When Good-King Wenceslas Reigned

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18946, 17 December 1929, Page 9 (Supplement)

When Good-King Wenceslas Reigned

He Was A Christian Monarch Who Lived Before His Time.

PRAGUE and the town of Stara Boleslav have become this year places of pilgrimage for patriotic Czecho-Slovaks from all parts of the country and from abroad. One thousand years have elapsed since the death of St Wenceslas, Patron Saint of Czecho-Slovakia, that attractive early ruler of mediaeval Bohemia whose name has always been regarded as the symbol of Bohemian nationhood and of the agelong Christian culture of the Czechs. They are thus celebrating the millenium of their civilisation. Much is to be seen in the capital now that will attract serious students of Bohemian history and art. A jubilee exhibition

in the magnificent Vladislav Hall on Hradcany has been opened since May. The collection of objects connected with the worship of St Wenceslas belongs to all periods of Bohemian history. It includes the first Bohemian coin (denarius), the issue of which is ascribed to his initiative, medals, sculptured figures, statuettes, ritual articles of fine workmanship, ornaments, pictures and flags with the Saipt’s effigy. The regalia, the famous crown of St Wenceslas from the 14th century and other paraphernalia of Bohemian royal power are on view in the Cathedral for a few’ days only. They had been temporarily removed from their historical receptacle in the vault above the famous St Wenceslas Chapel. The Chapel, the main goal of all visitors, was erected pn the identical place where the original rotunda church had been built, the first stone church in Bohemia, by St Wenceslas himself. It was replaced by Spytignev 11. in 1060, who erected in its stead a more spaci ous church in the Romanesque style which in its turn gave place to the present Gothic Cathedral of Charles IV., which has just been completed after a thousand years of its chequered history (including the bombardment by Frederick the Great). The recent excavations enable us to form some idea of the original structure.

The millenium celebrations have attracted considerable attention abroad, i Especially in Anglo-Saxon countries St Wenceslas is a household word. To English children who sing the familiar Christmas carol of the Good King Wenceslas he is an old friend. The carol was not brought to England by Good Queen Anne of Richard 11., the daughter of Charles IV., who himself wrote a Latin life of St Wenceslas, as might be supposed. It first appeared in a collection of “Carols for Christmastide" in 1853, edited by the Rev T. Helmore and the Rev J. M. Neale, and was based on a Latin poem by V. A. Svoboda, written in 1847. The Good King Wenceslas of the carol is usually pictured like an old venerable sover eign, but as he was born in 907 or 908 he was quite a young man at the time of his death (929). Neruda, the Prague story-teller and essayist, has recorded his youthful adoration of the Saint in a delightfully vivid story entitled “St Wenceslas Mass,” where he describes the hero of his dreams as follows: “A tall figure, youthfully powerful. On his head a simple metal helmet . . - the coat of mail protecting his body is covered by a surplice of bright white silk. The chestnut hair falls in rich curls, the face shows sublime kindliness and peace. Strange, I could distinctly visualise the form of his face, those great blue eyes, cheeks radiant with health, softly waving hair, but still the face as though not of flesh and blood, but of calmly shining light.” It is not generally known that the St Wenceslas legend appealed also to the artistic mind of William Morris. In a preface to a charming illustrated edition of the carol (1895) he called the legend “pleasing and genuine,” and recorded his fondness* for the pleasant memories it evoked in him. American literary men were also interested in the Patron of Bohemia. Washington Irving, the Father of American literature, during his first visit to Prague (November 24, 1822) inspected,

the helmet and coat of mail of St Wenceslas, .admired the walls '“encrusted with valuable stones, polished porphyry and antique chrysolite," the superb chandelier and the Gothic statue of St Wenceslas, and studied the picture of his murder by Cranach with “colours wonderfully preserved." Another well-known American man of letters, James Huneker, that ardent lover of Prague and of Bohemian cuisine, visited the Cathedral at Hradcany, “a miracle of tender rose and marble white with golden spots of sunshine that would have made Claud Monet envious," and paid his devotion to the Chapel of St Wenceslas. Prince Wenceslas’s chief title to fame is the political vision with which he is credited by leading Czech historians. In him Bohemia produced a wise Chris-

tian ruler at the time when some of the neighbouring peoples were still sunk in barbarous ignorance. Bohemia was not made Christian by sword on the basis of conquest like some other countries, but its rulers accepted it of their own free will. Evangelisation came from Great Moravia, the Danubian Empire, that prototype of the Czechoslovak Republic, towards which Bohemian rulers had looked. Borivoj, the grandfather of St Wenceslas, was baptised apparently by Archbishop Methodius himself. When the neathen Magyars, destroying the Kingdom and Archbishopric of Great Moravia, cut Bohemia off from Constantinople and from the intercourse with Southern Slavs, the centre of Czecho-Slovak civilisation was shifted to Bohemia and the Czechs were brought within the orbit of the Latin civilisation. In this task a special place must be reserved for St Wenceslas, who did his best that his realm should come into line with Western Europe and that his subjects should be adjusted to the standards of Christian conduct. St Wenceslas’s mother Dragomira was a recent convert from a still heathen tribe of the Wends whom Alfred the Great calls Aefeldan after Havel, a tributary of the Elbe. In her as in the warlike Saxons who so cruelly destroyed her people, Chris-

