerors." From the battle of the White Mountain, Bohemian literature becomes, and continues for many years, an almost com- plete blank. It was at this time that the great destruction of Bohemian books, so frequently alluded to in these pages, began, though it continued far into the eighteenth century. Catholic priests, generally Jesuits, accompanied by soldiers, visited the houses of the Bohemians ; even the cottages of the peasants were not exempt. As these priests were generally unacquainted with the Bohemian language, it was thought best to destroy all books written in that language. The famous, or rather infamous, de- stroyer of Bohemian books, the Jesuit Konias, continued his bonfires — he boasted of having burnt 60,000 Bohe- 354 THE BOOK-DESTROYERS 355 mian volumes — up to the year 1760. It is, of course, only possible to attempt conjectures as to the value of the lost works, but Bohemian writers agree in thinking that many had considerable historical merit. Second, of course, to non-Roman theological writings, the book- destroyers relentlessly pursued all works of a historical character which might suggest to the Bohemian people the contrast between their glorious past and their present servile and miserable condition. It may be mentioned as a proof of this, that even the historical work of Pope Pius II. (^naeas Sylvius) which deals with Bohemia was ordered to be destroyed. The numerous emigrants from Bohemia continued indeed for some time, as already mentioned, to write in the national language, and only the death of Komensky marks the cessation of such writing. In Bohemia itself, from the fatal year 1620 to the end of the eighteenth century, no book appeared in the native language that is worthy of general notice. Jungmann,^ in his patriotic endeavour to conceal the complete cessation of Bohemian literature, enumerates many writers of prayer-books, collections of sermons, and calendars published at this period. Whatever historical and philological value such writings may have, they do not belong to literature. The nobles and the educated classes in Bohemia at this period wrote — as far as they wrote at all — in German or in Latin. It is curious to note that Bohemian con- tinued to be spoken long after it had ceased to be written among all classes of the population. When, in 1697, Peter the Great visited Prague, he was able to con- verse with the nobles in his own language, so similar to that of Bohemia. This would have been impossible a ^ See later. 3 56 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE century later, and even at the present day more Ger- man than Bohemian is spoken in the salons of the Bohemian nobility at Prague. Of the scanty German and Latin works written in Bohemia during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, a few are noticeable as having, though indirectly, con- tributed to preserve the ancient national memories which are so inseparably connected with the national language. The earliest of these writers is the learned Jesuit Balbin or Balbinus, who was born in 162 1, a year after the catastrophe of the White Mountain, and died at Prague in 1688. His very numerous works, all written in Latin, deal principally with the history of his country. Balbin's writings are, of course, in absolute accordance with the doctrine of Rome, and, besides, teem with legends of saints, pedigrees of the newly-established nobility of Bohemia, and other matters that should have insured him the favour of the ruling powers. Still Balbin found many difficulties in his path when he attempted to publish his works. It is hardly doing injustice to the Government officials if we suppose that these difficulties were raised, firstly, because it was considered desirable that the history of Bohemia should be altogether buried in oblivion ; secondly, because Balbin's writings give evidence of a degree of fairness which necessarily dis- pleased them. Balbin's fairness has already been alluded to when referring to the biography of Milic, which is contained in his Miscellanea. Balbin's judgment of Komensky also shows a degree of tolerance very un- usual at that time. He, writes in his Bohemia Docta : *' He (Komensky) published very many works, but nothing whatever that was directly aimed at the Catholic Church. Reading his works, it has always seemed to me BALBIN 357 that he wrote with so much reflection that he did not wish to award superiority to any one religion^ nor to condemn any." Of Balbin's many works we may mention the Miscel- laneay a vast compilation into which he admitted writings of earlier authors ; the Epitome Remm Bohouicaruniy his most valuable work; the Bohemia Docta; and a curious work in defence of the Bohemian language entitled Disertatio Apologetica Linguco Slovenicce. The difficulties which Balbin encountered when he attempted to publish his works have already been alluded to. Great objec- tions were raised, in particular, against the Epitome Rerum Bohemicarum ; but after long negotiations, influential friends of Balbin induced the Emperor Leopold I. in 1677 to give his consent to the publication of the book. The Diserlatio Apologetica, on the other hand, was totally condemned by the Austrian authorities, and was, indeed, only published a century after the author's death. Another Catholic priest whose historical labours were valuable for his country was Tomas Pesina, who was ennobled and granted the title of Cechorod (born 1629, died 1680). The Latin works of Pesina, who was a friend of Balbin, treat principally of Moravia, and are still of interest. To the eighteenth century belong the German works of Joseph Bienenberg, which deal with the archaeo- logy of Bohemia. In 1778 Bienenberg published his Alterthiimer in KonigreicJie Bohmen, and two years later his History of the Town of Koniggrdtz. The latter work has a far wider interest than its name suggests. Bienen- berg gives many interesting details concerning Zizka's wars, and he prints the celebrated '^ Articles of war " of the great Bohemian general. The fact that these and other writers who sympathised 3 58 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE with the Bohemian people yet wrote in foreign lan- guages, proves how deep the national language had sunk. Become little more than an idiom used by the peasantry in some parts of Bohemia, it was no longer available for literature of a more elevated character. Within the second half of the eighteenth century a change took place. The Emperor Joseph II. was in- deed a determined enemy of the Bohemian national aspirations, and his regulations, as well as those of the Empress Maria Teresa, excluded the Bohemian language from even the humblest schools to a greater extent than any of their predecessors had attempted to do. On the other hand, the enlightened mind of the Emperor Joseph disapproved of the exaggerated system of restriction and coercion which during the reigns of his predecessors had been enforced on all the lands of the Habsburg em- pire, though it weighed with exceptional heaviness on Bohemia. During his reign a newspaper written in the national language was allowed to appear at Prague, a permission that even since his reign has several times been refused by Austrian Governments. It was also a result of the comparative freedom granted by Joseph that there began to appear new editions of ancient Bohemian works, and translations of foreign works into Bohemian, which contributed greatly to regain for Bohemian the character of a written language. These workers live in the grateful memory of their countrymen, but it seems unnecessary to enumerate them in a book written for non-Bohemian readers. It will be seen, however, that in the nineteenth century also even the most prominent writers considered this editing and translating as an im- portant duty towards their country. During the reign of Joseph II. the Bohemian Society of Sciences was DOBROVSK^ 359 established. The publications of the society at first appeared in German only — they are now printed both in German and in Bohemian — and German only was used in its deliberations. Still, the historical studies which the society published reminded the Bohemians of their glorious past, and revived the feeling of pride in their country, which had greatly decreased. It was at the end of the eighteenth century also that a professorship of the Bohemian language was established at the University of Vienna, and somewhat later at that of Prague. Before referring to the group of men who in the early years of the present century successfully effected the revival of the Bohemian language and literature, we must notice a writer who, though an enthusiastic student of the Bohemian language, did not believe that that language would continue, or perhaps rather again be- come, one of the languages of Europe that possess an independent literature. I refer to Joseph Dobrovsky-. Born in 1753, his earliest years coincide with the time when the decadence of the Bohemian language was most marked. His books, mostly written in German or Latin, give evidence of a knowledge of the science of languages that was very unusual at that period. The early educa- tion of Dobrovsky, " the patriarch of Slavic philology," as he was called in later years, was entirely German. It was only when studying at the ^^ Gymnasium," first of Deutsch Brod, then of Klattau in Bohemia, that he acquired some knowledge of the Bohemian language. An indefatigable worker, he soon devoted his entire energies to the study of the historical development of the Bohemian language and of its connection with the languages of other Slav countries. When very young Dobrovsky became a member of the Society of Jesus, 36o A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE and after the suppression of that order lived for a few years as a tutor in families of the Bohemian nobility. During the later years of his life he, though he had been ordained as a priest, led the life of an independent scholar, living either at Prague or in the country resi- dences of the Bohemian nobles, where he was always a welcome guest. Palack^^ quotes his own remark as to the uniformity of his life : " What interest," he said, " can the rather monotonous life of a private person have ? One works, that is, one writes ; has one's writing printed ; then rests, and then begins another work of a similar character." Dobrovsky was entirely devoid of the enthusiasm for the national language that animated Jungmann, Kollar, Safafik, Palacky, and the minor writers of the first half of the present century. He was, on the other hand, a philologist of the highest rank. Not only the Bohemians, but all Slav races, are indebted to him for his studies on Slav philology, a subject which at that period, when even in Russia the national language had to a great extent given way to Latin, French, and German, was absolutely uncultivated. Of his works we may mention the (German) " Detailed Grammar of the Bohemian Language " (Aus- fiihrliches Lehrgebdnde der Bohemischen SpracJie), This work has become the model of all Bohemian grammars that were published subsequently, as well as of those of other Slav nationalities which have recently attained to the dignity of possessing written languages. The book was first published in 1809, and again in an enlarged form in 18 18. Dobrovsky s " History of the Bohemian Lan- guage and its Older YJX^x-dXwx^'' {GescJiichte der Bohmi- schen Sprache und aeltern Literatur) first appeared in 1792, but subsequently so completely rewritten, that when it DOBROVSK^ 361 was republished in 1818 it appeared almost a new work. The book has become somewhat antiquated and incom- plete, as so many Bohemian books have been redis- covered since it appeared, but it still has considerable value. While these and other works of Dobrovsky were written in German, he employed the Latin language for his Institutiones Linguce Slavicce Veteris. In this, his most important work, Dobrovsky, as in his grammar, paved the way for later workers. The histitutiones have been the foundation of the work of the many important Slav philologists of the present century. It has already been mentioned that Dobrovsky had no enthusiasm for the Bohemian language, to the develop- ment of which he so largely contributed. His early recollections carried him back to the time when it was little more than an idiom used by the peasantry in the outlying country districts of Bohemia. When, in the present century, the movement in favour of the national language acquired greater strength, Dobrovsky never sympathised with it. When the publication of the Casopis Musea Krdlovstvi Cesk^ho ("Journal of the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia") in Bohemian, as well as in German, was first discussed, Dobrovsky expressed the wish that the new journal should appear in German only. It must, in justice to Dobrovsky, be added that in the last years of his life he wrote a few Bohemian essays for the journal. They are, indeed, with a collection of letters, the only writings in the national language which he has left. Dobrovsky's criti- cal nature and his thorough philological training in- duced him to deny from the time of its discovery the genuineness of the " MS. of Griineberg," ^ an opinion 1 See Chapter I. 362 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE that is now shared by almost all Bohemian scholars. Dobrovsk}^ expressed himself strongly on the subject. He wrote : '* It (/>. the MS.) is a knavery which they (the '^ discoverers ") committed from hatred of the Ger- mans, and from exaggerated patriotism, for the purpose of deceiving themselves and others." Dobrovsky died in 1829, at a time when the question whether the Bohemian language should live or not was already decided in the affirmative sense. He had during the last years of his life become very unpopular among the Bohemian patriots, but events have proved that his critical faculties sometimes guided him better than enthusiasm did others. As a philologist of the Slav languages Dobrovsk^;^ was in advance of his time. Ety- mological monstrosities, such as KoUar sometimes com- mitted in his Staroitalia Slavjanskuy would have been impossible to Dobrovsky. Very different from the calm scholarly nature of Dobrovsky was the temperament of the four enthusiastic patriots to whom, with, of course, the co-operation of minor writers, the revival of Bohemian literature is due. I refer to Jungmann, Kollar, Safafik, and Palacky. Joseph Jungmann was born in 1773 at Hudlice, a small village near Beroun in Bohemia. As Hudlice was even then a thoroughly Bohemian village, Jungmann first acquired his native language ; but when sent to school at Beroun — where, as indeed everywhere in Bohemia at that time, the teaching was entirely German — he almost forgot Bohemian, and soon found it far easier to express himself in German. When on a visit to his native village an old relation playfully accused him of ''stammering" whenever he spoke Bohemian. This remark, as Jung- mann has himself told us, made a great impression on JUNGMANN 363 the mind of the young student. " From that moment," he afterwards wrote, " I became a true Bohemian, at least to my best knowledge and will." Jungmann's life was by no means eventful, and requires little notice. He, soon after finishing his studies, became professor at the gymnasium of Leitmeritz, from which he was afterwards transferred to Prague. Here he spent the greatest part of his life, and died in 1847, a year before revolutionary events obliged so many Bohemian patriots to emerge from their seclusion and become popular leaders. I have already alluded to the great activity the Bohe- mian writers of this period displayed as editors of the works of their ancient literature, as well as translators from the works of more advanced foreign literatures. The two tasks were closely connected, as the writers could only render in Bohemian the classical works of other countries by availing themselves of the rich verbal treasury which is contained in the works of their own ancient authors. Jungmann himself at the beginning of his life became known as a translator, and, in contradic- tion with his later vocation, oftenest attempted transla- tions of poetical works. It may interest English readers to know that many of Jungmann's translations are from the English. Of all his translations, that of Milton's Paradise Lost, written in five-footed trochees, obtained greatest celebrity. It is really a wonderful achievement, if we consider that it was written in 181 1, when the Bohemian language was only just awakening from its winter-sleep of nearly two hundred years. Jungmann also translated Gray's Elegy in a Churchyard^ Goethe's Herman und Dorothea, and poems by Schiller and Burger. From the French Jungmann translated Chateaubriand's Atala. It is stated that Jungmann planned a great original poem 364 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE in the national language, but if this is true the plan was never carried out. In later years Jungmann devoted whatever leisure his official duties left him to studies of a scientific, and particularly of a philological character. Great as were his merits as a translator, the last-named works constitute his principal claim to the gratitude of his countrymen. The earlier of the great works of Jung- mann is his History of Bohemian Literature, Jungmann did not follow Dobrovsky s example, but wrote in Bohe- mian. The book was first published in 1825, and a second enlarged edition appeared in 1849, after the author's death. The book is scarcely what in the present day would be called the history of a literature ; perhaps such a task was impossible at the time Jungmann wrote. Jungmann's history contains an enumeration of all writers, great or small, of whom writings in the Bohe- mian language have been preserved. Jungmann's intense patriotism induced him to attempt to prove that at almost all periods works on almost all subjects written in Bohe- mian had existed. Every translator of even the most valueless work, every preacher who had caused even the most worthless Bohemian sermon to be printed, there- fore finds a place in this book. Yet this very minuteness and absence of criticism which we find in the book render it very valuable as a collection of materials ; and even now, seventy years after its first appearance, it is indispensable to all students of Bohemian literature. The introductions to each of the '^ oddeleni " (divisions) contain a valuable historical and etymological account of the development of the Bohemian language and litera- ture in each of the periods into which Jungmann has divided his history. Jungmann also wrote numerous literary articles for JUNGMANN 365 the Bohemian newspapers and reviews, which gradually sprung up in spite of the constant opposition of the Austrian Government. These articles contributed greatly to the success of the Bohemian movement. As I have noted elsewhere, that movement was, at its beginning, necessarily a purely literary one. No political paper that was not directly or indirectly under the control of the Government, then entirely German in its views, was allowed to exist. The second great work of Jungmann that ranks with his history of Bohemiam literature is his vast dictionary of the Bohemian and German languages, published in five large volumes between 1835 and 1839. Jungmann's preparatory studies, both for this work and for the His- tory, however, began as early as the year 1800. The work is a monument of indomitable energy and appli- cation. A work such as that of Jungmann would, if undertaken by a whole academy, have been most meri- torious ; but Jungmann worked almost alone, aided only in the merely mechanical part of his task by a few students of the University of Prague. His difficulties cannot be compared with those which the compiler of a dictionary of a more developed language encounters. A large part of ancient Bohemian literature, that within the last fifty years has been carefully edited and pub- lished, could then only be found in MSS. that were often difficult of access. Jungmann's work contains words that he only found once or twice in his sources ; it was his desire to include all, for he laboured not only for the then scanty readers who wished to study the works of ancient Bohemian literature, but also for the modern Bohemian writers, whose vocabulary he endea- voured to enlarge. 