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(Redirected from Hussites)
The 'Hussites' comprised a Christian movement following the teachings of the reformer Jan Hus (circa 1369–1415), who was influenced by John Wyclif and became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. This predominantly religious movement was also propelled by social issues and strengthened the Czech national self-awareness. Among present-day Christians its traditions are represented in churches which call themselves Moravian or Unity of the Brethren churches, and in the refounded Czechoslovak Hussite Church.[1]
The arrest of Hus in 1414 had excited considerable resentment in Bohemia and Moravia. In both countries the estates appealed repeatedly and urgently to Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor to release Hus.
On the arrival of the news of his death at the Council of Constance in 1415, disturbances broke out which were directed at first against the clergy, especially against the monks. Even the archbishop saved himself with
difficulty from the rage of the populace. In the country conditions were not much better.
Everywhere the treatment of Hus was felt as a disgrace inflicted upon the whole country, and his death was looked upon as a criminal act. King Wenceslaus, prompted by his grudge against Sigismund, at first gave free vent to his indignation at the course of events in Constance; and his wife openly favored the friends of Hus. Pronounced Hussites stood at the head of the government. A league was formed by certain lords who pledged themselves to protect the free preaching of the Gospel upon all their possessions and estates, and to obey the power of the bishops only where their orders accorded with the injunctions of the Bible.
In disputed points the decision of the university should be resorted to. The entire Hussite nobility
joined the league, and if the king had entered it,
its resolutions would have received the sanction of
the law; but he refused, and approached the Roman
Catholic League of lords, which was now formed, the members pledging themselves to support the king, the Roman Church, and the Council. Signs of the outbreak of a civil war began to show. Pope Martin V, who, while still Cardinal Otto of Colonna, had attacked Hus with relentless severity, energetically resumed the battle against Hus's teaching after the enactments of the Council of Constance. He intended to eradicate completely the doctrine of Hus. For this purpose the co-operation of King Wenceslaus had to be obtained. In
1418 Sigismund succeeded in winning his brother
over to the standpoint of the council by pointing
out the inevitability of a religious war if the
heretics in Bohemia found further protection.
Hussite statesmen and army leaders had to leave
the country, and Roman priests were reinstituted.
These measures caused a general commotion which
hastened the death of Wenceslaus by a paralytic
stroke in 1419. His heir was Sigismund.
Hussism had organized itself during the years
1415-1419. From the beginning two parties were
found: the closer adherents of Hus clung to his standpoint, leaving the whole hierarchical and liturgical order of the Church untouched; the radical
party identified itself more boldly with
the doctrines of John Wyclif, shared his passionate hatred of the monastic clergy, and, like him, attempted to lead the Church back to its supposed condition during the time of the apostles, which necessitated the removal of the existing hierarchy and the secularization of ecclesiastical possessions. The radicals among the Hussites sought to translate their theories into
reality; they preached the ''sufficientia legis Christi''-- that only the divine law (i.e., the Bible) is the rule and
canon for man, and that not only in ecclesiastical
matters, but also in political and civil matters.
They rejected therefore, as early as 1416, everything
that they believed had no basis in the Bible, such as the veneration of
saints and images, fasts, superfluous holidays, the
oath, intercession for the dead, auricular confession,
indulgences, the sacraments of Confirmation and
the Anointing of the Sick; they admitted laymen and women to
the preacher's office, and chose their own priests. But
before everything they clung to Wyclif's doctrine
of the Lord's Supper, denying transubstantiation,
and this is the principal point by which they are
distinguished from the moderate party.
The program of the more conservative Hussites
is contained in the four articles of Prague, which
were agreed upon in July, 1420, and
promulgated in the Latin, Czech, and
German languages:
#Freedom to preach the Word of God.
#Celebration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds (bread and wine to priests and laity alike).
#No profane power for the clergy.
#The same law for laity and priests.
(Please note that this is only a widely accepted abbreviation - the full text of the four articles is about two pages long.)
The views of the moderate Hussites were
represented at the university and among the citizens of
Prague; therefore they were called
the Prague party; they were also
called Calixtines or Utraquists, because
they emphasized the second article,
and the chalice became their emblem.
The radicals had their gathering-place
in the small town of Usti, on the river Luznice,
south of Prague. But as the place was not
defensible, they founded a city upon a neighboring hill,
which they named Tábor (after the traditional name of the mountain on which Jesus was expected to return; see Mark 13); hence they were called
Taborites. They comprised the essential force of
Hussism. Their aim was to destroy the enemies
of the law of God, and to extend his kingdom by
the sword. For the latter purpose they waged
bloody wars, for the former purpose they established
a strict jurisdiction, inflicting the severest
punishment not only upon heinous crimes like murder and
adultery, but also upon faults like perjury and
usury, and tried to apply the conditions required
in the law of God to the social relations of the world.
