A History of Bohemian LiteratureLützow, Francis, hrabe
History
A History of Bohemian Literature
Lützow, Francis, hrabe
Czech literature -- History and criticism
About the year 1514 the attitude of the Bohemian officials became
less hostile to the Unity. Contemporary records give no reason for
this change; but Blahoslav's statement that "the king investigated
the doctrine of the Unity and decided in its favour" is most
improbable. The influence of some powerful noblemen who had joined
the brethren probably secured for the Unity what was really only
the tacit toleration of its existence. The fiction that only the
Utraquist Church, which was the "State Church," and the Roman creed
were recognised in Bohemia was maintained up to a far later date.
The last years of the eventful life of Lucas were influenced by the
appearance of Luther. Luther's teaching soon became known in Bohemia,
and was welcomed by the people of that country. They felt as if their
isolation, which had long weighed on them, was ended when even the
Germans, the mortal enemies of Utraquism, communicated in the two
kinds. The more advanced Utraquists specially sympathised with German
Protestantism, and it did not for a moment seem impossible that Bohemia
should adopt the teaching of Luther. The brethren, and Brother Lucas
in particular, however, declared that they should always maintain
their own community distinct from both the German Protestants and the
Bohemian Utraquists. They have often been praised for this, but it is
very probable that by joining the German Protestants the Bohemians
would have obtained powerful allies when, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, the Jesuit reaction attacked their country. The
isolation in which the Bohemian brethren, and to a lesser extent the
Bohemian Utraquists, continued, alone accounts for the incredible
apathy with which the German Protestants viewed the suppression of
Protestantism in Bohemia. At the negotiations which preceded the Treaty
of Westphalia, the Swedish envoys alone made an ineffective appeal in
favour of the Unity and the other non-Roman inhabitants of Bohemia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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