366 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Even now, when Bohemian literature has obtained an almost miraculous development, Jungmann's dictionary has not been superseded ; and the same, as regards com- pleteness at least, can be said of his History of Bohemian Literature, The originators of the Bohemian revival, drawn to- gether by a common passionate love for the national language, were mostly on terms of intimacy, and their correspondence, very voluminous, as was formerly the custom, gives a very clear insight into the views of the writers, and the disheartening circumstances under which they pursued their work. Of Jungmann's letters, the most interesting are those addressed to Kollar, who will be mentioned presently, and to Anthony Marek, an inti- mate friend of Jungmann, who was one of the minor Bohemian writers of this period. The degree of inti- macy which existed among the small band of patriots is well described in one of Jungmann's letters to Kollar, written in February 1821: ^M am writing to-day," he says, '^to our dear Safafik also, and to Palacky'. You three form indeed my most beloved Trinity." The general impression of Jungmann's letters is distinctly a depress- ing one. The writer refers constantly to the incessant, often very puerile, vexations which he encountered from the Austrian authorities. Jungmann complains inces- santly of the '^censors," and we shall find the same complaints later when dealing with Palacky. Every book published in Austria had at that period to be previously submitted to the " censure-office " for inspec- tion. There were two "censors" to each book, one of whom had to guard against anything contrary to the views of the Austrian Government being printed, while the other suppressed everything contrary to the teaching JUNGMANN 367 of the Church of Rome. Kollar had sent some sonnets, that were afterwards printed in his Daughter of Slava^ to Jungmann for the purpose of submitting them to the censors. Jungmann writes in answer: "The poems confided to me I should be glad to get published, but the censure suppresses everything. . . . Those beautiful (O most beautiful) parts of your poem which refer to Slava I cannot even present to the censors without much danger to the good cause " {i,e, the revival of the Bohemian language). "The other part also it will hardly be possible to publish. The other day Ziegler^ com- plained that the censor had struck out thirty sheets from his writings, even love-songs set to music. We must touch neither Eros nor politics ; such are the orders and commands of the censure." Jungmann's letters to Marek, written in a very familiar manner, also give an interesting insight into the lives and thoughts of the little group of Bohemian literary men ; they show their intense devotion to the national lan- guage, their firm belief in the solidarity of the Slavic races, which was intensified by the Russian victories over Napoleon, their heartfelt delight when one of the then almost Germanised Bohemian nobles appeared to be favourable to the national cause, their dissatisfaction with the Government of Vienna, which always regarded them with suspicion. To the last-named subject Jung- mann refers in some of his earliest letters to Marek. Writing on May 29, 1809, he says: "On me truly falls every burden of human life. On one hand the malice of neighbours, magistrates, school directors, vintagers 1 A minor Bohemian writer of the period. Though Ziegler was a professor of theology, love is the subject of some of his songs. 368 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE and ploughers,^ soldiers (who give it me well 2), and other ruffians oppress me ; on the other hand, I have little hope of obtaining my object (which, between us, is to obtain the professorship of physics at the Univer- sity of Prague), because of the fearful number of com- petitors, and also because of the injustice of the Austrian Government, which recently transferred to Prague three professors from Vienna, as if we Bohemians were all donkeys." . . . The passage of the Russian army through Bohemia naturally greatly interested the Slavic enthu- siasts. On September 24, 1813, Jungmann writes to Marek: "The Russian troops march through here (Leit- meritz) constantly. To-day 120,000 (?) are expected, whose passage will cost the town 9000 florins. I dili- gently govorju [Russian for talking] with them, and find that there are among them very good-natured men, and that that which is — principally by Germans — said of their stealing and robbing is not their fault, but that of the badly organised commissariat. . . . On the whole, they are not worse than our own soldiers. It will not be to the disadvantage of the Bohemians that they should become better acquainted with the Russians. They will at least know that there are more Slavs in the world than they fancied." On May 4, 1814, Jung- mann writes to Marek : " The Germans and half-Germans here" (at Leitmeritz) "are very angry with the news- papers, because they always — so they say — mention the Russians as if they were everything. This war has been advantageous to the Slav world, and has contri- buted in no slight degree to its advancement. Not in ^ A proverbial Bohemian expression signifying " one and all." 2 In Bohemian, *' Mi hodnS mnoho davaji." The Bohemian colloquialism can here be literally translated by an English colloquial expression. JUNGMANN'S LETTERS 369 vain has Europe learned to know the Slavs and they Europe. I think the Slav languages will become better known than they are now. It is already certain, now that the Muses are establishing their realm in the North. I must endeavour to obtain a few Russian books. . . . Perhaps Count Waldstein ^ will be favourable to the Bohemians, as he knows Slavic languages. God be praised there is another nobleman who is not a German ! " When more peaceful times began, Jungmann's corre- spondence deals mainly with literary matters, but he continues to uphold the principle of solidarity or mutual intercourse {yzdjemnost Slovauskd) between the Slavs. On January 3, 1827, Jungmann writes to Marek: "Of what else should I write but of the subject which we both carry in our hearts — Slavic literature. Yes, Slavic literature, I say, for I may at least name in writing to my friend what in print we can scarcely mention. So low have we fallen through the misdeeds of our country- men,^ that we scarcely dare openly to profess that we are Slavs. . . . They treat even the word * Slav ' with great suspicion at the censure-office, and Palacky has made it a rule to mention the Slavs as little as possible in the journal of the Museum. ... How little they love us can be seen by the fact that the censors at Vienna only gave permission to print an ancient Bohemian chronicle on condition that it should be printed in Latin characters and published at a high price, that it may 1 A Bohemian nobleman who owned estates near Leitmeritz. 2 This alludes to the now uncontested fact that countrymen and literary rivals of Jungmann had denounced Jungmann's writings to the Austrian Government, attributing to them a political tendency, from which in reality they were absolutely free. 2 A 370 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE come into the hands of but few, and of none that are ^ unholy ' {ix. whom the Government distrusts).^ . . . We have pleasanter news from the East. According to a letter of Safafik, the treaty of Akjerman between Russia and Turkey guarantees freedom to the Servian nation- ality ; so a new epoch for that nation and its literature may begin. At four Russian universities — Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, and Charkov — professorships of general Slavic literature will be founded, and one at Warsaw is also in contemplation. There, then, the Bohemian lan- guage will be heard and its best works published. The Englishman Povring,^ is translating Sei-vian songs into English, and, stimulated by Safafik, he will also translate the MS. of Koniginhof. In England very many are learning Slavic languages, particularly Russian. When- ever a learned Englishman acquires a taste for one Slavic dialect, he wishes to learn a second," &c.^ As a last quotation from Jungmann's letters, I shall give a short extract from one written in 1837, which is curious as referring to Count Kolovrat, one of the founders of the Bohemian Museum, who was then one of the principal members of the Austrian cabinet. It proves that Jungmann was by no means hostile to the Austrian Government, except when that Government treated its ^ The few Bohemian books that appeared in the eighteenth, and even at the beginning of the nineteenth century, were printed in German (Gothic) characters, and it was hoped that the Latin characters would be unintelligible to many people of the lower classes, from whom the censors wished to with- hold the chronicle. 2 Thus written by Jungmann. The person referred to is Sir John Bowring. 5 Writing for English readers, it is scarcely necessary to mention that there was not in the year 1827 a wide-spread enthusiasm in England for learning Slavic languages. Jungmann, sanguine, like all the Bohemian patriots of his time, generalised on the strength of some statements of English philologists whom he may have met at Prague. KOLLAR 371 Slav subjects unjustly. Jungmann writes: "Gay,^ the Croatian, is at Karlsbad. The Hungarians wished to imprison him because he published some national songs ; now to their great grief he has received per- mission from Vienna to establish a printing-press. Our Kolovrat obtained this favour for him, though the Hungarian Chancellor opposed it. This minister (Kolo- vrat) has acted like a true Slav. Thanks and glory to him!" Closely connected with Jungmann is his friend Kollar, whose name has already been mentioned frequently in this chapter. He was the greatest poet of the early Bohemian revival, though living Bohemian poets have undoubtedly surpassed him. John Kollar (1793-1852) was born at Mosovec, in the Slav district of Northern Hungary. His parents were Protestants, and it was decided that he should become a minister of that Church. In 1815 he proceeded to the then famous University of Jena in Ger- many, for the purpose of finishing his theological studies. The University of Jena was then one of the centres of the movement in favour of the unity of the German race, which has since been effected by '* blood and iron." It does not seem improbable that the contact with the German patriots laid the germ of Kollar's passionate devotion to the idea of the unity of the Slav nations ; though of course it was of a literary, not a political union of these nations — that are separated from each other by millions of aliens — that Kollar dreamt. It is, however, anticipating the future if we assume that these ideas ex- ^ In Croatia, early in the present century, a national movement sprung up similar to that of Bohemia, but its results were smaller and less enduring. Gay, the leader of this movement, was persecuted by the Hungarians, just as the Bohemians were by the German officials. 372 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE clusively, or even principally; occupied young Kollar while at Jena. An event during his stay at Jena influ- enced his whole life, and became the origin of the only one of his works that will live. He became passionately attached to Mina (or Wilhelmina) Schmidt, the daughter of a Protestant clergyman who lived in a village near Jena. How the German country girl was by Kollar transformed into the Daughter of Sldva is one of the curiosities of literature. Kollar's suit for Mina Schmidt was for the present unsuccessful. Frau Schmidt de- clared that she would never allow her daughter to live in a ^^ savage country," as she termed Hungary ; and it was to that country that Kollar's ecclesiastical career obliged him to return. Kollar afterwards became minis- ter to the Protestant Church at Pest, and continued there up to the year 1849. He corresponded with Mina for some time after his departure from Jena, but news — incorrect, as it afterwards turned out — was brought from Germany announcing Mina's death. The news proved untrue, and fifteen years after Kollar's departure from Jena, and some years after he had raised Mina to the Slav heaven, she became his wife. Kollar's life, like that of all the Bohemian patriots, was a very laborious and painful one. His letters contain constant complaints of the incessant persecutions on the part of the Hungarian Government which his Slav sympathies brought on him. A plot on the part of Hungarians to murder Kollar was even discovered. Kollar several times appealed, and appealed successfully, to the Emperor Francis I. for protection. Kollar's ideas of Slavic solidarity also re- sulted mainly in disappointment. The separation of the Slavs on the whole continued as before, and even Kollar's own language, the Bohemian, was abandoned THE "DAUGHTER OF SLAvA " 373 by Kollar's own countrymen. The Slavs of Northern Hungary, identical in race with the Bohemians and Mora- vians, had always used the Bohemian language. Safa- fik, as well as Kollar himself, both born in the Slavic districts of Hungary, wrote in Bohemian. In the pre- sent century only the Slavs of Northern Hungary adopted as a written language a dialect that slightly differs from Bohemian. The result of this injudicious step, which Kollar from the first strongly blamed, has been the almost complete absorption by the Magyars of the isolated Slavs of Northern Hungary. During the Hungarian revolution Kollar left Pest. Like most Slavs, his sympathies were rather with the Aus- trians than with the Hungarians, who had, indeed, con- stantly persecuted him. He spent some time travelling in Germany and Italy. One of the results of his visit to the last-named country was that deplorable work, Staroitalia Slavjanskd ("Slavic Ancient Italy"). In re- cognition of his faithfulness to the Austrian Govern- ment, Kollar, immediately after the suppression of the Hungarian revolution in 1849, was awarded the pro- fessorship of Slavic archaeology at the University of Vienna. He did not live long to enjoy the comparative prosperity of which he was now assured. He died at Vienna on January 24, 1852, leaving his wife and chil- dren in a state of great destitution. Kollar's Sldvy Deera (" Daughter of Sldva ") perhaps contributed more than any other work to the revival of Bohemian literature. Its first appearance was received with great enthusiasm, which continued for many years. Some of the Bohemian patriots boasted that they knew the whole enormous collection of sonnets by heart. The book, at first a small collection of sonnets, gradually 374 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE grew to one of the largest books consisting entirely of sonnets which exists. The first collection was pub- lished in 1821, and consisted principally of reminis- cences of Mina and of Jena, though Kollar's enthusiasm for the Slav race also already finds expression here. It was impossible that so fervent a Slav should love a German girl, but Kollar discovered that the family of Schmidt had come to Thuringia from Lusatia, which was formerly a Slav country, and where, indeed, a Slav dialect lingers to the present day. Mina thus being a Slav, it was possible to celebrate her as the " Daughter of Slava," a goddess who personifies the Slavic race. Kollar firmly maintained that such a goddess had existed in the heathen mythology of the Slavs, but recent and more critical writers have expressed doubts on the sub- ject. At any rate, Kollar gave the name of the Daughter of Sldva to the second and enlarged edition of his sonnets, which appeared in 1824. While the first col- lection had consisted mainly of love songs, the national Slav motive now becomes equally prominent. Kollar was greatly struck by the fact that large parts of Northern Germany, including the country near Jena, where Kollar had first loved and written, were formerly inhabited by Slavs. Constant warfare with the Germans, which began at the time of Charles the Great, has indeed long since destroyed all trace of these Slavs, but Kollar's imagina- tion recalled them to life. Though very little is known of the Slav inhabitants of Northern Germany, there is no doubt that Kollar has greatly idealised them. The edition of the Daughter of Sldva published in 1824 consisted of three cantos. The poet, accompanied by Milek (the Slavic god of love), who has descended from heaven to bring him news of Mina, visits the countries that are THE "DAUGHTER OF SlAvA" 375 watered by the Saale, the Elbe, and the Danube, and the three rivers give their names to the three cantos. Kollar and his companion everywhere search and find traces of the former Slav inhabitants of the countries which they visit. The edition of 1824 first contained the '^ fore- song " {predzplv)y or introduction, written in distichs, in which Kollar bewails the fate of the early inhabitants of Northern Germany. These verses rank among the finest in the whole range of modern Slav poetry. In 1832 Kollar published a third, again enlarged, collection of his sonnets. The second canto was considerably added to, and now entitled The Elbe^ the Rhine, and the Vltava} Two new cantos were added under the names of Lethe and Acheron, Kollar chose those names to give unity to his poem, as the former cantos had also been named after rivers. But the two new cantos are really a Slavic Paradiso and Inferno modelled on Dante. Kollar has here glorified and stigmatised those whom he considered prominent friends or enemies of the Slav race. It must be confessed that large portions of these cantos consist in a mere enumeration of names, often of persons who have long sunk into oblivion. Thus we find in hell a Miss Pardoe, who wrote a long-forgotten book of travels in Hungary, in which she, it appears, adopted the Hun- garian standpoint, always hostile to the Slavs. Kollar, in his new peregrinations, is no longer accompanied by Milek, but by the " Daughter of Sldva," the glorified Mina Schmidt. The last sonnet of the poem, which I shall translate, contains an appeal of the ^^ Daughter of Slava" to all her countrymen, exhorting them to concord. Though no subject could then be more original than the glorification of the then little-known Slav races, * In German " Moldau." 