Jerome of Prague

“ There can be few greater contrasts than that between the saintly and truly evangelical simplicity of the character of Hus, and the sophistical insincerity of Jerome, who represents an early type of the humanist—with all the qualities and also all the faults that characterise the humanist. It is as a humanist also that he appealed to Poggio Bracciolini, whose letter to Bruni (Leonardo Aretino) describing the death of Jerome of Prague is one of the few documents connected with the Bohemian reformation which have become somewhat widely known. ”

“ Here every thing seems at least five centuries behind-hand, and religion has not purified itself the least in the world since the days of its early struggle; for here Huss preached, and here Jerome, known by the name of Jerome of Prague, first began to project the scheme of a future reformation. [320] The Bohemians had indeed been long before that time indulged by the Popes with permission to receive the cup in the sacrament, a favour granted no one else ”

“ JEROME OF PRAGUE, a Bohemian religious reformer, born in Prague about 1375, burned at Constance, May 30, 1416. After graduating at Prague he visited the universities of Cologne, Heidelberg, Paris, and Oxford. Returning to Paris, he preached boldly in favor of reforms in the church, defending his views in a disputation held with Gerson, chancellor of the university. ”

“ He would have to spend the money with which others were ready to supply him for the journey, but which, as a conscientious man, he believed should rather be given to the poor. He would have for a time to desert his congregation at Bethlehem. Jerome of Prague was then in the city, and Hus, though he showed him the greatest kindness, well knew what dangers the levity and thoughtlessness of Jerome might cause were he left uncontrolled. ”

“ The tragical and lamentable History of the famous learned Man and godly Martyr of Christ, Master Jerome of Prague, burned at Constance for like cause and quarrel as was Master John Huss.
A.D. 1415 to 1416.⁠*Forasmuch [1] as the variety of men's affections, by means of hatred of persons oftentimes coming between, and other causes growing, doth often very ill, yea, altogether falsely, accumulate and gather the order of things done, far otherwise than, in deed, they were done, and hath used and accustomed to divulgate their feigned doings unto posterity ”

“ The period during which the new Luxemburg dynasty linked Bohemia to the Empire and the French West coincided with a Czech literary revival which repudiated the influx of unwonted luxury and refinement, and was brought home to the masses of the nation by able preachers. The University of Prague, founded by Charles IV. in 1349, became the centre of culture for Bohemia and her neighbours. John Hus and his noble friend, Jerome of Prague, became the great torchbearers of the Reformation. Their death inflamed the whole Bohemian nation against Rome and the treacherous Emperor Sigismund. ”

“ The Jews have always been an important feature of Prague. Occasionally they have assisted the Christians in their favourite occupation of slaughtering one another, and the great flag suspended from the vaulting of the Altneuschule testifies to the courage with which they helped Catholic Ferdinand to resist the Protestant Swedes. The Prague Ghetto was one of the first to be established in Europe, and in the tiny synagogue, still standing, the Jew of Prague has worshipped for eight hundred years, his women folk devoutly listening, without, at the ear holes provided for them in the massive walls. ”

“ I know nothing concerning Jerome, my faithful friend, unless that he is detained in a wretched prison, waiting, like myself, for death, on account of that faith which he so courageously spread through Bohemia. But the Bohemians, our most cruel adversaries, have delivered us to the power of other enemies and to their chains. Pray to God for them. I conjure you, inhabitants of Prague, above all to love my Chapel of Bethlehem, and to have the word of God preached there, should God permit it. ”

“ However, we did talk German in certain streets in Prague; it was a case of talking German or nothing. The Czech dialect is said to be of great antiquity and of highly scientific cultivation. Its alphabet contains forty-two letters, suggestive to a stranger of Chinese. It is not a language to be picked up in a hurry. We decided that on the whole there would be less risk to our constitution in keeping to German, and as a matter of fact no harm came to us. The explanation I can only surmise. The Praguer is an exceedingly acute person ”

