The 'Crown' and the 'Red Gown': Hussite Popular Religion

Abstract

"[After the execution of Jan Hus in 1415] ... the Bohemians and Moravians were filled with indignation and a number of priests both in Prague and throughout Bohemian and Moravian towns began to give the body and blood of Christ, under both kinds, to the ordinary people. They elevated the host in monstrances and it was customary for the multitudes of people to march behind the elevated host in praise to God. When the common people began to celebrate Holy Communion under both the elements of the body and blood of Christ, they were ridiculed as Husses, Wyclifites and heretics. Then the people were divided, both priests and laypeople, into two groups. There were many adherents to both sides. These two groups ridiculed and fought the other to such an extent that even the king was unable to prevent it." "All songs introduced in a prejudicial manner concerning the position of the holy council and the living Catholic Church, with regard to the Wyclifites and the Hussites or all songs commending the condemned heretics Jan Hus and Jerome, are prohibited in all cities, villages and towns, and whatever singing [of these songs] remains, is under severe penalty of punishment." The formation of Hussite religion was a multi-faceted ideological evolution occurring simultaneously within a social maze. Early ideas of reform from the learned world - the university in Prague and the pulpit of Bethlehem Chapel - were but one source fuelling the rise of Hussitism. The interpretation and appropriation of developing Hussite ideas in the backrooms of Prague taverns, in the marketplaces of rural Bohemian towns and amongst the peasants in the fields gave impetus to an equally important stimulation for the Czech Reformation. The convergence of marketplace discourse and tavern theology with university polemics and ecclesiastical preaching helped define the contours of Hussite religion.