376 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Kollar's poem yet contains many reminiscences of other writings. It has already been stated that the leading idea of the two last cantos is borrowed from Dante. The pilgrim in the earlier cantos sometimes recalls Childe Harold, Mina, or the '^Daughter of Sldva/' is sometimes modelled on Beatrice, sometimes on Laura. Kollar indeed never made a secret of the fact that he had studied the poetry of Western Europe. Such study was indeed a necessity at a time when, with the ex- ception of the songs of the people, the Slavs possessed no poetry. Bohemian critics agree in asserting that the first canto of the Sldvy DeerUy written under the influence of a passionate love for Mina, is infinitely the best. The introduction to the poem has also been justly admired. It is interesting also as containing a general exposition of the author's views and dreams concerning the past and future of the Slavic race. Want of space will oblige me to quote only a portion of the ^' fore-song." Kollar, viewing the former homes of his race, exclaims : ^^ Here before my tearful eyes lies the land. Once the cradle, now the tomb, of my nation. Stop ! it is holy ground on which you tread. Son of the Tatra (Carpathian mountains), raise your head towards heaven. Or rather guide your steps to- wards that oak-tree Which yet defies destructive Time. But worse than Time is man, who has placed his iron sceptre on thy neck, O Slava ; Worse than wild war, more fearful than thunder, than fire. Is the man who, blinded by hate, rages against his own race.^ O ancient times that surround me as with night ! O land that art a record of all glory and all shame ! From the ^ Kollar refers to those who, though of Slav origin, identified themselves with the Germans. THE ''DAUGHTER OF SLAVA" 377 treacherous Elbe to the perfidious plains near the Vistula, From the Danube to the devouring waves of the Baltic, In all these lands the harmonious language of the brave Slavs once resounded. Succumbing to hatred, it now has perished. And who has committed this offence that cries to heaven for vengeance ? Who has in one nation dishonoured humanity in its entirety ? Blush, envious Germany, the neighbour of Slava ! It is thy hands that once committed this guilty deed. No enemy has spilt so much blood— and ink. As did the German to destroy the Slavs. He who is worthy of liberty respects the liberty of all. He who forges irons to enslave others is himself a slave. Be it that he fetters the language or the hands of others. It is the same ; he proves himself unable to respect the rights of others. . . ." Kollar then proceeds to give the ideal- ised account of the ancient Slav inhabitants of Germany, to which I have already referred. He attributes to them a very advanced degree of culture, and describes them as instructing Europe in seamanship, agriculture, and mining. Enumerating the Slav tribes, he writes : " Whither have you vanished, dear Slav nations, Nations that once drank the waters of Pomerania and the Saale, Peaceful tribes of the Sorbs, descendants of the Obo- trites ? And you tribes of the Ukres and Wiltes, whither have you gone ? I look far to the right, I glance to the left. But in vain does my eyes seek Sldva in Slavic land. Tell us, O tree, growing as a temple, under which sacrifices were once offered to the ancient gods, Where are the nations, the princes, the towns, Who first spread civilisation in these northern lands ? " Writing as a poet, not as a politician, Kollar beheved the Germanisation of these ancient Slav lands to be far 378 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE less complete than it actually is. He writes : *' As two rivers, though their waters have joined in one channel, yet differ in colour during a long part of their course, thus these two nations (the Germans and Slavs), though intermingled by the force of fierce war, yet still differ visibly in their manner of life. But the degenerate sons of Slava often insult their mother, while they kiss the rod of their hateful stepmother (Germany). They are neither Slavs nor Germans in their ways. Hybrids, they belong half to one race, half to the other. Thus has the race of Osman settled down in the Hellenic lands. Its horse- tails are prominent on the summit of Olympus. Thus, too, did the avaricious Europeans ruin the two Indian worlds, giving the people indeed education, but robbing them of their virtue, their land, their colour, and their language. Nationality and honour with us, too, have disappeared ; Nature alone has remained unchanged. Woods, rivers, towns, and villages would not abandon their Slav names.^ The sound still remains, but the Slavic spirit has fled. . . ." The introduction ends thus : " It is shameful when in misery to moan over our fate ; he who by his deeds appeases the wrath of Heaven acts better. Not from a tearful eye, but from a diligent hand fresh hope will blossom. Thus even evil may yet be changed to good. A crooked path may indeed lead men astray, but not humanity at large. The confusion of individuals may yet serve to the advantage of the com- munity. Time changes everything, even past times. The errors of centuries may yet be repaired by time." The fame of KoUar's introduction is so great that I ^ This is still perfectly true. In Mecklenburg and some parts of Prussia the names of many towns and villages are obviously of Slav origin, as are the family names of some of the oldest families which are derived from localities. THE '^DAUGHTER OF SLAVA'* 379 have translated a considerable part of it, and I am there- fore yet more limited in my quotations from the sonnets themselves. Those of the first canto, where the love- motive is still strong and enters into a quaint rivalry with the author's Slav enthusiasm, are the earliest and most valuable fruits of Kollar's muse. Celakovsky ^ was undoubtedly right in stating that the poetic genius of KoUar left him with his younger years. In the twelfth sonnet of the first book Kollar describes his hesitation between the two subjects that inspired him. There is an easily noticeable echo of Anacreon in the song. The poet writes : — " / wished to sing of the thrones of the Bohemian kings ^ of the arrival of the brothers^ of Vlasta and Libussa,'^ of Attila, the scourge of Godj and how he taught his Huns to use the crossbow. " /wished to sing of the golden Carpathians ^ the wines of Tokay ^ the splendour of the moon ; but when I touched the strings of my lyre^ ^ Mitia^ and again ^ Mina^^ alone resounded in my ears. ^^ In simple style I wished to write of fables^ flozvers, kingdoms^ but my pen^ self-willed^ traces other characters than those that I intended. " My speech also does not obey my will, and what when in com- pany my heart carefully conceals my rash tongue reveals. ^^ The singular mixture of love and national enthusiasm already noted appears quaintly — it would be severe to say grotesquely — in another sonnet of the first book. Kollar writes : — " Once when a heavy sleep closed her weary little eyelids, I for half an hour practised kissing her as a true Slav should. " My kisses were not such as Roman, Greek, or Gentian describes — sensual buffooneries. They were pure, proper kisses, such as the customs of our Russian brothers allow. ^ See later. ^ References to ancient Bohemian legends. 38o A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE ** Thus then did I kiss 7ny love : from the forehead downward to the chiny then in the shape of a cross frotn one little ear to the other. " On this voyage tivice I reached the little rose-garden of her lips^ through which my soul enters into hers" Of the sonnets of the second canto I shall quote one in which Kollar's enthusiasm for '* Slavia/' the Slav world, which he distinguishes from the goddess " Slava/' appears most clearly. He writes : — " Slavia, Slavia / Thou name of sweet sound but of bitter memory ; hundred times divided and destroyed, but yet more honoured than ever. "From the Ural Mountains to the summit of the Carpathians, from the deserts fiear the equator to the lands of the setting sun, thy kingdom extends. "Much hast thou suffered, but ever hast thou survived the evil deeds of thy ene?nies, the evil ingratitude also of thy sons. ** While others have built on soft ground, thou hast established thy throne on the ruins of many centuries.'^ One of the sonnets of the third book contains a curious prophecy of the future greatness of the Slav race. Kollar writes : — " What will becofne of us Slavs a century hence 1 what of all Europe 1 Slavic manners, as the floods of a deluge, will extend their strength in every direction. " That language, which the Germans falsely believed to be but a dialect fit for slaves, 7vill be heard even under the ceilings of palaces and in the mouths of our very enemies. "By means of the Slav language science will be developed. Our dress, the customs, the songs of our people will be the fashion on the Seine and on the Elbe. " Oh / had it but been granted to me to be born at that time when the Slavs will rule, or might 1 at least then rise again from my tomb I " THE ''DAUGHTER OF SLAvA " 381 The recent development of the Slav races is so little known in England, that these lines will probably appear to many readers far more absurd than they really are. Professor Leger, who has devoted his life to the study of Slavic history and literature, and is wondrously in touch with the national feeling, writes of the sonnet which I have just quoted : " These lines were written about the year 1830. Is it necessary to state to how great an extent the predictions have been fulfilled ? The Slav language, then considered a jargon of peasants, is now the recognised language of the courts of St. Petersburg, Belgrade, Sophia, and Cettigne, of the par- liaments and representative bodies of Prague, Briinn, and Agram, of the universities of Russia, Bohemia, Poland, and Illyria. . . . Russian is ardently studied at Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Budapest. Muscovite novels invade the libraries of Paris." ^ The two last cantos of Kollar's great poem have little hterary merit, and their always rather local interest has, as I have already mentioned, decreased with the lapse of time. I shall, however, translate the last sonnet of the fifth canto, which forms the conclusion of the whole work. Mina, in heaven, addresses thus the Slavs who are still on earth : — " Oh you^ brothers and siveet sisters who yet live iu the world, grant me willingly your ear that I may briefly instruct you. " Beware of that smooth path which the devil has interwoven with nets that he may entangle the souls of traitors in his deceitful snares, ^ This was written some years ago, when the enthusiasm for the works of Tolstoy, Dostoievsky, Tourguenev, Goncharov, and others was at its height in Paris. 382 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE " Come here and faid {in heaven and hell) an example in the good and a warning in the evil. Learn above all to love your country. "May these words resound from your summits, O Carpathians^ to the Cerna Hora {Monte?iegro), from the Giant Mountains to the Ural: * Hell for traitors^ heaven for faithful Slavs I ' " Kollar's merit as a writer depends mainly on the " Daughter of Slava/' though he was a copious writer of prose as well as poetry. A small German pamphlet by Kollar entitled, Ueber die literarische Wechselseitigkeit zwischen den verscliiedenen Stdmmen und Mundarten der Slavischen Nation ("On the Literary Solidarity of the various Branches of the Slav Nation "), which appeared in 1837, caused great sensation, and for a time acquired even political importance. In Bohemian Kollar wrote, besides his Sldvy Deera^ an account of his travels in Germany and Italy and several archaeological works. Of these, the Staroitalia Slavjanskd ('' Slavic Ancient Italy "), written in the last year of Kollar's life, and dedicated to the Emperor Francis Joseph, is the largest. The author endeavoured, on the slightest evidence and by means of the most fantastical suppositions, to prove that a large part of the population of Italy — particularly in the north — is of Slav origin. Kollar is here constantly carried away by his exuberant imagination, and the book has no scientific value. It is, indeed, scarcely an exaggeration to call it a tissue of absurdities. Kollar's recently pub- lished correspondence with Jungmann, Safafik, Palacky, and others has great interest. While Kollar devoted to the revival of the Bohemian language and literature his enthusiastic eloquence and poetic talents, Safafik employed for the same purpose SAFA^IK 383 his vast erudition and unusual ability as a philologist. His works deal principally with the early origins of the Slav language and race, and of the early literature of Bohemia. The latter works were very valuable at a time when the Bohemian language was again acquiring the dignity of a written language. Like Jungmann, Safarik also endeavoured to forward the advancement of his language by means of translations from more cultivated languages, and in his youth he also wrote poetry. But it is on his philological and archaeological works on the Slav race that his fame is principally founded. Equal to Dobrovsky, and perhaps superior to Jungmann in erudition, some of his writings on these subjects are still standard works. Paul Joseph Safarik (1795-1861), like Kollar, was a native of the Slav district of Northern Hungary. As the son of a Protestant clergyman he received his first education in his own country, and from his early youth gave proof of his enthusiasm for the Slavic race, which inspired him during his whole life. In 1815 he visited the then far-famed University of Jena in Germany, and on his return to Hungary accepted a situation as private tutor at Pressburg. He here became acquainted with Palacky, and the friendship that sprang up between them continued during the whole of their lives. In 1819 Safarik was appointed director of the gymnasium at Novy Sad (Neusatz), in Southern Hungary. His Hfe here was embittered by constant persecution on the part of the Hungarian authorities, whose aversion to the Slav aspira- tions was as great as that of the German officials in Austria. Safarik's writings had meanwhile attracted attention at Prague, and some of the Bohemian patriots, though by 384 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE no means opulent, subscribed a sufficient sum to enable him to proceed to Prague. His life here also was a wretched one. He was in constant financial distress. While occupied with learned works of the highest im- portance, he was obliged to gain his living by writing in popular journals, and he had at one time even to accept the humiliating and invidious office of a " censor." Writing on Slav subjects is not at the present day a very lucrative occupation. It was yet less so at the time of Safafik, when interest in these matters was still more limited. Safafik's health began to fail in consequence of constant anxiety, but he continued his studies on the history and language of his country and race undaunt- edly. A speaker at the meeting of Bohemian scholars that in 1895 celebrated the centenary of Safafik's birth, rightly described him as a " martyr of science." While the Austrian Government continued to regard Safafik's researches with indifference, the attention of the Prussian authorities was attracted to his profound knowledge of Slavic philology and archaeology, sciences that were then in their infancy. Safafik was offered a professorship both by the University of Breslau and that of Berhn, but the Austrian Government, not wishing that he should expatriate himself, now appointed him professor of Slavic philology at the University of Prague. He, however, gave up this appointment a year later, when he became librarian of that university. In 1848 Safafik made a brief appearance in the political arena. He was a member of the Slav congress that met at Prague in that year, and a speech in favour of the solidarity of the Slav nations which he delivered there caused great sensation. The failure of the congress and the German reaction,^ which lasted ^ See my article on the ** Bohemian Question," Nineteenth Century, December 1898. SafaRik 385 from 1849 to 1859, were deeply felt by Safarik. He now confined his studies to the remote antiquity of the Slav race. Every allusion to Bohemian history of later times again became in:idmissible during these years. Safarik, whose health had long been faihng, died on June 2nd, 1861. Some time before his death his mental faculties had been affected. I shall only mention a few of the most important of Safarik's numerous writings. His many Bohemian essays on Slavic philology and archaeology — mostly pub- lished in the Journal of the Bohemian Museum — have indeed inestimable value for those who devote them- selves to these studies, but little interest for others. Safarik's first work