THE BUILDER SEPTEMBER 1929

The City of Prague and Bohemian Freemasonry

BY BRO. JOSEPH S. ROUCEK, New Jersey

THIS article by Bro. Roucek is based in part on a lecture delivered
by a member of the Lodge, Adoniram zur Weltkugel in June last year.
It forms an interesting sequel to the article which appeared in THE
BUILDER for March and April of this year. Bro. Roucek, who is U.S.
Representative of the Czechoslovak Grand Lodge, is becoming widely
known as a lecturer and author on Czechoslovakia and on
international relations. He is now Professor of Social Science in
the Junior College. Centenary Collegiate Institute, Hackettstown,
New Jersey.

IT is nearly always necessary to repeat certain facts when talking
about the past. Hence it is to be expected that this article will
also contain certain facts which are already known to the reader.
But in order to understand the present and the future, it is always
necessary to enlighten the darkness of the past and deduct from it
the teaching for the future. Only the one who knows the history of
our institution, can say that he knows what Freemasonry is and he
will understand its endeavors, efforts, tendencies and aims. Just
as a traveller, who covered a part of tiresome road stops for rest
in order to look back over the way he has traversed and get a new
strength to continue in his journey, so we, Freemasons, have
travelled, also, a hard road, full of dangers, and it is well to
pause sometimes, and look back, and question whether we have taken
the right way, in harmony with the teaching and legacy of our
forefathers, or whether we have not overestimated and without avail
wasted our strength, and finally whether we may hope that we shall
eventually reach the goal. It seems that now is the time when we
should look back and draw new strength. This applies especially to
the brothers of Czechoslovakia. From the evolution and history of
Freemasonry in that country they can get consolation and comfort,
new force and power to journey on, upon that difficult but also
honorable voyage. It is with gladness and satisfaction that this
discussion can be connected directly with that warrior for
humanity, that teacher of brotherhood, the spiritual father of our
Masonry, Jan Amos Komensky [Comenius]. Any scholar whose researches
lead him into the rich literature of the origin and cause of
Freemasonry and especially of Czechoslovakian Masonry, will always
find himself coming back to the name of Komensky, which fact must
convince him that this great man and teacher was the creator, or at
least the co-creator, of the ideas which we, as Freemasons,
accepted for our own, and which became the basis of our most
idealistic efforts. Jan Amos Komensky laid-perhaps unconsciously-
the foundation stone of the structure upon which Freemasonry works
from the most ancient times till now, and adds thereto stone after
stone, driven on by the hope that our descendants will sometimes
finish the work  the Structure of our Temple.


According to legend the stronghold of Prague was founded by the Princess
Libuse, and she is said by the ancient chronicler to have made the following
prophecy regarding its future: "Here I can see a great city the glory of which
reaches to the stars." Every Czech has been nurtured with the hope since his
childhood that one day this city would succeed in casting off the fetters which
hindered it from spreading its wings and taking vigorous flight towards a
glorious future. In 1918, with the suddenness of a thunderclap, the Hapsburgs
were swept from their throne. Bohemia became the nucleus of the war-born
Czechoslovak Republic and Prague leaped to a place among the world's capital
cities.

Owing to its historical past which has linked it closely and inseparably with the
destinies of the Czech people, Prague has become the head and heart of the
nation, and is now the central stage of a new and brilliant development of the
national, cultural and artistic life of the people. Since time immemorial
Prague, by reason of its picturesque situation on the banks of the Vltava (the
Moldau) and the slopes of its wooded hills, and from its many historical
buildings, has been regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. In
1458 Aeneas Silvius (later Pope Pius II) named it "the Queen of Cities."
Goethe likened it to "a magnificent precious stone set in the earth's crown."
Humboldt placed it immediately after Constantinople and Naples. Rodin
declared it to be the "Rome of the North." And to W. Ritter, the city was
"original and unique in the world."

The history of Prague is for the most part the history of the nation and the
State of Bohemia; there is not a stone in Prague which has not its historical
significance, and consequently it is not strange that foreigners call the city a
"museum of the Middle Ages." In the same way it is easily understood why
every Czech and every Slav speaks with ardour and enthusiasm of "Golden,
Slavonic Prague," and why those who feel jealous and hostile towards the
Czech nation should have said more than once that the Castle of Prague, the
Hradcany, ought to be demolished, so that the nationalistic feeling of the
Czechs could also be destroyed with it.

