the movement of which he is the champion and martyr, we may perhaps
feel a more undivided interest in the next phase of the development
of Bohemian Christianity, and a more unmixed admiration for the
saint who represents that period. There were two demands made by the
Christian leaders in Bohemia which specially connected patriotism with
religion. These were the claim for a Slavonic ritual, and the attempt
to establish an independent bishopric at Prague. But, though both of
these claims sprang from the feeling of national independence, it was
only the question of the bishopric, which appealed to such champions
of Bohemia as Boleslav the Cruel. That strong and deep longing for the
protection and development of the national language, which expressed
itself, at this time, in the cry for the Methodian ritual, was not a
feeling which the mere military champions of Bohemia could understand
or recognise. The Pope seems to have been conscious of this division,
and to have availed himself of it to make more grudging concessions
to the national feeling than the merits of Boleslav the Pious, and
the memory of St. Wenceslaus might seem to have demanded. He granted,
indeed, the free election of a bishop of Prague, and sanctioned, at the
same time, the foundation of a nunnery of which Boleslav’s sister was
to be abbess; but he clogged the latter concession by the condition
that the Slavonic ritual should not be used in the new nunnery.
Perhaps it was a similar desire for compromise which led Boleslav to
recommend to his clergy and people, for the first bishop, a Saxon named
Dettmar, who, however, was noted for his knowledge of the Bohemian
language. Friendship with Saxony was doubtless attractive to the
wiser men of Bohemia, for more than one reason. It was the centre of
that resistance to the Hungarian power which they felt to be so vital
to European civilisation. It contained a large proportion of men of
Slavonic race; and Magdeburg, where Dettmar had been trained, was the
great home of such learning and culture as were then to be found in
Germany.
But the fierce heathen spirit, which had been strengthened by Boleslav
the Cruel, could not be suppressed at once either by his conversion, or
by the probably sincerer piety of his son. It is now that the strong
and cruel aristocracy of Bohemia begin to show their power both against
king and people. Even in heathen times we hear of at least one family
who claimed a sort of equality with the royal line, and who continued
during the tenth and eleventh centuries to play much the same part
as that of the Douglases in Scotland in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. There was, however, one important difference between the
cases. With all their selfishness and unscrupulousness, the Douglases
always stood by Scotland against its external enemies, while the
Vrs̆ovici were continually betraying Bohemia to Pole or German in order
to gain their own ends. Nor were the Vrs̆ovici the only specimens of
a lawless and cruel class; and Boleslav the Pious and Bishop Dettmar
soon incurred the hatred of that class. The bishop, however, did not
long survive his appointment; and he was soon to be succeeded by a man
far more notable in Bohemian history. This man was Vojtĕch, the son of
a powerful Bohemian noble, who was as distinguished for his virtues as
for his wealth and rank. Vojtĕch, by the advice of Dettmar, had been
sent by his parents to study at Magdeburg; and on his entrance into the
clerical profession, he had received from the Archbishop of Magdeburg
his name of Adalbert. When he returned to Bohemia, he was called to
succeed Dettmar in the bishopric of Prague. He soon began to denounce
the state of morals around him. Divorce was frequent; impurity of
all kinds terribly rife; and the nobles, not content with oppression
at home, were constantly selling their unfortunate dependants into
slavery. The stern denunciations of Adalbert soon roused against him
the hatred of his own class, which was increased in bitterness by the
rivalry between his family and that of the Vrs̆ovici.
On one occasion a woman, whom he had saved from her angry husband and
sent into a nunnery, was dragged out and murdered by her husband.
Boleslav desired to repress such violence by the sword; Adalbert at
first persuaded him to abstain from bloodshed; but, when the insurgent
nobles built a fortress on the banks of the Elbe, from which they
harassed all the Christians who came that way, the king felt bound to
act; so he marched against the insurgents and signally defeated them.
Adalbert, horrified at being in any way the cause of bloodshed, fled
to Pannonia, which had now been conquered by the Hungarians.
[Illustration: CHURCH BUILT BY ST. ADALBERT AT PRAHATICE.]
Geysa, the leading chief of the Hungarians in that district, was a
hospitable and large-minded man, who welcomed strangers heartily.
