Protestant Bohemia vs. the Habsburgs After the death of
Jan Hus in 1415, the Czechs were mostly
Hussite, a diverse sect which was considered heretical by the Catholic Church. The
Hussite wars were fought over religious freedom in Bohemia as five consecutive crusades ordered by the Pope were unsuccessful. The majority of Hussites (the
Utraquists) eventually made peace with Rome in the
Religious peace of Kutna Hora of 1485. However, the
Unity of the Brethren, founded in 1457, maintained a radical course and eventually played an important role in the
Protestant Reformation and widely disseminating its principles. By the end of the 16th century, less than 20% of the population remained Catholic. After their defeat in the 1620
Battle of the White Mountain, Bohemia and Moravia were subjugated and forcefully re-converted to Catholicism by the imperial authorities, with Protestantism all but vanquished. The Czechs were made once again majority Catholic until after World War I, when anti-Catholicism fed by nationalist
anti-German sentiment and
national revival perceiving the Church as historical enemy caused mass defections from the Church.
Following World War I The 1920 newly constituted Czechoslovak Church (since 1971 known as
Czechoslovak Hussite Church) and the
Czech Brethren (1918) were major beneficiaries of this defection from Catholicism until after World War II, when the overall belief in organized religion started to fall steeply. In addition, the
Sudeten Germans, who were those
Austrians who ended up within Czech borders after World War I, were mostly Catholics, and their expulsion after World War II also reduced the Church's presence. Over 90% Catholic in 1910, the Czech Republic is now reduced to some 10%.
Communist regime The
Communist regime, which seized power in 1948 in what was then
Czechoslovakia, confiscated all the property owned by churches and persecuted many priests. Churches were then allowed to function only under the state's strict control and supervision and priests' salaries paid by the state. Churches were seized, priests jailed or executed and those allowed to celebrate liturgies did so under the supervision of the secret police. After the
Velvet Revolution, some churches and monasteries were returned, but the churches have since sought to get back other assets such as farms, woodlands and buildings. During the Communist regime, various underground Catholic movements existed. Among these is the Koinotes group, centered on Bishop Felix Davidek, whose vicar general was
Ludmila Javorová, ordained by him to the presbyterate.
2012 Agreement on Church Property Restitution In January 2012 the Czech government agreed to pay billions of dollars in compensation for property seized by the former totalitarian regime from the Church. The
Church Property Restitution in the Czech Republic Agreement, as the compensation plan was called, has been signed. The process was spread over 30 years. Under the plan, the country's 17 churches, including Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox, would get 56 percent of their former property now held by the state – estimated at 75 billion
koruna ($3.7 billion) – and 59 billion koruna ($2.9 billion) in financial compensation paid to them over the next 30 years. Eighty percent of funds and property will go the Catholic Church, by far the biggest recipient. The state will also gradually stop covering their expenses over the next 17 years. In 2008, a similar bill was approved by the government but Parliament rejected it. ==Structure==