critic of this period, gives his opinion of Augusta in these words: "Brother John Augusta," he writes, "was a remarkable and great man, who wrote many books as well as hymns. All that he wrote before he was imprisoned was written in good Bohemian; phrases _excultæ_, _verba selecta_; _delectabatur admodum archaismis_, _tamen decenter_. _In summa totum genus dicendi fuit floridum atque excultum_. _Valebat ingenio et memoria_, _ac diligenter legebat bonos authores_ in our Bohemian language. _Fluebat igitur sua vis copiosius et exultans_, though he sometimes wished to be too _lepidus et asiaticus_.... In his sermons he seemed somewhat coarse though fervent. _Ardebant omnia_, words, pronunciation, and gesticulation. _Referrebat zelo illo magna_ _ex parte Lutherum_. When, twenty-six years ago, I heard Augusta, and shortly afterwards Luther, it appeared to me that I had never heard two such enthusiastic preachers, nor two who in every way so greatly resembled one another." A somewhat younger contemporary of Augusta was Brother Blahoslav, whom I have just quoted, and who, like him, also became one of the bishops of the Unity. His writings differ somewhat from those of the brethren I have mentioned above. The influence of humanism, absent from their works, is distinctly noticeable in Blahoslav. He also wrote on theology--what Bohemian writer of that period did not?--but it is evident that other studies were far more to his taste. He tells us, indeed, in the last chapter of his _Grammar_, that, in consequence of the state of his health, "writing on more serious, and ever on theological matters, was beyond his strength;" but there is no doubt that this statement should be considered as apologetic. Many of the brethren probably thought that their bishops should devote themselves exclusively to theological studies. From the same reason, also, Blahoslav mentions, in justification of his philological studies, that the Unity had intrusted him with the task of translating the New Testament into Bohemian. BLAHOSLAV was born at Přerov (Prerau) in Moravia, then one of the centres of the Unity, in 1523. In early youth he studied at the school which the brethren had established there. He then travelled to complete his studies; visited Wittenberg--where he heard Luther preach--Königsberg, and Basel. On his return to his country, he was first employed as teacher at the school which the brethren had established at Prostějov. He here had as a pupil John of Žerotin, member of a family that always supported the Unity, the father of Charles of Žerotin,[91] who was famous during the last years of Bohemian independence. The authorities of the Unity afterwards sent Blahoslav to Jung Bunzlau (or Mladá Boleslav) in Bohemia, where he was employed in arranging the archives of the community. He here began the composition of the great historical work that was in his own time his principal claim to literary fame, but which has perhaps irreparably been lost.