was a small collection of Bohemian songs, written when he was only nineteen years of age, and entitled Tatranskd Musa s lyrou Slovanskou ("The Carpathian Muse with Slavic Lyre"). Early works also were several translations, of which that of the Clouds of Aristophanes and that of Schiller's Maria Stuart are the most important. A work which had already occupied Safarik at Jena, but which he only completed during his stay at Neusatz, was his German Geschichte der Slavischen Sprache und Literatur ('' History of the Slavic Language and Literature "). Neusatz or Novy Sad, a town in the south of Hungary, close to the frontier of Croatia, and not far from that of the present kingdom of Servia, was situated very favourably for the purpose of studying the various Slav languages. In his book Safarik, contrary to the now generally accepted method of dividing the Slavs into three branches, distinguishes two classes of Slav nations only, and divides his book into two parts in accordance with this system. The first part deals with the Old Slavic language, the Russian, Servian, 2 B 386 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Croatian languages, and some minor dialects. The second part contains the history of the Polish and Bohe- mian literatures, and notes on the now nearly extinct dialects of the Slavs of Northern Germany. The book became antiquated even during Safafik's lifetime, and he planned a new revised and enlarged edition, which was to have been published in Bohemian. Failing health and other occupations prevented Safafik from carrying out this work. Even in its first state the book, which was only reprinted after Safarik's death, long remained the standard authority on the little-known subject of which it treats. It is only since Mr. Pypin and Mr. Spasovic published in 1865 their (Russian) History of the Slav Literatures that Safafik's work can be considered as superseded. Another fruit of Safafik's residence in the South Slav countries was his Serbische Lesekorner^ an historical and critical analysis of the then little-known Servian language. This book also was written in German. During his stay at Prague, Safafik produced his most important work, which rendered him famous in all Slav countries. I refer to the Starozitnosti Slovanske (" Slavic Antiquity "), which was published in 1837. The book — written in Bohemian — is an attempt to record the history and culture of the Slavs in the earliest times. The subject, still very obscure, was then entirely unex- plored. Safafik intended the work to consist of two parts, but only the first, which is purely historical, was completed. Of the second part, only some essays on the ancient ethnography and archaeology of the Slavs were published. The historical work, which Safafik again divided into two parts, deals, in the first, with the history of the Slav race from the time of Herodotus to the fall of the West Roman empire. The second part continues fiAFAftlK 387 that history to the time when most Slavs were converted to Christianity— that is to say, speaking roughly, to about the year 1000. Safarik's work entirely revolutionised the then current ideas on the origin of the Slavs and their early history. The more recent writers who, par- ticularly in Russia, have studied these subjects, acknow- ledge that Safarik's great work has been the foundation of their researches. One of his minor works requires notice, as it is connected with the much discussed question of the antiquity of the MSS. of Koniginhof and Griineberg. In 1840 Safarik published jointly with Palacky a German work entitled Die dltesten Denkmdler der Bohmischen Sprache, In this book the two authors maintain the ancient origin, not only of the MS. of Koniginhof, but also of that of Griineberg, in which scarcely any Bohemian scholar now believes. Of course the question had not then — more than fifty years ago — been so thoroughly thrashed out as is now the case. Safarik was an indefatigable worker. Besides his many published works, a large number of MSS. in his hand- writing dealing with Slavic research were found. They prove that, had circumstances been more favourable, and had his health not failed him, he might have pro- duced yet more works on the subjects to the study of which he devoted his life. The works of Jungmann, Kollar, and Safarik will always be highly valued by Bohemians, and indeed by all Slavs. But the career of Palacky, the greatest of the Bohemian leaders, whom I mention last, has a far wider interest, as have also the contents of his greatest work. Dealing mainly with Bohemian history, it incidentally throws a great deal of light on many questions connected with the general history of Europe up to the year 1526. It 388 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE is much to be regretted that EngHsh historians have as yet availed themselves so little of Palackys monu- mental History of Bohemia?- Francis Palacky was born in 1798 at Hodslavice in Moravia, not far from Pferov or Prerau, an old centre of the Unity. The traditions of the Brethren never quite died out in this part of Moravia. Palacky's forefathers had belonged to the Unity, and the family, during the many years of persecution, continued secretly to worship according to its teaching. When the Emperor Joseph II., who, as regards religious toleration, was far in advance of his age, issued a decree authorising Protestant religious services according to the Augsburg and Helvetic Confes- sions, Palacky s parents declared their adherence to the former creed. It may be mentioned that the Bohemian Brethren have only during the present reign again been recognised as a religious community. The traces of the traditions of the Brethren are very noticeable in Palacky's works, particularly in his masterly account of the career of Hus. After obtaining the rudiments of education in local schools, Palacky in 181 2 proceeded to the Protestant lyceum at Pressburg in Hungary. Here already Palacky gave proof of his studious nature, and his predilection for historical research was already evident. Gifted with the Slav facility for acquiring languages, Palacky at Pressburg obtained a thorough knowledge of the English language. We are told that Boling- broke's Letters on the Study and Use of History, Blair's ^ I have dwelt with more detail on this subject in a (Bohemian) essay on " Some references to Palacky in the Works of English Writers," which appeared in the Paviainik Palackeho (Palacky Memorial), published in 1 898 on the occasion of the centenary of Palacky's birth. PALACK^ 389 Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres^ ^ and the historical works of Robertson and Gibbon were among Palacky s favourite books. Other historical works that he read with great interest were Karamsin's History of Russia and Johannes Miiller's History of the Swiss Confederation, After finishing his studies at Pressburg, Palacky con- tinued to live there for some time, and was engaged as tutor by several noble families. It was during his stay at Pressburg that his life-long friendship with Kollar, that has already been mentioned, began. It was, indeed, probably mainly through Kollar's influ- ence that he decided to devote his life to the study of Bohemian history and literature ; he had previously thought of becoming a minister of the Protestant Church. Pressburg, and Hungary generally, was not then a desirable residence for one who intended to devote himself to Slavic studies, which the Hungarian Gov- ernment regarded with marked displeasure. Palack]^, therefore, travelled to Prague, where he had the good fortune to obtain the protection of Dobrovsky, who from their earliest acquaintance had realised the ex- ceptional talent of the young Moravian. Through Dobrovsky s influence Palacky obtained from Francis Count Sternberg the appointment of archivist to the family of which Count Francis was the head. This appointment left Palacky sufficient leisure to pursue his historical studies, and the small salary attached to it was very welcome to Palacky. He had, indeed, while a tutor, laid by a little money, but that could 1 Professor Kalousek, in the interesting essay on the " Leading Idea of Palacky's Historical Work," which he contributed to the Palacky Memorial, has noted that the principles according to which Palacky's History of Bohemia is written are in complete accordance with the rules established by Blair in his thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth lecture, On Hisloricai Writing. 390 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE not last long, and his literary work was not likely to afford him much pecuniary gain. One advantage which Palacky obtained by his appointment as archivist to Count Sternberg will surprise English readers, but his Bohemian biographers lay great stress on it. Palack^'s post secured him against all molestation on the part of the police. The Austrian police authorities in the earlier part of the present century were empowered to expel from any town "strangers of no profession," and they were particularly likely to do so in the case of a man known to be favourable to the Bohemian national movement. In other ways, also, the modest appointment was a turning-point in Palacky's career. Through the favour of Francis Count Sternberg, and of his brother. Count Kaspar, president of the Bohemian Museum — which the two brothers had, jointly with Count Kolovrat, founded in 1818 — Palacky became acquainted with many of the Bohemian nobles. He succeeded in obtaining from many of them the then quite exceptional permission to study the archives contained in their castles. Had it not been for the researches which he was allowed to make in these archives — particularly in those of Prince Schwarzenberg at Trebon or Wittingau — Palacky would have been unable to write his History of Bohemia. The impulse to write the work, indeed, also came from the Bohemian nobles. The Diet in 1829 conferred on him the title of " Historian of the Estates of Bohemia ;" but their legislative authority was very limited, and ten years passed before the title conferred on Palacky was con- firmed by the authorities of Vienna. It was on the suggestion of Palacky that it was de- cided that the newly-founded society of the Bohemian Museum should publish an annual journal, which was to PALACKS^'S historical works 391 contain principally studies on the history, ethnography, Hterature, and mythology of Bohemia. After some dis- cussion as to whether the new journal should appear in Bohemian or in German — even so learned a Slavist as Dobrovsky declared that it was impossible to publish a scientific periodical in the national language — it was decided to publish it in both languages. The Journal of the Museum of the Bohemian Kingdom (" Casopis Musea Kralovstvi Ceskeho") first appeared in 1827, and Palacky was its first editor. The German edition, which, though the great Goethe wrote in its favour, found few readers, was discontinued in 1831. The version which appeared in the national language, on the other hand, has been continued up to the present day. It is invaluable to those who endeavour to study the history and literature of Bohemia, and I have used its volumes extensively while writing this book. Mr. Morfill, one of the few English writers on Slavic subjects who writes with thorough knowledge and insight,^ has truly described the volumes of the journal of the Bohemian Museum as a ** mine of Slavonic lore." Palacky's time up to 1837 was fully occupied with the duties connected with the editing of the new journal, with the composition of minor historical writings, and with his studies in the Bohemian archives. He soon, however, found that the preparations for his great his- tory of Bohemia which the Estates urged him to write, would necessitate study in foreign archives also. Pal- acky, therefore, visited Munich and Dresden, and in 1837 undertook a more extensive journey to Italy, 1 Since the above was written, Mr. Morfill has published an adnfiirable "Grammar of the Bohemian Language," the first ever written in English. I can strongly recommend it to readers who wish to acquire the Bohemian 392 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE where he spent considerable time in studying the valu- able documents contained in the archives of Venice and Rome. In the latter town he found some difliculty in obtaining access to the library ^md archives of the Vati- can. Count Rudolph Lutzow, then Austrian ambas- sador at Rome, who was himself a Bohemian, and to whom Palacky had been recommended, succeeded, how- ever, in obtaining for him permission to examine at least some of the MSS. which he wished to see. Palacky has himself left us an interesting account^ of the difficulties he encountered on the part of Monsignor Marini, prefect of the Vatican archives. They were caused, it was stated, principally by alleged indiscretions committed by Ranke, who some time previously had been allowed to study the archives of the Vatican. After Palacky s return to Bohemia, the task of con- tinuing his great historical work absorbed him so com- pletely that he ceased to edit the Journal. His quiet and studious life was, like that of other Bohemian scholars, interrupted by the revolutionary events of the year 1848. The movement in favour of the revival of Bohemian nationality had hitherto been an entirely literary one, and the Bohemians very naturally chose their most pro- minent writers as their political leaders. As Bohemia, with many other non-German parts of Austria, then formed part of the Germanic Confederation, prominent Bohemians, and among them Palacky, were invited to take part in the proceedings of the German National Assembly that met at Frankfort in 1848. Palacky's reply, which caused great sensation at the time, is still worth quoting, as it became the watchword of the Bohe- mian patriots. He wrote : " I am not a German, but a ^ lii his (German) work, Ziir Bohniischcn Gcschichischreibuug. PALACKV'S HISrORICAL WORKS 393 Bohemian. Whatever talent I possess is at the service of my own country. My nation is certainly a small one, but it has always maintained its historical individuality. The rulers of Bohemia have often been on terms of intimacy with the German princes, but the Bohemian people has never considered itself as German." It is a proof of the rapidity with which Palacky acquired con- sideration, that one of the short-lived Austrian cabinets of 1848 (that of Pillersdorf), wishing to obtain the sup- port of the Bohemian nation, oiTered him the post of Minister of Public Instruction. Though his national theories prevented Palacky from taking part in the de- liberations of the German National Assembly, he was a member of the Slav Congress at Prague and of the Austrian Parliament which in 1848 and 1849 met (irst at Vienna, then at Kremsier. The short period of liberal government in Austria ended with the year 1849. Palacky sulTered, like all the Bohemian patriots, from the German and absolutist rule, which was re-established in Bohemia in a more aggra- vated manner than before.^ A paper to which Palacky contributed was suppressed because of an article from his pen which had caused sensation, and the military authorities deliberated whether the writer should be tried by court-martial. In 1861, when a new attempt to establish constitu- tional government in Austria was made, Palacky was made a life-member of the Upper Chamber of the Par- liament of Vienna. He only spoke there twice, in August and September of the year that he had been named. The question of an agreement with Hungary was then ' For further particulais I must aj^ain refer my readers to my article on "The Bohemian (Question," publi.hcd in the Ninclcciith Cciiluiy, De(:eml>ei 1898. 394 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE under discussion. Hungary claimed almost complete independence, and Palacky rightly maintained that the establishing new small states was contrary to the ten- dency to union that then prevailed in Europe. Palacky advised the Hungarians, as well as the Bohemians, to make considerable concessions to the Central Govern- ment of Vienna. He seems already to have foreseen, what actually occurred six years later, that Hungary would be granted almost complete independence, and Bohemia considered a mere Austrian province. Though Palacky, always favourable to the preservation of the Austrian empire, was prepared to concede to the Central Government in Vienna far more extensive powers than the Hungarians were, he yet claimed for Bohemia and the Parliament of Prague a very extensive autonomy, on lines similar, though not identical, with those of the ancient Bohemian constitution, which perished on the day of the battle of the White Mountain. When Palacky found that the Parliament of Vienna was discussing matters that he considered beyond its competency, and encroaching on the rights of the Bohemian represen- tative body, he left Vienna on September 30, 1861, and never again took his seat in the Austrian Upper House. Of the Bohemian Parliament Palacky was a member from the time that it first met in 1861. He attended its meetings whenever the National or Bohe- mian party took part in its deliberations, which they, from political reasons, often refused to do. From 1861 to his death in 1876, Palacky was the recognised leader of the National party in Bohemia. A detailed account of his life during that time would be a record of the political struggles of Bohemia during those years, and would be out of place here. The admiration and venera- PALACKt'S HISTORICAL WORKS 395 tion of the Bohemians for the " Otec Vlasti " (Father of the Country), as he was called, increased with his increasing years. On April 23, 1876, the completion of Palacky's great historical work was celebrated by a banquet at Prague, at which the historian was present. He seems to have felt the presentiment of approach- ing death, and indeed described the speech which he delivered as his testament. The speech is so charac- teristic of Palacky that I shall quote a few words from it. " Our nation," he said, " is in great danger, surrounded, as it is, by enemies in every direction ; but I do not despair ; I hope that it will be able to vanquish them, if it has but the will to do so. It is not enough to say * I will ; ' every one must co-operate, must work, must make what sacrifices he can for the common welfare, particularly for the preservation of our nationality. The Bohemian nation has a brilliant past record. The time of Hus was a glorious time. The Bohemian people then surpassed in