Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/171
stery church was consecrated by the Prague archibishop John in the presence of of king Charles IV., and the services were held in the Slav-Croatian tongue according to the glagol rite. Slav liturgy was kept up in the Emaus monastery until the Hussite wars, and then the monastery became the residence of the Hussite administrators of the Utraquist Church.
Charles IV. manifested his Slav feelings not only by the foundation of the Emaus monastery, but also by a letter to the Serbian ruler, Stephan Dušan, written February 19, 1355, and sent through a papal mission which he met in Pisa, as he was on his way to Rome to receive the imperial crown. The letter expresses joy over Stephen’s sympathy with the re-union of Eastern and Western Churches; Charles calls the Serbian czar his beloved brother, not merely as a ruler, but also as one who uses the common Slav tongue.
In later days we hear nothing of friendly contact of Czechs with the South Slavs. The reason is to be looked for not in any disagreements, but in the geographical separation of the two Slav nations by the interposition of Germans and Magyars. Only accidentally a Czech found himself among the Jugoslavs or the reverse. Thus we read that a Bohemian priest named Duch became the first bishop of Zagreb in 1093. In the 15th century a Czech warrior Jan Vitovec of Hřeben, later Count of Zahor, played a distinguished role in Croatian history. When Ullrich, Count of Cili, was governor of Croatia, Jan Vitovec was lieutenant governor, and after Ullrich’s death became governor. Sigismund, king of Bohemia and Hungary, has left an evil mark on Croatian history as the enemy of Bosnian independdence. In Bohemian history again an uncomplimentary mention is made of Fantinus de Valle, procurator of King Poděbrad, who was by birth a Croatian of the Ciprianovič family; as the papal legate he was hostile to King George and the Czech nation. In the history of Bohemian Brethren we nicet with a Croatian from Istria, Matthew Vlasič or Frankovič (Flacius Illyricus), a noted Protestant divine.
The Croatian magnate Nicholas Frankopan, governor of Croatia between 1616 and 1632, was lord of the Starý Jičín manor in Moravia.
In modern days the cause of Czech-Jugoslav friendship was greatly furthered by the Czech scholar Paul Šafařík who was professor in the Croatian city of Nový Sad and whose researches shed rich light on Slav antiquitics.
But systematic cultivation of Czech-Jugoslav relations did not begin until the 19th century, when through the influence of Kollár and his personal labors among the Jugoslavs of Budapest there arose the modern Jugoslav cultural movement, known as Illyrism. Gaj and his co-workers adopted from Czechoslovak orthography diacritical marks, introduced into the Czech language by John Hus. Since that period Croatians and Slovenes use Czech letters (like č, ž, instead of a combination of letters, as formerly.
Friendship between the Czechoslovak and Jugoslav nations was highly valued on both sides. Havlíček wrote in 1846 for the Pražské Noviny: “The Slavs are not one nation, but four nations, as distinct from each other, as any other European nations. Each of the Slav nations must stand for itself and none can be made responsible for the other; they have not common national pride or national shame. Because Slav tongues are so closely related, it is desirable and useful that each Slav nation should pay close attention to the others and benefit by their literatures, languages and racial traits. Only between the Czech and Illyrian (Jugoslav) nations can there be special sympathies, because as things stand, neither can be dangerous to the other, but can be very useful.”
In 1848 took place the first common political manifestation of all the Slavs of the Austrian monarchy, especially the Czechs and Jugoslavs. A Slav Congress was held in Prague in the early part of June, in order to voice the demands of the Slavs for proper political representation in the affairs of the monarchy, alongside of the Germans and Magyars. It was the Croatian politician and author, Ivan Kukuljevič Sakcinski, who first suggested the idea of a Slav congress in the National Gazette of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia on April 20, 1848.
Although the Slav Congress was dispersed without results after the suppression of Prague outbreaks, and absolutist regime returned, Czechoslovak-Jugoslav sympathies could no longer be suppressed. They came to the fore immediately after the