Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/73

 monastery of St. Anne at Prague, where he died in 1553.

Among the historians of the period beginning with 1526 and ending with 1620, with which I am now dealing, the writers belonging to the community of the Bohemian Brethren undoubtedly held a very high rank. It is true that this is to a certain extent but a conjecture, for during the period of reaction that followed the battle of the White Mountain, the works of the Brethren were specially marked out for destruction by the Jesuits. I shall have occasion in my next lecture, when referring to Dr. Gindely’s history of the Bohemian Brethren, again to refer to this interesting community. It is sufficient here to note that the Brethren very carefully preserved all historical records, and, of course, principally all documents that referred to the past of their own community. The archives which they established first at Žamberk and afterwards at Litomyšl must have contained many documents of priceless value for the history of Bohemia. Of these writers who belonged to the community of the Brethren, Brother Jan Blahoslav certainly enjoyed the greatest fame. His Historie Bratrská (History of the Brotherhood), of which but scanty fragments have been preserved, was greatly praised by his contemporaries, not only for its erudition and profoundness it was based on the archives of the community but also for the pureness of its Bohemian style. It is one of the great merits of the Brethren that they bestowed great pains on the development of the national language. A memorial of these endeavours is the Bohemian version of the Bible known as the Bible of Králice. It was published about the