The Taborites usually had the support of the Oberites, a sect of Hussitism set in eastern Bohemia and based in Hradec Kralove.
Main articles: Hussite Wars
The news of the death of King Wenceslaus produced the greatest commotion among the people of Prague. A revolution swept over the country; churches and monasteries were destroyed, and the ecclesiastical possessions were seized by the Hussite nobility. Sigismund could get possession of his kingdom only by force of arms. Pope Martin V called upon all Christians of the Occident to take up arms against the Hussites, and there followed twelve years of warfare. The Hussites initially campaigned defensively, but after 1427 they assumed the offensive. Apart from their religious aims, they fought for the national interests
of the Czechs. The moderate and radical parties were united and they not only repelled the attacks of the army of crusaders, but entered the neighboring
countries. Though the Hussites had many successes, their movement in Bohemia was ended at the Battle of Lipany in 1434 where the moderate Hussite faction, the Utraquists, defeated the more radical faction, the Taborites. However, the Hussite movement would continue in Poland for another five years until the Royalist forces of Poland defeated the Polish Hussites at the Battle of Grotniki.
In 1430, Joan of Arc dictated a letter[2] on 23 March that threatened to lead a crusading army against the Hussites unless they returned to the Catholic Faith; but her capture by English and Burgundian troops two months later would keep her from carrying out this threat.
Eventually the opponents of the Hussites found themselves forced to consider an amicable settlement. They invited a Bohemian embassy to appear at the Council of Basel. The
discussions began on January 10, 1432, centering chiefly
in the four articles of Prague. No agreement emerged. After repeated negotiations between the Basel Council and Bohemia, a Bohemian-Moravian state assembly in Prague accepted the
''Compacta'' of Prague on November 30, 1433. The agreement granted communion in both kinds to all who desired it, but with the understanding that Christ was entirely present in each kind. Free preaching was granted conditionally: the Church hierarchy had to approve and place priests, and the power of the bishop must be considered. The article which prohibited the secular power of the clergy was almost reversed.
The Taborites refused to conform, and the Calixtines united with the Roman Catholics and destroyed the Taborites in a battle near Lipany (May 30, 1434). From that time the Taborites lost their importance. The state assembly of Jihlava in 1436 confirmed the ''Compactata'' and gave them the sanction of law. This accomplished the reconciliation of Bohemia with Rome and the Western Church, and now Sigismund first obtained possession of the Bohemian crown. His reactionary measures caused a ferment in the whole country, but he died in 1437. The state assembly in Prague rejected Wyclif's doctrine of the Lord's Supper, which was obnoxious to the Utraquists, as heresy in 1444. Most of the Taborites now went over to the party of the
Utraquists; the rest joined the "Brothers of the Law of Christ" (''Unitas Fratrum'' in the Latin) (see Unity of the Brethren; also Bohemian Brethren and Moravians).
The Utraquists had retained hardly anything of
the doctrines of Hus except communion in both
kinds. In 1462 Pope Pius II declared the
''Compactata'' null and void, prohibited
communion in both kinds, and
acknowledged George of Podebrady as
king under the condition that he would
promise an unconditional harmony
with the Roman Church. This he refused, but his
successor, King Vladislaus II, favored the Roman
Catholics and proceeded against some zealous
clergymen of the Calixtines. The troubles of the
Utraquists increased from year to year. In 1485, at the
diet of Kutná Hora, an agreement between the
Roman Catholics and Utraquists was obtained
which lasted for thirty-one years. But it was
considerably later, at the diet of 1512, that the equal
rights of both religions were permanently
established. Luther's appearance was hailed by the
Utraquist clergy, and Martin Luther himself was astonished to find so many points of agreement between the
doctrines of Hus and his own. But not all Utraquists
approved of the German Reformation; a schism
arose among them, and many returned to the
Roman doctrine, while other elements had long
before joined the ''Unitas Fratrum''. Under
Maximilian II, the Bohemian state assembly established
the ''Confessio Bohemica, '' upon which Lutherans,
Reformed, and Bohemian Brethren agreed. From
that time Hussism began to die out; but it was - for a time - completely eradicated only after the battle of the White Mountain (November 8, 1620) and the Roman Catholic reaction which fundamentally changed the ecclesiastical conditions of Bohemia and Moravia.
