"More Glory than Blood": Murder and Martyrdom in the Hussite Crusades

Abstract

In 1418 Pope Martin V urged the ecclesiastical hierarchy in east-central Europe to proceed against the Hussite heretics in all possible manner to bring their dissent to an end. Two years later a formal bull of crusade was proclaimed and the cross was preached against the recalcitrant Czechs. The story of the crusades which convulsed Bohemia for a dozen years is well known. Five times the cross was preached, crusade banners hoisted and tens of thousands of crusaders poured across the Czech frontier with one pre-eminent goal: to eradicate the scourge of heresy.