intellectual culture all other nations of Europe. ... It is now necessary that we should educate ourselves and work in accordance with the demands of culture and intellect. This is the only testament that, speaking almost as a dying man, I wish to leave to my people." Palacky's presentiment proved but too true. He died, after a very short illness, on May 26, 1876. His funeral was the occasion of general national mourn- ing in Bohemia. Though, as already mentioned, the study of history from his early youth appealed particularly to Palack;^, it was by a work of a very different character that he first became known to the small group of men who in the earlier half of the present century were interested in Bohemian literature. While still studying at Press- 396 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE burg, Palack^ published a translation of some of the poems of Ossian, which was enthusiastically welcomed by his friends. It was at Prague only that he decided on writing his History of Bohemia ^ which made him the foremost man of his nation, and which he has himself described as " especially the work of my whole life." Palack^'s pre- liminary labours in the archives of his own country and then in those of Germany and Italy have already been noticed. Of the immense difficulties which Palack^^'s historical work encountered he has himself given an interesting account. All printed writings were then in Austria and Bohemia under the control of the " censure- office/' to which I have already referred. The Govern- ment, there is no doubt, was in principle opposed to the publication of a history of Bohemia founded on the best available documents, that is to say, of a work really deserving the name of a history. They were too ignorant to know to how great an extent such a work would contradict the short accounts of the past of Bohemia — written with a strongly Romanist and anti- Bohemian tendency, and founded on Hajek's chronicle — that were then in general use ; but they somehow felt that this would be the case. "The Austrian Govern- ment was convinced," Palacky- writes, "that its past conduct as regards Bohemia would not obtain praise from the tribunal of history. What occurred during the Thirty Years' War and since that period in the interior of Bohemia is still one of history's secrets ; it makes the few who have attempted slightly to lift the veil under which these events are hidden shudder." In 1836 the first volume of Palacky's History of Bohe- inia appeared. It was published in German, as were all THE "CENSURE" 397 the volumes that were issued up to the year 1848. Hence- forth the book appeared simultaneously in German and Bohemian. When Palacky, towards the end of his life, re-wrote his great work, the earlier parts also appeared in Bohemian. The first volume, dealing with a period when the history of Bohemia is more than half mythical, was treated very leniently by the censors, who considered the fables of Premysl and Libussa very harmless. In the Austria of the earlier part of this century the words "Securus licet ^naeam Rutulumque ferocem commit- tas . . ." were as true as in the Rome of the emperors. Difficulties, however, began when Palacky had reached the period of Hus. The masterly account of the life and death of the great Bohemian, no doubt the most bril- liant part of Palacky s work, greatly displeased the censors to whom it was submitted. The ecclesiastical censor suggested a very plain course, namely, that Palacky s work should be entirely suppressed. Prince Metternich, who was consulted, proposed that Palacky should omit all '^objectionable reasoning," but should be allowed to state facts. The correspondence between Palack]^ and the censors — published by the former after the suppression of that detestable institution — is irresistibly comic. The censors had not only, as is generally supposed, the power of striking out passages in an author's work that displeased them, they were also entitled to insert passages in a book that were often in direct contradiction with the writer's views. Palack;^'s description of the corruption of the Roman clergy in the fifteenth century was sup- pressed, and he was ordered to attribute the rise of the Hussite movement to the '^ stubbornness, inflexible ob- stinacy, and dogmaticalness " of Hus. Palacky patiently 393 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE consented, but he ventured to remonstrate when objec- tions were raised against his account of the courageous demeanour of Hus when before the Council. He was instructed to state that Hus had *^ appeared irresokite" when brought before his judges. Palacky remarked that this statement would be in contradiction with the passage quoted above which he had been ordered to insert. The ignorance of the censor is proved by the fact that when Palacky quoted Poggio Bracciolini's ac- count of the death of Jerome of Prague, he was unaware of the existence of the well-known Italian humanist, and requested to be informed who he was. He also expressed doubts as to the authenticity of the letter to Lionardo Aretino in which that account is contained, though it had then already been frequently printed, and is quoted by numerous Protestant and Catholic writers, including Pope Pius II. Palack^^ lived to see the aboli- tion of censure, and to republish in their original form the volumes of his History that he had been obliged to submit to it. Political events and the ever-increasing mass of mate- rials, which of course proportionately increased Palacky's labours, delayed the progress of the History, and it was only in 1867 that the second part of the fifth volume, which reaches to the accession of the House of Hapsburg to the Bohemian throne in 1526, was published. Bohe- mian historians generally end their work with the battle of the White Mountain in 1620, and this was no doubt Palacky's intention. His remark, quoted above, proves that he never intended to write the history of Bohemia during and after the Thirty Years' War. In 1861 he had, however, already formed the decision to end his narrative with the year 1526, and he informed the Estates PALACK^'S "HISTORY OF BOHEMIA" 399 of Bohemia — who contributed to the expenses of the pubHcation — of that intention. During the last nine years of his life Palack)^ employed whatever spare time his political engagements left him in re-writing parts of his History in accordance with fresh materials, in completing the Bohemian version of parts that had at first appeared in German only, and in elimi- nating the passages that the censors had obliged him to insert. This new revised edition was, as already men- tioned, completed only in the year of the author's death. Palacky's History of Bohemia is now recognised as one of the great historical works of the nineteenth century. Though less known in England than on the Continent, it has there also obtained the praises of historians, such as Bishop Creighton and the late Mr. Wratislaw. It is not easy to define the circumstances that rendered the publication of Palacky's monumental work a political event in Bohemia, contributing greatly to the revival of national feeling. The record of a glorious past came as a revelation to the Bohemians, whom the German inha- bitants of Austria were, in consequence of their long supremacy, in the habit of treating with contempt. It fortified the patriots in their belief that their nation and its language would not perish. It is this conviction which alone explains the intense veneration for Palacky which all Bohemians felt, many of whom had neither the money to buy nor the time to read his great histo- rical work. The recently published centenary memorial of Palacky contains many striking instances of the devo- tion with which Bohemians of all classes regarded the historian of their country. I may be permitted to quote one anecdote from the Memorial. A young tailor's ap- prentice from Moravia, named Breynek, during a visit to 400 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Prague, met Palack}^ in the street. Innumerable photo- graphs of the great historian had rendered Breynek famiUar with his features. He walked up to him, stating that he was a Moravian and a countryman. Palack]^ conversed affably with him for several minutes and then gave him his hand. This meeting became the principal event of Breynek's life. Every date was designated as having happened " before I met Palack^ " or *' after I met Palacky." He only regretted that he had been too shy " to kiss the hand that had written the history of his country." Palacky 's History, as already noted, was pub- lished simultaneously in German and in Bohemian ; the earliest volumes indeed at first appeared in the former language only. The book is therefore not so inaccessible as the works of the earlier Bohemian historians, from which I have given copious quotations. An English translation of Palack^'s history of Bohemia is, however, still a desideratum. With the exception of a short German biography of Dobrovsky, most of Palacky s minor works are connected with his great History ; some are the results of studies preparatory to the great work ; others contain documen- tary evidence in support of statements made in the book ; in others again, Palacky enters into controversies with some of the critics of his work. I shall mention some of the most important of these works. In the year 1829 the Bohemian Society of Sciences offered a prize for the best essay on the early historians of Bohemia. Palacky won this prize with his first historical work, entitled IVurdi- gung der alien Bdhmischen Geschichtschreiber. The book was written in German, and was first published in the Journal of the Bohemian Museum, that then appeared in German as well as in Bohemian. In 1830 it was re- MINOR HISTORICAL WORKS 401 published separately in an enlarged form. The book gives short and concise sketches of the lives of the Bohe- mian historians from Cosmas to Hajek. It is still of value, and indispensable to all who study the works of these historians. Like this book, closely connected with Palacky s principal work, is a short historical sketch entitled Die Vorldufer des HtissitantJmrns (''The Precur- sors of Hussitism "). The fate of this little book is rather curious. In 1842 Palacky read a paper on ''The Pre- cursors of Hus" before the Bohemian Society of Sciences. Wishing to publish its contents, he, as in duty bound, submitted the MS. to the censure-office. The officials there, however, entirely declined to give their consent to the publication of the book. A copy of the MS. came into the hands of Dr. Jordan of Leipzig, who in 1846 published it there under his own name. This was done with the consent of Palacky, who was more desirous that the fruits of his research should become public than that he should obtain personal recognition. The book has since been reprinted under the name of the real author, and still has great value. I have availed myself of its contents when writing of the precursors of Hus in chapter ii. of this book. It is not surprising, if we consider the previous general ignorance on the subject of Bohemian history, that from the moment his book began to appear Palacky became the object of violent attacks. The first attacks proceeded from German writers, but after the publication of the volume that deals with Hus, other Catholic writers also joined in these attacks. The treatment which the Slavs of Northern Germany, and sometimes those of Bohemia also have endured on the part of the Germans, could only be defended by describing these tribes as brutal, 2C 402 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE savage, and cruel barbarians. Palacky has certainly proved that these descriptions, founded on vague state- ments of German monks or on the mendacious Hajek, are at least grossly exaggerated. Palacky s impartial account of the career of Hus, who had in Austria pre- viously been described in accordance with the words of the censor, which I have quoted, displeased the more prejudiced Roman Catholics. Professor Hofler, who was both a fanatical Teuton and a bigoted Roman Catholic, was the most persistent opponent of Palacky. Palacky replied to his criticism in his Geschichte des Hussi- tantJiunis und Professor Hofler, which appeared in 1868. Mainly polemical also was Palacky s small work, Zur Bdhmische7i Geschichtschreibungy published in 1871. In this book the author defends his historical work against the attacks of Professor Hofler and other German critics. He gives here also an account of his old controversies with the censure-office, from which I have quoted. Several collections of documents are also due to the diligence of Palacky. In i860 he published a collection of — mostly Latin — documents referring to the reign of King George of Podebrad. A similar but far more inte- resting collection of Latin and Bohemian documents was published in 1869. I have in chapter iii. frequently quoted this collection, on which, indeed, my account of the career of Hus is principally based. The Latin documents are printed in that language only, but Palacky has given a Latin translation of those that were written in Bohe- mian. An additional collection of documents, published in 1873, refers to the period of the Hussite wars. In the last years of his life Palacky published in three volumes a selection of the most important historical, political, and literary essays which he had written in Bohemian, This HANKA 403 IS by no means a complete list of Palacky's works. In the "question of the MS." he, as already mentioned, figured as a defender of the authenticity of these docu- ments. It is to the four writers whom I have now successively referred to that the revival of the Bohemian language and of Bohemian literature is principally due. They were the centre of a group of writers who, if less talented, were no less patriotic and enthusiastic. The isolated position in which they were at first placed, surrounded by Germans or Germanised Bohemians, and living under an absolute Government, that always treated them with suspicion and often with positive enmity, caused these men to draw closely together ; many of them were indeed on terms of intimate friendship. The vast amount of correspondence that passed between them, to which I have already referred, is now gradually being published. It is characteristic of these writers that they rarely limited their labours to one subject, but generally wrote both in poetry and in prose, and on the most varied subjects. Their patriotic motive was the wish to prove that the new, or rather revived, literature possessed works on all subjects and in every literary form. That this sometimes led to superficiality and mediocrity can- not be denied. Wenceslas Hanka (1791-1861) has already been mentioned in these pages as the discoverer of the MS. of Koniginhof, and it is as such that he is principally known. He is, however, the author of a collection of Bohemian songs that soon became very popular, and of several works on Bohemian grammar and etymology. He also published numerous translations from the Ger- man and from the Slav languages, and edited Hus's 404 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Deerka and DalimiCs ChronicUy which were then ahnost unknown. A better poet than Hanka was his contemporary Lad- islav Celakovsky. The best of his many poetical works are two collections of national songs entitled respectively Echoes of Russian Song and Echoes of Bohemian Song, These books, contrary to what the title would lead one to infer, are mainly original, though Celakovsky has made thorough use of his knowledge of the legends and traditions of the Slav peasantry. Another collection of poetry is entitled The Hundred-Leaved Rose, As in Kollar's Daughter of Sldva, the love motive struggles with the patriotic motive for supremacy in this poem — not perhaps to its advantage. We possess prose works also of Celakovsky^ dealing with the Bohemian language. That subject was ever before the minds of the Bohe- mian writers of the earlier half of this century, of whom Celakovsky is one of the most correct. It is beyond the purpose of this book to give a com- plete list of the modern ^^ minor poets" of Bohemia. I may mention as among the best, Macha, who imitated Byron, Jungmann's friend Marek, Halek, Koubek, and Rubes. The last-named is the author of a song en- titled Ja jsem Cech a kdo je vie ? (" I am a Bohemian, and who is more ?"), which is still very popular in Bohe- mia. The drama has only been greatly cultivated in Bohemia within the last twenty years, particularly since the establishment of the large Bohemian theatre at Prague. At present Bohemia possesses a considerable number of dramatic authors. Of older dramatists we must first mention Joseph Tyl (1808-1856), the author of very numerous dramatic works. In one of these Tyl introduced a song beginning with the words Kde THE SISTERS ROTT 405 je domov muj?" ('^ Where is my home?"). This song rapidly became very popular, and can now almost be considered as the national air of Bohemia. Wenceslas Klicpera (1792-1859) wrote over fifty comedies and tragedies, and, though none of his plays are above mediocrity, contributed considerably to the develop- ment of the Bohemian stage, which then possessed hardly any dramatic works. Of novelists belonging to the early period of the revival of Bohemian litera- turC; we should mention Mrs. Bozena Nemcova, who was born in 1820 and died in 1862. Her novels, which deal mainly with the simple life of the Bohe- mian villagers, have obtained a well-deserved popularity. Mrs. Nemcova's masterpiece, the Babicka ('' Grand- mother "), has been translated into English, French, Russian, German, and many other languages. A very talented writer of historical novels was Wenceslas Benes Tfebizky (1849-1884). Two gifted sisters, whose work was of great assistance to the development of Bohemian literature, also deserve mention. I refer to the sisters Rott, who belong to a period somewhat later than Mrs. Nemcova. The elder sister assumed the pseudonym of Karolina Svetla (1830-1893), and is the author of many interesting novels, of which Kriz u potoka ("The Cross by the Stream") obtained the greatest success. Sophia Rott — afterwards Mrs. Podlipska — (1833-1897) produced a cycle of historical novels that have great interest, though they are not devoid of anachronisms. Of writers on scientific subjects, one of the earliest was John Presl (1791-1849). Presl was Professor of Natural History at the University of Prague, and the first modern Bohemian works