Adalbert used the opportunity to teach Christianity, and many of the
Hungarians were converted. Amongst other converts was Geysa himself,
who consented to have his son Stephen christened by Adalbert. Over this
child Adalbert’s influence was evidently great; and when Stephen grew
up, he became the first Christian king of Hungary, recognised as such
both by Pope and Emperor. From the reign of St. Stephen the Hungarians
themselves reckon their beginning as a settled monarchy; and thus they
owe their change from the condition of a marauding horde to an orderly
and progressive nation, to the teaching of the Bohemian saint.
Twice Adalbert was recalled to Bohemia, and twice he again left it in
disgust. On the last occasion he took refuge with the King of Poland,
and from thence went to convert the heathen Prussians, by whom he was
killed. His body was brought back by the Poles and buried at Gnesen.
Next to the actual memory of his life, his most notable legacy to
his country is the hymn which he wrote in the native language, and
which soon became, and long remained, a kind of war-cry of Bohemian
independence.
III.
RELATIONS OF BOHEMIA TO POLAND AND TO THE EMPIRE IN THE ELEVENTH,
TWELFTH, AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.
(997-1253.)
The invasion of the Hungarians had changed the attitude of Bohemia,
as of other countries, towards the German Empire. The necessity of
saving themselves from the ruin which overwhelmed the dukedom of
Moravia, naturally compelled the Bohemians to recognise their former
enemies as their only sure protectors; and, as the vigorous line of
Saxon princes put new force into the German kingdom, this relation
became necessarily closer. But it was long before the German rulers
were able to realise that they could gain any help, in turn, from
the rising dukedom of Bohemia. Torn by the divisions between heathen
and Christian, distracted to an unusual degree by family quarrels,
harassed by powerful neighbours, Bohemia seemed, in the tenth and
early part of the eleventh century, more fitted to be the tool or the
prey of the Emperors than their ally. Nor was it only a weakening of
internal security which had been produced by the Magyar invasion. The
break-up of Slavonic unity, by the overthrow of Svatopluk, had caused a
confusion of races in certain districts, which made them the subject of
dispute between rival powers.
Of these mixed lands, the two in which Bohemia was most interested,
were the district of Lusatia (afterwards called the Lausitz), over
which she disputed with Saxony, and the even more variously peopled
province of Silesia, which was the great cause of controversy between
Bohemia and Poland. Of these two subjects of difference the Silesian
question was the far more pressing and important. The common feeling of
danger, produced by Hungarian invasion, had, indeed, affected Poland
as much as other European countries; but, as the raids of the invaders
grew less frequent, the sense of union, developed by that danger, grew
weaker; and when the Hungarians began to settle down as a peaceable and
Christian nation, the Poles began to abandon their defensive attitude,
and gradually to become aggressive in their turn.
Nor was the Silesian question the only cause of jealousy between Poland
and Bohemia. The town of Cracow, the former capital of Croatia, was
as much desired by both the rival nations as Silesia could be; since
it was important both for military and political purposes. Moreover
those ecclesiastical considerations, which were always influencing
the foreign politics of Bohemia, played a somewhat important part in
the struggle with Poland. The desire of the Polish Duke to secure the
burial of Adalbert at Gnesen had not been wholly due to religious
feelings. The kings and bishops of Poland wished to make Gnesen the
centre of a large diocese, in which Prague should hold a subordinate
position; and an offer of money which the Duke of Poland made to
a Bohemian monastery founded by Adalbert, was no doubt intended
as a bribe to the monks, to induce them to further these schemes
of ecclesiastical and political ambition. These enterprises were
unfortunately aided by that treacherous family, the Vrs̆ovici, who
had already played so fatal a part in their country’s history. They
seem to have again tried to carry out their treasons by stirring up
family jealousy. Young Boleslav, a nephew of Boleslav the Pious, showed
himself eager to assert his claims to the Dukedom of Bohemia. Mĕs̆ek of
Poland encouraged his kinsman’s intrigues, and, by a sudden surprise,
Cracow was seized, and Silesia was overrun by the Polish troops.
Boleslav the Pious demanded reparation for this outrage, and
circumstances soon gave him the opportunity for revenge. A Russian
chief unexpectedly invaded Poland and laid waste a great part of it.
