Paths of reformation, recatholization, missionaries and emigrants

16–18th Century A.D.

No longer an attempt to reform, but the Czech and the European Reformation (break with the institution of the Catholic Church) brings not only new distribution centers of power, new conflicts, but also new thought initiatives and theological emphases. This epoch starts with the reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin and the growth of the Unity of the Brethren Church. Trying to free themselves from the center of power in Rome and the opposite efforts (to keep the center at any cost) are the engine of the new events and tensions, which result in the Thirty Years› War. After a period of Renaissance chivalry with the emphasis on human individuality, comes the era of emotionally roused and dynamic baroque style, which again looks up at God›s power and might, even does not hesitate to completely offer our human individuality to God. It begins with the arrival of the Jesuit order and continues through the work of John Amos Comenius, but also Ernst Adalbert von Harrach and Jan Santini Aichel or the Dientzenhofer builder’s family.

Martin Luther – an Augustinian monk and professor – returned good reputation to Bohemia and Moravia in the eyes of that part of Europe, which joined the Reformation. Martin Luther first spoke against the church with criticism of indulgences just like Jan Hus did a hundred years earlier. During a lunch break of one of the university theological disputations in Leipzig in 1519, when he was just accused of the Hussite heresy, Dr. Martin requested records from the Council of Constance and from the testimony of Jan Hus, and found out that his view and the view of Huss in regards to the church is identical, and therefore, publicly defended Jan Hus. The other opinions of Huss which Martin Luther agreed with are the fact that the head of the Church should not be the pope, but Christ, that the one and only chosen Church (universal) is not only the one belonging to Rome and that the Church should only develop their teaching based on the bible.

Luther clearly made things worse in the eyes of the church leaders since he claimed allegiance with the “confirmed heretic.” At first, the Lutheran (Augsburg) faith among the German population, and then, increasingly the Calvinist (Reformed) faith, penetrates our territory even through the Unity of Brethren. Its spread was aided by the discovery of printing, by humanism and the fact that Czech students went to study in renowned German, Swiss and Dutch universities in increasingly greater numbers. These universities formed much of the Protestant elite prior to the Battle of White Mountain. Lutheran reformation in Bohemia brought strife into the Utraquists ranks. Traditional Utraquists were more and more inclined to the Roman Church and mostly observed the old rules and traditions. Conversely, many others were captivated by the new wave of reformist ideas and accepted not only Martin Luther but also Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer and John Calvin. Current historiography therefore divides Utraquists into the “Old-Utraquists” and the reformed “New-Utraquists” who seek to be ordained among Lutherans abroad. The imperial charter of the Emperor Rudolf II. on religious freedom for non- Catholic population (in 1609) allows the existence of the Lutheran Church and the emergence of the Evangelical churches of the early Baroque period on our territory. The Thirty Years’ War, however, is only 9 years away...

Brothers in exile

The Baroque style and culture was actually brought into the Czech lands  with the onset of recatholization. The invitation of the Society of Jesus (also known as the Jesuits) into our territory in 1556 was a milestone in this process. This religious order with their military discipline and organization was selected by the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent (Trento in Italian) as the main tool of recatholization in Europe. The Jesuit schools were attractive particularly for the emphasis on the teaching of natural sciences and classical languages (which was the gateway to political, commercial and military career). These schools were open mainly to the noble young men, and thus many decades educated “its” elite, which for a long time unnoticeably grew. Young Protestants, who were also allowed to attend these schools, did not find it difficult to convert to the Catholic faith and to fight for the Catholic Church, religious reverence to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and other elements of the Catholic piety.