It is this castle which, from the historical point of view, represents the idea of
the Czech State. It towers high above the city. It is a castle, a citadel,
cathedral and barracks, palace and national shrine. From whatever vantage
point one gazes upon Prague, the Hradcany dominates it. Begun many
centuries ago, it looks as if it would last forever.

Three hundred and more years ago the incident which precipitated the Thirty
Years' War took place within the Hradcany. Here the discontented members of
the Bohemian Estates were assembled in 1618, when they hit upon the bright
idea of throwing the two lieutenants, go-betweens, or whatever they were, of
the Hapsburg ruler, out of a window. So here you may see the very spot from
which the Thirty Years War began.

In 1620 the "Winter King," Frederick of the Palatinate, passed this way with
his English wife, paused to be crowned, and then after a short year's reign,
fled from the country that had trusted him, when his army, and the cause he
was called upon to stand for, went under in a sea of blood on the White
Mountain. It is only about an hour on foot to the battlefield where the army of
Protestant Bohemia, after retiring before the Imperialist host, made its final,
fatal stand. Then the Jesuit-ridden Hapsburg entered Prague and laid his heavy
hand on all Bohemia, almost to the undoing of its people. But it is a wonderful
thing, that power of a strong nation, to survive treachery and oppression until
the time comes when it can reassert itself.

Prague witnessed the sequel to the defeat of Bohemia on the White Mountain,
the execution of Bohemian noblemen and other leaders on the open space
between the Old Town Hall and the Church of Our Lady of Tyn. There were
changes going on among the sleepy houses of Prague, for the victory of the
White Mountain and the Imperialistic successes in the Thirty Years' War had
brought to Bohemia a swarm of foreign adventurers, officers in the Emperor's
army, who acquired the property of exiled Bohemian nobility and set about
building palaces for themselves. They are interesting too, these palaces in
Prague, and some of them have beautiful gardens, such as those of
Furstenberg, Lobkowitz, Scoenborn, and Waldstein. Waldstein who rose no
doubt on account of his ability, to high command in the Imperial Army and to
a position of more real power than that of his imperial master; for which he
was murdered by his own officers one night at Cheb [Eger], a place one
passes through on the way from Paris to Prague.

So as Lutzow says: "When throwing a stone through a window in Prague you
throw with it a morsel of history." If your outlook be academic, at your feet
lies one of Europe's oldest universities, the Charles University, founded in
1348. Students of many countries and many nations flocked to Prague, witness
to the fact of the city's central position in Europe, and soon the new university
ranked with those still older institutions - Bologna, Paris and Oxford. The
number of students increased rapidly, and by the end of Charles' reign there
were some six or seven thousand of them. If you are one of those rare mortals
who study history for the sake of applying its moral to the conduct of the
world's affairs, then you have here a deep well from which to draw
inspiration.

The prophecy of Libusa (which is pronounced as if spelled Libushay) has been
fulfilled; her forecast of Prague's future place in the world has come true. IN
the days of Premysl Ottokar II, Prague held a high place as the capital of a
great state. Ottokar is famed for his conquests, alliances and understandings
with his neighbors. He acquired a preponderating influence in the councils of
Prague. Charles IV rescued this city that he loved, and made it the rallying
point of Central European culture.

Then followed the great era of Protestant Reformation with John Hus. He
came to Prague from his humble home in Southern Bohemia, and received his
M.A. Degree in 1396, and eventually became Rector of the University. John
Hus was an ardent advocate of Church Reform. He paid for it; but the fire that
consumed his body at Constance, Switzerland, in 1415, was reflected time and
again, angrily, in the waters of the Vltava. The Hussite wars followed;
religious dissensions, strife and turmoil, marked the following decades.
Strange scenes must have been reflected in the Vltava in those stormy days, as
the pageant of the history of Prague crossed the Charles Bridge. One day, with
the beating of drums, a bevy of priests came from afar; they came into the
market-place and there sold Indulgences. The Prager, distracted by the
dissentions that rent the country, took to arms repeatedly. At last came a King
of their own choosing, of their own race and faith, George of Podiebrad. He
realized the importance of the capital of his native country, and from it he
wove a web of treaties and agreements for the betterment of Central Europe,
by the means of his League of Peace. Then Dark Waldstein formed great and
ambitious plans, possibly not so altruistic as those of his spiritual kinsmen, the
great men already mentioned.

