Bohemia, from the earliest times to the fall of national independence in 1620 / With a short summary of later events

by C. Edmund Maurice

Ferdinand returned in triumph to Prague; and, as the first step towards the restoration of order, he deposed the Councillors, who had been governing the city, and restored the separate jurisdictions of the Old and New Towns. In previous times, indeed, the union of the different quarters of the city had been looked upon as a means of securing the liberties of Prague; but Pas̆ek and Cahera had turned this union into so effective a means of tyranny over the freer spirits of the New Town, that the citizens of the latter district hailed the separation with enthusiasm; and they declared that their beloved King Charles had returned to earth in the form of their new ruler. This exultation was soon cut short by a new, and far more dangerous, outbreak of the Hungarian war. Soliman, no longer relying mainly on the intrigues of Zapolya, poured his forces anew into Hungary, reconquered all the territory which had been lost, marched into Austria, and rapidly approached Vienna. Even now, though they sent troops to the defence of Vienna, the help of the Bohemians was grudgingly given, and was hindered by their old suspicion of the power of the Germans. Nevertheless, they joined in the war. The Viennese were roused to an heroic resistance; and, after a fierce struggle, the Turks were driven back from the walls of Vienna. The ships which Soliman had brought into the Danube were destroyed; and he was compelled, for a time, to make peace.

Ferdinand now hastened back to Prague, and found that Pas̆ek and Cahera had recovered their power in the city. Although Hlavsa and his friends had been allowed by Ferdinand to return from exile, Pas̆ek’s party had succeeded in hampering their freedom and annoying them in various ways. Knowing the King’s strong Catholic feelings, Pas̆ek had hoped to conciliate his favour by giving a religious colouring to his persecution; and several of the Bohemian Brothers had been singled out for torture and burning. But Ferdinand seems to have thoroughly understood the self-seeking character of the intriguers who were governing Prague; and, resolving to show that he was not to be trifled with, he banished Pas̆ek and Cahera from Prague, and pronounced the formal acquittal of Hlavsa and his friends. Even those against whom there was reasonable suspicion of heresy were allowed to escape by the use of elastic formulæ; and it seemed for the moment as if a happier and better government were really to be introduced into Bohemia.

But his Catholic training, strengthened by the circumstances of his brother’s struggle against the German Protestants, had produced in Ferdinand two strong aspirations, which had been enormously strengthened by the difficulties of the Turkish wars. These were the desire for the consolidation of the power of the Hapsburgs, by the union of the different hereditary dominions of their House; and the desire for union of the Church by the crushing down of the various sects. These two objects were to be carried out side by side, and each was to be brought into prominence as opportunity occurred. It was to the latter object that he first desired to address himself; and certain circumstances had at this time specially directed his attention to the Bohemian Brotherhood.

The peasant rising in Germany had produced great dread of the teaching of the Anabaptists; and, after the peasants had been crushed, many of this sect had fled to Bohemia to escape persecution. The Brotherhood had noticed that the new-comers agreed with them on the question of the necessity of a second baptism; and Lukas and other leaders of the Brotherhood had desired, on this ground, to negotiate further with the Anabaptists. A closer inspection proved that no two bodies had less of spiritual sympathy than the fiery revolutionists who followed Thomas Münzer and the peaceable and orderly inheritors of the traditions of Peter of Chelc̆ic. But this negotiation had called unfriendly attention to the proceedings of the Brothers; and the alarm which it excited was further increased by the action of one of those noblemen who had begun to patronise the Brotherhood. This was Conrad of Krajek, the member of a family who had defended the Brotherhood against Ladislaus. Conrad had granted to the Brotherhood a church on his estate, which had long been left without a pastor, and the new clergyman had removed from it the ornaments which the Brothers considered idolatrous. Ferdinand demanded the restoration of the ornaments, and Conrad refused to obey. The Turkish wars hindered Ferdinand from pressing his demand at this time; but Conrad felt his danger, and resolved to take further steps for the protection of the Brotherhood. He saw that the German Protestants had greatly strengthened their position by their recent publication of the Confession of Augsburg; and it occurred to him that, if a similar publicity were given to the doctrines of the Brotherhood, they also might be placed in a better position in the eyes of the world.

JOHN AUGUSTA.