on this subject are due 406 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE to him. The patriots, as already mentioned, wished to prove that all subjects could be treated in the national language. Presl is the originator of the present system of Bohemian phraseology as regards the subjects on which he wrote, and he has therefore well deserved the gratitude of the Bohemian people. It is of him and of Marek that the story is told that, when they were visiting Jungmann to discuss the future of Bohemian literature, the latter remarked to his visitors : *' It needs only that the ceiling of this room should fall in, and there will be an end of Bohemian literature ! " Great also are the services to the Bohemian cause of Charles Jaromir Erben ; born in 1811, he died in 1870 as archivist of the town of Prague. Erben's works, like those of many Bohemian writers of his time, deal with various subjects. It is really only the establishment of the national university which has made it possible for us to have specialists in all branches of science at the present day. Erben published several collections of Bohemian popular poetry and various interesting works on the folklore of his country. We have to thank him also for an edition of selected works of IIus, which has value until the definitive edition of the works of the Bohemian martyr is completed. The works of Hus, particularly those written in the Bohemian language, were formerly almost inaccessible. Erben also edited Stitn^^'s books on General Christian Matters ^ Harant of Polzic's Travels, the Chronicles of Bartos, the writer, and many minor works. These editions have valuable notes and biographies of the ancient writers, which I have frequently used in the earlier parts of this work. More limited was the range of studies of Dr. Joseph Jirecek (1825-1888). His works mostly deal with Slavic, CHARLES HAVLiCeK 40? particularly with Bohemian literature. Jirecek's Rukov^ty or Handbook of the History of Bohemian Literature, is still one of the best books dealing with the subject. That part of the work which refers to the writers of the so-called '* unity," founded on entirely new docu- ments, will not be superseded for a considerable time. Dr. Jirecek played a considerable part in Bohemian and Austrian politics, and was, as Minister of Public Instruction, a member of Count Hohenwarth's short- lived Cabinet (i 870-1 871). One of the results of the revolutionary movement of 1848 was the rapid development of journalism in Bohemia. Its originator was Charles Havlicek (1820- 1856). Endowed with an exceptional talent for satire, he strongly attacked the unpopular Austrian rule in Bohemia. He collected many of his political articles in the famed Kutnohorski Epistoly ('* Letters from Kutna Hora "). Of his satirical works, Kresf Svateho Vladiniira (^'The Baptism of St. Vladimir") is the most witty. During the time of reaction that followed the revolu- tionary years 1848 and 1849, Havlicek was exiled to Brixen in the Tirol by the Austrian Government, We owe to this exile his Tyrolske Elegie ("Tirolese Elegies"), one of his finest works. Havlicek was allowed to return to his country shortly before his death. As a result of the brilliant example given by Palacky, great attention has recently been devoted to the long- neglected annals of Bohemian history. Dealing now only with those who are deceased, I will first mention Dr. Anton Gindely (1829-1888), whose studies were mainly devoted to the history of Bohemia in the early part of the seventeenth century. He did not live to com- plete his great work, a history of the Thirty Years' War, 4o8 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE but his minor studies have thrown considerable light on little-known subjects connected with Bohemian history. Thus the great influence of Christian of Anhalt on Bohe- mian politics can be considered as almost a discovery of Gindely's. It may be said that Gindely's speciality was his liking for the study of original sources (the " Quellen- studium/' as it is called by the Germans), and there may have been some exaggeration in his method. Professor Karel Tieftrunk's (1829-1897) studies of Bohemian history deal with a rather earlier period than that chosen by Dr. Gindely. His principal work, Odpor stavuv chkych proti Ferdmandovi I. ("The Op- position of the Bohemian Estates to Ferdinand I."), is very valuable, and is founded on the contemporary record of Sixt of Ottersdorf, as well as on careful archival study. Professor Wenceslas Tomek (18 18-1905), during his long life of study, enriched Bohemian literature with numerous and valuable historical works, and he held up to his death the rank of the most prominent historian of his country. In the last years of his life he published his memoirs, which are somewhat disappointing. The extreme caution which was innate in an Austrian sub- ject of Tomek's generation, and perhaps also the staunchly conservative views which he held after youthful radicalism had left him, induced him to avoid, with perhaps exaggerated caution, all mention of matters that might give offence to the governing powers. Wenceslas Tomek was born at Krdlove Hradec (Koniggratz) in 1818. His father, as he tells us, was a shoemaker, who had some time previously established himself in that town. Though Tomek for a time studied law, he soon devoted himself entirely to historical work. WENCESLAS TOMEK 409 Even in his younger and more liberal days he appears to have been a fervent adherent of the Church of Rome; but he tells us in his memoirs that he was severely reprimanded by the then formidable " censure "-office for having stated in one of his earliest writings that Socrates — a pagan ! — had been an honest man. The greatest work of Tomek, his Dejepis mhta Prahy C' History of the Town of Prague "), perhaps one of the greatest town-histories of the nineteenth cen- tury, which he only began late in life, remained unfinished. It is of priceless value because of the treasures of research that it contains, and is as valu- able to those who frequently differ from Professor Tomek's views as to those who are always in sym- pathy with his opinions. A history of the University of Prague by Tomek also remained unfinished, and it may be considered as having been superseded by Dr Winter's more recent works. Tomek is also the author of a biography of John Zizka, which — as indeed do all Tomek's works — gives evidence of deep and con- scientious research. That the author is not in sympathy with the hero of his biography is a fact which, though it does not diminish the historical value of the book, undoubtedly detracts from its artistic worth. Zlzka's biography remains unwritten, and the strange, totally uncritical, and fantastic Jean ZUka of George Sand is perhaps none the less a truer portrait of the great Bohemian hero than Professor Tomek's book. The other works of Tomek on Austrian and Bohemian history are little more than school-books. Two writers who died recently, and whose influence on the Bohemian literature of the present day is great, are Neruda and Zeyer. As is frequently the case with 410 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Bohemian writers, these authors cultivated several branches of literature. Jon Neruda was born in the Prague Mala Strana (the part of the city which is situated on the left bank of the Vltava river) in 1834. His books, both in prose and in verse, are very numerous. Of his poems, the Pisne Kosmicke (*' Cosmic Poems"), which are the result of deep philosophic thought, had a great success when they appeared in 1878. Some critics, however, assert that the book is somewhat obscure. Of Neruda's many prose works, some of which first appeared as feuilletons in the Narodni ListZy the foremost Bohemian newspaper, the best are the Malostranski povidky (*' Tales of the MaM Strana''). Neruda died in 1891. Julius Zeyer (1841-1901) was certainly one of the most prominent writers of the period of the literary revival in Bohemia. Though he did not begin writing in early life, he was, like most of the writers of his time, the author of numerous works both in prose and in verse. His first book, Ondry Cernysev^ a his- torical novel, the scene of which is laid in Russia at the time of the Empress Catherine II., appeared in 1875. Zeyer lived a considerable time in Russia, and also frequently visited Italy. Next to his own Bohemia, these two countries influenced him most. In perhaps the best of his many novels, Jan Maria Ployhar, the scene is laid in Italy. Of Zeyer's poetical works, the best is his Vysekrady a cycle of epic poems which deal with the legendary period of Libusa and Premysl. It is undoubtedly one of the most valuable fruits of modern Bohemian poetry.^ Zeyer also attempted, ^ Mrs. Malybrok-Stieler has recently translated Vyhhrad into German (Prague Rivnac, 1898). THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE 411 though not ver}^ successfully, to write for the stage and he is also the author of a biography of the Bohemian patriot, Vojta Naprstek, with whom and with whose family he was on terms of friendship. The last twenty years have contributed in a quite unprecedented manner to the development of the Bohemian language and literature. The Bohemian writers now living have added greatly to the fame of their country, and have brought the national language to a degree of purity and polish which it had never attained before. Many circumstances have contributed to this result. The foundation of the Bohemian Academy of Francis Joseph, which added to the Society of Sciences and that of the Museum a third learned society, has been very helpful. The founda- tion of a large national theatre has greatly encouraged dramatic authors, and the fact that the national lan- guage has to a very great extent among the middle classes, and to a lesser degree among the upper ones also, taken the place of German, has been of immense value to the Bohemian novelists. Those of the present day have naturally a great superiority over their pre- decessors, who, when attempting to describe Bohemian society, wrote of counts and barons, while the counts and barons of that period in real life only spoke German. The living Bohemian writers are so numerous that I have, though reluctantly, omitted the names of many whose works are of value. The study of history con- tinues in Bohemia without interruption, as is indeed natural in a country where the records of a splendid past afford some solace to those who feel that their country plays but a subordinate part in the present 412 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Austro-Hungarian empire. Of the living historians of Bohemia, one of the most prominent is Professor Joseph Kalousek, born at Vamberk in 1838. He showed from early youth great talent for historical research ; and his writings include, besides larger works, a vast number of articles that have appeared in the various Bohemian reviews and magazines. One of the most important works of the learned professor is his Statni Pravoy a study of the ancient constitution of Bohemia. The book first appeared in 1871 at the moment when an imperial decree had assured the Bohemians that the constitution would be restored to them. Other works of Professor Kalousek are a treatise on the use of the chalice in Bohemia in the period previous to Hus — a matter the importance of which only those thoroughly acquainted with Bohemian his- tory can gauge — and a recent book entitled Obrana Kni^ete Vdclava Svateho (''A Defence of Prince Wen- ceslas the Holy "). Dr. Kalousek, a firm adherent of the Church of Rome, here upholds the memory of St. Wenceslas, who has been treated rather unfavourably by Palack^ and other Bohemian historians. Kalousek has also shown great interest in the history of the Bohemian peasantry during the period of serfdom. Many of the documents referring to this subject, pub- lished by him in the Archiv Cesky^ which he edits, are of great value. Among the historians of the present day I should next mention Dr. Jaroslav Goll (born 1846). Professor GoU is one of the shining lights of the new Bohemian University, and his historical works are very valuable. Dr. Goll studied for a time at the German University of Gottingen, which was then, in consequence of the DR. JAROSLAV GOLL 413 presence of the great historian Waitz, a centre of historical study in Germany. Somewhat later Goll for a short time acted as secretary to the historian Bancroft, then Minister of the United States in Berlin. These and other visits to foreign countries enabled Goll to acquire a thorough acquaintance with foreign languages. He has proved his knowledge of French by the trans- lation of the Fleurs du mat of Baudelaire, which he published jointly with the poet Vrchlicky. Goll subse- quently devoted himself entirely to historical research. His studies, dealing with the formerly little-known community of the Bohemian brethren, which appeared both as separate works and in the columns of the tasopis Musea Ceskeho (" Journal of the Bohemian Museum"), are of great importance to the history of Bohemia. Of great and fascinating interest also is Dr. Goll's (^echy a Prusy^ a work which deals with the little-known relations between Bohemia and Prussia in the Middle Ages. Together with Professor Pekdf — also a distinguished historian — Professor Goll edits the Cesky tasopis historickyy a review whose purpose is similar to that of the English historical review. Dr. Anton Rezek (born 1853) is one of the prominent historians of Bohemia, though political duties — he was for some time a member of the Austrian Cabinet — and latterly ill-health, have somewhat interfered with his historical studies. His works deal mainly with the history of Bohemia during the earlier part of the six- teenth century — a momentous period ; for it was then, in 1526, that the permanent rule of the house of Habs- burg over Bohemia began. Many of Rezek's works have been published in the tasopis Musea Cesk^Jio^ and some have appeared in German also. 414 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Dr. Joseph Truhldf has devoted himself successfully to the interesting subject of humanism in Bohemia. The humanist movement, suspected both as coming from Rome and as having what were believed to be pagan tendencies, reached Bohemia late. Its princi- pal adherent in that country was Bohuslav of Lobkovic, whose letters Dr. Truhldf has edited and published. He is also the author of the interesting work entitled Humanismus a Humaniste v techach za Krdle Vladi- slava II. Professor Sigismund Winter (born 1846) is the author of interesting works dealing with the internal condition of Bohemia in ancient times. His history of the University of Prague, his Zivot cirkevniy a study of the ecclesiastical condition of Bohemia in the Hussite period, and indeed all his writings, are indispensable to the student of Bohemian history. Of younger Bohemian historians Dr. Wenceslas Flajshans deserves mention. He has devoted much time and talent to the study of the life and works of Hus, of whom he has recently written an excellent biography. Dr. Flajshans is also the author of a history of Bohemian literature, to which I here grate- fully acknowledge my indebtedness. Mr. Jaroslav Vlcek, who, together with Mr. Hladik, edits the review Lumivy has also begun a history of Bohemian literature that is of great interest. The study of philology has recently been greatly developed in Bohemia. One of the greatest living Bohemian philologists is Professor Gebauer, to whose writings it is principally due that the genuineness of the MSS. of Zelena Hora and Kralove Dvur is now generally considered doubtful. Professor Gebauer has MR. ADOLPHUS PATERA 415 now begun the publication of a historical grammar of the Bohemian language on a large scale. Only Part I. and Part III. (consisting of two volumes) have as yet appeared. Another of the principal opponents of the genuineness of the MSS. was Professor Tomas Masaryk (born 1850). Besides being a philologist, Dr. Masaryk is also a distinguished writer on philosophical subjects. Of great value to Bohemian philology and early literature are the labours of Mr. Adolphus Patera, formerly head librarian of the Bohemian Museum at Prague. For many years Mr. Patera has employed his annual holidays in searching for early Bohemian MSS., many of which, though forgotten, still exist in the libraries of the towns and monasteries of Bohemia and Moravia. Mr. Patera has been indefatigable in deciphering these very ancient MSS., and has published the results of his work in the tasopis Musea Krdlovstvi Ceskeho, The very interesting but long-neglected study of Bohemian folklore has been greatly assisted by the labours of Mr. Patera's successor, Dr. Zibrt, librarian of the Bohemian Museum. He has published many of the results of his researches in the periodical Cesky Lid ("The Bohemian People"). To render his studies accessible to a larger number of readers. Dr. Zibrt very wisely publishes a French edition of his periodical. Professor Mourek, who has mainly studied philological subjects, has enriched the literature of his country by very valu- able Bohemian-English and Anglo-Bohemian diction- aries. The learned professor is a thorough master of the English language. Dr. Jaromir Celakovsky (born 1846), up to recently archivist of the city of Prague, a son of the poet Celakovsky, is the author of many valuable studies concerning the ancient judicial and constitu- 4i6 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE tional institutions of Bohemia. Dr. Augustine Sedlacek (born 1843) is the author of a monumental illustrated work entitled Hrady a zdmky hske ('^Strongholds and Castles of Bohemia"), of which thirteen volumes have already appeared, and which is invaluable for the student of Bohemian history and archaeology. The prehistoric antiquity of Bohemia has recently been the subject of erudite works by Dr. Pic {Starozitnosti zeml ceski^ *'The Antiquities of the Bohemian Land") and Dr. Niederle {Starohtnosti leske^ *^The Antiquities of Bohemia"). Novelists are at present very numerous in Bohemia, and, as already mentioned, the extension of the national language enables the authors of the present day to write in a fashion more life-like than was that of their pre- decessors. Of the older novelists I will first mention Wenceslas Vlcek (born 1839). Of his numerous novels Vence vavrinovy ("The Wreath of Laurels") is, I think rightly, considered the best. Jacob Arbes (born 1840) is, like most Bohemian authors, a very fruitful writer. Of his