Today the Czechoslovak Hussite Church claims to be the modern successor of the Hussite tradition.
The Hussite Bible, a Hungarian Bible translation named so after the Czech-influenced orthography imported by Hungarian followers of Hus.
1. Nĕmec, Ludvík (1975) ''The Czechoslovak heresy and schism: the emergence of a national Czechoslovak church'' American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, ISBN 0-87169-651-7
2. Joan of Arc Letter of 23 March 1430
★ Ondřej, Brodu (1980) ''Traktát mistra Ondřeje z Brodu o původu husitů = Visiones Ioannis, archiepiscopi Pragensis, et earundem explicaciones (alias Tractatus de origine Hussitarum)'' Muzem husitského revolučního hnutí, Tábor, OCLC 28333729 in Latin with introduction in Czech
★ Mathies, Christiane (1978) ''Kurfürstenbund und Königtum in der Zeit der Hussitenkriege: die kurfürstliche Reichspolitik gegen Sigmund im Kraftzentrum Mittelrhein'' Selbstverlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, Mainz, OCLC 05410832 in German
★ Bezold, Friedrich von (1978) ''König Sigmund und die Reichskriege gegen die Husiten'' G. Olms, Hildesheim, ISBN 3-487-05967-3 in German
★ Denis, Ernest (1978) ''Huss et la Guerre des Hussites'' AMS Press, New York, ISBN 0-404-16126-X in French
★ Macek, Josef (1973) ''Jean Hus et les Traditions Hussites: XVe-XIXe siècles'' Plon, Paris, OCLC 905875 in French
★ Hussites - God's warriors, in Czech
★ Notes on the Hussite movement and links to primary sources, from Kenyon college
★ The Hussite Era, from Radio Prague's History Online feature
★ Article on the Hussites from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1917 edition)
★ Hussite War-wagons, presenting detailed information about the Hussites' most characteristic tactic, by Matthew Haywood
★ Letter to the Hussites dictated by Joan of Arc on 23 March 1430, translated by Allen Williamson.
★ Short article on the Hussites, from the University of Calgary's 'The End of Europe's Middle Ages'
★ Article on the Tactics of the Hussites
The 'Hussites' comprised a Christian movement following the teachings of the reformer Jan Hus (circa 1369–1415), who was influenced by John Wyclif and became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. This predominantly religious movement was also propelled by social issues and strengthened the Czech national self-awareness. Among present-day Christians its traditions are represented in churches which call themselves Moravian or Unity of the Brethren churches, and in the refounded Czechoslovak Hussite Church.[1]
Effect in Bohemia of the Death of Hus
Recreation of Hussite shield from an original in the Museum of Prague
The arrest of Hus in 1414 had excited considerable resentment in Bohemia and Moravia. In both countries the estates appealed repeatedly and urgently to Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor to release Hus.
On the arrival of the news of his death at the Council of Constance in 1415, disturbances broke out which were directed at first against the clergy, especially against the monks. Even the archbishop saved himself with
difficulty from the rage of the populace. In the country conditions were not much better.
Everywhere the treatment of Hus was felt as a disgrace inflicted upon the whole country, and his death was looked upon as a criminal act. King Wenceslaus, prompted by his grudge against Sigismund, at first gave free vent to his indignation at the course of events in Constance; and his wife openly favored the friends of Hus. Pronounced Hussites stood at the head of the government. A league was formed by certain lords who pledged themselves to protect the free preaching of the Gospel upon all their possessions and estates, and to obey the power of the bishops only where their orders accorded with the injunctions of the Bible.
In disputed points the decision of the university should be resorted to. The entire Hussite nobility
joined the league, and if the king had entered it,
its resolutions would have received the sanction of
the law; but he refused, and approached the Roman
Catholic League of lords, which was now formed, the members pledging themselves to support the king, the Roman Church, and the Council. Signs of the outbreak of a civil war began to show. Pope Martin V, who, while still Cardinal Otto of Colonna, had attacked Hus with relentless severity, energetically resumed the battle against Hus's teaching after the enactments of the Council of Constance. He intended to eradicate completely the doctrine of Hus. For this purpose the co-operation of King Wenceslaus had to be obtained. In
1418 Sigismund succeeded in winning his brother
over to the standpoint of the council by pointing
out the inevitability of a religious war if the
heretics in Bohemia found further protection.
Hussite statesmen and army leaders had to leave
the country, and Roman priests were reinstituted.
These measures caused a general commotion which
hastened the death of Wenceslaus by a paralytic
stroke in 1419. His heir was Sigismund.
