VICTORIN CORNELIUS ZE V§EHRD

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Venice, Dalmatia, and Greece, of which he has left us a description entitled A Pilgrimage to the Grave of God. Of Bohemian humanists the most important one next to Bohnslav of Lobkovic is ViCTORiN Cornelius ze VSehrd, born at Chrudim in 1460. His friendship with Bohnslav of Lobkovic, which was ended by a bitter religious disVsehrd for some pute, has already been mentioned. time held an important office at the law-courts of Prague, which he lost in 1497, it is said through the influence of Bohnslav of Lobkovic. Vsehrd was one of the most learned lawyers of his time, and he has left us a legal work in Bohemian entitled Ten Books on the Rights of the Bohemian Land, which has great historical value. After his rupture with Bohnslav Lobkovic, VSehrd seems to have abandoned his exclusive devotion to Latin. Belonging to the National Utraquist Church, he was devoid of the dislike to the national language which up to the beginning of the seventeenth century was general among the adherents of the Roman Church. He, however, attempted no original work, but endeavoured to aid the development of the Bohemian language by enriching it with translations from foreign authors. He has himself explained his purpose in the preface to his translation of St. John Chrysostom's work On the Amendment of the Fallen. He writes : " I have gladly translated (this book) for this reason also, that I hope thus to extend, to ennoble, to increase our language ; for it is not so narrow and unpolished as it seems to some. Its abundance and richness can be seen by this, that whatever can be expressed in Greek or in Latin can be so in Bohemian also. . . . May others compose new books written in Latin and — pouring water into the sea — extend the use of the Roman