Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/348

 themselves are guilty of the same sins. They never say, ‘You shall go to hell, because you have waxed fat by doing violence to the poor.’ When such a one dies, they make him a grand funeral. A procession of priests, pupils, and other people is formed. There is ringing of bells, masses for the dead, singing and burning of candles, many offerings to the Church, much praise from the pulpit; so that it seems that the soul of such a one can not be lost. Besides this, by endowments to the Churches provision is made that prayers shall be said forever for the soul, so that it must be saved—if only those things be true.”

.—“Very early in the history of Bohemia, the peasants were oppressed, and obliged to do all manner of menial service for the noblemen of the surrounding country. Still they were personally free, and real servitude was not established in the country till after the Hussite wars. Before the Hussite wars, the number of small land-owners, subject only to the king, constituted about two-thirds of the population outside the cities. Owing to the devastations caused by the wars, this number constantly decreased, until, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, such land-owners were the rare exceptions, the bulk of the peasantry being subject to the nobility.”

.—“Like other peaceful arts, education suffered greatly during the Hussite wars. Still the University of Prague continued for a long time with its regular courses of study, and degrees were granted; but finally it, too, began to feel the general demoralization, till, about the end of the fifteenth century, of the