Boleslav the Pious seized this opportunity to recover Cracow, and he
placed there a governor of sufficient vigour to hold the fortress
against all attempts of the Poles to recover it, even after they had
succeeded in making peace with Russia. Indeed the new governor would
willingly have extended the Bohemian territory by making reprisals on
Poland; but this was strictly forbidden by the Duke of Bohemia.
The death of Boleslav the Pious, and the accession to the dukedom
of his weak and profligate son, Boleslav the Third, gave a new
opportunity both to native and foreign intrigues. Indeed the Vrs̆ovici
are represented by some historians as acting in this reign rather the
part of patriotic opponents of a tyrant than of selfish intriguers for
power. It is, however, unfortunately clear that they did not abandon
their intrigues with the Polish pretender; and he was able to take
advantage of the non-payment of the soldiers in the garrison of Cracow
to stir up division in the fortress. By this means he was once more
able to surprise the garrison, and to put all the Bohemians to the
sword. Great confusion now followed; the German Emperor, Henry II.,
seized the opportunity of fishing in troubled waters, and something
like a conquest of Bohemia by Poland was for a time the result of this
struggle. The accounts, however, of the details of the struggle seem
uncertain and contradictory; and it is not until the Bohemians had in
some measure re-established their independence that we once more find
ourselves on firm ground.
Strangely enough, it is just when we have reached a point at which
modern research and early tradition seem to be in practical harmony
that we light upon a series of stories of the most romantic kind.
Oldr̆ich, the brother of Boleslav III., had been established on
the throne after the expulsion of the Poles. He seems to have been
an eccentric prince, given to somewhat unconventional explorations
of his kingdom. In one of these wanderings he came upon a handsome
peasant-girl washing clothes in a stream. He at once fell in love with
her, and soon after woo’d, won, and married her. The great ladies of
the court at first resented the arrival of the peasant-queen; but in
time the grace and courtesy of Beatrix broke down the opposition of her
jealous critics, and the birth of her son Brac̆islav was celebrated
with splendid feasts. Brac̆islav was to be the future hero and
restorer of the greatness of his country; and, as usual, the political
and military revival of Bohemia is preluded by a reawakening of the
interest in the national language.
In another of his wanderings Oldr̆ich found, in the depth of the
forest, an old hermit, to whom he confessed his sins; and he was
so much impressed by the power and saintliness of the man, that he
persuaded him to leave his solitary life, to return to the town, and
to assist the duke and other pious men in founding the monastery of
Sázava. He soon found that this hermit had in his keeping copies of
the old Slavonic services introduced into Bohemia by Methodius, which
had doubtless disappeared from the country in the recent troubles.
Encouraged by Oldr̆ich, and at a later time by his son Brac̆islav, the
national ritual was rapidly extended from Sázava to other churches.
Oldr̆ich bequeathed to his son both his zeal for the national language
and the national independence, and also the love of romantic adventure.
Even before his accession to the throne, Brac̆islav had attracted
attention as a hero of romance. He had made a sudden expedition to the
nunnery of Schweinfurt, to carry off from thence the beautiful daughter
of a German Count. The gate of the nunnery was secured by a bar; but
Brac̆islav cut through the bar with his sword, and carried off his
bride in triumph, though some of his followers were cut off and killed.
But the great purpose of his life was to recover the ground which
Bohemia had lost in her struggle with Poland. Even before his accession
to the throne, he had reconquered the greater part of the province of
Moravia, which the Poles had torn away from Bohemia; and, as soon as he
became duke, he resolved to carry his plans yet further, and to invade
Poland itself. The death of Duke Casimir of Poland, and the infancy of
his successor, facilitated this expedition. Brac̆islav retook Cracow
by storm, overran much of Silesia, and transplanted many of the Poles
to Bohemia, where he suffered them to maintain their old laws and
customs. He then marched to Gnesen, the centre of the intended scheme
for establishing the ecclesiastical supremacy of Poland over Bohemia.
The city was ill-defended, and Brac̆islav entered it in triumph.
Then followed one of those scenes which show how strangely the fiercer
elements in the Bohemian character were checked and crossed by
influences like those of St. Wenceslaus and St. Adalbert. It will be
remembered that the body of the latter saint had been buried by the
king of Poland at Gnesen, and Brac̆islav had many motives for desiring
to recover so valuable a possession. But the scene which preceded
the restoration of the national saint to the country, which had so
ill-treated him during his life, is curiously unlike the ordinary
performances of a military conqueror; and, if there are any who think
that such a mediæval legend is beneath the dignity of history, they
should remember that the historian Cosmas, who has preserved it for us,
was a man actively engaged in the ordinary political affairs of his
time.
