Path of the inquisitors, zealous priests, heretics and the Hussites

14-16th Century A.D.

The High Middle Ages era, the time of cathedrals and winning powerful Church, ends with the crisis of the West papacy not to mention the confidence of the people in the institutions of the Church. New spiritual directions and new devotion (Devotio Moderna) react to the uncertainty about the salvation of souls. The search is on for “a cure to uncertainty”. The focus is especially on the direct reign of Jesus Christ the King, on promoting the knowledge of the bible, and on preaching the Gospel. People are looking for the assurance of salvation not in the institution of the Church, which has two or three popes at once, but directly - in God. In this turbulent period, Emperor Charles IV. wants to offer Europe a new spiritual Center - in “The City of a Hundred Spires” (Prague). But the common people no longer want to be a passive recipient of the royal will; they want to become the makers of spiritual history. These are their leaders: Milíč from Kromeříž, Jan Hus, Jan Žižka, Petr Chelčický and more. The era of knights, princes and royalty is over. This is the time for preachers, reformers and Hussite warriors.

The “Age of cathedrals”, the age of the Church being victorious over Kings (in the Investiture struggle) and pagans (the Crusades), however, does not last long. The era of the Crusades to the Holy Land ended with a definite loss of the conquered territory and a seemingly resolved struggle over the investiture has returned through the back door in 1303 in a dispute of Pope Boniface VIII. With Philip IV of France whom the Pope did not want to crown as an emperor. Other holy fathers were relocated to Avignon, France, and when trying to choose a new one – in 1378, two popes were elected - Pope Clement VII. in Avignon and Pope Urban VI. in Rome. One of the candidates was a typical French cardinal and the other one was an Italian cardinal. The universal power of the Pope and the Church in Western Europe is undermined. Thinkers, theologians and ordinary religious people are more visible at that time and they are not afraid to label the crisis of the Church as they try to face it from the bottom up. For them, a double papal election is a great disappointment and even more so few years later when a third pope is elected. Peter Valdes, a Lyon merchant who quit his profitable business, materially secured his family and the rest of the money spent on making copies of the Bible and on wandering around and preaching, was labeled a heretic. Waldensians or “poor from Lombardia” were prosecuted by the Inquisition in Europe and they came through the paths of the Bohemian Forest to southern Bohemia to engage in the “German colonization” during the pre-Hussite period. On the other hand, the fate of Francis of Assisi in the church was more favorable. He also renounced wealth, became a begging pilgrim and founded a community of like-minded brethren – of the Mendicant order of Franciscan friars There often was a thin line between the saints and heretics. Ironically, some of the Franciscans were commissioned over time with the activities of the Inquisition against the Waldensians.

 

New Jerusalem in the heart of Europe

It was during the Avignon captivity that the young Czech King and Emperor Charles IV., for whom has the Czech country become a real homeland (unlike for his knightly father John of Bohemia), has decided he wants to make the Kingdom of Bohemia, and specifically Prague, the spiritual center of Europe, and to offer so many Christian pilgrims, going on a pilgrimage to Rome and to Avignon, a closer alternative. Bohemia with Prague in the lead was to become Europe’s number one spiritual intersection. Charles’s efforts to raise the Bohemian kingdom were certainly motivated religiously as well as politically and pragmatically - Prague is becoming not only the center of world politics, but also of spiritual life, a second Rome of sorts.

Emperor Charles has decided to have everything in his imperial capital city: the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese, he founded a university, built Gothic cathedrals, wanted to have as many religious orders, holy relics, commerce, books and scholars as possible. His “spiritual collections” can well be illustrated by the founding of the Emmaus monastery (in Slovany), to where he summoned the Slavonic Benedictines from Croatia—and so, after a quarter of a millennium, the Slavic liturgy can once again be heard in the Czech lands. Prague with the Emmaus monastery was supposed to become the center of the Slavic religious education. Charles “placed” the Emmaus monastery into the newly formed New Town of Prague which by the shape of its ground plans is reminiscent of the city of Jerusalem. Five churches in the New Town based on their location create the shape of an isosceles cross. And because of the prevailing belief throughout the Middle Ages that the heavenly Jerusalem is not far away - the Czech capital, according to Emperor Charles, was supposed to become the gate to eternity. The Chapel of the Holy Cross at the Karlštejn Castle is a masterpiece of Gothic art where the emperor himself is depicted.

