Čeněk Dušek

“ The Bible was the dearest treasure in every family, and the most precious bequest a father could leave to his son. Interesting are the passages in the last deeds of dying parents, when referring to the Bible and to their heirs. It remains always an object of wonder, how it was possible, that the Unity of the Brethern undertook to publish an edition of the Bible in six big volumes, when there were so many excellent editions, as that of Melantrich and Severin, already in circúlation. ”

“ The Roman Catholic Church, too, has published several beautiful editions of the Bible during the last fifty years, and those who have learnt to read the signs of the times, declare that: "Nobody can deny the existence of a deep religious spirit in modern Bohemia. Attempts to explain this may vary, but the facts leave no room for doubt that every day the connection between religion and life grows stronger. Religion demands attention, and the interest in it is growing." ”

“ The present spiritual state of the nation is felt to be awkward and contradictory to the past, and the national mind is groping after the thread, that would lead it out of the dismal labyrinth of inward inconsistency.
The Postilla, sermons and expositions on the pericopes, read on Sabbaths and festivals in the churches, became very early the indispensable companion of the Bible. The best preachers condensed their ideas into them, and they were the food par excellence of the flock. There are still existing the Postilla of Jacobellus, Huss, Rokycana, Peter Chelčický. ”

“ The Bible appears nowhere else to have been such a mine of instruction, from which the nation derived not only knowledge of letters in general, but also the spiritual wisdom in particular, as in Bohemia, and from which later on, in the great and glorious struggle on behalf of liberty of conscience, it drew both inspiration and vigour. ”

“ John Huss, the pupil of Mathew of Janov, revised the Bible, and became the first painter in words and deeds of Jesus, the only Saviour of men, as he writes in his touching letter to his friend and companion on his way to Constance, the knight John of Chlum, regarding his dream of the Chapel Betlehem; Peter Chelčický is actually revelling in the Bible, and a great host of more or less acute thinkers, including the last and brightest star among them, John Amos Comenius, are pressing its words upon the soul of the nation. ”

“ The time prior to the reformation of John Huss knew no hymnsinging in the native tongue at the worship. John Huss was the first, who introduced it in the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague. The people welcomed this innovation with enthusiasm and since that time the hymns, sung by the whole congregation in the national tongue („cantus bohemicus“) , became a part of the worship and the collections of hymns, called „Kancionály“ (hymnals) are next to the Bible the most important books in devotinal use. ”

“ But there is no power, that could annihilate the spirit of these our heroes. As soon as the doleful time, that shut our nation into darkness of ignorance, has passed away, this spirit began to act creatively at the resurrection and moral renewal of our people. ”

“ Tracts written during the Hussite wars (1419-1468) were innumerable, and there are still hundreds of them existing, while the invention of printing rather enhanced than diminished the productiveness of the authors of the following age. ”

“ The smallest of the cummunities, the Unity of the Brethern, alone has had 3 printing offices, and printed a great deal of books in Germany besides. Peter Chelčický, the spiritual father of the Unity, is said to have written 60, and the great Senior of the Unity Lukas of Prague, 80 tracts and books, and this amidst perils of a fierce persecution, some years spent in prison, and repeated visits to Greece, Italy and France. The working power of John Amos Komenský is simply prodigious. And the works are not merely numerous; they; they are of an intrinsic merit and value. ”

“ The Bible influenced directly and indirectly a vast portion of the Bohemian literature. In the Scriptures are rooting the writings of the precursor of John Huss, the moral philosopher knight Thomas of Štítné; John Milič, the contemporary of Mathew of Janov, lived and practized the Bible ”

“ In view of this danger the adherents of the Reformation, by this time the entire nation, and the Unity, demanded the disestablishment of the Utraquism and the liberty of their Confesions in 1543, 1567, 1575 and achieved it in 1609, and united into one Evangelical church, the Unity being allowed to govern herself by her own Ratio disciplinae, which was in a great part also accepted by the other two denominations. This Union was celebrated in 1611. The Common Board of administration was in Prague. ”

“ Religion demands attention and the interest in it is growing.“ (Přehled 4. May 1906.)
The Bible has not spoken as yet its last word in Bohemia. „Sad was the fate of the bodily tabernacles of our once great minds,“ says a historian. „The ashes of John Huss and Jerome were cast by the enemies into the Rhine. The tomb of Žižka was broken up and smashed in 1622, and in the same year the bones of Rokycana, and the heart of king George were burned in the cemetery of the Týn church by the Jesuits. ”

“ Grace the Queen, and to their whole house
give growth and prosperity.
From the period of exile of the bohemian Protestants (1621—1781) there is exhibited the
Hymnbook of Jiří Třanovský, called the Cithara sanctorum, in small oct. and with tunes, printed in Levoč (Hungary) in 1636. It was republished very often (it appeared untill the year 1874. in 67 editions and grew constantly in bulk) and secretly brought over into the bohemian countries; hence the small size of the book. ”