“ Neither did these premises which you had so perpetrated to the reproach both of us and our kingdom and marquisdom, suffice and content you, but that also, without all mercy and piety, you have apprehended, imprisoned, and condemned, and even now, peradventure, like as you did Master John Huss, you have most cruelly murdered the worshipful man. Master Jerome of Prague; Defence of Jerome of Prague.⁠a man abounding in eloquence, master of the seven liberal arts, and a famous philosopher ”

“ At Dresden they advised us not to talk German in Prague. For years racial animosity between the German minority and the Czech majority has raged throughout Bohemia, and to be mistaken for a German in certain streets of Prague is inconvenient to a man whose staying powers in a race are not what once they were. ”

“ He is stated to have belonged to a noble Bohemian family [1] and to have been a few years younger than Hus. After beginning his studies at the university of Prague, where he never attempted to obtain any ecclesiastical office, Jerome proceeded to Oxford in 1398. There he became greatly impressed by the writings of Wycliffe, of whose Dialogus and Trialogus he made copies. Always inclined to a roving life, he soon proceeded to the university of Paris and afterwards continued his studies at Cologne and Heidelberg, returning to Prague in 1407. ”

“ Shortly afterwards he secretly left Vienna, declaring that this promise had been forced on him. He went first to Vöttau in Moravia, and then to Prague. In 1412 the representatives of Pope Gregory XII. publicly offered indulgences for sale at Prague, wishing to raise money for the pope’s campaign against King Ladislaus of Naples, an adherent of the antipope of Avignon. Contrary to the wishes of the archbishop of Prague a meeting of the members of the university took place, at which both Hus and Jerome spoke strongly against the sale of indulgences. ”

“ Some pictures are very like other pictures, but with a statue there is always something distinctive. Take that statue we saw early in the evening,” continued Harris, “before we went into the concert hall. It represented a man sitting on a horse. In Prague you will see other statues of men on horses, but nothing at all like that one.”
“Yes they are,” said George; “they are all alike. It’s always the same horse, and it’s always the same man. They are all exactly alike. It’s idiotic nonsense to say they are not.” ”

“ It was once the capital of Central Europe and in Charles IV. time the seat of the first university of Central Europe and possessed the first botanical garden. In Rudolph’s age it was famous as a town containing the most valuable collections, and for the splendour of its court and for the pleasures it offered, it was considered the Paris of Central Europe. Prague is the cradle of modern journalism: here the very first news-paper of the world was published (in the Bohemian [Czech] language) . ”

“ It is no wonder indeed that from time immemorial the most famous travellers considered and declared the „golden“, „the hundredtowered“ city of Prague to be one of the most beautiful cities of the world on account of its picturesque situation on both banks of the river Vltava and on the slopes of seven surrounding hills as well as for her many historic and artistic monuments.
Already at the beginning of the twelfth century the first Bohemian historian Kosmas praises it enthusiastically. ”

“ His nobles aided towards his downfall by their treachery, and the middle class of Prague, though loyal to the Crown, was alive chiefly to its own interests. Perhaps that foreign influence was weaving its spell over the burghers of Prague, a spell to which the Slav is somewhat susceptible.
During the reign of the last Přemysl sovereigns Prague offered the spectacle of a rich and prosperous city, but its brightness was rather that of lights round the bier of some illustrious dead. ”

“ The patriots themselves do not at first appear to have felt certain of the victory of the cause. Thus we are told that when Jungmann received the visit of two other patriots in his modest lodgings in the street which now bears his name, he said, in a fit of depression, ‘It needs only that the ceiling of this room should fall in, and there would be an end of Bohemian literature.’ He was, of course, alluding to the small number of the ‘patriots.’
In 1848 disturbances broke out at Prague. ”

“ It seems as if a permanent Germanic Empire—material, not only sentimental—were never destined to a long and prosperous existence. These speculations, however, are best left to the historian, and we will return to the city of Prague.
We have seen John of Luxemburg and his wife Elizabeth happily crowned on the Hradšany at Prague and the city relieved by this event from the prospect of prolonged internal disorder. Henry of Carinthia, who succeeded Rudolph, had not proved satisfactory. ”

