t and decline of the Sorabian population was however always
painfully felt by some patriotic individuals; and the very injudicious
and tyrannic attempts of their German rulers, during the seventeenth
century, to eradicate the language and supplant it by the German,
found in all places only a reluctant and forced submission. But the
effect of appointing every where German magistrates and German pastors
was irresistible. The language was gradually forgotten by the rising
generation; and hardly a Vendish book was printed during the first
three quarters of the seventeenth century. Indeed hardly any one
knew how to write in a language, the orthography and grammar of
which had not yet been subjected to any rules or principles.

In 1679 the Jesuit Jacob Ticinus, a native of Lusatia, in a little
Latin pamphlet, advised his countrymen to adopt the rules of
orthography current in the Bohemian language, so nearly related to
their own.[5] But the Protestants among them, who constituted the
principal part in number and respectability, rejected his advice; and
preferred to adopt the rules established shortly afterwards by a
German clergyman, Z.J. Bierling.[6] This was a system between the
Bohemian and the German, and is still observed. It was probably a
sense of the approaching danger of an ultimate total extirpation of
their language, that roused the slumbering Vendes again to some
efforts. Parts of the Gospels were published towards the close of the
same century by Michael Frenzel; and in 1706 the whole New Testament
appeared in a Vendish translation, conformed to Luther's German one.

A translation of the whole Bible, made by several Protestant
clergymen, was first published in 1729; and has been twice reprinted.
A version for Catholics, by A. Swotlik, is extant in manuscript. A
German hymn-book for the latter already existed in 1696; and in 1710
the Protestants were likewise supplied with one. In the former the
orthography of Ticinus was followed; while the latter was printed
according to the system of Bierling. Thus this handful of people,
surrounded by German adversaries and underminers of their nationality,
and who would have had hard work enough even if they had stood as one
man in their own defence, were split into parties, even in things the
most indifferent; and thus made their own weakness still weaker.

The Protestants succeeded at last in the establishment of a seminary
for the education of Vendish ministers at Leipzi