Hussite ::: Project ETERNITY

The Hussites comprised an early Protestant

Christian movement, followers of Jan Hus. This predominantly religious movement was also propelled by social issues and coincided to some extent with the first stages of the Czech national self-awareness.

Effect in Bohemia of the Death of Hus

The arrest of Hus 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 in case 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 cling to 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 sufcientia legis Christi-- 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 had no basis in the Bible, such as the adoration of

saints and images, fasts, superfluous holidays, the

oath, intercession for the dead, auricular confession,

indulgences, the sacraments of confirmation and

extreme unction, admitted laymen and women to

the preacher's office, 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:

(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 called Tabor; 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 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.

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 Iglau 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" (see Unity of the Brethren; also Bohemian Brethren and Moravians).

Final 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 Kuttenberg, 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

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.

Category:Protestantism

Category:Heretics

Copyrights