“ There is a way down from the top of Petřin shaded by chestnut-trees, its stages marked by fourteen chapels, the Stations of the Cross, until it narrows in between garden walls over which you see Strahov and the Hradšany rising in graceful dignity out of a maze of red-tiled roofs and foliage.
Then you may wander on past Strahov and over open rolling country to the battlefield of the White Mountain and to the Star, those places of tragic memory in the history of Bohemia. It is usual to speak slightingly of the immediate environment of Prague as being uninteresting and indeed unlovely ”

“ Far beyond are the encircling heights—some wooded, others under cultivation; cloud shadows pass over them like ghosts of the tragic events that made up the history of Bohemia and its capital. But the sunshine wins over the clouds and draws out the strength and glory of Golden Prague.
Summer and autumn bring fulfilment of spring's promise of plenty, with fruit in abundance. Autumn lingers in red and yellow motley, stoutly resisting winter's attack until boisterous winds from east and north send the last leaves shivering to the ground and spread out the city's winter garb. ”

“ And we trust the time is not far distant, when by redoubled energy, discipline and honesty, free from foreign influence the Bohemian nation will win for its royal Prague peacefully by its own genius and by weapons of intellect alone that importance and glory, of which whole generations of the past dreamt visions in joyful anticipation. ”

“ The indignation in the city was great, but the king was too strong to be resisted, and he speedily quelled all movements of tumult. Prague, situated upon the steep and craggy banks of the Moldau, spanning the stream, and with its antique dwellings rising tier above tier upon the heights, is one of the most grand and imposing capitals of Europe. About one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants crowd its narrow streets and massive edifices. ”

“ When, on the other hand, the council demanded that he should recant heretical opinions which he had never held, he refused and calmly and unhesitatingly laid down his life. He well knew that had he himself admitted that he had been a heretic, his life-work for the church and the state of Bohemia would have been undone. Jerome, on the other hand, did not hesitate both at Vienna and at Constance to preserve his life by means that can hardly be called otherwise than dishonourable. ”

“ Jerome returned to Palestine, and took up his residence in a monastery he had founded at Bethlehem. When, in extreme old age, he became sensible of the approach of death, he raised with effort his emaciated limbs, and, commanding himself to be carried into the chapel of the monastery, he received the Sacrament for the last time from the hands of the priest, and soon after expired. He died in 420, leaving, besides his famous translation of the Scriptures, numerous controversial writings, epistles, and commentaries. ”

“ Dobrovsky, who discovered this important document in the Carthusian monastery of Dolein in Moravia, had at first some doubts as to its authenticity. Further research tends, however, to prove that Jerome certainly was the author of this mean and Judas-like letter. Dr. Flajshans, the most recent Bohemian writer on the life of Hus, admits the authenticity of Jerome’s letter, but suggests that he may have been forced to write it. There can at any rate only have been; moral persuasion, for there is no evidence whatever to prove that torture was applied to Jerome. ”

“ So stands Strahov, Mount Zion, between the Castle Hill and Petřin looking out over Prague from its terraced gardens and its bower of fruit-trees. It is always beautiful, this haunt of old-world peace, whether the garden and the orchard be all a mass of blossom creamy white in the sunshine, pale purples in the shadows, in the shade of midsummer foliage when Golden Prague below glitters in the midday heat, or in autumn when the valley is all a blaze of gold and russet, and the distant hills stand out in strong blue masses. Winter also brings fascination. ”

“ This peculiar segregation of the Jewish community as an imperium in imperio, apart in matters of local administration as in matters of religion, from their fellow-citizens, must have done a great deal towards forming the character of its members, and the result has been of advantage to the city of Prague in times of stress.
Close by the Jewish Town Hall stands another yet more ancient landmark of cultural history, the "Staronová Škola", or Old New School. Close by the side of that broad thoroughfare the Mikulasška Třida, with the electric trams clanging along it, stands this strange temple. ”