many works his Romanetta, a collection of short and very striking tales, is perhaps the best. Alois Jirasek (born 1851) has, like so many Bohemian writers, devoted himself to historical romances, which have a natural fascination for the inhabitants of a country with a great past. In justice to Mr. Jirasek it should be stated that in contrast from minor writers he has succeeded in portraying in a masterly manner the period of Hus and the Taborites. Of his historical novels, the scene of which is laid in this period, I may mention the three volumes which Jirasek has named Mezi proudy {'* In the Midst of the Stream"), and the book entitled Proti Vsem ('^Against AH"), a *^ Page WENCESLAS HLADlK 417 from the Bohemian Epic." A novel entitled Psoh- lavciy which treats of a later period, that in which, after the battle of the White Mountain, the Bohemian peasants were deprived of their last vestiges of liberty, is among Jirasek's most popular works. Jirasek has also appeared before the public as a dramatist, and his powerful tragedy, Jan Zizka, which has been often and briUiantly produced at the National Theatre of Prague, appeals to me more than any of his historical novels. The last scene of the fourth act, in which Zizka addresses the faithless city of Prague, has an almost unrivalled beauty. William Mrstik is the author of several clever novels. Of younger writers, Wenceslas Hladik (born 1868) deserves mention. He is the author of a considerable number of novels and dramas. Hladik has very skilfully represented the life and scenery of Prague in a somewhat impressionist manner. His countrymen have sometimes accused him of imitating too closely the modern *' decadent" French novelists. To me his novels have often recalled the works of Mr. George Moore. Of Mr. Hladik's novels the best is, I think, the recently published Evzen Voldan^ and of his plays I admire most Zavrat (^^ Vertigo "), in which the ancient subject of conjugal infidelity is treated in a brilliant and original manner. Francis Herites (born 1851) is a fruitful writer of novels and short sketches, and has contributed largely to many Bohemian reviews. Of his many works I will mention one of the older ones, entitled Z meho herbdre. It contains a short tale, KokoticBy which is one of the most touching expressions of Bohemian national feeling that I have ever read. I will now refer to a group of writers whose fame — though many of them have also written in prose — is 2 D 4i8 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE mainly founded on their poetry. The critics of the future will probably consider as the greatest Bohemian poet of the day Jaroslav Vrchlicky, though some now prefer Svatopluk Cech to him. Jaroslav Vrchlick;^ — the pseudonym of Mr. Emil Frida — was born at Loun in Bohemia in 1853. He began writing at an early age, and has continued doing so uninterruptedly up to the present day. Like Victor Hugo, to whom he has been compared, and who certainly has greatly influenced him, Vrchlicky has produced an enormous number of works. His writings, which include lyric and epic poems, dramas, numerous translations, and a few works in prose, had in 1903 already reached a total of 185 volumes. The principal characteristic of Vrchlicky s poetry is his mastership of the Bohemian language, which he can almost be said to have raised to a higher level. As the late Dr. Albert wrote, " He works on his language as Paganini or Ondficek on their violins." This is particularly obvious in Vrch- licky's numerous translations from the works of English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish writers. To mention but one example, his rendering of Browning's Toccata of Gahippi is masterly. I wish, however, to devote to Vrchlicky's original work the short space that remains to me. The poet visited Italy early in life, and soon acquired a thorough knowledge of the language of that country. He also studied the litera- tures of France and Spain. A new current of thought was a result of these studies introduced into the Bohemian language, for the writers of an earlier period, brought up in the Bohemian schools, which were then almost entirely German, had been with scarcely an exception under the influence of German JAROSLAV VRCHLICK^ 419 literature. Of Vrchlicky's early works I will mention Z Hlubin (" From the Depths "), which appeared in 1875, Rok na jihu ('* A Year in the South"), which contains reminiscences of the poet's Italian travels, and Bodlaci z Paniasu ("Thorns from Parnassus"), in which is included that truly beautiful poem, Kriimlovskd Legenda. Vrchlicky is a master of the difBcult art of the sonnet, and his Sonety samotare {i.e, of a recluse) and Nove sonety samotare are among his finest works. One of the poet's latest books, entitled Episody^ contains some beautiful poems referring to the period of the Hussite wars. That period, as is natural, has inspired the greatest works of many of the greatest Bohemian writers. Vrchlicky has also obtained fame as a dramatist. His Noc na Karlstejne ("A Night at the Karlstejn "), the scene of which is laid in the time of Charles IV., has deservedly had great success, and figures frequently in the repertoire of the National Theatre of Prague. Vrchlicky's Julian Apostata deals with its difficult though fascinating subject in a very striking manner. This brilliant play well bears com- parison with Ibsen's book on the same subject, and Merezkovsky's Death of the Gods, Of Vrchlick^^'s many other works his Trilogy on the Greek tale of Hippodamia deserves mention. It is quite impossible to give in a few words even a fairly sufficient appreciation of the work of Vrchlicky.^ Some of the finest writings of the poet have recently been translated into German. Svatopluk Cech, born in 1846 at Ostfedek in Bohemia, ranks with Vrchlicky as one of the greatest of modern 1 The late Dr. Albrecht, in his Neuere Poesie aus Bdhmen and Neueste Poesie aus Bdhmen, published many German translations from Svatopluk fcch and Vrchlicky. To the latter Dr. Albrecht devoted a whole volume, 420 A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE Bohemian poets. I consider it useless to enter into the invidious and foolish question, to which of the two great poets the primacy should be awarded. Svatopluk 6ech is truly great as a writer of epic poems, and here he may be considered as unrivalled by modern writers, even in larger and better known countries than his own. His first epic poem, Adamite, deals with a strange, well-known episode in Bohemian history. The Smith of Lesetin (Lesetinsky Kovaf), portrays in an admirable manner the life of the Bohemian peasantry. But the masterpiece of Cech is, I think, the epic poem entitled Vaclav z Michalovic, The hero of the poem is a young Bohemian, a son of one of the nobles who were decapitated in Prague after the disaster of the White Mountain. Some parts of this poem, such as the prologue and the speech to the people of Prague, which Michalovic delivers in the Salvator Church, are of unrivalled beauty. Criticism can obviously be founded only on individual impres- sions ; and I do not hesitate to state that no work of modern Bohemian literature has impressed me as strongly as Vaclav z Michalovic, Of Cech's other poetical works, his sad, pessimistic, and — alas — truthful Pistil Otroka (" Songs of a Slave ") should be mentioned. Svatopluk Cech has also published a considerable num- ber of prose works. His Povidkyy Arabesky a Humoresky, in four volumes, have had a great success. Of minor poets I will first mention Adolph Heyduk, born in 1835 at Richenburg in Bohemia. Of his many poetical works. Cymbal a husky a tale of the life of the Slavic inhabitants of Northern Hungary, has the greatest value. Heyduk's Drevoriibec ('^The Wood-cutter"), in which, as in many others of the poet's works, the scene J. A. MACHAR 421 is laid in the Sumava (the so-called Bohemian woods), has also obtained great success. J. V. Sladek (born 1845), formerly editor of the Lmnir review, has trans- lated several works of Shakespeare and Byron, as well as some of the Polish writings of Mickiewicz, into Bohemian. A talented younger writer is J. S. Machar (born 1864). His Tristiuvi Vi?idobona is a very power- ful work, which brilliantly describes the depression while dwelling in Vienna, and the antipathy to that city, which appear almost innate in a Bohemian. Recently a friend of Machar, V. A. Jung, has published an admirable Bohe- mian translation of part of Byron's Don Juan. It is to be hoped that the writer will complete his task. Mrs. Kose (whose pseudonym is Tereza Dubrovski) has re- cently published a clever volume of poems entitled P/j«^ (poems). Miss Hurych, who writes under the name Marie Raima, has produced several novels that have had considerable success. Mr. George Rarasek ze Lvovic has recently published several works both in prose and in verse. Of these, his drama entitled Apollojiius z Tyany is perhaps the best. BIBLIOGRAPHY Not unnecessarily to extend this list, I have enumerated only a few books, dealing either with Bohemian literature as a whole, or with considerable portions of it. Bohemian books have increased rapidly within the last few years. I have therefore left unmentioned many valuable monographs, which are indispensable to those who wish to acquire a more thorough knowledge of Bohemian literature than I have been able to give in this book. Literature and history are very closely connected in Bohemia, and many of the modern historians, such as Palacky, Gindely, Goll, Tieftrunk, Kalousek, and FlajShans, throw a great deal of light also on the literature of Bohemia. Much valuable information on Bohemian literature is also contained in the numerous editions of ancient Bohemian writings — frequently men- tioned in these pages — which appeared in the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries. Most of them contain valuable commentaries and biographies. Besides the Journal of the Bohemian Museum, the yearly publications of the Bohemian Society of Sciences and of the Bohemian Academy incidentally devote their attention to the litera- ture of the country. Periodicals such as the Cesky Casopis historicky^ Lumir, Svetozor^ Osvha^ and others contain many interesting articles on Bohemian literature. Casopis Musea KralovstvI (^eskeho. Journal of the Museum of the Bohemian Kingdom. Published annually since 1827. DOBROVSK^ (Joseph). Geschichte der Bohmischen Sprache und Literatur. Prag, 18 18. FlajShans (Dr. Vdclav). Pisemnictvi Ceske (Bohemian Litera- ture). Prague, 1901. JE^ABEK (Dr. F. v.). Stara doba romantickeho bdsnictvi (The Ancient Period of Romantic Poetry). Prague, 1883. 423 424 BIBLIOGRAPHY JiRE^EK (Dr. Joseph). RukovSt k dejindm literatury ceske do Konce XVIII. veku (Handbook of the History of Bohemian Litera- ture up to the End of the Eighteenth Century). Prague, 1875 and 1876. JUNGMANN (Joseph). Historie Literatury Ceske (History of Bohemian Literature). Second enlarged edition. Prague, 1849. L^GER (Professor Louis). Le Monde Slave [i vol.], ifetudes Slaves [3 vols.], Russes et Slaves [2 vols.]. Professor Leger has devoted more than thirty years to the study of the Slavic race. All the books mentioned contain valuable essays on Bohemian literature. LUTZOW (Count). Ancient Bohemian Literature (New Review, February 1897). LiJTZOW (Count). Lectures on the Historians of Bohemia ; being the Ilchester Lectures for the Year 1904. MORFILL (W. R., M.A.). Slavonic Literature. Contains in a few pages a concise and interesting account of the literature of Bohemia. MURKO (Dr. Matthias). Anfange der bohmischen Romantik. A very interesting work. Murko, however, attempts to prove too much when he maintains that the Bohemian patriots mainly imitated the Germans in their desire of national development. Palacky (Franz). Wiirdigung der alten bohmischen Geschicht- schreiber. New edition. Prague, 1869. Palack^ (Franz). Die Vorlaufer des Hussitenthums. New edition. Prague, 1869. Pypin (A. N.) and Spasovi^ (V. D.). Geschichte der Slavischen Literaturen. Written in Russian. Translated into German by Traugott Pech. Nearly a whole volume is devoted to the history of Bohemian literature. Safa6.ik (Paul Joseph). Geschichte der slavischen Sprache und Literatur. New edition. Prague, 1869. Talvij (Mrs. Robinson). Historical View of the Slavic Language and its Various Dialects. This is not an original work, but an extract from Safafik's book that has just been mentioned. Palacky and Safarik himself pointed this out many years ago. BIBLIOGRAPHY 425 TiEFTRUNK (Karel). Historic Literatury Ceskd (History of Bohe- mian Literature). Second edition. Prague, 1880. Vlcek (Jaroslav). Dejiny Literatury Ceske (History of Bohemian Literature). This work is still incomplete, and appears in short parts at considerable intervals. Wratislaw (Rev. A. H.). The Native Literature of Bohemia in the Fourteenth Century. With the exception of Messrs. Pypin and Spasovic's work, I have quoted the titles of these books in the language in which they were published, adding an English translation of books published in Bohemian. INDEX Albert of UniSov, Archbishop of Prague, 104 Alexander V., decree against heresy, 99 Alexander V. recognised as Pope, 98 Alexander VI. appoints Cardinal of Monreale to see of Olmiitz, 177 Alexandra's — Account of, 18 Account of festivities when Alex- ander entered Babylon, 23 Extract from battle-piece, 22 Amos, Brother, theological treatises, 228 Andrew of Duba, author of early legal work, 51 Arbes, Jacob, Romanetia, 408 Arnold, Nicholas, antagonist of Komensky, 276 Augusta, Bishop — Hymns, 231 Sketch of career, 228 Summary, 230 Austi, John of, Hus retires to his castle, 107 Balbin (Balbinus) — Account of NiliC of Kremsier, 59 Miscellanea and other works, 356 BartoS Pisaf, Chronicles of Prague, 299 Bayle, judgment of Komensky, 249, 273 Bechin, Wenceslas of, lays articles from Wycliffe's writings before assembly at Prague, 91 Benedict XIII., 95 Benes of Weitmil, Canon, incorpo- rates Charles IV.'s notes in his chronicle, 49, 50 "Bible of Kralice," 248 Bienenberg, Joseph, Alterthilmer in Kbnigreiche Bohmen and History of the Town of KdniggrdtZy 357 Bilek, account of Bishop Augusta's prison life, 229, 311 Quotation from, 312 Blahoslav — Account of Summary, 230 Filipika, 233 Grammatika Ceskd, 239 History of the Unity lost, 296, 311 Knowledge of writings of Human- ists, 174 Replika proti Misomusum, extract from, 237 Sketch of career, 232 Visits Sigismund Gelenius, 185 Bohemia — Bf ezan's account of social condition of, 319 Chivalrous poetry, 17 Clergy, 58 Greek and Latin ritual in, 13 Humanist movement in, 174 Intellectual activity at beginning of sixteenth century, 295 Invaded by troops of Margrave of Meissen, 90 Prosperous during reign of Charles IV., 57 Religious sects in, 143, 152 428 INDEX Bohemian books burnt, 354 Bohemian Brethren (*' Unity") — Conferences of two parties, 216 Cromweirs suggestion for, 274 Decide to abandon Bohemia, 256 Discord among, 215 Effect on Bohemian literature, 201, 296 " First persecution," 205 Foundation of, 174 Historians of, 310 Historical archives, 296 Institutions modelled on Waldenses', 219 Luther's teaching affecting, 221 Bohemian language and literature, development of, 174, 295, 354, 403, 406 Bohemian lyric poems, 25 Bohemian writings, character of early, 8 Bore directs Hanka's attention to manuscript, 2 Bofivoj, Prince, concession of, 45 Brand, Erasmus and Sebastian, 189 Bfezan, Wencelas, History of House of Rosenberg, 314 Bfezova, Laurence of, 50 ; Chronicofi, record of Hussite wars, 147 "Brothers of ChilCic," 157; join community of Kunwald, 205 Briinn, account of St. Catherine's martyrdom in Church of St. Jacob, 10 Budovec, Wenceslas, of Budova — Anti-Alkoran, 243, 244 Letters, 247 Sketch of, 242 State papers, 247 Views of, 192 Calixtines (Utraquists), party of Hussites, 143 "Canon of VySehrad," chronicle of, 46 Cantio Zavisonis, extract from, 2S Cato, adaptation from Latin, 41 Cech appears in Bohemia, 32 Cech, Svatopluk, 419 Cechs, account of their establish- ment in Bohemia, 44 Celakovsky, Ladislav, collections of national songs, 404 Charles IV.— As Bohemian historian, 48 Establishes Slavonic monks at Prague, 13 Invites Conrad Waldhauser to Bohemia, 58 Chatillon, Philip Gaultier (Walter) de, Latin poem of, 18 Chel^icky, Peter, 153 Character of writings, 157 Influence on " Bohemian Brethren," 171 Net 0/ Faithy 153, 155; summary of, 160 seqq. Opinion of towns, 215 Originator of " Unity," 202 Posiilla, 159 Reply to Nicholas y 148, 158 Reply to Rokycan, quoted, 155, 170 Socialism, 153 Chlum, John of, accompanies Hus to Constance, no Chronicle of Dalimil. See Dalimirs Chronicle Chronicle of Troy, 56 ; first Bohemian work printed, 57 Chronicon Boemorttm — Continuations of, 46 Described, 44 Early prose Latin work, 42 Numerous MSS. of, 46 Quoted in DalimiUs Chi-onicle, 31 Cimburg, Ctibor, of Tovacov, Book of Lawy 172 CoUoredo, Count, owner of estate of Griincberg, 6 INDEX 429 Colonna, Cardinal, rejects appeal of Hus, 103 Comenius. See Komensky Constance, Council of, 108 Cosmas, "the father of Bohemian history," 42 ChronLon Boemorum. See that title On '* Gospodi pomiluj ny," 8 Sketch of his life, 42 Tales of Crocus, Libussa, Premysl, and "war of the maidens," 45 Cromwell's suggestion for Bohemian Brethren, 274 Curtius, Quintus, Alexandreis based on work of, 18 Dalimifs Chronicle, account i)f, 29 Preface quoted, 31 De Ecclesia, summary of, 119. {See also under Hus.) De Geers, Lawrence, invites Komen- sky to Amsterdam, 275 De Geers, Louis, correspondence with Komensk^, 268 Des Marets, Samuel, antagonist of Komensky, 276 Dietmar, Bishop of Prague, " Gos- podi pomiluj ny " sung at his installation, 8 Dobrovsk^, Joseph, ** patriarch of Slavic philology," 359 Detailed Grammar of Bohemian Language, 360 History of Bohemian Language and its Older Literature, 360 Obtains appointment of archivist for Palack;^, 389 Opinion of **MS. of Griineberg," 361 Drabik, influence over Komensky, 252, 271 Prophecies, 272 Duba, Wenceslas of, accompanies Hus to Constance, i lo Eastern and Roman ritual, rivalry between, 13, 14 Erasmus of Rotterdam, and apology of " Unity," 220 Erben, Charles Jaromir, as editor and poet, 406 Edited and published books Of General Christian Matters, 65 Ernest of Pardubic, Archbishop of Prague, 36, 60, 93. FlajShans, Dr., history of Bohe- mian literature, 409 FlaSka, Smil— Advice of a Father to his Son, 36 Groom and the Scholar, 40 Aew Council, account of, 38 Sketch of career, 36 Francis, Provost of Prague, chronicle of, 48 Frederick II., Emperor, circular to princes, 139 Gebauer, Professor, writings on philology, 409 Gelenius, Gregory, 175 ; translations of classical works into Bohemian, 184 Gelenius, Sigismund, sketch of, 185 George, King of Bohemia, 204 Germany, war between Charles V. and Protestants, 229 Gindely, Dr. Anton — Historical works, 408 Opinion of Jaffet's list of ordina- tions, 241 Glagolitic alphabet employed, 13 Goethe, adaptation of Kytice, 2 GoU, Professor- History of Bohemian Brethren, 412 Investigations on Bohemia and Greek Church, 137 On authorship of " Gospodi pomiluj ny," 8 On torture inflicted on Gregory, 206 430 INDEX GoU, Professor — Researches into life of Chelficky, 156 Gregory, Brother, founder of " Unity," 203 ; St. Kunwald, 205 Controversy with Lucas of Prague, 217 Followers, 205, 207 Letters to Rokycan^ extract from Fourth^ 208 Tortured (?), 206 Gregory XII. recognised as Pope by Prague University, 95 Habernfeld, Andreas ab, Bellum Bohemkum^ 353 Halek, minor poet, 404 Hanka, Venceslas — And falsification of manuscripts, 8 Collection of Bohemian songs, 403 Discoverer of MS. of Koniginhof, 2, 403 Publishes Tkadlecek the Weaver, 51 Harant, Christopher, of Poliic— Classical erudition, 298 Journey to Venice, Holy Land, and Egypt ^ 328 ; extract from, 329, 333 Sketch of career, 326 seqq. Views of, 192 Harasser, Walter, and articles from Wycliffe's writings, 91 Hartlib, Samuel, interested in Ko- mensky's "Pansopliy," 260, 269 Hattala, Professor, edition of Red Besedni, 73, 75 Hayek, semi-mythical tales, 32 Henry of Baltenhagen recognises Gregory XII. as Pope, 95 Henry of Carinthia, 29 Heyduk, Adolphus, 408 Hilferding on Bohemians and Greek Church, 137 Hladik, Wenceslas, 417 Hlavsa, John, Bartos's account of, 302 Hodic, George, Lord of, and Charles of ^erotin, 323 Hofler, Professor, criticism of Pa- lack^, 402 Horazdovic, Minorite monastery of, 242 Hradil discovers MS. of Grammatika Ceskd, 239 Iliibner, John, makes selections from Wycliffe's writings, 91 Humanist movement, growth of, and development of Bohemian lan- guage, 174 Hurych, Miss, 421 Hus, John — Affection for national language, 122 Attends Council of Constance — forebodings, 109 Character, 140 Dcerka, 127 De Ecclesia, III, 113; summary of, 119 Expositions ( Vyklad), 123 seqq. Influence of Wycliffe on, 137 Latin and Bohemian letters, 1 3 1 seqq. Letter to Richard Wyche, 131 Savtokupectvi ^ treatise on simony, 127 On indulgences, 105, 129 Postilla, 130 Relations with Archbishop Zbynek, 93. 