Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-03-18
Correspondence of the Free Press.
LETTERS FROM EUROPE.
NO. LXIT.
The Tcin Church-Thc Uniuersity-Ths
Xradschin Palace.
PRAGUE

Its carly history is connected with the intro
duction of christianity into Bohemia. 1t has
passed from one side to the other of the great
religious striics which have distracted the
country, and its distinguished dead have been
torn from their graves and burned, and their
ashes scattered. 1t has good pictures and
sculptures and many monuments. Tycho
Braho, the great Dane, was buried hero in
1901, and over his tomb is written his own
motto-ESse pot,uS guam haJeri. NAY it
isl know not seems. ''-IIamlet In this
church the ttraqusts worshippcd in the days
OF their prosperity, and two Of their bishops
were buried here After the battle of 1921,
in which professionalism was Frustrated here
Tor the time, the vengeance Of Ferdinand
was pacifed by the execution of mobiles and
high officers and councillors and inferior per-
sons without number, and their heads that
conceived, and their hands that wrought the
opposition to him, were stuck upon the gate
towers of the bridge. A subsequent tri-
umph of the protcstants took down their
bleaching bones and buried them in the
Tein church.
The Clcmcntine College and the Universe
ty are not far from the bridge in tho Old
town. The Clcncntine College is the Arch
Episcopal theological seminary. The Uni
ycrsity is the oldest in Germany. having
ben established in 1913, and it was at one
period the largest in the world LIS fame
and its privileges attracted students from all
parts Of the civilized world in immense num-
bcrs, which for convenience were divided into
four classes, the Bohcmiaus, the Bayarians,
the Poles, and the Saxons-each of which
classes embraced the students of several other
nations. The whole number at this time is
said to have amounted to the almost ncredi-
bic total Of 10000. Al the hours Of de-
parting from the lectures they swept through
the streets OF the city like Il PIT. suing army,
so that finally they rang Il bell Il quarter Of
an hour before to give notice to the inhabi-
tants Of the coming rash, that they might
leave the streets {. D.. In the DAYS of the
power and inf &c Of iiuss, the students
from other T. Is 50 greatly outnumbered
the Bohcm .hat he thought that the ma
tives had their appropriate influence, so he
adopted measures by which Bohcmians were to
rule Bohemia ut least 50 far as the Univer-
sity was concerned. By the law of its organ
izaton each nation WIS to havcan equal vote,
and his Determinations against :. furriners, -
were 50 unacceptable that $4,000 (?) stu
dents seeded in one week; and several of the
more celebrated European Universities arc
said to have sprung from this dispersion. 1t
lett. how ver, the University of Prague un.
der the Influence of lluss, who was its rector
and made it the school of opinions so power.
fully taught by himself and jerome, and
which We're maintained there, and mad,
1T the headquarters of professionalism, the IA
dating point Of the Utraquist sect for long
period Of the IIusstc conflicts The scenes
Of tumult and strife and blood which dis
turbcd and disgracel that part of Europe
could not fail to bring to the corridors anC
lecture rooms OF the University the agitation
and disorder of the tide which cbbed anC
flowed without, as the one party or the Other
seemed about to triumph. Finally the Battl,
of the White Hill decided the question in ia
vor of the Roman Catholics and abolished tn,
Protestant faith in the University Two
hundred years have wrought great change
| The Arch Bishop Of Prague is still chuncel
lor and Protector of the University. but tn,
measures Of Maria Theresa and her son JOSEPH
II. have so greatly improved Austrian cduca
ton that the Universities as well as College
| for Luthcrlns, Cilvinists, Unitari.ns ant
Jews furnish reasonable advantages of educa
ton t. thc nonconiorminS sccts
We went through the royal palace of the
Iiradschin, and found it more Imperial anC
magnificent than anything We have yet seen
In style and air, in position and out-look-ir
its artificial as we'll a, in its natural sur.
roundings, it seems almost the beau ideal of q
royal residence. 1t is said to contain 44C
apartments. There are connected with it the
towers and dung cons of Mclie,ll tyranny
and cruelty, tho white, OF round tower, in
which criminals We're thrown and starved t.
delth-thc square, OF black tower, where
criminals, alter having been tortured, were
without trial, forced into the EN- brace of the
iron girl--an image in the dress and app ar,
ance Of an agreeable maid, which as soon us
touched threw out arms and clasped the
victim to Il bloody death upon the sharp
spikes which bristlcd beneath her dress and
the tower of the Dalioorkl, in whose two
dungeons above ground the Sun never shines,
and whose walls are furnished with only
chains and bars and ring-bolts. The trap
door raised by pulley at the ceiling, is the
only ingrcss (there was no cgress except to
die) to I subtcrranean dungeon 90 feet deep,
to the bottom of VIII CHI the criminal was
lowered by II rope. 1t takes its name from
Dalibor, Il kns ht who WAS immured there
and was allowed to take with him his
violin. 1t WAS his only resource and
amusement. An accomplished performer,
when he entered that dreadful pit his soul
was soon wrapped W IN the instrument, and
what strains, says tradition, sent their float
ing echoes from that dungeon depth IL is
constant and solitary practice seemed to give
divine power to his violin to discourse in
heavenly harmonics
We stood beside two stone monuments lust
under the palace walls, which proved to be
landmarks of the spot where in 1918 two
of the high nobility who Were msmbers
Of the imperial council, and were supposed
to have advised certain unpopular DEGREES of
their imperill master, fell when tossed out of
the palace window, 80 feet high by the as
spmblp1 inability FAILING IN "A dnnobiu tLey