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A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN

LITERATURE

Though dealing with an tumults and disturbances. apparently unimportant subject, Bartholomew's book is of the greatest interest in giving a striking picture of the town-life of Bohemia in the sixteenth century. Religious controversy was the one engrossing interest among the " citizens, and the " CatiHnarian individuals (as a recent Bohemian writer has called them), who contested for the government of Prague, used religion as a pretext for their ambitious endeavours. The rivals, indeed, both belonged to the so-called Utraquist Church, which prided itself in being directly based on the teaching of Hus. This Church was the Established Church of Bohemia, from the time of the Council of Basel and the signing of the so-called "compacts" (1436), to the battle of the White Mountain (1620). Very characteristic of Bartholomew's manner are his accounts of the disturbances of Prague, which formed the original motive for his book. It is very evident to a student of Bohemian history that in this portion of Bartholomew's work light and shade are very unequally divided; there was really very little to choose between the two demagogues, Pasek and Hlavsa, whose rivalry caused the disturbances at Prague. But Bartholomew's style is here often quaint and picturesque ; and I think I could give no better specimen of it than by translating his portraits of the rival Cleons Bartholomew writes: "Concerning those of Prague. two persons, John Hlavsa and Master John Pasek, they both appeared as two brilliant lights, not only in Prague, ' but also within the ' estate of the townsmen generally ; for God had granted to both of them an enlightened intellect, and eloquence greater than is usual among men ; yet they differed greatly with regard to their