94, 98 Summary of career, 87 seqq. Works, Bohemian and Latin, 57, 107, 117 Huska, Martin ("Loquis"), sketch of, 153 Hussite movement and development of Bohemian language, 297 Hussite wars, 143 seqq. War songs, 9 Innocent IV. deposes Emperor Frederick II., 139 Institoris, Henry, works against '• Unity," 294 INDEX 431 Jacobellus of Mies — Articles of Prague^ 146 Maintained necessity of communion in two kinds, 112, 145 Jaffet, Brother, writings of, 241 Jagii, Professor, on influence of Chel- Cicky's works, 153 Janov, Matthew of— Precursor of Hus, 79 Recantation, 81 Sketch of, 80 Theological works, 81, 82, 83 Writings influenced by schism, 80, 84 /arlock, Abbot of Muhlhausen, chro- nicle of, 47 Jerome of Prague — Connection with Hus, 141 Letter to Lord Lacek of Kravaf, 142 Jirasek, Alois, 416 Jireiek, Dr. — Biography of Lucas of Prague, 222 Handbook of History of Bohemian Literature^ 406 John, King, dislike to Bohemian language, 296 John of Luxemburg, cosmopolitanism of, 29 John XXIL— And Hus, 102 Crusade against King Ladislas of Naples, 105 Deposed, 113 Joseph n. excluded Bohemian lan- guage from schools, 358 "Joys of St. Mary," legend of, 16 Judas ^ Legend of , lo Jung, V. A., translator, 421 Jungmann, Joseph — History of Bohemian literature, 143. 364 Letters to Marek, 367 Sketch of life, 362 Translations from English, 363 Justinus, Bishop, Komen.^ky suc- ceeds, 270 Kalousek, Josef— (^^eske Statni Fravo, 412 Investigations on Bohemia and Greek Church, 137 Kbel, John, lays articles from Wycliffe's writings before Assem- bly at Prague, 91 Keatinge — Account of Komensky's reception in London, 262 On prophecies of Drabik, 273 Klicpera, Wenceslas, plays of, 405 Kniha siareho pdna x Kozmberka., oldest prose work in Bohemia, 51 KoUar, John — Correspondence with Jungmann, SafaHk, and Palacky, 382 Daitghter of Sldva^ 372 ; " fore- song " quoted, 376 ; sonnets quoted, 379 Sketch of career, 371 Kolovrat, Count, MS. of GrUneberg sent to, 6 ; one of founders of Bohemian Museum, 370 Komensky, 249 — ** Christian Academy of Pan- sophy," plan of founding, 267, 290 Didactica Magna^ 250, 287 Educational works, 251, 260, 286, 289 Impressions of England, 262 Janua Litiguarum, 261 ; account of, 287 Labyrinth of the Worldy 251, 262 ; summary of, 277 seqg. Last Bishop of Bohemian Brethren, 270, 276 Lux in Tenebris, 276, 293 Pansophic works, 261, 269, 289, 293 Physica^ 260 Sketch of life, 250, 252 seqq. Via Lucis, 268, 290 432 INDEX Konai, Nicolas (Finitor), The Book of Lamentation and Cotnplaint of Justice, 189 Konias burns Bohemian books, 354 Koniginhof, discovery of manuscript at, 2 Kose, Mrs., 421 Kotter, Christopher, Komensky's be- lief in, 256 Koubek, minor poet, 404 Kovar, John, declared he found manu- script of Griineberg, 6 Kralove Dvur, Koniginhof, 2 Krasonicky, works of, 227 Kriz founds Bethlehem Chapel, Prague, 88 Krok, adventures of, 32 Kuthen, Martin, Utraquist historian, 307 Kutna Hora (Kuttenberg), decrees of, 97,98 Lacenbok, Henry of, accompanies Hus to Constance, no Ladislas, King of Naples, incurs enmity of Pope John XXIII., 105 Ladislaus Posthumus, King, hostile to Utraquist creed, 202 Latin used by writers, 42 Laurin, epic poem, 25 Lafan, Henry of, Lord, adherent of Hus, 107 Lechler, Dr. — On Hus's letter to Archbishop Zbynek, 94 On works of Janov, 83 Opinion of lectures of John Hus, 88 Legends. ^See names of various saints.) L^ger, Professor — On Slav language, 381 Translates account of Zi2ka's cam- paigns, 172 Lenfant, Histoire des Guerres Hussites, 305 Lescynski, Bohuslav, protects Bohe- mian Brethren, 262 Lescynski, Count Raphael, member of " Unity," 256 ** Letter of Majesty" granted to Pro- testants, 243 Libofan, Hajek of, Bohemian Chro- fiicles, 304 Account of Zi2ka's death, 305 Date of commencement, 35 Judgment of Hus and Jerome of Prague, 308 Libussa, adventures of, 32 Lissa occupied by Swedes, 275 Lobkovic, Bohuslav of, " ultramon- tane " Bohemian humanist — Influence on Bohemian literature, 180 Letter to John of Domoslav, 178 Relations with Victorin Cornelius ze VSehrd, 176 Sketch of career, 176 Works in Latin, 179 Lobkovic, John of. True Bohemian Mentor, written in Bohemian, quoted, 181 Lobkovic, Nicholas of, influence over Wenceslas, 97 Lomnicky, Simon, of Budei, " founder of Bohemian song," 191 Advice to a Young Landowner, 192 Ballad on executions at Prague quoted, 199 Curia's Arrow, 194 Dirge on Peter of Rosenberg, 318 ; quotations from, 196, 197 Smaller poems, 195 Loserth, Professor, on Wycliffe's in- fluence on Hus's writings, 138 Lucas of Prague — Appeal to Erasmus, 220 Controversies, 217, 224 Mission to Waldenses, 219 Relations with Luther, 221, 223 The Bark, 219, 223 INDEX 433 Lucas of Prague — Witnesses death of Savonarola, 220, 227 Works, 222 LupaS, Prokop, History of Emperor Charles IV., King of Bohemia, 310 Luther, Martin, and Lucas of Prague, 221 Lutzow, Count Rudolph, obtains per- mission for Palacky to examine MSS. at Rome, 392 Lvovic, George Karasek ze, 421 Macha, imitated Byron, 404 Machar, J. S., 421 Manuscript of Griineberg, 5 — A falsification, 6 "Judgment of Libussa," 7 Sent to Francis, Count Kolovrat- Liebsteinsky, 6 " The Decree of Domestic Law," 7 Manuscript of Koniginhof — Ballads in, 4 Discovered in tower of church, 2 Genuineness, 3, 5 Locutions traced to Moravian dia- lect, 4 " The Cuckoo," translation of, 5 Translations, 2 Manuscript of Koniggratz, 3, 9 Legend of St. Prokop in, 12 Manuscript of St. Vitus, 3, 9 Manuscripts of beginning of present century, 7 Marek, Jungmann's friend, 404 Maria Teresa, Empress, excluded Bohemian language from schools, 358 Marsiglio of Padua, Defensor Ftdei, 139 Masaryk, Professor Thomas, 415 Michael of Deutschbrod (de Causis) — Complaint against Hus, 106 Draws up accusation of Hus, iii Milheim, John of, founds Bethlehem Chapel, Prague, 88 Milic of Kremsier, sketch of, 59 ; sermons in Bohemian, 60 Mladenovii, Peter of— Account of Hus's journey, im- prisonment and death, 116, 145 On accusation of Hus, 112 Record of Hus's journey, trial and death, no "Monk of Sazava," chronicle of, 47 Morfill, on Journal of Bohemian Museum, 391 MourekjBohemian-EnglishandAnglo- Bohemian dictionaries, 410 Mrstik, William, novelist, 417 Miihlberg, Protestants defeated at, 229 Nassau University, 253 Neander studies works of Janov, Nemcova, Mrs. Bozena, Babicka (Grandmother), 405 New Council, beast-epic, 35 ; ac- count of, 38 Niederle, Dr., 416 Novikov, Eugene, on Bohemians and Greek Church, 137 Ottokar and Zavis, 35 Ottokar H., account of reign of, 33 Oxenstiern, Chancellor, Komensky's interview with, 269 Palacky, Francis- Defends Ottokar H., t,^ Edits Journal of Bohemian Museum, 391 Examines early Bohemian histories, 46 Examines Rosenberg archives, 317 History of Bohemia, 390, 396 ; censors and, 397 Investigations on Greek Church and Bohemia, 137 Latin and Bohemian documents, 402 Minor works, 400 Opinion of Manuscript of Konigin- hof, 2 2 E 434 INDEX Palacky, Francis — Opinion of Skala ze Zhore, 335 Opinion of §titny, 74 Reply to Hofier's criticisms, 402 Reply to invitation to German National Assembly, Frankfort, 392 Sketch of career, 388 seqq. Speech at banquet quoted, 395 Palec, Stephen — Abandons Hus, 106 Banished by Wenceslas, 108 Draws up accusation of Hus, ill Pardubic, William of, 36 Pasek, John, Bartos's account of, 301 Patera, Adolphus, searches for early Bohemian MSS., 409 Payne, Peter, English Hussite, adver- sary of John of Pifibram, 144 Sketch of, 146 Pelhrimov, Nicholas of (" Biskupec "), work of, 148 Pesina, Tomas, Latin works treating of Moravia, 357 Peter the Great conversing with nobles at Prague, 355 Pfauser mediates between Maximi- lian and Blahoslav, 233 Pic, Dr., 416 " Pickharts " or " Beghards," 205 Pisecky (Wenceslas HladiC) — Greek studies, 184, 186 Sketch of career, 185 Podlipska, Sophia, 405 Ponatovska, Christina — Influence on Komensky, 79 " Prophecies" of, 227 Ponatovska, Julian, 257 Prague — Account of foundation of, 45 Wyclifife's works burned at, loi Prague University — Articles from Wycliffe's works con- demned by, 91, 106 Change in organisation, 97 Divisions, 91, 97 Prague University — Recognises Gregory XH. as Pope, 95 Wycliffe's writings discussed at, 91 Prague University and development of Bohemian language, 297 Precursors of Hus, 57 Prefat, Ulrick, of Vlkanov, descrip- tions of Holy Land, 325 Premysl, adventures of, 32 Presl, John, account of, 405 Pribik. {See Pulkava.) Pribram, John of, champion of mo- derate Utraquists, 144 Works, 144 Prokop of Neuhaus (Jindfichuv Hradec), theological writer of "Unity," 215, 217 Works in Bohemian, 218 Pulkava, account of his Bohemian chronicle, 49 Pypin and Spasovi^, History of Slav Queen Kunegund, 28 Queen Sophia — Friendly to Hus, 98, 136 Letter to Pope protesting against severity to Hus, 103 " Question of the Manuscripts," i Rakoczy, George, Prince of Tran- sylvania, invites Komensky to visit him, 271 Ranke studies archives of Vatican, 392 Rezek, Anton, historical works, 413 Rokycan, Archbishop, leader of ad- vanced Calixtine party, 148 Originator of " Unity," 202 Postilla, 147 Relations with Gregory, 204, 206 Teaching of, 202 Romanist song, " Woe to you, Hus,'' 172 INDEX 435 Rosenberg Library, Stockholm, legend of St. Catherine discovered in, lO Rosenberg, Lords of, Bfezan's history of, 314 Rosenberg, Peter of — Important part in Bohemian poli- tics, 318 Love of literatm-e, 298 Rubes, popular song of, 404 Rudolph IL grants "Letter of Ma- jesty " to Protestants, 243 Rukopis Kralodvorsky. {See Manu- script of Koniginhof. ) §AFAkiK, Paul Joseph — Opinion of Manuscript of Konigin- hof, 2 Sketch of career, 383 StarolitJiosti Slovanski (Slavic An- tiquity), 386 Works on Slav language and race, 383, 382, 387 St. Anselm, legend of, 17 St. Bridget, visions of, and Stitny, 79 St. Catherine, account of her martyr- dom, 10 St. Catherine, legends of, 10 St. Cyrillus as author of '* Gospodi pomiluj ny," 8 St. Cyrillus introduces Greek ritual into Bohemia, 13 St. Dorothy, legend of, 1 1 St. George, legend of, 17 St. Methodius as author of ** Gospodi pomiluj ny," 8 St, Methodius introduces Greek ritual into Bohemia, 13 St. Prokop, legend of, 12, 47 St. Venceslas, hymn to, 8 St. Vitus, legend of St. Dorothy in, 1 1 Satires on Trades, 41 Sazava, monastery on, 13 Sedlacek, Dr. Augustine, 416 Severus, Provost of Melnik, Chroni- con Boemorun dedicated to, 44 Sigismund, King, conduct towards Hus, 109, III Sixt of Ottersdorf — History of the Troubled Years in Bohemia, 304 Political career, 303 Skala ze Zhore — Account of executions of Prague, 342 Chronology of the Church, 336 ; ex- tracts from, 337, 339, 341 Historic Cirkevni (History of the Church), 336 Sketch of career, 335 Sladek, J. V., translations of English poets, 407 Slavata, William Count — Account of Count Thurn's banquet to Turkish embassy, 244, 348 Historicki Spisovani (Historical Works), 352 Pamlty, 346 Sketch of life, 345 Slechta, John, " ze Vsehrd"— Microcosmus, 188 Sketch of, 187 Songs at Daybreak (Svitanicka), 25 ; translation of one, 26 Spencer, Henry, Bishop of Norwich, Flemish crusade opposed by WyclifFe, 106 Stanislaus of Znaym, abandons Hus, 106 Banished by Wenceslas, 108 "Stafi Letopisove Cesti," ancient Bohemian chroniclers, 171 Sternberg, Count Francis, protects Palacky, 390 Sternberg, Count Kaspar, President of Bohemian Museum, 390 Stitn^, Thomas of — Of General Christian Manners, contents of, 65 seqq. Precursor of Hus, employs native language, 42, 57, 63, 74 436 INDEX Stitny, Thomas of — Reel Besedni, ' ' Learned Entertain- ments," 73 seqq Sketch of career, 63 Stransky, Paul — On Bohemians adhering to Greek Church, 137 Respiiblica Bojema, 353 Sturm, Venceslas, theological works, 294 Sv^tla, Karolina, novelist, 408 Swinburne, poem on St. Dorothy, 1 1 Sylvius, yEnseas (Pius II.) — Account of visit to Tabor, 148 Account of Zizka's death, 152 Work on Bohemia destroyed, 355 Tabor City, ^^nosus Sylvius' account of visit to, 148 Taborites, advanced Hussites, 143 Tale of Alexander the Great, 56 Tandarius and Florihella, 25 "Tears of Mary Magdalene," legend of, 16 "Tears of St. Mary," legend of, 16 The Contest of the Body and the Soul, 1 7 The Death of King John, 35 The Garden of Roses, 25 The Painted Monks, written from Roman standpoint, 173 Theobaldus, Hussitenhieg, 305 Theodoric, legends al)oul, 25 Thurloe, suggestion for Bohemian Brethren, 274 Thurn, Count, pamphlet on assassi- nation of Wallenstein, 346, 351 Tkadlecek the Weaver, account of, 5 1 Lament to Misfortune quoted, 53 Misfortune's reply, extract from, 56 Tieftrunk, Karl, historical works, 408 Tiem, Wenceslas, Dean of Passau, preaches crusade at Prague, 105 Tomek, Wenceslas — Historical works, 408 Tomek, Wenceslas — On letter of safe conduct given to Hus, 109 Travels of Sir John Mandevilky translated into Bohemian by Bfezova, 147 Treaty of Westphalia and Komensky, 271 Tfebezky, Benes, historical novels, 405 Tristram similar to -Mjr/.? d^ Arthur, 2^ Truhlaf, Professor Joseph, collection of Latin letters of Bohuslav, 177 ; Humanis7iius v Cechach, 414 Truth, allegorical poem, 17 Tyl, Joseph, dramatic works, 404 Ulkick, Prince, description of his meeting Bozena, 32 •' Unity." {See Bohemian Brethren.) Urban, Pope, and Mili^ofKremsier, 61 " Utraquist Church," 300 Utraquists (Calixtines) party of Hus- sites, 143 Velenovic, Nicholas, Hus defends, 94 Veleslavin, Adam Daniel, sketch of career and works, 189 Veleslavin, Adam Samuel, sketch of career, 190 Venceslas, Prince, descriptions of murder of, 32 Victorin Cornelius ze V^ehrd — Relations with Bohuslav, 176 Sketch of, 183 Ten Books 07i the Rights of the Bohemian Land, 183 Vita C^r^/; translated into Bohemian, 49 Vlcek, Jaroslav, 414 VlcSk, Wenceslas, novelist, 416 Vodnan, John of, works of, 294 Vratislav, Venceslas, of Mitrovic, ac- count of travels and adventures, 326 INDEX 437 Vrchlick^, Jaroslav (Emil Frida), dramas and other works, 418 Vyklad na pravo ze?nske, early legal work, 51 Waldenses' influence on Hussite movement, 166 Waldensian consecrating priest of *' Unity," 207 Waldhauser, Conrad — Latin Postilla, 159 Sketch of, 58 Works, 59 Wallenstein, Christina Ponatovska prophesies his death, 258 Weaver. (See Tkadlecekthe Weaver.) Wenceslas IV. — Attitude towards Popes, 95, 96, 98 Publishes "Decrees of Kutna Hora," 97 Struggle with Bohemian nobles, 36 White Mountain, battle of — Misery of Bohemia after, 354 Political results of, 298 William of Zajic, 35 Winter, Sigismund, 414 Winthrop, Richard Charles, sugges- tions to Komensky, 268 Wratislaw, Rev. A. H. — Biography of John Hus, 86 On Hus's treatise on simony, 128 On resemblance between Tristram and Mo)te d' Arthur, 25 On works of Janov, 83 Wyche, Richard, letter to Hus, 102, 131 ; reply, 131 Wycliffe's— Articles condemned, 113 Works burned at Prague, loi Works quoted by Hus, 57 Writings discussed at Prague, 91 Zajic, Zbynek, of Hasenburg, Arch- bishop of Prague — Excommunicates Hus and his ad- herents, lOI Recognises Alexander V. as Pope, 99 Sketch of, 92 Zavis of Falkenstein, 28 Zelena Hora. {See Manuscript of Griineberg, ) Zerotin, Charles of, 254, 257 Obrajia or Apology, extract from, 323 Sketch of career, 321 -Zerotin, John of, pupil of Blahoslav, 232 Zeyer, Julius, 410 Zibrt, Dr., study of Bohemian folk- lore, 409 2idek, Paul, 294 Zittau, Peter of, chronicle, 48. Zi2ka, John, of Trocnov, leader of moderate Taborites, 144, 149 Accounts of his death, 152 Regulations of War, Letters, 149 Taborite war-song quoted, 151 Zwicker, Daniel, antagonist of Kom- enskjf, 276 Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson tS^^ Co, Edinburgh «5r^ London Literatures of the World A SERIES OF SHORT HISTORIES BY EMINENT WRITERS EDITED BY EDMUND GOSSE Each Volume Large Crown 8vo, price 6s. " Mr. Gosse's introduction to this new series, the list of his colla- borators, his own wide knowledge and delicate taste, all assure us that whatever high hopes he may raise, we need have no fear of their ample fulfilment." — The Saturday Review. A History of Japanese Literature. By William George Aston, C.M.G., D.Lit., late Japanese Secretary to H.M. Legation, Tokio. '* Mr. Aston has made a very valuable and acceptable contribution to the series. 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