Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-04-01

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PRAGUE. -
NO. LXIN.

denying to the laity the use of the cup in the
Holy Eucharist 1t required but feeble eye
directed to the Gospel, to see that the Bread
and the Wine were alike offered to all by the
Saviour. indeed, Of the wine especially, he
slid. "drink We all" In Bohemia, the be-
ginning of the reformation turned upon this
as a principal point, and the rciormcrs took
the name of Utraquists, from their insisting
upon the communion in both kinds.
On the death of TIuss and jerome, |
their multiplying friends at Prague |
and in other portions of Bohemia made |
no secret of their wrath, which was
however restrained till private gricfs |
called to the field as their military leader
blind Ziska then blind in lyonc eye. lie
was a noble Bohemian who had enjoyed life at
Court, aud had seen service under the leu
tonic knights, had fought the Poles and
the Turks, and had just returned from the
English service at Agncourt, to learn that
his sister, n nun, had been dlshonorcd by a
monk, and his sympathy with the Ctra-
quists and their need OF n leader gave him
the opportunity of revcnge-not upon the
guilty hypocrite who had wronged his sister,
but upon those who held the same faith
He armed the people and lsd them. The first
outbreak was caused by a Utraqulst priest
being struck by a stone while walking in
procession, when the people, set on by Ziska,
| ,Jal al La, all
threw thirteen of the City Magistrates out of
the window upon the pixies of the soldiers
| They rushed through the city, and in the
fury Of iconoclastic fanaticism, with fire and
force mutilated and destroyed churches and
affairs, plate. and robes and vestments, and
sculptures and paintings and stained win
| dows, whatever their adversaries held sa-
cred. King Wenceslaus died of fright on the
OCCASION which gave the throne to his broth
er. the falthless Sigismund, the Emperor who
had been 50 trcacherous to lluss, and who
soon began to execute the IIussitcs
Theblood of the Utraquists was now up, and
Ziska swore he would never acknowledge
Sisismund as King of Bohemia. The Empe-
ror made his appearance at the head of 80 900
troo,s to extinguish the little band of 1000
Harmed and undisciplined troops comman-
ded hv Z.ka and entrenchcd on a hill brist-
ling with stockadcs and barricaded by wag-
ons.-since called Z,ska's hill The little
garrison Of these extemporaneous fortfca-
tons sustained repeated assaults, and finally
dashed down the hill and put to flight the
army of seven times their number. He soon
had arms and cavalry. He organized his
desperate legion called the Invinciblc Brcth-
ren-hs army swellcd to 5000. His move
ments had the rapidity of magic-he won l3
pitched battles, and more than a hundred
lesser fights, and was never defeated. His cru
elites were barbarous and bloody beyond par
allel. The bigots of the council Of Constance
who burned IIuss and Jerome were gentle and
mcrciful, compared with this bloody Ultra
duist soldier. The cries Of those whom
without mercy he sent to the burning
fagots. he called the songs of his sister s
bridal day.
MS iuot yNdio L'oha was
stone blind, and he was carried on car
to the field Of battle; but he was none the
less the life and power of his army than be-
fore. 1t was a sublime exhibition of human
power as he sat on his car, IN the pre-
sence of his army of 1000, nothing daunt-
ed in the encounter with 10000, and as
they brought him the state of the fight from
different portions of the field, he rolled his
sightless eye-balls, as though he saw where
to order his archers, where to send his for
lorn hope, armed with that terrible Bohe-
mian fail, heavy with knots and iron bands
and bristling with spikes, which no shield
could withstand. and no skill in fence could
parry. and where the Invincible Brethren
swept down upon the advancing Zoe, and
scattered them like sheep. This was playing
blindfold those great games of fearful reality,
ofwhich Philidor.and Paul Morphy played the
toys This wonderful General died of a sort
of plague at the little town of Caeslau; and
his spirit and that of his army may in some
sort be Judged by the fact that his followers,
burned it to ashes and killed every one of its
inhabitants.
The Protestant Religion became the religion
Of large majority Of the people # Bohemia.
but after the battle of Prague, the House Of
Hapsburg visited upon tho protestant pop
ulation a terrible retaliation Of earlier pro-
testant barbartics Executions, Punishment,
confscation and other expressions, welded by
tho hand of absolute power, established tho
Catholic Religion, to the exclusion of all 9TH
ers, and forced ministers and people, mobiles
and knights, artists, manufacturers and far
mers. to the amount of near forty thousand
families, of the most valuable classes of sub
jects, to flee their country, and to leave the
Roman Catholics in quiet possession and
only few years later, the country was desc
lated and depleted by the Thirty-years' war,
to an extent almost unparalleled in the history
Of war. Under the reign of Maria Theresa
it again rallied. and is mines are now pro-
ductivc and its manufactures prosperous.
The Bohemian glass is unequalled, and few
travellers leave Prague without carrying with
them specimens of its fabrics in glass, which
are exceedingly curious and beautiful. We
were much interested and delighted in the
shops of the larger dealers in such novel
ties.
Till the time of Maria Theresa, Bohemia
seems to have been the centre of religious
strles and fanatical crueltes. Who was it
MADAME Roland, l believe,) that said, sob,
Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy
name" How easy to say, too, Ut our holy