Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/363

 wrote a tractate defending the custom. He tried to prove that Bohemian peasants were merely chlapi (ribaldi) and serfs, whose only privilege was to enjoy during life the lands upon which they lived. Kunes of Treboli, general vicar of the archbishop, wrote a defense of the action of the archbishop, wherein he proved that the Bohemian peasants were free men, not serfs; and showed that the custom was contrary to the laws of the land.

The question was also discussed in the university, and both the German and the Bohemian professors expressed themselves against it, calling it robbery, and saying that those who practiced it could not escape eternal punishment. John Hus and Thomas Stitný also defended the action of the archbishop. The result of this controversy was, that some clerics and quite a number of nobles freed their subjects from this unjust law of decease; but others held to the old custom, and persecuted the peasants in other ways.

The Hussite wars changed the whole aspect of the relation between lord and peasant. The people gained many political rights, and for a time the country was on the high road to democracy. This was all brought to naught by the unfortunate battle of Lipan. From that time the nobles again began to rule the country; and although the people were not brought into subjection immediately, the tendency was in that direction, until in the reign of Vladislav feudalism was fully established in the country, and the people were reduced to the most abject servitude.

Considering that feudalism was found in all European countries long before the fifteenth century, it is not surprising that it found its way to Bohemia at this