Two Parties in Bohemia
Hussism had organized itself during the years
1415-1419. From the beginning two parties were
found: the closer adherents of Hus clung to his standpoint, leaving the whole hierarchical and liturgical order of the Church untouched; the radical
party identified itself more boldly with
the doctrines of John Wyclif, shared his passionate hatred of the monastic clergy, and, like him, attempted to lead the Church back to its supposed condition during the time of the apostles, which necessitated the removal of the existing hierarchy and the secularization of ecclesiastical possessions. The radicals among the Hussites sought to translate their theories into
reality; they preached the ''sufficientia legis Christi''-- that only the divine law (i.e., the Bible) is the rule and
canon for man, and that not only in ecclesiastical
matters, but also in political and civil matters.
They rejected therefore, as early as 1416, everything
that they believed had no basis in the Bible, such as the veneration of
saints and images, fasts, superfluous holidays, the
oath, intercession for the dead, auricular confession,
indulgences, the sacraments of Confirmation and
the Anointing of the Sick; they admitted laymen and women to
the preacher's office, and chose their own priests. But
before everything they clung to Wyclif's doctrine
of the Lord's Supper, denying transubstantiation,
and this is the principal point by which they are
distinguished from the moderate party.
The Four Articles of Prague
The program of the more conservative Hussites
is contained in the four articles of Prague, which
were agreed upon in July, 1420, and
promulgated in the Latin, Czech, and
German languages:
#Freedom to preach the Word of God.
#Celebration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds (bread and wine to priests and laity alike).
#No profane power for the clergy.
#The same law for laity and priests.
(Please note that this is only a widely accepted abbreviation - the full text of the four articles is about two pages long.)
Calixtines or Utraquists, and Taborites
The views of the moderate Hussites were
represented at the university and among the citizens of
Prague; therefore they were called
the Prague party; they were also
called Calixtines or Utraquists, because
they emphasized the second article,
and the chalice became their emblem.
The radicals had their gathering-place
in the small town of Usti, on the river Luznice,
south of Prague. But as the place was not
defensible, they founded a city upon a neighboring hill,
which they named Tábor (after the traditional name of the mountain on which Jesus was expected to return; see Mark 13); hence they were called
Taborites. They comprised the essential force of
Hussism. Their aim was to destroy the enemies
of the law of God, and to extend his kingdom by
the sword. For the latter purpose they waged
bloody wars, for the former purpose they established
a strict jurisdiction, inflicting the severest
punishment not only upon heinous crimes like murder and
adultery, but also upon faults like perjury and
usury, and tried to apply the conditions required
in the law of God to the social relations of the world.
The Taborites usually had the support of the Oberites, a sect of Hussitism set in eastern Bohemia and based in Hradec Kralove.
The Hussite Wars
Main articles: Hussite Wars
The news of the death of King Wenceslaus produced the greatest commotion among the people of Prague. A revolution swept over the country; churches and monasteries were destroyed, and the ecclesiastical possessions were seized by the Hussite nobility. Sigismund could get possession of his kingdom only by force of arms. Pope Martin V called upon all Christians of the Occident to take up arms against the Hussites, and there followed twelve years of warfare. The Hussites initially campaigned defensively, but after 1427 they assumed the offensive. Apart from their religious aims, they fought for the national interests
of the Czechs. The moderate and radical parties were united and they not only repelled the attacks of the army of crusaders, but entered the neighboring
countries. Though the Hussites had many successes, their movement in Bohemia was ended at the Battle of Lipany in 1434 where the moderate Hussite faction, the Utraquists, defeated the more radical faction, the Taborites. However, the Hussite movement would continue in Poland for another five years until the Royalist forces of Poland defeated the Polish Hussites at the Battle of Grotniki.
In 1430, Joan of Arc dictated a letter[2] on 23 March that threatened to lead a crusading army against the Hussites unless they returned to the Catholic Faith; but her capture by English and Burgundian troops two months later would keep her from carrying out this threat.
The Council of Basel and Compacta of Prague
Eventually the opponents of the Hussites found themselves forced to consider an amicable settlement. They invited a Bohemian embassy to appear at the Council of Basel. The
discussions began on January 10, 1432, centering chiefly
in the four articles of Prague. No agreement emerged. After repeated negotiations between the Basel Council and Bohemia, a Bohemian-Moravian state assembly in Prague accepted the
''Compacta'' of Prague on November 30, 1433. The agreement granted communion in both kinds to all who desired it, but with the understanding that Christ was entirely present in each kind. Free preaching was granted conditionally: the Church hierarchy had to approve and place priests, and the power of the bishop must be considered. The article which prohibited the secular power of the clergy was almost reversed.
