PRAGUE, UNIVERSITY OF. Prague has two universities, one German, the other Bohemian. Of these, the older and more famous is the former, which is the oldest of German univer sities. It was founded by Charles IV. in 134S on the basis of an older school dating back to the middle of the thirteenth century, and was or ganized on the model of Paris, with the four faculties of theology. law. medicine, and arts, and all rights and privileges of a Studium Generale. It had also one college, founded by Charles and endowed by Weneeslas IV. The Hussite move ment interrupted the remarkable prosperity of the foundation, as Huss was one of the leading spirits of the institution, and rector in 1403. Owing to an order of Wenceslas IV., growing out of the Hussite disturbances, that the Bohemian 'nation' should have three votes to the German one in the university convocation, the Germans seceded and founded the University of Leipzig (q.v.). Others joined Heidelberg and Cologne. The Hussite movement had been joined to a national Bohemian movement, and had developed into a political as much as a religious agitation, and the university from the time of the secession lost its cosmopolitan character, and became more identified with Bohemian interests and develop ment. In 1419 Catholics were expelled from the
university. and in the troublous times that fol lowed it lost most of its students and nearly all its property. In the latter part of the fif teenth century...however, the foundation of many colleges in great part repaired this loss. In the seventeenth century its religious complexion was changed, and in 1654 it was united with the Jesuit college, coining under the influence of that Order. The Czech movement of the nine teenth century found expression at the University of Prague, first in the increase of lectures in the Czech language, and eventually in the founda tion of the Czech University of Prague, in 1882-83, with the three faculties of law, medicine, and arts, to which theology was added in 1891 92. The Czech university has since that time much outgrown its German rival. The number of students in the German university in 1901 was 1179; in the Czech university. 3184.