adionowicz, and the letter of Poggio on
the execution of Jerome, are annexed to a _Passional_, as such
collections of the lives and sufferings of the saints are called.
There is also an abundance of Taboritic war-songs; many of them
replete with life and fire. These appear to have been partly founded
on ancient Bohemian popular songs; for there are passages in them
which are also to be found in the old chronicles. Altered to suit the
existing circumstances, their effect must have been the more powerful
by association. This period was also rich in religious hymns; most of
them translated from the Bible as literally as the rhyme would permit.
But no form of poetry was more used, and none operated more strongly
on the minds of the people, than the satirical ballads, with which the
streets and alleys every where resounded. All these productions are
only remarkable, as characteristic memorials of the age. Hynck of
Podiebrad, fourth son of king George, who was born A.D. 1452, a highly
accomplished and amiable man, is named as one of the most
distinguished among the Bohemian poets of the age.

Politics, too, united with religion. Stibor of Cimburg, a patriotic
and distinguished nobleman, wrote in 1467 an ingenious work in the
form of a novel, "On the goods of the Clergy;" Waleczowsky wrote on
the vices and hypocrisy of the clergy; and Zidek, in 1471,
instructions on government. All these books were dedicated to king
George, and the latter work was even written at his instigation. Hagck
of Hodielin, and Wlezek, between 1413 and 1457, wrote strategetical
works. Marco Polo's description of the East, and Mandeville's Travels,
were translated from the Latin. Kabatnik, J. Lobkowicz, and Bakalarz,
wrote descriptions of Palestine between 1490 and 1500; the two first
in books of travels. Mezyhor wrote a journal of the travels of Lew of
Rozhmital, whom he accompanied as jester through Europe and a part of
Asia. Collections of statutes, of the decrees of diets, of judicial
decisions, and of other documents, were made by patriotic and
sometimes eminent men; and those merely extant in Latin were carefully
translated into Bohemian.[25] Thus they gathered materials for future
historians, although in their own day the field of history was but
poorly cultivated, or at least with no more than common ability; for,
as to quantity, there is no want. Procopius, following out the example
of Dalimil, wrote a new rhymed chronicle; Bartosh of Drahenicz