At first the Bohemians were disposed to carry things with a high hand;
and, in spite of the warnings of the chief pastor of the town, they
tore down the altar which covered the body, in order to seize it the
more easily. For this offence they were struck dumb and blind for the
space of three hours; and on recovering their senses they consented
to submit to a three days’ fast before taking further action. On the
third day the same priest, who had warned them of the consequences of
their sacrilege, told them that he had had a vision of St. Adalbert;
and that the saint had bidden him to tell the Duke and his companions
that the Father in Heaven would give them what they asked, if they did
not repeat those evil deeds which they abjured in their baptism. On
the morning following this announcement, the Duke and his followers
entered the church and prostrated themselves before the tomb of St.
Adalbert. Then the Duke arose and addressed them as follows: “Do you
wish to amend your errors and to turn from evil works to wisdom?” To
this they answered, “We are prepared to amend whatever our fathers or
we have done wrong against this saint of God, and to cease from every
evil work.” Then the Duke, extending his hand over the sacred tomb,
addressed the crowd as follows: “Stretch out, my brothers, your hands
to God, and listen to my discourses, which I wish you to confirm your
faith in by an oath. Therefore, let this be my first and most urgent
decree; that your marriages, which you have hitherto treated as if they
were mere fornications, and like the union of brute animals, should
in future be made lawful, according to canonical rules, private and
indissoluble, so that each husband shall be content with one wife, and
each wife with one husband. But, if a wife shall despise a husband, or
a husband his wife, and if a quarrel between them shall boil over into
a separation, then I do not will that the one of them that refuses to
return to lawful union shall be made a slave according to the custom of
our land; but rather that, by the slavery of our unchangeable decree,
such persons, whoever they may be, shall be carried into Hungary; and
it shall not be permitted to them to buy their liberty, or to return to
this land, lest the contagion of one little sheep should creep into the
whole sheep-fold of Christ.” Then the pastor of the church answered:
“Let him who does otherwise be anathema.”
After further provisions for enforcing purity of life, the Duke added,
“But, if a woman shall have declared publicly that she was not loved
as an equal, but was afflicted and persecuted by her husband, let the
judgment of God be given between them; and let the one who is found
guilty pay the penalty.” Further provisions were then introduced for
punishing homicides; but with regard to murderers of fathers, brothers,
or priests, they were to be bound by hand and belly with iron, and
sent out of the kingdom, to wander, like Cain, over the whole earth.
Those, again, who set up taverns, which are the source of all crimes
and impurities, were to be anathema; and he who was caught in the act
of keeping a tavern was to be hung, and his drinks to be poured out
upon the earth, lest any one should be polluted by this execrable
draught. Further provisions then followed against holding markets
or doing servile works on Sunday, and against burial of the dead in
unconsecrated places.
After these sins had been denounced as offensive unto God, and as
the cause why St. Adalbert left his native country, all present were
called upon to assent to the changes of conduct proposed. When they
had done so the archbishop broke open the tomb, and disclosed the body
of the saint. So delicious, says Cosmas, was the smell which came out
that many seemed as if they had tasted rich food, and for three days
they needed no more; many sick were healed; yet only the Duke, the
archbishop, and the nobles were suffered to see the body. They then
prayed St. Adalbert to allow them to carry him to Prague; and the Duke
and bishop, taking the body from the tomb, wrapped it in silk, and set
out with it in a solemn procession. After the body were carried the
spoils taken from the Poles; and the Polish nobles (among whom was the
great-grandfather of Cosmas) followed the procession as prisoners,
their hands and necks being loaded with irons.
