Bohemian Brethren
a religious society, instituted in Prague, about the middle of the 15th century, originally composed of remnants of the Hussites.
In 1453 they settled on the borders of Silesia and Moravia. The Thirty Years' War entirely broke up the societies of the Brethren; but afterward they united again, though persecuted. Their exodus and settlement, in 1722, on the estates of Count Zinzendorf, in Saxony, occasioned the formation of the Herrnhuters. See MORAVIANS. History. Bohemia was named after a tribe of Gallic origin, the Boii, who were expelled from this region by the Marcomans at the commencement of the Christian era. The latter were in turn obliged to give place to the Germans, and these to the Czechs, a Slavic race, who had established themselves in Bohemia by the middle of the 5th century, and still form the bulk of the population.
The country was at first divided into numerous principalities. Christianity was introduced about 900. In 1092 Bohemia was finally recognized as a kingdom under Wratislas II. In 1230 the monarchy, hitherto elective, became hereditary. sovereign of Antioch, was son of Robert The monarchs received investiture from the German Emperor, held one of the great offices in the imperial court, and were recognized as among the seven Electors of the Empire. Frequently at strife with its neighbors, Bohemia successively united and disunited with Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, etc., according to the course of wars and alliances. Ottokar II. (1253-1278) had extended his conquests almost from the Adriatic to the Baltic, when he lost them and his life in contest with Rudolph, the founder of the house of Hapsburg. After the close of the Przemysl dynasty (which had held sway for about six centuries) by the assassination of Ottokar's grandson, Wenceslas III., the house of Luxemburg