The drawing up of this Confession brought into prominence a man whose career was to have an important influence, both on the history of the Brotherhood and on the policy of Ferdinand. This was John Augusta, the son of a hatter in Prague. He had been born in 1500; and, though without any regular learned education, he had acquired a useful knowledge of Latin. He speedily made his mark in the Society; and in 1532 he was admitted into the smaller governing council. It was just at this time that Conrad of Krajek had been convinced of the need of a formal Confession of Faith for the Brotherhood; and Augusta was appointed to undertake this work. This document was not only intended for circulation among the immediate friends and acquaintances of the Brotherhood; but it was also hoped that it would attract the sympathies of the German princes, and particularly of the Margrave of Brandenburg. There was also another ally whom Augusta was particularly anxious to win to the side of the Brothers. Luther, as it will be remembered, had, in the early period of his public career, made somewhat eager advances towards the Utraquists; but, when the treachery of Gallus Cahera had disgusted and repelled him, he had turned for sympathy to the Bohemian Brotherhood. Lukas and other leaders had been well disposed to meet his advances; but, on closer contact, they found three barriers apparently insurpassable. The Brothers, like many other people, had been startled and shocked by Luther’s doctrine of Justification by Faith alone. They believed their fears of this doctrine to be justified by personal observation; for it seemed to be leading, in many cases, to carelessness and even immorality of life, however much it might seem to Luther to be the assertion of a more spiritual creed against the belief in mere dead works. Secondly, the Brotherhood came far nearer to the Zwinglian doctrine of the Sacrament than Luther could at all approve; and, thirdly, the same ascetic tone which induced them to shrink from the Lutheran laxity of life, made the Brothers unwilling to accept a married priesthood. The contention had become so sharp between Lukas and Luther, that Luther, who showed himself the more moderate of the two disputants, had felt it better to break off the correspondence.

Nevertheless, there were many, both in the ranks of the Brotherhood and of the German Protestants, who desired a renewal of this intercourse; and, as Lukas was now dead, there seemed less difficulty in beginning a new correspondence. Augusta, therefore, went to Wittenberg, and presented the Confession to Luther. Luther seems throughout to have shown a generosity and breadth of sympathy towards the Brothers which were not always characteristic of him. He readily praised a great part of the Confession; he rejoiced in their agreement about the main doctrines of Christianity and the rejection of many Papal superstitions; and he declared that their mistakes about the Sacraments and the question of Faith and Works were to be attributed partly to differences of language, and partly to a want of clear perception on their part of the points at issue. With regard to the married clergy, it soon became clear that the difference between Luther and the Brothers was not one of doctrine; but that it was due partly to circumstances arising out of the persecution which the Brotherhood had suffered, partly to a certain ascetic tendency which inclined them to look upon celibacy as the higher state. Luther therefore consented readily and warmly to recommend the study of the Confession to his friends; and a few years later he even agreed that it should be printed and published for them at Wittenberg.

Encouraged by Luther’s sympathy, both Krajek and Augusta thought that the time had come for presenting their Confession of Faith to Ferdinand himself, and asking for a milder judgment than he had at first been disposed to pass upon them. But the temporary retirement of Soliman from Europe had now left Ferdinand at liberty to carry out his plans of uniformity. Although the Brotherhood had now broken off their intercourse with the Anabaptists, yet Ferdinand still remembered that attempt against them; and he was even more embittered by the recollection of Krajek’s disobedience. He therefore not only refused to consider the Confession, but early in 1535 he issued an order for the expulsion of the Brothers from all the towns immediately dependent on the king’s authority. The Utraquists eagerly seconded the Catholics in this persecution; and the towns of Vodnian, Klattov, and Taus (Domaz̆lic̆e) were the first to carry out the order. The expelled Brothers were also summoned before the royal Court in Prague to answer for their offences. Amongst others, two young lords of Janovic, who had been known as patrons of the Brotherhood, were summoned to Prague, and condemned to imprisonment in the Black Tower of the Castle. A Brother named John Zbornik, generally known as John the Hermit, was summoned at the same time. Conrad of Krajek, however, maintained that Zbornik was his serf, and that the young lords of Janovic were not responsible for him. Then Conrad was ordered to appear himself, to answer for his interference with the law, and at the same time to produce Zbornik. Conrad came with Zbornik, and also with a large attendance of knights and lords; but, in spite of their protests, Zbornik was condemned without any regular trial, and imprisoned in the Castle for three years.