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This composition is often referred to in the thirteenth century as being popular among the bohemians. In the battle in which Ottokar subdued Bela in 1260, the bohemians are said to have frightened the hungarian horses by shouting this song. "Bohemi, valido in cœlum clamore excitato, canentes hymnum a S. Adalberto editum, quod populus singulis diebus dominicis et aliis festivitatibus ad processionem cantat:" and again, when Wenoeslaw was solemnly received in the high church in 1249, the chronicler says: "Populo ac nobilibus terræ qui tunc aderant Hospodin pomiluy ny resonantibus.
The fragments of ancient bohemian poetry which remain, are but the planks of a ship that has been long ago wrecked on the ocean of national vicissitude—but many of these have an historical interest even independent of their intrinsic merits. The earliest and most valuable remains are in the Kralodworsky MSS., and in the collection made by Hanka in four volumes, entitled Starobylá
Bohemia by Adalbert. Hajek says, that Adalbert brought it from Rome ready written on parchment, and with sundry explanatory notes attached.
