coin dating from the days
of Wenceslaus II, towards the new foundation. The different taxes and
excise duties were also made to contribute, a tithe of the wine tax,
some appropriate sums from bridge and water tolls; besides these sources
of revenue Charles endowed Emaus with landed property, farms and fields
and vineyards. Begun in the reign of John, the building and institution
of this new monastery was not completed until 1372, when Charles had for
many years been in a position to describe himself as "Carolus Dei
gratiae Rom. rex, semper augustus et Boemiae rex." Monday after Easter
1372 was the great day on which the Church and monastery were solemnly
consecrated and dedicated to Saints Hieronymus, Adalbert, Procop, Cyril
and Methodius, but as the consecration gospel told the moving story of
the Risen Saviour walking with two disciples, who knew Him not, towards
Emaus, the name of that place clung to church and monastery ever after.
Though Emaus started out under such very august patronage, it had to put
up with many vicissitudes, among the minor ones being acts of
trangression on its grounds by neighbours; so, for instance, we hear of
one good man Odelenus, who would dig under the monastery wall to the
endangering of the same, and as the stout burgher would not desist nor
fill up the excavations he had made, he was excommunicated with all due
solemnity.

It is said that Charles intended Emaus solely for the benefit of those
who still held to the Slavonic liturgy, from the very outset. But I find
that Charles did not approach the Pope on this subject and get his
sanction for the Archbishop of Prague to grant the Benedictine monks of
Emaus licence to perform the Slavonic ritual, until the papacy of
Clement VI. I gather that he had waited until he could find an amenable
pontiff; what is more, Clement VI as anti-Pope, probably did not cut
much ice even had he been addicted to that practice. It was undoubtedly
due to the fact that the Slavonic liturgy was still in force that Emaus
escaped destruction at the hands of the Hussites, as the monks were
Utraquists and remained of that persuasion until the last Slavonic
abbot, Adam Benedict Bawarowsky, with two surviving monks, was turned
out to make room for Spanish Benedictines from Montserrat under their
abbot, Benedict di Pennabosa y Mondragon. These Spaniards were inducted
by Emperor Ferdinand III, King of Bohemia, himself.

Of those early, ardent days in the annals of Em