THE "UNITY"

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benefits that he had received from Rudolph, the sovereign's ancestor, that he had returned an impertinent answer, and that Ferdinand had then ordered him to be immediately whipped in his presence, has no historical foundation. Lomnicky's last years were spent in great poverty. His former patrons, the great Bohemian nobles, were either dead or were penniless exiles in distant countries. The new Austrian authorities, whom he now pestered with demands for pecuniary aid, took little notice of Lomnicky, The year of his death is uncertain, but was probably not later than the year 1623.

The foundation of the community — or " Unity,"

as it

was generally called — of the Bohemian Brethren is of the greatest importance for Bohemian literature as well as for Bohemian history. It can be generally stated that, with a few exceptions, all the men who, during the last years of Bohemian independence, were most promi-

nent in literature and in politics belonged to the " Unity." It is true that this is partly due to the fact that the community soon mitigated its original extreme severity, abandoned the views, derived from Chelcicky, that all participation in public life and all "worldly wisdom" is It thus became posforbidden to the true Christian. sible that great nobles, politicians, and men of learning The foundation of the should join the community. Bohemian Unity, the consecration of the earliest priests, and the exact tenets of the first members of the community, are still very obscure, and even Dr. Goll, the recognised authority on this subject, declares that many points are doubtful. The foundation of the Unity was undoubtedly an outcome of the great religious convulsion in Bohemia that