University of Prague

“ The veneration of the Blessed Mother developed rapidly and fostered a deeper respect for women and children. The founding of the University of Prague, in 1348, by Emperor Charles I was a mighty factor in the improvement of Bohemian literature in all branches. ”

“ Such literary interests as obtained in Germany during the fourteenth century, outside of those of the monasteries already referred to, centred nevertheless about the universities. The oldest of these universities was that of Prague, which was founded in 1347, more than a century later than the foundations of Paris and Bologna. The regulations of the University recognised the existence of scribes, illuminators, correctors, binders, dealers in parchment, etc., all of which trades were placed under the direct control of the university authorities. ”

“ Faithful to his predilection for France, Charles modelled his regulations for the new University entirely on those of the University of Paris. The students were divided into ‘nations’ according to their nationality. In Prague we find the Bohemian, Polish, Bavarian and Saxon ‘nations’; each of these separately elected members to the general council of the University.
The new foundation seems to have been very successful from the first. Benes of Weitmil writes: ‘The University’ (studium) ‘became so great that nothing equal to it existed in all Germany ”

“ Continuing his post-graduate studies in the social sciences, especially in sociology, he became in 1912 instructor in sociology at the University of Prague and a year later likewise at the Prague Polytechnic. ”

“ The highways leading to Prague were filled with motley crowds of angry Germans; professors, students, and attendants were moving away in all manner of vehicles that could be impressed into service for the occasion. Some authorities say that 20,000 men left Prague that day; but Tomek puts the number down to 5,000. But whether the number was 20,000 or 5,000, their departure was a grievous loss to the city. Sigmund, writing to the Council of Constance, in 1416, deplored this loss in the following words: “That splendid University of Prague was counted among the rarest jewels of our realm ”

“ In 1772 the university was entirely reconstituted.
Of the universities included in the present Austrian empire, Prague, which existed as a “studium” in the 13th century, was Prague. the earliest. It was at first frequented 'mainly by students from Styria and Austria, countries at that time ruled by the emperor Charles IV., who was also king of Bohemia, and at whose request Pope Clement VI., on the 26th of January 1347, promulgated a bull authorizing the foundation of a “studium generale” in all the faculties. In the following year Charles himself issued a charter for the foundation. ”

“ The history of the nation is resurrected and proves an elixir of life; to learn it is to a Czech enough for a complete awakening. But the awakening period becomes one of constant struggle against all the old forces that would keep him down; yet step by step he advances, over prisons and gallows.
Literature, science, art arise again; journalism begins to develop. The university is regained; Prague, the "mother" of Bohemian cities, is regained, and others follow. Education reaches a higher level ultimately than anywhere else in Austria. ”

“ The Lollard heresy had been imported from the University of Oxford into that of Prague by some Bohemian gentlemen, who had come over to England in the suite of Queen Anne during the height of the controversy. Prague University at that time numbered as many as 60,000 scholars, and was divided into several nations, and presided over by sixty deans. Only twelve of the deans were Bohemians, and the rest Germans. John Huss, the rector of the university, who eagerly embraced the new opinions, endeavoured to destroy the German influence ”

“ The number of good English scholars among all classes is remarkable and there are numerous reading circles for English literature, while the Bohemian university has lately equipped an English seminary. Great interest is taken in English municipal and social institutions and English plays are translated and presented on the stage of Prague. ”

“ 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) . ”

“ An institute such as the “Wesna” [104] in Brünn is a center of national propaganda. Prague, like Brünn, has a Czechish Gymnasium for girls as well as the German Gymnasium. There is also a Czechish University besides the German University. The first woman to be given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Czechish university was Fräulein Babor.
The industrial conditions in Czechish Bohemia and [Pg 231] in Moravia differ very little from those in Galicia. The lot of the workingwomen, especially in the coal mining districts, is wretched. ”

“ Universities were founded in Germany, at Vienna, Heidelberg, and Erfurt. The number of German students at Prague decreased largely in consequence, but their influence continued as great as ever. This was due to the system of voting by “nations,” which was not indeed a fundamental law of the university, but had been gradually and tacitly accepted. While the Germans became fewer in number, the Bohemian students became more numerous every year. The university had many benefices in its gift, a matter of the highest importance to the many penniless students of theology who frequented it. ”

“ For the older institutions, it is not practicable to fix with any precision the date of their beginning, and no year can be named in which they first exercised the functions of a university. The first university that was formally founded was that of Prague, which dates from April, 1348. Bologna, Paris, Padua, Oxford, and Cambridge were not founded but grew, that is, were developed under special influences out of pre-existing schools. ”

“ There was no question at all of a limitation of the cultural autonomy of the Czechs, aside from the university problem. In Prague a great number of large Czech theaters of every description were open all the time, especially the Czech opera and several theaters. On the other hand there was only one permanent German theater with daily performances. There was a constant production of many Czech plays and operas, and the same applied to music. The well-known Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at Prague played Czech music primarily and was absolutely independent regarding its programs. ”

