Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/379

granting that the book is heretical, that is not a good reason not to read the book, for it is possible that beside heresies it contains useful passages.

Two doctrines clash here, eternal and eternally irreconcilable, authority and liberty, tradition and research, faith and investigation. The struggle which for centuries disturbed mankind appeared in Bohemia at this moment in sharper outlines than ever. The conflict is still with us, although one may affirm that the issue is no longer in doubt. In these precincts of the Sorbonne, citadel of science, cathedral of the independence of spirit, surely we shall appreciate those Czech masters of the 15th century who raised the banner of revolt against absolute authority and who prepared the emancipation of spirits and souls.

At Constance the Sorbonne was opposed to the young audacity of the Prague insurgents, and among the adversaries of Hus Gerson was one of the most implacable. Perhaps it should be said that the germs of the revolt which excited him, and against which he fulminated anathemas, were to be sought in Paris. In spite of cruel divisions which separated them in 1415, Paris and Prague had on the whole worked to gether to prepare the insurrection of spirits and the ruin of the Middle Ages. *** Revolutions, even those that are most necessary, tend to paralyze studies; if they do not completely arrest it, they at least make scientific work extremely difficult. But even when the compacts of Basle ended, outwardly at least, the crisis opened by the condemnation of Hus, peace did not return to the land and university life remained suspended. The decay of the University was aggravated by the long period of hesitation in which the country was kept for more than a century. Among the followers of Hus many were seized with horror at the thought of complete break with the Church, and they attempted to follow an impossible road. Gradually they forsook the spirit of the Reform to adhere to hollow formulas. Thus they committed themselves to a miserable and false life in a murky atmosphere, where souls become anemic and spirits shrink.

And yet this period which is rightly considered to be a period of decadence proves what intellectual resources, what vitality, did the Czech people and the University of Prague preserve in spite of all. At the moment of the definite triumph of Catholic reaction, when as a result of the battle of White Mountain the country was brought low and Ferdinand II. delivered it to the dragoons of Lichtenstein and the Jesuits, the University hoped to secure the future by bequeathing to it a double heritage.

Among the martyrs of June 21, 1621, was a former rector of the University, Jesenius. A physician and scholar famous in his day, Jesenius was also an eloquent orator. His renown and his talents signaled him out for important diplomatic missions. The judges of the emperor sentenced him to have his tongue torn out, after that to be beheaded and then have his body quartered. Jesenius heard the sentence without emotion: It is, he said, a great pity to have a tongue which addressed so many sovereigns torn out by the hand of the executioner. But, after all, what does it matter? The day will surely come when Ferdinand II. will expiate his cruelties and God’s cause will triumph.

Together with Jesenius, the great teacher, Komenský (Comenius), the greatest thinker produced by the Czech Reformation, must be regarded as the legacy of the University to the country. The University of Charles exercised a general supervision over schools, appointed instructors and directed the teaching. Even in the midst of its humiliation it did not forget this task; it tried to widen and improve public instruction. It helped to maintain in the nation a taste for things of the spirit; it also favored the movement of the Unity of Bohemian Brethren, the church from which sprang Komenský, a soul of crystal and a magnificent intelligence, one of the noblest spirits and most generous hearts which have ever honored humanity, the precursor of modern patriotism, who united with passionate love of his race a profound faith in definite reconciliation of all peoples, and who in the midst of the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War predicted the dawn of a society in which all the peoples, emancipated of evil and hate, will gather together under the eye of God to work for the establishment of the law of Christ. The University of Prague might disappear; but it accomplished its work to the end.