Sorbonne in Paris. Charles himself founded the Carolinum, and shortly afterwards colleges, some intended only for the masters, others for scholars, also were established. Charles’s son and successor, Venceslas, followed in the footsteps of his father and founded a college in the Ovocny trh (fruit-market) which bore his name and for a time counted Hus among its inmates.
When founding the University of Prague Charles had distinctly stated that he had founded the new establishment mainly for the purpose that the Bohemians might be able to pursue higher studies in their own country without undertaking journeys to distant cities such as Paris, Oxford, or Bologna; only as a secondary motive was the hope expressed that in consequence of the new foundation many foreign students would be attracted to Prague, which Charles had just greatly enlarged by building the “new town.” It was, therefore, undoubtedly in accordance with the wishes of the king that the new university had at first a national character. Thus, among the earliest teachers there, we find the names of John Moravec, Albert Bluduv, John of Dambach, Bohemians by birth, who had been educated at foreign universities. We do not find a single German name among these earliest teachers. It can therefore be said that the University of Prague was originally Bohemian, though Latin was the language in which instruction was given.[1] During the reign of Venceslas matters changed, and at the time of the arrival of Hus at Prague the Germans had obtained almost complete control over the university.
The University of Prague was, almost from its beginning, divided into “nations,” as was customary in Paris and Bologna. The Bohemian nation included besides the students from Bohemia and the county of Glatz—then part of the country—those who belonged to Moravia, Hungary, and the
- ↑ Tadra, Kultumi Styky Cechs cizinou (Cultural Connection of Bohemia with Foreign Countries), passim, particularly pp. 288–289.
