THE CZECHS OF CLEVELAND
Bride,” which has been given several times with the assistance of other choral societies. The 1919 performance was “Hubicka” (The Kiss) by the same composer. The scene of this opera is laid in the mountains of Slovensko, and peasant customs and mountain brigands share in the action. The music was very well rendered, the acting was excellent, and the performance as a whole was fully equal to many seen on the professional stage. The Cleveland music lover should make a point of seeing the annual performance of Lumir-Hlahol.
These dramatic and musical performances are always reviewed critically by the Czech press, who demand a high level of excellence.
Religious Situation.
The religious situation among the Czechs has brought them more notoriety than any other feature of their life in this country, and has been the occasion of much criticism and misunderstanding. It is absurd to think of the compatriots of Huss and of Jerome of Prague as irreligious, but to understand their religious life here it is necessary: to review their past history.
Religious Background.
The Christian religion was brought to Bohemia from Constantinople by the apostles Cyril and Methodius, with whom worship found expression through the Slavonic liturgy. This was used with the permission of Pope John VIII in the Czechoslovak country until the middle of the eleventh century, when the Latin liturgy, as generally used in the western church, was substituted for it. A recent petition to the Pope has requested a return to the Slavonic liturgy.
The first of the great religious reformers was the English Wycliffe; the second was Bohemia’s “learned doctor,” Jan Hus, (John Huss), who was burned as a heretic in 1415. His body perished at the stake, but his spirit will never cease to inspire the Bohemian people. He stands to them for freedom, whether from clericalism and ecclesiastical domination, or for political freedom, or for freedom from German influence; for the spirit of the Czech language, which he made the vehicle of a great literature; for democracy, since “the communion of the cup” was the religious expression of democracy, and since he represented the people rather than the priestly class; for freedom of speech for which he died; and finally as the incarnation of resistance to oppression, whatever its source. It is because he stands for all these things that his name is borne by Czech societies of every shade of religious belief.
For almost two hundred years Bohemia was a Protestant country, the first in Europe. Assailed on every side by the German race, its political downfall in 1620 was followed by the complete extirpation of Protestantism. The nation of over four million people was reduced to a mere eight hundred thousand, and by will of the emperor all were Roman Catholics. Until 1870 no other religion was tolerated in Bohemia. Then freedom was permitted to certain reformed groups, but not to the Bohemian Brethren, the descendants of the Hussites.
Religion in America.
This background shows the inherited preparation for religious revolt existing among the Czechs when they came to this country. They were almost all Catholics, but the possibility of being whatever they liked was stimulating. Some of the early clergy failed to appreciate this, and employed the same arbi-
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