Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/93

73 Prague 1880, a reprint of the edition from 1613, without commentaries.

The British Bible Society sells in Prague about 13.000 copies of the whole Bible, and about 25.000 separate portions of the Scriptures a year; the Rom. Catholic church published several beautiful editions of the Bible during the last 50 years, and those who have learnt to know the seasons, declare, that: „Nobody dares to deny the existence of a religious question in Bohemia. The attempts of an answer or explanations may vary, but the fact leaves no doubt, that every day reveals the connex of religion with every day questions of the life. Religion demands attention and the interest in it is growing.“ (Přehled 4. May 1906.)

The Bible has not spoken as yet its last word in Bohemia. „Sad was the fate of the bodily tabernacles of our once great minds,“ says a historian. „The ashes of John Huss and Jerome were cast by the enemies into the Rhine. The tomb of Žižka was broken up and smashed in 1622, and in the same year the bones of Rokycana, and the heart of king George were burned in the cemetery of the Týn church by the Jesuits. The bones and dust of Žerotín suffered a barbarous desacration in 1722. But there is no power, that could annihilate the spirit of these our heroes. As soon as the doleful time, that shut our nation into darkness of ignorance, has passed away, this spirit began to act creatively at the resurrection and moral renewal of our people.“ May it continue to do it. The present spiritual state of the nation is felt to be awkward and contradictory to the past, and the national mind is groping after the thread, that would lead it out of the dismal labyrinth of inward inconsistency.

The Postilla, sermons and expositions on the pericopes, read on Sabbaths and festivals in the churches, became very early the indispensable companion of the Bible. The best preachers condensed their ideas into them, and they were the food par excellence of the flock. There are still existing the Postilla of Jacobellus, Huss, Rokycana, Peter Chelčický. Huss wrote his Postilla during the interdict on and his exile from Prague in 1413. Many copies, both in manuscript and in print, were destroyed, but there are still about 10 of them preserved in manuscript, the most