Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/28

 peared as lately as the eighteenth century; to-day, all that remains of the Slavs in Prussia and Saxony are the Lusatians or Sorbs.

This Germanizing tendency was checked by Bohemia, which was able to resist the Holy Roman Empire—a continuation, in Teutonic garb, of the Roman Empire. Charles the Great joined hands with the Church, thus forming the strong organization of the mediæval theocracy; and Pangerman writers are full of praise for Rome and its Church, in that it helped the Emperors to Germanize the Slavs. The revived empire organized its eastern outposts as Marches, notable those of the East (Ostmark, Oesterreich), and later Brandenburg—the foundations of Austria and Prussia. The Slavs of Bohemia and the other Bohemian countries (Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia) organized their State in a region where there were no effective remains of the Roman Empire; and even Christianity was brought to them from Constantinople. The Great Moravian Empire (830-894), comprising the Bohemian countries and extending south of the Danube in Hungary to the river Drave, was Christianized by the Slav apostles Cyril and Methodius. But the German Church, penetrating into Bohemia from Regensburg, succeeded in ousting the Slav Church of Moravia, while the Magyars, having settled in the wide plains of Hungary, made an end of the Moravian Empire. Slovakia was incorporated in Hungary early in the tenth century.

The invasion and settlement of the Magyars, a people of Mongolian origin, had, and has, a fatal significance for the Bohemians and Slovaks; it interrupted the unity of the Slav peoples, being a wedge driven between the northern and southern groups. The Magyars ceased to be nomads and accepted Christianity, but they have always remained antagonistic to the Slovaks and Southern Slavs.

After the fall of the Great Moravian Empire Bohemia soon became a strong State under native princes, and, in 1068, was acknowledged as a kingdom. The Kings of Bohemia even became Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Luxemburg dynasty (Charles IV. and his son, Wenceslaus), succeeded in being elected Emperors. In the thirteenth century Bohemia began to push southwards, and Premysl Otokar II. (1253-78) incorporated the Austrian duchies into his kingdom. Rudolf of Habsburg defeated Ottokar, strengthened Austria, and not only became Emperor himself, but laid the foundations of the Habsburg dynasty. Yet Bohemian imperialism was not checked by Rudolf; under the Luxemburg dynasty Lusatia and Silesia were acquired, and even the Margravate of Brandenburg was, for a time, joined to Bohemia.

Bohemia was quite independent, though German historians often treat it as part of Germany. The king was sovereign in his State, but received investiture from the Emperor. In earlier times the princes of Bohemia paid a small tribute to the Emperor, and the church of Bohemia was dependent upon the Archbishop of Regensburg, until, in 973, the Bishopric of Prague (1344 Archbishopric) was founded. Though much smaller than Germany, Bohemia, having her power centralized and being well administered, succeeded in maintaining complete independence against the temporal pretensions of the Empire.

Though the mediæval Empire did not rest upon a national principle, it nevertheless oppressed the non-German peoples and Germanized them, ruler and State being alike German. The Church supported and aided Germanization, though Latin, her own peculiar language, was also the language of the administration and diplomacy. The Kings of Bohemia acquired German lands and imported German colonists whose devotion they secured by the grant of special privileges. Germany was dangerous by reason of her numbers, and sometimes her culture; but Bohemia was able to resist be cause she knew how to use her forces, and because she had a culture of her own, which was not inferior to the German. Yet it must be conceded that the Bohemian court and aristocracy adopted German customs and even the German language.

2. From the fourteenth century Bohemia has really played a decisive role in European history; from her came the great reforming movement which has stirred up the world. The period during which the new Luxemburg dynasty linked Bohemia to the Empire and the French West coincided with a Czech literary revival which repudiated the influx of unwonted luxury and refinement, and was brought home to the masses of the nation by able preachers. The University of Prague, founded by Charles IV. in 1349, became the center of culture for Bohemia and her neighbors. John Hus and his noble friend, Jerome of Prague, became