 

Reformation forefathers

Charles also did not hesitate to summon and support preachers criticizing the state of the Church. He specifically invited the zealous Konrad Waldhauser from Austria, whose preaching in Prague inspired “new ways of the Church”. Milíč from Kroměříž built on that preaching by preaching poverty and help to the rejected «fallen women». His student - Matthew of Janow – focused on education, especially in gaining the knowledge of the Bible. The interconnection of Czech efforts to reform the Church was only a matter of time when Charles’s daughter Anna, who was the wife of an English King Richard II., in her new homeland, was learning the language of her husband from the first Bible translation into English by John Wycliffe (the Oxford critic of the Church and especially the papacy). Jerome of Prague managed to copy Wycliffe’s “heretical” writings before their burning and brought them to Prague. He presented them for reading to Jan Hus who was the master of “liberal arts” at the University of Prague. Jan Hus identified with the ideas of the Oxford professor and based on the state of the Church at that time thought they were justified. And whatever the church leaders tried to do – it seems that everything always turned out worse. Selecting the third pope and the indulgences campaign were added to the old abuses: buying of church offices (called simony), ordinary people havingto make expensive payments for all the rites of the Church, wealth and worldly life of ecclesiastical dignitaries which was in contrast with the poverty of ordinary people.

 

The detachment from the original Church of the Apostles the way that Bible describes it was more than eloquent. Ordinary people needed to hear what the Bible really says. And more so – there was a need to truly and directly preach to the people in a language that even simple people could understand. Because of these needs there was a chapel established in the old town of Prague called the Bethlehem Chapel, designed from the outset solely for preaching the gospel in the Czech language. The “Chapel” designation was only hierarchical – the building was not small at all. The chapel became the largest gathering place in Prague with a capacity to hold 3000 people. The first time that communion was served to lay people under both forms (also from the cup) was at the instigation of Jacob of Mies in 1414 in the nearby church of St. Martin in the Wall. “The Czech Reformation” could not even be stopped by the burning of Jan Hus on July 6th, 1415, or Jerome of Prague a year later at the Council of Constance (Konstanz in German).

Ironically, the church leaders wanted to reform the Church at this Council – but in other ways. The teaching and preaching of Jan Hus gave rise to the dogmatic program of the Hussite movement – The Four Prague Articles – 1. Free preaching of the word of God (meaning – the sermon should be based purely on the Bible), 2. Communion was to be served under both forms (also from the cup for lay people), 3. The prohibition of the secular reign of priests (restrictions on the property and power of the Church), 4. Punishment of sin regardless of status (unprecedented equality of people before the law).

 

The Hussite storms

The Council of Constance still managed to once again unite the split Catholic Church together (although it did not reform it). The new Pope, Martin V., could declare a crusade against the heretical Czechs. The Hussite followers did not meet a similar fate of other groups such as southern France catarrhs (Albigensians) thanks to the warlike genius, leadership ability and commitment to the Hussite program of Jan Žižka from Trocnov. Thus long and bloody wars on the Czech territory began and the originally non-violent religious Hussite program from the necessity of defense became primarily a warfare program. The new program was supporting the use of a sword to “purify the land from the property of the Church for the Divine Court” and at the end – the Hussite “ God’s Warrior “ became synonymous with a mercenary, an expert on fortifications and conquering castles, warring in other European conflicts on all sides, as well as burning churches and monasteries (170 of them were burnt to ashes during the Hussite battles). Rallying the Czech lands against Crusader armies by far did not mean the unity among successors of Huss in matters of faith. The direction of Taborites, established in 1420 by choosing their own priests, advocated radical reforms, which the members of the Prague’s conservative wing were not willing to accept. The matter is further complicated by the presence of those who were happy to just accept one piece of the Huss and Jakoubek’s reform (The Four Prague Articles) and that is – the communion being served under both forms and were otherwise fully identified with the tradition of Rome and, also, all of the rest of Europe.

And all that was “Czech” began for a long time to be suspicious and considered heretical. Spiritual crossroads of Europe suddenly became for many years the periphery so remote that William Shakespeare in his Winter fairy tale attributed a sea to Bohemia. Not even the Hussite theologians Nicholas Biskupec from Pelhřimov or Petr Chelčický, whose intellectual works are referenced by many intellectuals for centuries, could not stop this trend. It could have not been stopped by Archbishop John of Rokycan either. He was the only Hussite archbishop (never confirmed by Rome though), and served in the Church of Our Lady before Týn. (A large gilded chalice shone from the face of the Church of Our Lady before Týn to the Old Town Market Square)

 

The radical wing of the Hussites was defeated at Lipany after 14 years of debilitating civil war and others started to negotiate. The Basel Compacta was published 2 years later at the square in Jihlava. It was the Convention between the Basel Church Council and the representatives of the Hussite party. The Czech protoprotestants were granted only the second of the Four Articles (communion being served under both forms) but none of the others. After Jacob of Mies (the founder of Utraquism) - John of Rokycan became the superior of the Utraquist Hussite Church for the next 35 years.

