become greater.[1] The Emperor finally decided that in consideration of the memory of King Charles the Carolinum should not be destroyed but placed at the disposal of the Jesuits, whose college was to take the place of the old university. The new foundation was to be called the "universitas Carolina Ferdinandëa." All the old magisters and professors were expelled, even Campanus, though he in the last years of his life professed the Roman creed. By the end of the year 1622 all the buildings belonging to the university had been handed over to the Jesuits, and—somewhat later than the teachers—all students who had not conformed to the teaching of Rome were expelled and exiled from Bohemia.
Closely connected with the suppression of all teaching opposed to Rome was the destruction of the ancient national literature of Bohemia. Almost all literature in Bohemia subsequent to Hus had been imbued with the spirit of the great reformer and patriot. All this literature was therefore doomed to destruction, and the Jesuits were certainly to a great extent successful. If we except the classical literatures, there is none to whom belong so many books the existence of which can be proved with certainty, yet of which all trace is lost, as to the older literature of Bohemia. Jesuits accompanied by soldiers—to prevent the possibility of resistance—were empowered to search for heretical books in all Bohemian dwellings from the nobleman's castle to the peasant's hut. The Jesuit Andrew Konias is particularly mentioned as rivalling the fame of Omer or Archbishop Theophilus. He is perhaps the greatest book destroyer known to history, and boasted of having himself burnt 60,000 Bohemian volumes.
To such enthusiastic Romanists as Ferdinand and his Jesuit councillors the re-establishment of the Roman Church in Bohemia and the complete suppression of all so-called heresies no doubt appeared the principal result of the Bila Hora. The complete transformation which Bohemia then underwent included, however, also an entire change in the constitution and even in the language of the country. In the years immediately following the great national defeat Bohemia was under martial law. The German and Spanish generals and the Austrian governor Charles of Liechtenstein
- ↑ Dr. Winter, Děje vys Kých škol (History of the High Schools of Prague).