And yet one after another these giants of Bohemia saw their plans brought to
naught. Ottokar succumbed to the first Hapsburger that threw his shadow over
Bohemia; the successors of Charles and George of Podiebrad could not stand
against the forces of reaction. Waldstein perished at the instigation of a
Hapsburger. Heavy banks of cloud came to obscure the fair prospect. But in
1918 the clouds rolled away again; again bright sunshine draws out the
memories of Golden Prague and raises hopes of a glorious future.

Today Prague is the seat of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic, and
also of the ministries and the majority of Central Offices. As the centre of
culture it accommodates a Czech, a German, a Ukrainian and a Russian
University; there are numerous institutions for the furtherance of knowledge of
Slavonic, Latin, and Teutonic countries. It is becoming more and more the
principal market of Central Europe. There are historical reasons for this. Ever
since the Middle Ages, Prague has been the central market and meeting place
between East and West. Nowadays Prague is one of the most important
crossing-points of the great European railways. The best picture of the trade
development in Czechoslovakia is the International Fair, held twice a year at
Praha, from which every visitor will gain an objective view of the flourishing
trade conditions of the country and its capital city.

The oldest Masonic Lodge of Central Europe was founded in Prague in 1727.
The founder was the noted Count Frantisek Antonin Sporek. Sporek belonged
to the richest noblesse of Bohemia; his father was a general in the Thirty
Years' War, but Sporck did not follow the profession of his father. Though he
was educated in the German and French languages, seeing the spiritual
poorness of the town citizens and the peasants, among whom he lived, he
established a printing press on his estate, in which he had printed educational
books in the Czech language. It was a secret undertaking. The Czech people
always loved singing. Among the oldest Czech prints is the Kancional of the
year 1509; it was a book published by the Bohemian Brethren, which church
was the spiritual mother of the English Methodists, the Dutch Remonstrants
and Pilgrim Fathers. In the eighteenth century the Kancionals were prohibited
and the publishers were punished cruelly at the instigation of the Jesuits, who
had enormous influence on the state administration at that time. The persecuted
found the book of religious songs, published by Sporck very useful, because it
was printed in beautiful language and the accompanying tunes were old folk
melodies. Sporck gave this book free to all churches of Bohemia.

The first Freemasons met in the palace of Sporck in Prague. They recognized
each other by three stars put into a triangle. Their humanitarian activity was
centered in taking care of orphans, who were many in Bohemia, and specially
in Prague, during those war-times. But the activity of Sporck naturally angered
the Jesuits who induced the government to confiscate his printing press, his
library was carried off to a Jesuit monastery, where much of it was destroyed.
Sporck was imprisoned; when released he was under the police surveillance. If
the rich, educated aristocrat was persecuted in this way, we can imagine how
fared the townsmen and the peasants.

No wonder then that twenty years later, viz., 1742 - 1747, the Freemasons of
Bohemia - the court noblemen -  were turning away from the Hapsburg
dynasty, which was but a tool in the hand of the Jesuits. It was at the time
when the Bavarian king was trying to get possession of the kingdom of
Bohemia and Prague. But his policy failed, and the Freemasons were punished
cruelly, at least such as belonged to the citizenry and lower class of the
nobility. Vienna did not dare do much against the high nobility. Freemasonry
disappeared.

It was not until 1780, during the reign of Joseph II, who was the only sensible
and enlightened ruler of the Hapsburg family, that toleration was proclaimed.
It meant, according to Joseph, that nobody was to be persecuted for his
religious conviction. But it should be noted that even Joseph II did not betray
his medieval convictions; he did not recognize the equality of Protestant and
Jews with the members of the Catholic Church. The tolerance lasted only
fifteen years. During the reign of Francis I, the lodges were abolished in 1758,
and participation in their work was punished. The state employees had to take
an oath that they never were and never would be members of secret societies.
This requirement lasted until 1918.

