Page:Bohemia's claim for freedom.djvu/34

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Jesuits. Notwithstanding the most ruthless suppression of all attempts to revive the national language and the national rights, we see at the present time the Slavonic idea again rising triumphant over the whole of the country, and possibly we may soon witness the restoration of the independence of the kingdom of Bohemia.

THE EPOCH OF BOHEMIAN RENAISSANCE

THE end of the Thirty Years' War saw the end of Protestantism in Bohemia. But notwithstanding all the efforts of Rome and the Jesuits, five generations had not sufficed to make them real Roman Catholics, though officially belonging to the Catholic Church. In the depths of their hearts the people remain Protestant.

But the closer union between all classes of the Czechs, as the result of the oppression after the battle of the White Mountain, proved a great advantage to the nation and contributed greatly to the Bohemian renaissance.

In the period subsequent to the life and death of Hus the antagonism between the nobles, the townsmen, and the peasantry became very marked, to the great satisfaction of the German ruling class, who made use of these internal dissensions to strengthen their hold and further subjugate the people.

The Junkerism by which in our day Germany is endeavouring to rule the world is by no means a modern idea. Four hundred years ago, first the

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