314

A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN

LITERATURE

well as of their exaggerated subserviency to even unjust temporal authorities, which sometimes made them poor poHticians. Of Bilek little is known but what he himself tells us in his book. He was a clergyman of the Brotherhood, and acted for a considerable time as secretary to Augusta, the head of the community. He died at Napajedl in Moravia in 1581, at the age of sixty-five. As already mentioned, his book was formerly attributed to Blahoslav, and only recent researches have awarded the authorship as

to Bilek.i

Very noteworthy among the historians of the Brotherhood is Wenceslas B6ezan. To him Palacky's remark, that the Bohemians cared more for their history than for the biographies of their historians, is particularly Neither the year of the birth nor that of applicable. the death of Bf ezan can be accurately ascertained ; it has been conjectured that he was born about the year 1560, and died about the year 1619. Peter Vok, Lord of Rosenberg, the greatest of the Bohemian nobles, and a strenuous friend and protector of the Brotherhood, appointed Bfezan " archivarian, librarian, and historioMost of his works grapher of the House of Rosenberg." deal with the annals of that great House, which for centuries figured so prominently in Bohemian history. The writings of Brezan, like those of so many other Bohemian writers, have been only partially preserved. Besides minor works referring to the annals and the genealogy of noble Bohemian families, Bfezan wrote a large History of the House of Rosenberg, which is said to ' The Life (or rather Captivity) ofJohn Augusta was edited and published

The work has recently been translated into by Franta-Sumavsky in 1837. German by Dean Joseph Muller of Herrenhut.