The original Catholic religion in Bohemia became a minority religion for the next 150 years. The Prague Archbishopric was vacant and the Prague chapter relocated from the heretical Prague to Plzeň. Utraquist Church dreamed of peace with Rome and hoped for the papal confirmation of John of Rokycan as an archbishop. Czech lands plunged into chaos for a long time and isolation from European spiritual influence. Charles University lost its importance. Part of the Moravian nobility also subscribed to the program of the Hussite movement. Large cities in the lead with Brno, however, backed the Catholic king Sigismund of Luxemburg whom the Moravian Diet elected Moravian Margrave in 1419. The emperor granted his Moravian allies privileges and removed Jews from the royal cities as a token of his appreciation, which again slightly strengthened certain autonomy of Moravia. The Jewish community had to seek refuge in the aristocratic lands. Although the Hussite movement and Utraquism did not affect Moravia as much as Bohemia, in the period prior to the Battle of White Mountain after the first Czech uprising (1547), Moravian autonomy was advantageous for non- Catholics and strong centers of New- Utraquists (Lutherans) sprung up all over Moravia and the regions of Olomouc, Brno, Wallachia became the centers of the Unity of Brethren Church.

 

Unity of the Brethren Church

Unity of the Brethren, founded in 1457 in Kunvald in Eastern Bohemia by Brother Gregory (from the Prague Emmaus monastery) under the influence of the teachings of Petr Chelčický, at first did not want to become a new church, but rather a lay religious order. However, when the Brethren community in 1467 elected their own priests, they actually separated from the Roman Church and the Czech Utraquists, and in fact – became a Church. Spiritual and lay leaders of the Unity were centrally elected and sent to the individual churches - congregations. These were growing from the late 15th century and during the 16th century especially in eastern Bohemia and Moravia (Mladá Boleslav, Brandýs nad Orlicí, Ivančice, Uherský Brod, Přerov, Fulnek), although the Union was until Rudolf’s Majesty (1609) legally disallowed and often also being persecuted.

Its moral rigor and diligence earned the Unity of the Brethren Church fans from both lower and upper nobility (such as Petr Vok or the House of Zierotin) and often were not only tolerated but also welcomed at the estates. Brethren priests did not live from tithes flowing, but instead, after the model of the biblical Apostles, had to feed themselves using their own hands. Being a member of the Unity meant a lifelong formation and education in the faith, but also moral strictness, in the beginning also a distrust of trade and property, of education and noble status.

Although Unity was a minority, it proved to be a strong Christian group which influenced Czech literature with its original translation of the Bible – the first Czech translation from the original languages (Hebrew and Greek). The previous translations were based on the Latin Vulgate. The name of this bible (it’s called the Bible of Kralice) has to do with the city of Kralice where it was released. It influenced the development of the Czech language for a long time. New radical reformation movement called Anabaptists or Re-baptizers (in Czech called „habáni“) was in some ways similar to the Unity of the Brethren Church and was present in southern Moravia (in Mikulov) and in Slovakia. While the 16th century in Europe is the high era of Renaissance art, we can meet Renaissance and Humanism in our territory primarily in literature and music. The architecture of the Renaissance style is spread mainly by nobles who are building their headquarters using the Western Renaissance patterns (the castle in Litomyšl, Queen Anne’s Summer Palace - Belvedere in Prague, Nelahozeves castle, Bučovice, Velké Losiny). Large urban municipal communities are created in the spirit of the Renaissance (Telč, Slavonice, Nové Město nad Metují, Třeboň), which symbolizes the influence of bourgeoisie especially the Utraquist population. There are primarily smaller churches built together with castles or small rural churches as the spiritual heritage. They bear traces of rather late Gothic style with Renaissance elements. The exceptions are - originally Lutheran Church of St. Peter and Paul in Kralovice, the church of St. Bartholomew and the St. John the Baptist church in Pardubice or United Brethren Church in Mladá Boleslav.

Important dates

1309-1377 – 
Pope resides in Avignon
1328 – 
the beginning of the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War
1228 – 
5th crusade
do 1270 – 
6th and 7th crusade
1378-1417 – 
Papal schism (two-popes in Rome and Avignon)
1410 – 
Teutonic Knights defeated at the Battle of Grundwald
1431 – 
Joan of Arc burned
1450 – 
John Gutenberg invented the printing press in Mainz
1453 – 
Turks conquered Constantinople and began to advance towards Europe
1492 – 
discovery of America
16th Century – 
Reformation of M. Luther and J.Calvin
1529 – 
The Turks besiege Vienna
1540 – 
Jesuit order founded
1572 – 
French "Bartholomew Night" - the slaughter of the Huguenots