It should be noted that the Sporck's brotherhood "Of the Three Stars"
originated just one hundred years after the fall of Bohemian independence. It
was in 1627 that the victorious Hapsburg abolished the old Bohemian
Constitution and proclaimed the Renewed Ordinance, which abolished the old
free election of kings; though on the other hand, the Estates retained the right
to raise taxes and to administer the law. The Hapsburgs assured themselves of
the loyalty of this new Parliament by removing all the non-Catholics from the
country. The citizens had no civil rights. In 1727 Sporck founded his lodge. In
1827 began to be published the history of the Bohemian nation, one of the
factors which reawakened the nationalistic feeling. In 1918 the dynasty of
Hapsburgs fell, and from that time on, it has become possible to realize freely
the aims of Sporck, after two hundred years.

The city of Prague has an outstanding place in the history of Freemasonry.
Already in the old times, when the beginnings of Masonry took root, the word
"Praha" was heard. The Templars, the forerunners of Freemasons, built in the
old city of Prague at a little church of St. Vavrinec (Lawrence) a monastery
and soon after even a Temple in the present Celetna ulice [Celetna Street]. In
the fourteenth century the "Fraternity of the Hoop and Mallet" built, on the
New City Square in Prague, a church in honor of the Body of Jesus Christ,
and took part in the building of Strassburg Cathedral (1365-1404). As the old
Viennese Goldenberg, as well as the Staronova synagogue in the Old City,
were built by the workers' associations of the Middle Ages (gilds) according to
the pattern of the Solomon's Temple. The immediate forerunners of the
Freemasons in Bohemia were the Hussites and the Bohemian Brethren, "The
Fraternity of the Hatchet" and the "Friends of the-Cross."

About the truth of these statements many historians are doubtful. We can,
however, consider as the founders of Freemasonry in Bohemia the Bohemian
Brothers, who gave us Komensky and the "Friends of the Cross," whose
outstanding member, Baron Frantisek Antonin Sporck, was inspired in
Holland, during his residence there, to suggest the foundation of the first
Prague Lodge, "The Three Stars."

According to the two historians, Abafi and Svatek, the day of the foundation
of this lodge was June 26, 1723. In the same year the "Constitutions of the
Free Mason" was accepted in London, as prepared by the theologian, James
Anderson, on the basis of Komensky's "Panegersie," as the ideal foundation of
the Brotherhood.

The working meetings of the lodge were held mostly in the palace of Sporck
situated in the so-called "Angeluzs Garden." The garden was named after the
famous court physician to Emperor Charles IV, Angelus de Florentia. Sporck
bought it, and had the old building in it renovated by a Prague builder, Kilian
Diezenhofer, and the artist Vaclav Reiner. On the site of the building, which
during the times of Emperor Joseph II served as the chief storehouse of
tobacco, is now the Directory for Posts and Telegraphs. In 1926 a desk was
placed there with the inscription: "In this place there used to be, about the
year 1360, the Angelus Garden." (V techto mistech byvala kolem r. 1360
Andelska zahrada.)

It was probably the first botanical garden in Europe. Here lived for a time
Cola di Rienzi, Tribune of the Roman People; and in 1356 the Italian poet
Petrarca. In or about the year 1715 the house was bought by Baron Frantisek
Antonin Sporck, who founded there in 1726 the Lodge of the "Three Stars."
In 1736 a monastery of "Celestinek" was built there, which was abolished in
1784. After 1871 the building of the Central Postoffice was erected on the site.

NOTE

The Hradcany is composed of a number of buildings about three large
courtyards. The foundations of the castle, the oldest part of the mass of
buildings were laid in the tenth century, and building has been going on at
every epoch since then. In the middle of the castle courtyard is the beautiful
cathedral church of St. Vitus, which was founded-by the Bohemian king, John
of Luxemburg, in the year 1344. The Hradcany is not only the President's
official residence, but in its various apartments, of which there are over seven
hundred, are housed the Chancellery, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
other Government departments.


In the illustration showing the Tyn Church the curious twin towers are
especially to be noticed. The form that Gothic architecture took in Bohemia
and Eastern Europe generally, was quite distinctive. The right hand tower is
somewhat more massive in proportions. The same curious lack of symmetry is
to be noted in other cathedrals, as at Notre Dame at Paris. It seems very
probable that this was intentional, and had a reference to the two pillars set up
by Hiram the Master Builder at the Porch of Solomon's Temple, of which the
one on the right hand represented strength.

