had three times its former extent, and soon also trebled its
population. He also added greatly to the importance of the city by
founding the famous university of Prague. Charles succeeded in
re-establishing order in Bohemia. The country had been in a very
disturbed state in consequence of feuds that were incessant during the
reign of John, who had almost always been absent from Bohemia. Charles
also attempted to codify the obscure and contradictory laws of Bohemia;
but this attempt failed through the resistance of the powerful nobility
of the country. During the reign of Charles, the first symptoms of that
movement in favour of church reform that afterwards acquired a
world-wide importance, appeared in Bohemia. As Charles has often been
accused of undue subserviency to the Church of Rome, it should be
mentioned that he granted his protection to several priests who favoured
the cause of church reform. In his foreign policy Charles differed from
his father. The relations with France gradually became colder, and at
the end of his reign Charles favoured an alliance with England; he died
in 1378 at the age of sixty-two, prematurely exhausted by arduous work.

Wenceslas IV.

Charles was succeeded by his son Wenceslas, who was then seventeen years
of age. His reign marks the decline of the rule of the house of
Luxemburg over Bohemia. He was a weak and incapable sovereign, but the
very exaggerated accusations against him, which are found principally in
the works of older historians, are mainly due to the fact that the king
and to a larger extent his queen, Sophia, for a time furthered the cause
of church reform, thus incurring the displeasure of Romanist writers.
During the earlier part of the reign of Wenceslas a continual struggle
took place between the king and the powerful Bohemian nobles, who indeed
twice imprisoned their sovereign. Wenceslas also became involved in a
dispute with the archbishop, which resulted in the death of the famous
John of Nepomuk.

Huss and the Hussites

The later part of the reign of Wenceslas is a record of incipient
religious conflict. The hold of the Church of Rome on Bohemia had
already been weakened during the reign of King Charles by attacks on the
immorality of the clergy, which proceeded from pious priests such as
Milic and Waldhauser. The church schism, during which the rival pontiffs
assailed each other with all the wild threats and objurgations of
medieval theological strife