wretched condition of the lower classes. But Charles went further than this. It was not enough that he submitted tamely to the rejection of laws that would have provided for a little justice to the peasants, but to win the favor of the nobility he granted them absolute control of the people living upon théir estates.
During the reign of Václav IV, a dispute arose in regard to the law of decease (odumrti). Law of Decease.It had become the custom that, when a peasant died leaving no children or near kin, his property fell to the lord upon whose estates he lived. By means of this custom the wealth of the nobility kept constantly increasing, while that of the peasants decreased in like proportion; for the noble could sell or lease the land to another peasant under more and more limitations, and the peasants thus were reduced to slavery.
This custom had no authority in the law of the land, and at length there arose a man who had the moral courage to raise his voice against it. This was John of Jenstein, the Archbishop of Prague during, the reign of King Václav. The archbishop declared that he found the custom in vogue upon the episcopal estates; that, according to it, a peasant could make no will, nor dispose of his property during his life. He said the custom being contrary to natural, canonical, and God’s law, he declared it abolished upon his estates, and that henceforth a peasant should dispose of his property as he saw fit, and, should he die intestate, the property was to fall to his nearest relatives.
The action of the archbishop brought on a long controversy. Master Albert, a member of the Chapter,
