500 YEARS of LIBERTY
¶ Religious freedom owes much to the sacrifice of this great reformer, whose life is told in stirring fashion, suffused throughout with the spirit and genius of this fearless Protestant champion.
W. H. ROBERTS, D.D., Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, says: “I commend it heartily to ministers and laymen. The life and teachings of John Hus are dealt with in an admirable manner.”
“A book attractive as well as accurate, and popular although concise: and, with careful examination of the most reliable Hus literature, he has sketched the antecedents of the great Bohemian, his university career, and his work as preacher, teacher, writer and reformer, with sympathy and discrimination, in a clear, vigorous and pleasing style. The book will be very useful in missionary study classes; its informing value is greatly increased by many half-tone illustrations; and its one hundred and fifty-two pages give the reader a far more intimate and satisfying acquaintance with this ‘true nobleman of God,’ than volumes twice or thrice its size and expense.”—Christian Intelligencer.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The word Czech, which is being freely used in the Anglo-American press, is a corrupt form of Čech. The German form is Czech, Tscheche, the French Tchèque. But, inasmuch as Čech is sounded more nearly like Checkh and not Czech, the form Czech fails utterly of its purpose and its use should be discontinued. The people themselves prefer to be called Bohemians, not Czechs, which latter appellation is not generally known or understood. Some years ago a noted scholar was severely censured because he named his magazine, edited in the German language, but Bohemiophile in tendency, “Čechische Revue,” instead of “Böhmische Revue.” The truth of the matter is that the appellation Czech is an invention of Vienna journalists, who, by persistent use of the term, wish to give a warning to the world that Bohemia is not all Čech, but part German and part Čech.
[2] Silesia was much larger, but Frederick II. of Prussia despoiled Maria Theresa in 1742 of a major portion of it. Thus was created Prussian Silesia and Austrian Silesia. In Macaulay’s “Life of Frederick the Great,” we read why the Prussian King made war on his neighbor. In manifestoes he might, for form’s sake, insert some idle stories about his antiquated claim on Silesia; but in his conversations and Memoirs he took a very different tone. His own words were: “Ambition, interest, the desire of making people talk about me, carried the day; and I decided for war.” If there is a rectification of Prussian boundary after the war, a portion of Prussian Silesia, that is still Bohemian, should be returned to Austrian Silesia.
[3] Representation in parliament being determinable by the result of the enumeration, one can at once see of what vital concern it is to non-Germans to obtain a census free from political bias. As matters are, the Germans constitute 35 per cent. of the population, yet have 52 per cent. representation in the Reichsrath (parliament), while 24 per cent. Bohemians are represented in parliament only by 17 per cent.
[4] “The Slavdom: Picture of Its Past and Present,” Prague, 1912.
[5] Now of every 1,000 inhabitants in Bohemia 956.61 profess the Catholic faith. Due to various reasons—spiritual, political, and historical—more than one-half of the American Bohemians have seceded from the Catholic Church. Some have joined various Protestant sects, but the majority of the secessionists are Free-thinkers.