“ Under the pious King Wenceslas the city became a stronghold of the Christian faith, and in his time the first cathedral was built. When Charles IV. was made ruler of Bohemia, the city of Prague was enlarged and strongly fortified. The university was then instituted, and there were many guilds of craftsmen within the walls.
The prosperity of Prague at this period seems to have brought about those conditions which aroused the reforming zeal of Huss, who found the people addicted to pleasure and demoralised by luxury. ”

“ Prague (310) , capital of Bohemia, on the Moldau, 217 m. by rail NW. of Vienna, is a picturesque city with over 70 towers, a great royal palace, unfinished cathedral, an old town-hall, a picture-gallery, observatory, botanical garden, and museums; the University, partly German and partly Czech, has 300 teachers, 4000 students, and a magnificent library; the centre of an important transit trade, Prague is the chief commercial city of Bohemia; has manufactures of machinery, chemicals, leather, and textile goods; four-fifths of the population are Czechs ”

“ The library, a wonderful sight and soothing after the turmoil in the streets of Prague, contains many of those collected treasures, instruments used by the astronomer Tycho de Brahe, the works of Racusani the philosopher, a gift of Sir Thomas Saville to Hajek the sixteenth-century biologist, astronomer, professor of Prague University, who had studied in Milan and Bologna and had visited England in 1589. ”

“ When Wenceslas Tiem, Dean of Passau, arrived at Prague, with the purpose of collecting, by the sale of indulgences, funds for the Papal See, public excitement was naturally yet greater. Boxes to receive the donations of the faithful were placed before the Cathedral Church of St. Vitus, the Tyn Church, and on the Vysehrad. These proceedings caused particular indignation at the University, where the party favourable to Church reform now had entirely the upper hand. Hus summoned the members of the University to a disputatio, according to the mediæval custom. ”

“ The Jesuits were first tolerated, and by-and-by respected in Prague. Moreover the college was raised to the rank of a university, in which theology and philosophy might be taught; and they received from day to day an accession to their numbers. Still the fame of the Carolinum, or Protestant seminary, surpassed that of the modern university, as far as the Jesuits individually surpassed the Protestant teachers in urbanity of manner ”

“ 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. ”

“ To further the progress in arts and science, various societies were organized. Among these was the Technical Institute in Prague, organized in 1802, the first of the kind in the Austrian dominions. In 1833 a society was formed whose aim was to help the smaller artisans by means of lectures, papers, and libraries. A national museum was established in 1893, and soon grew to such proportions as to necessitate the construction of a new building, which, in regard to the beauty of its architecture and its fine location, is one of the chief ornaments of the city of Prague. ”

“ The fact that the culture of the Czech lands was long isolated, even sealed off, from the West creates some problems for anyone organizing a curriculum for Liberal Studies students. How is one to answer the question: What should one study about Prague? What is there in Prague which might serve as the theme for a coordinated Liberal Studies curriculum based on a visit to the city? ”

“ Bohemian peasants would flock into town from miles and miles around, in all the picturesque finery of the national dress, gala performances would be given at the theatres, an especial illumination of the city made at public expense, and fireworks displayed to-night on Schutzen-Insel. It would be an orderly celebration, too, for the Czechs are more fond of dancing than drinking; and religious enthusiasm would be practically universal, for Prague, which for two centuries was exclusively Protestant, now numbers at least nine Catholics out of every ten of its people. ”

“ The reputation of the Society for teaching was great all over Germany. Wherever a college was established by them, it immediately attracted students from all parts, and it was perhaps natural that other educational institutions should fear for their own existence. But the pettiness and meanness with which this fear was expressed at Prague resulted for the Jesuits in a penury so abject, that for many months they had nothing to eat but bread and cheese, and nothing to drink but water from their own well. ”

“ There is no doubt that Czech art suffered a good deal from the Germanisation of the country. In the centuries following the battle of the White Mountain, Czech national art only survived in its architecture, and even this was looked upon with contempt by the Austrian rulers.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century and up to the time of the Seven Years' War their architecture received splendid impetus, and the most beautiful buildings of Prague date from that period. ”

“ The pulse of life is beating strong.
Eight o’clock. The bells are tolling over Prague. The proud harmonious tones fall upon this scene of animation. A sacred moment! Over this extinct sultry day, over this sea of red roofs, over this varied mass of spires, over this grey that is flooding the tangle of sweltering streets,—over all that is there in motion, over its empty pleasure, its sorrow, pride, misery, passion, hypocrisy love, over this weak, puny, ephemeral and human “ego,” the hollow brass sends forth into the vault of heaven its Ave Maria! ”

“ With the advent to power of Czech society, the ambition of building on a more lavish scale made itself more and more felt in Czech circles, and with the enrichment of economic life in Bohemia, architects were faced with a whole series of problems in town planning to be solved. It was naturally in Prague, where the Czech element had recently come to dominate the German minority, that the new architectural impetus was displayed in its greatest intensity and brilliance. After remaining too long behind the times, the city of Prague now hastened to ensure her growth in size and beauty. ”