tianity was but skin-deep. Her regency during Wenceslas’s minority was stained by the appalling deed; the assassination of St Ludmila, Wenceslas’s grandmother, who was murdered at her castle of Tetin with her connivance despite the fact that she later banished and persecuted the murderers and their families. Covetousness and jealousy of the grandmother’s influence on the prince played doubtless some part in the plot whose underlying motives are obscure. No wonder Wenceslas had later his mother driven from his court. Tortured by remorse he recalled her afterwards and they were reconciled. Dagomire, we are told, rejoiced at her son’s piety and acts of charity. Wenceslas showed great favour to Churchmen w T ho monopolised all learning in those times and brought books to the

country. He was a benefactor both of Latin monks and the priests of the Slavonic rite, though by that time Bohemia was attached for ever and irrevocably to Roman civilisation. Wenceslas’s preference for the clergy need not be interpreted as a devotion to a monkish idea as in the case of Edward the Confessor. They represented a refined culture which appealed to Wenceslas. That humanity which President Masaryk declared to be the keynote of Bohemian history is amply attested in Wenceslas’s life. He was of a gentle and compassionate nature, destroyed gibbets as objects calculated to brutalise people and prohibited torture. He abhorred the death penalty, had mercy on prisoners and released slaves. In fact he made a remarkable attempt to base his rule on Christian principles of charity and righteousness. It proved utopian but his brief life left a perennial model of a Christian ruler to all his successors.

His ecclesiastical policy combined with his conciliatory attitude to the Holy Roman Empire. Being far in advance of his time his mode of life was bound to antagonise those who were still clinging to the standards of a bygone stage of civilisation. A hostile party that grouped round his younger brother Boleslav, a man of violent, un-

r governable temper and a vaulting am- . bition, was no doubt still more incensed by what they regarded as subjugation ’ to the German King. ; The evidence we possess about his f saintly life and cruel death is necessary fragmentary and modern histor--1 ians sometimes differ widely from one 1 another in their estimate of points of - detail. However, an old Slavonic legi end which was discovered in Russia t about a hundred years ago seems to s have been written soon after his death 3 and may, therefore, be regarded as a . reliable source. The death of St Wenr ceslas is related as follows: Wenceslas who had founded churches r in every town visited the town of ■- Boleslav to attend the consecration of - the church there on September 27. 1 After the service he intended to return 2 to Prague but was prevailed upon by

Boleslav to attend a banquet and take part in games and festivities. He was warned by his friends but did not believe them. On Monday morning, September 28, on his way to the morning service he was attacked by the conspirators. A wicked priest of the Boleslav party closed the church thus refusing him sanctuary and he was slain grasping the ring of the door. Then followed a massacre of Wenceslas’s adherents who did not escape. Dragomira herself after burying Wenceslas’s body fled to save her life which shows that she was not party to the crime.

The historian Palacky pointed out that the Czech nation associated everything that was dear to them with St Wenceslas. He has become a symbol of the Czech State. Knights were dubbed with his sword, his effigy was found on coins down to the Thirty Years’ War, his national anthem was sung on solemn occasions, his figure was engraved on important seals—on the ancient University seal we can see the founder Charles kneeling before St Wenceslas—the crown was dedicated to him by the same ruler, the castle and even the Cathedral were often called by his name. John Hus alluded to him as ‘ our martyr and patron,” and “Warrior of God.” The Hussites invoked him in their manifestations and the opening lines of this anthem w r ere engraved on their, shields. Thus his relics as well as his cult survived Hussite inconoclasm. His feast has alwaj r s been a State holiday and was celebrated also in Moravia. His cult can be traced also to Slovakia (Codex Cremniciensis). He passed through various stages of hero-worship, gradually invested with all the attributes of a national ideal. The Protestants, the members of the Moravian Church, also recognised him and the same prayer was used on his day as on the fast of John Hus who was also considered a Saint. The leader of the Protestants in the Thirty Years’ War, the martyr of Bohemian independence Wenceslas de Budov allowed a life of St Wenceslas to be dedicated to him and another life of the saint is found in the library of the other prominent leader of the Protestants, Karel de Zerotin. J. A. Comenius mentions St Wenceslas with reverence in his history of the persecution of the Bohemian Church.

In Protestant England St Wenceslas became a favourite figure that is indissolubly linked up with the genuine Christmas feeling. In his own country after the death-like stupor of two cen turies his influence was again felt alike in literature and in plastic arts and in music (Dvorak, Suk, Forster). But above all his name acquired the significance of a political slogan, became a mystic emblem of the sovereignty of the Czecho nation. It conjured up the vision of an independent kingdom. In this light it was revived in 1848 and during the World War. At present the sacred symbol of his crown has partly lost its appeal—Czechoslovakia is a republic, independence has been achieved. But while the political stimulus is no longer needed the symbol of St Wenceslas may serve as a reminder to the Czechs and their neighbours that the proper sphere of nationalism is not really political but cultural.