Page:The future of Bohemia by Seton-Watson (1915).pdf/11

 prosperous rule the Bohemian capital first received the name of “Golden Prague”—a name still accepted with enthusiasm by every visitor to that fascinating blend of mediæval, rococo, and modern art. In 1348 Charles founded the University of Prague, which with striking rapidity acquired an academic rank not unworthy of its elder sisters Bologna, Paris, and Oxford. It was the first University to be founded in the whole German and Slavonic world, and it was here, fittingly enough, that the first great conflict of two widely differing cultures was to be fought out.

That the Czechs triumphed over their German rivals, was largely due to the genius of one man, John Hus, who as priest of the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague and Rector of the University, had won to a rare degree the confidence and admiration of his fellow-countrymen.

Any attempt to tell the story of John Hus would lead us far beyond the limits of the present essay; it will be sufficient to indicate the main features of his remarkable career.

1. The Bohemian movement for reform had, in its origin, not the slightest tinge of anti-Papal feeling. It began with protests against the gross immorality and worldliness of the Bohemian clergy, especially in Prague itself. Hus was by no means as great a heretic as is sometimes imagined. He of course suffered, like every public man in his century, from the gross scurrilities and deliberate misrepresentations of his