Origins beast selling
indulgences The Bohemian Reformation started in
Prague in the second half of the 14th century. In that time Prague was not only the seat of the King of Bohemia but also that of the
Holy Roman Emperor (and
King of the Romans). Prague was one of
Europe's largest cities and after
Avignon,
Rome and
Paris was the city with the highest concentration of
clergy in
Western Christendom. The beginnings of the Bohemian Reformation were closely related to the criticism of the lavish lifestyle of many priests. In the late 1370s and early 1380s the
Prague university theologians and intellectuals called for the reform of the decadent priesthood in the spirit of emerging
conciliarism, for education of unsatisfactorily educated priests, and for more frequent accepting of the
Eucharist in the spirit of
Devotio Moderna. The most significant representatives of the university reform movement were
Henry of Bitterfeld (
Heinrich von Bitterfeld) and
Matthew of Cracow. Apart from the university theologians there were also reform preachers, such as
Conrad Waldhauser (died in 1369), an Austrian
Augustinian from a monastery in
Waldhausen who preached in the
Old Town of Prague in
German and
Latin especially against
simony and low morals. Another influential preacher was
Milíč of Kroměříž who preached in Latin, Czech, and German. He helped many prostitutes to begin a new life. He served the Eucharist daily which was very uncommon because the
laymen took communion usually only once a year. This practice of frequent communion became very popular. Although it was unique elsewhere in Europe, it became usual in Bohemia until the end of the 14th century. The matter of the Eucharist became crucial for the nascent Bohemian Reformation and in the 1410s communion under both kinds and
infant communion were introduced into Bohemian liturgical practice.
Matthias of Janov (died in 1394) who studied at the University of Prague and at the
University of Paris wrote
Regulae Veteris et Novi Testamenti (
Principles of the Old and the New Testaments) which is an essential book of the early Bohemian Reformation movement. The Bible was the only reliable authority in all matters of faith for him and only sincere followers of
Christ were true Christians in his opinion. The complete
translation of the Bible into Czech in the mid-14th century also contributed to the origin of the Bohemian Reformation. After
French and
Italian,
Czech became the third modern European language in which the whole Bible was translated.
Jan Hus The best-known representative of the Bohemian Reformation is
Jan Hus. He was an influential university teacher and a popular preacher in
Bethlehem Chapel in the Old Town of Prague. The chapel was founded already in 1391 in the spirit of the nascent Bohemian Reformation. It was intended solely for sermons in Czech and it could admit 3,000 people. Jan Hus and his friends (e. g.
Jacob of Mies) were skeptical about the idea of conciliarism which called for a church reform from above via
cardinals and theologians. For them the cardinals and theologians were bearers of the same corruption as the
papacy itself. Hus believed that the head of the Church was Jesus Christ rather than the
pope. In some issues they were inspired by the ideas of
Oxford theologian and philosopher
John Wycliffe. It can be seen in their cooperation with the secular power which supported them. Before Hus left Prague, he decided to take a step which gave a new dimension to his endeavors. He no longer put his trust in an indecisive King, a hostile Pope or an ineffective Council. On 18 October 1412, he appealed to Jesus Christ as the supreme judge. By appealing directly to the highest Christian authority, Christ himself, he bypassed the laws and structures of the medieval Church. For the Bohemian Reformation, this step was as significant as the
95 theses nailed to the door of the Wittenberg church by Martin Luther in 1517. The execution of Jan Hus at the
Council of Constance in 1415 led only to a radicalization of Hus's followers.
Hussites leading troops of radical Hussites After Jan Hus was burnt at the stake, the Bohemian Reformation started to oppose the Council of Constance and later the Pope, and became a distinctive religious movement with its own symbols (chalice), rituals (
frequent communion under both kinds even for
children), and
martyrs (Jan Hus,
Jerome of Prague). In the 1420s it constituted a consciously independent church. The ideological and political program shared by the Hussites at the beginning of the
Hussite Wars was contained in the Four Articles of Prague, which can be summarized as: • Freedom to preach the Word of God. • Freedom of the communion of the chalice (under both kinds also to laity). • Exclusion of the clergy from large temporal possessions or civil authority. • Strict repression and punishment of a
mortal sin, whether in clergy or in laity. In the summer of 1419, tens of thousands of people gathered for a massive outdoor religious service on a hill christened
Mount Tabor, where the town
Tábor was founded. The so-called
Taborites practiced a form of communal economy that has been of great interest to
Marxist historians. The text of
Compactata based on the Four Articles of Prague was accepted by the Czech (Bohemian and Moravian) political representation as well as by the
Council of Basel, but the Pope refused to recognize it.
Bohemian Utraquist Church in Prague. It is a crucial artistic work of the Bohemian Reformation of the late 15th century. Christ touches the wound in his left flank, from which he takes a host (his body) while his blood flows into a chalice. The chalice – symbol of the Hussites – clearly demonstrates the practice of receiving the communion under both kinds. The Utraquist Church of Bohemia was an autonomous ecclesial body which emerged in Bohemia and Moravia, that viewed itself as a part of the one, holy,
catholic Church, but that remained in a merely formal communion with the Roman pope. During all of the fifteenth century it maintained an ambition to serve as a vanguard of reform for all Western Christendom. For a long time, this church – schismatic from the Roman point of view – remained a unique phenomenon in Europe. Until 1471, the church was led by the elected Archbishop of Prague,
Jan Rokycana, who was never confirmed by the
Holy See. After his death it was led by the Utraquist Consistory headed by the administrator. The Utraquist Consistory had its seat in the
Old Town of Prague. The church continued to recognize the
apostolic succession in the Roman Church, and insisted on the ordination of its clergy by "proper" Catholic bishops. With its intermediate position between Rome and the
Radical and Protestant Reformations, the Utraquist Church of Bohemia resembled the future
Church of England. The church was largely Czech-speaking, although it included some German-speaking parish communities as well. With the emergence of the Protestant Reformation the Utraquist Church found it necessary to define its identity not only in relation to Rome, but also to the reformed churches. During the entire sixteenth century Bohemia and Moravia enjoyed a considerable religious tolerance that was not limited by the principle
cuius regio, eius religio. Defense of its own identity was a major problem of the Utraquist Church for the remaining period of its existence – roughly until 1622. The joining of the Utraquists with the Brethren and the
Lutherans in support of the
Bohemian Confession (
Confessio Bohemica, 1575) could not but antagonize Rome further. In consequence of
Letter of Majesty, issued in 1609 by
Rudolf II, an illusory unified church organization emerged that further complicated the ecclesiological issue for the Utraquists, as well as for the Lutherans and, especially the Brethren. The hymnal of 1561 contained 735 hymn texts and over 450 melodies. That makes the importance of hymn singing in the Unity very clear. The Bohemian Brethren later also used the
Genevan Psalter translated into Czech by
Jiří Strejc in 1587. Apart from Jan Blahoslav, other famous theologians of the Unity were
Luke of Prague,
Jan Augusta or
John Amos Comenius. During the time of the intransigent
Counter-Reformation in Bohemia and Moravia after 1620, the leaders of the Unity were forced to leave the country. Comenius tried to lead the Unity in exile but after his death it was in decline. In 1722 the Unity of the Brethren was renewed in
Saxony by emigrants from Moravia with support of a local count
Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. Since that time the Unity has also been known as the
Moravian Church. == References ==