The arrival of the Jesuits was a serious problem for the Czech Protestants. The Jesuit teaching easily overshadowed all Utraquist and Brethren Church education – it even had an impact on John Amos Comenius. The Jesuit Fathers also had a distinct influence on the Catholic nobility. Finally, the Jesuits restored the polemical fight against all those who did not accept the traditional Old-Utraquist piety, especially against the Brethren Church and the Lutherans. After an unsuccessful uprising of the Protestants in Bohemia against the Emperor Ferdinand, and the Battle of White Mountain, comes an era of recatholizing the country by all means. In the ongoing conflict of the Thirty Years’ War, many of the Evangelists hiding underground still hope for a military turnaround. The next waves of recatholization and the departure of those who refused to convert to Catholicism come about after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which applies the new hundred year principle of “Whose realm, his religion” (“Cuius regio, eius religio” in Latin). About 30 000 Protestant families had to leave the country.

We can mention Karel Škréta as an example from the field of painting who surrendered to recatholization and Jan Kupecký as an example of a painter who left the country. John Amos Comenius became the most famous Czech in exile. He was the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren and became famous in the world primarily for his teaching (language textbooks) and his encyclopedic work. His writings showed the future Age of Enlightenment and the current emotionally arisen Baroque piety. Secret Protestantism survived, despite all the efforts of recatholization, in less accessible regions of Wallachia, Vysočina and Eastern Bohemia, until the issuance of the Patent of Toleration. Secret preachers and disseminators of books maintained contacts between the Czech secret Evangelicals and Reformation Europe. The paths of these preachers and distributors of books were hidden - they often led in parallel along the main commercial and administrative routes, and many times were called “The Heretic girls”.

Cardinal Ernst Adalbert von Harrach and his close associate, a native of Milan - Valerian Magni, disagreed with the forcible expulsion and persecution of non-Catholics. Valerian Magni even publicly spoke out against inhumane treatment of non-Catholics and the monopoly of the Jesuit order. For his attitude - he was indicted and imprisoned in Rome. He died in Salzburg a year after his release.

Ecstatic Baroque

Recatholization gets a huge boost at the beginning of the 18th century after the canonization of John of Nepomuk, whose cult became a tool to overlap the memory of Jan Hus, and to cling the nation to the Catholic Church. Magnificent works of the Czech Baroque (especially by Jan Santini Aichel, the Dientzenhofer family of builders and others) grow with the spread of the veneration of St. John of Nepomuk.

Baroque art brings arisen emotions, dynamism, passion, goes against rationality and order and returns to the unpredictable nature in an effort to capture life in its dynamic transformation. It tries to capture the turbulent state of a doubtful soul - looking to God. Architecture should have a touch of God’s Majesty through the tangible world. Baroque turns to the masses and offers to interconnect the materiál excess, seduction and pathos and to “sanctify” faith risen by emotions. Interest is growing in rhetoric and theater. Frescoed domes passing into the heavenly heights, turbulent lines, restless open shapes, optical illusions and asymmetry return to architecture. Baroque man wanted to have strong experiences, to travel into endless distance. Outside conviction is more important than rational truth; illusion took over the role of evidence. (Author of the Jesuit church Il - Gesu Andrea Pozzo - in his work Perspective “Illusionary elements must have a real effect, i.e. to fool the eye. I even remember that I saw people who wanted to climb the stairs and realized their mistake only when they touched the stairs with their own fingers. “) Every region and many villages in Bohemia and Moravia were influenced by the Baroque architectural monuments and the tradition of religious pilgrimages, which on our territory, especially in previously non-Catholic areas, spread the Catholic spirituality.

Baroque emotional piety also reflects in the so called Protestant pietistical piety, especially in the Lutheran environment. Many books, catechisms and prayer books are printed in Halle, Germany, and secretly smuggled into Bohemia. Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf with renewed devotion founded the renewed Unity of Brethren Church in the city of Herrnhut (in Saxony). Pietism, with the criticism of the “Sunday Christianity” and its lengthy focus on finding the right definition of faith at the expense of the practical Christian life, brings into the Christian world an element of the regular reading of the Bible and common prayer meetings at home, and later in the parishes.