It was not to be expected that Brac̆islav’s proceedings would pass
unchallenged; and both Pope and Emperor were appealed to, to redress
the wrongs done to the Church and to Poland. Both of them answered
the appeal; but the complaints of the Pope were soon silenced by the
building of a monastery, and by the judicious distribution of money
among the cardinals. Henry III. was not so easily satisfied. He had
doubtless adopted the Imperial policy of playing off the rival kingdoms
against each other; and the Bohemian victories, won so easily, and
without his intervention, were most unwelcome. His avarice, moreover,
was roused by the news of the booty which Brac̆islav had brought back
from Poland. He therefore peremptorily demanded the surrender of the
spoil, under pain of war. Brac̆islav boldly replied that, “while the
Bohemians were willing to pay to the Emperor that tribute which they
had always paid him, they would resist to the death any attempt to lay
on them unlawful burdens.” Henry retorted that the law had a wax nose,
which a king could always bend with his iron hand.
Such an exchange of courtesies was naturally followed by war; and,
while a Saxon army marched into Bohemia on one side, the Emperor
himself speedily followed by another entrance. But the Bohemians were
ready for the invasion; and, while the imperial army were resting in a
wood, they were surprised by Brac̆islav’s soldiers and cut to pieces,
Henry only saving himself by the swiftness of his horse. The Duke of
Saxony in vain tried to make terms with the Bohemians, and was speedily
forced to retreat to his own country.
This success, indeed, was not quite so complete as it seemed at first;
for, in the following year, Henry once more invaded Bohemia, and
gained such successes that Brac̆islav was compelled to pay a higher
tribute, and to restore many towns to Poland. Nevertheless, he was able
to retain some hold even over those towns, by exacting a perpetual
tribute from them; nor was Bohemia ever again so completely at the
mercy of Poland as it had been in the previous reigns.
The divisions in the Bohemian Ducal family seemed, however, to
Brac̆islav to be as great a danger as could arise from any foreign
enemy; and he persuaded the nobles to guard against such dangers in the
future by making the crown hereditary in his family, and abandoning
the unlimited right of election. Such a law could not finally prevent
family quarrels, or defeat the designs of ambitious adventurers. But it
is worth noting, as indicating the feeling of an able ruler about the
dangers to which his country was exposed.
It will be easily understood that the conduct of Henry III. and the
Duke of Saxony had quickened once more in Bohemia that anti-German
feeling, which the struggles with the Magyars and the Poles had
for a time forced into the background. Brac̆islav had, no doubt,
been statesman enough to restrain such a feeling within due bounds;
but, when his son Spitihnĕv came to the throne, he gave far fiercer
expression to his hatred of the old enemies of Bohemia. No sooner was
he established in his power, than he issued a decree ordering all
the Germans to leave the country; nor was even his mother allowed
an exemption from this sentence. His brother Vratislav set himself
against this policy, and tried to make the province of Moravia a centre
of opposition to the king. But Spitihnĕv invaded Moravia, forced
Vratislav to fly to Hungary, and treated his wife with such cruelty
that she died from the effects. In order to make his power yet more
secure, the Duke persuaded his other brothers, Otto and Conrad, to
abandon their claims to the special districts of Moravia, which their
father had granted to them, and to come to the ducal court at Prague.
Spitihnĕv, however, like Svatopluk of Moravia and Boleslav the
Cruel, was one of those violent men who are subject to reactions as
inexplicable as their first outbursts. Under the influence of the
Bishop of Prague, he consented to be reconciled to Vratislav, and to
allow him to return to Moravia; and this concession was a prelude to
a complete change of policy. So mild, indeed, did he become, that he
gained the reputation of being a friend to the poor, a just judge, and
an encourager of religion.
It is difficult to say to which part of his reign we are to assign an
act, which seems at first sight a strange contrast with his furious
national prejudices. This was his suppression of the Slavonic ritual
in the monastery of Sázava. But the apparent inconsistency is easily
explained. The Emperors and Popes were no longer the props of each
other’s power; for Henry III. had struck out that new policy, which
aimed at the humiliation of the Papacy, and the exaltation of the
Empire at its expense. Under these circumstances, a king of Bohemia
who wished to hurl defiance at the Germans and their ruler, was
necessarily forced to rely on the support of the Pope. Now the very
bitterness of the struggle against the German Empire had crushed out
those ideas of tolerance towards national feeling which had prevailed
in the days of John VIII. The Slavonic ritual represented at once
a concession to the Greek heresy, and a substitution of a national
language for the Latin, which symbolised the power of the Papacy.
Spitihnĕv, therefore, was obliged to suppress this incitement to heresy
before he could obtain the help of the Papacy against the Emperor.