Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/156

 end to know how to provide for them; and what made it all the harder for him was, that his motives were misjudged and willfully misrepresented.

This species of benevolence was entirely original with Milič and when he died, the institution went into decay, since there was no one who appreciated its importance.

The popularity of Milič excited the jealousy and hatred of the priests to such a pitch that they drew up an accusation against him in twelve articles, and sent it to Pope Gregory XI, who was then at Avignon. The charges against him were so serious that the Pope became alarmed, and issued bulls, not only to the emperor, the Archbishop of Prague, and to the Bishop of Litomysl, but even to the Bishops of Olmutz, Breslau, and Cracow, warning them against the spread of such fearful heresies. Milič again repaired to Avignon to plead his own case, which he did so well that he was acquitted of all charges of heresy, and treated with marked distinction. Shortly after he was taken ill and died (1374).

One of the great services that Milič rendered his country was that he directed the mind of so great a man as Stitný into channels that led to so much beneficent literary activity.

When the University of Prague was founded, in 1348, Thomas was a young man, and he at once left his father’s house to seek the advantages that the new school offered. The main subject studied in the higher institutions of learning was scholasticism, the best minds wasting their energies in empty philosophical discussions. Thomas Stitný, however, possessed a mind so clear, so deep, and penetrating, that he soon