The Taborites refused to conform, and the Calixtines united with the Roman Catholics and destroyed the Taborites in a battle near Lipany (May 30, 1434). From that time the Taborites lost their importance. The state assembly of Jihlava in 1436 confirmed the ''Compactata'' and gave them the sanction of law. This accomplished the reconciliation of Bohemia with Rome and the Western Church, and now Sigismund first obtained possession of the Bohemian crown. His reactionary measures caused a ferment in the whole country, but he died in 1437. The state assembly in Prague rejected Wyclif's doctrine of the Lord's Supper, which was obnoxious to the Utraquists, as heresy in 1444. Most of the Taborites now went over to the party of the
Utraquists; the rest joined the "Brothers of the Law of Christ" (''Unitas Fratrum'' in the Latin) (see Unity of the Brethren; also Bohemian Brethren and Moravians).
Disappearance of the Hussites
The Utraquists had retained hardly anything of
the doctrines of Hus except communion in both
kinds. In 1462 Pope Pius II declared the
''Compactata'' null and void, prohibited
communion in both kinds, and
acknowledged George of Podebrady as
king under the condition that he would
promise an unconditional harmony
with the Roman Church. This he refused, but his
successor, King Vladislaus II, favored the Roman
Catholics and proceeded against some zealous
clergymen of the Calixtines. The troubles of the
Utraquists increased from year to year. In 1485, at the
diet of Kutná Hora, an agreement between the
Roman Catholics and Utraquists was obtained
which lasted for thirty-one years. But it was
considerably later, at the diet of 1512, that the equal
rights of both religions were permanently
established. Luther's appearance was hailed by the
Utraquist clergy, and Martin Luther himself was astonished to find so many points of agreement between the
doctrines of Hus and his own. But not all Utraquists
approved of the German Reformation; a schism
arose among them, and many returned to the
Roman doctrine, while other elements had long
before joined the ''Unitas Fratrum''. Under
Maximilian II, the Bohemian state assembly established
the ''Confessio Bohemica, '' upon which Lutherans,
Reformed, and Bohemian Brethren agreed. From
that time Hussism began to die out; but it was - for a time - completely eradicated only after the battle of the White Mountain (November 8, 1620) and the Roman Catholic reaction which fundamentally changed the ecclesiastical conditions of Bohemia and Moravia.
Today the Czechoslovak Hussite Church claims to be the modern successor of the Hussite tradition.
See Also
The Hussite Bible, a Hungarian Bible translation named so after the Czech-influenced orthography imported by Hungarian followers of Hus.
Notes
1. Nĕmec, Ludvík (1975) ''The Czechoslovak heresy and schism: the emergence of a national Czechoslovak church'' American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, ISBN 0-87169-651-7
2. Joan of Arc Letter of 23 March 1430
References
★ Ondřej, Brodu (1980) ''Traktát mistra Ondřeje z Brodu o původu husitů = Visiones Ioannis, archiepiscopi Pragensis, et earundem explicaciones (alias Tractatus de origine Hussitarum)'' Muzem husitského revolučního hnutí, Tábor, OCLC 28333729 in Latin with introduction in Czech
★ Mathies, Christiane (1978) ''Kurfürstenbund und Königtum in der Zeit der Hussitenkriege: die kurfürstliche Reichspolitik gegen Sigmund im Kraftzentrum Mittelrhein'' Selbstverlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, Mainz, OCLC 05410832 in German
★ Bezold, Friedrich von (1978) ''König Sigmund und die Reichskriege gegen die Husiten'' G. Olms, Hildesheim, ISBN 3-487-05967-3 in German
★ Denis, Ernest (1978) ''Huss et la Guerre des Hussites'' AMS Press, New York, ISBN 0-404-16126-X in French
★ Macek, Josef (1973) ''Jean Hus et les Traditions Hussites: XVe-XIXe siècles'' Plon, Paris, OCLC 905875 in French
External links
★ Hussites - God's warriors, in Czech
★ Notes on the Hussite movement and links to primary sources, from Kenyon college
★ The Hussite Era, from Radio Prague's History Online feature
★ Article on the Hussites from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1917 edition)
★ Hussite War-wagons, presenting detailed information about the Hussites' most characteristic tactic, by Matthew Haywood
★ Letter to the Hussites dictated by Joan of Arc on 23 March 1430, translated by Allen Williamson.
★ Short article on the Hussites, from the University of Calgary's 'The End of Europe's Middle Ages'
★ Article on the Tactics of the Hussites
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