Arnest of Pardubice

ARNOST of PARDURICE - Archbishop of Prague, b. at Hosty in 1297, d. at Prague in 1364. He studied at Bologna and Padua and until 1342 served at the papal court of Avignon; the following year he was consecrated bishop. Elevated to the rank of archbishop on 30 Apr. 1344, he issued the Statuta Provincialia to regulate the life of the clergy. In the year 1346, at the head of a mission, he went to the Pope to communicate the election of Charles IV. In the year 1348 he took part in the military expedition against Brandenburg. Having returned to Prague, he convened the provincial synod on 12 Nov. 1349 and decided to expel the Flagellants from Bohemia; in 1350 he accompanied Charles IV to Nuremberg and a year later he went as ambassador to the Pontifical Court. In 1354, in the absence of Charles IV, he became administrator of Bohemia, in 1355 he accompanied the empress to Rome and in 1361 he attended at Nuremberg the baptism of Wenceslaus IV. In 1362 he was Charles IV's counsellor at the peace negotiations with the king of Hungary at Brno. When the emperor founded the University of Prague, he became its chancellor. He founded the monasteries of Kladsko (1349), Jaromer (1356), Rokycany (1361), Sadsko (1362) and the hospitals of Ceský Brod, Pribram and Liban. On the death of Innocent VI his name was also put forward in the conclave as successor.

Miroslav Stumpf