Art and Propaganda in Hussite Bohemia

Abstract

During the later stages of its assembly, the Council of Constance received the complaint that pictures of Jan Hus were circulating in Bohemia. Táborite manifestos appeared in Basel during the Council and the holy fathers sought in vain for the pernicious culprit who nailed one shamelessly to a church door! At the height of the indulgence controversy in Prague, Voksa of Valdštejn and Jerome of Prague organized a procession in which a person rode on a beast dressed as a whore, bared breasts with bogus papal bulls. She was covered with little silver bells which rang with every movement like the church bells during Mass. Imitating the enticing sales-talk of perhaps both the indulgence vendors and the ladies of the night, the indulgences were offered to the crowd who roared their approval and delight. With wicked leers and lewd gestures the whore blessed the people as if she were pope. As the procession passed the palace of the archbishop the mob, in one accord, shouted that the bulls and indulgences belonged to renegades and heretics. The parade wound its way to the New Town where the bulls were burnt. These three events are all examples of propaganda in the Hussite movement. I am using the term propaganda simply as the deliberate effort to shape perceptions and understandings toward a particular behavior which promotes a pre-conceived idea. The relevant question, then, is: How did the radical Hussites spread their ideas at the popular level? It is too simplistic to assume that Hussite ideas were spread primarily by Hussite preachers. While there was indeed widespread popular preaching and sermonizing during the fifteenth century, there was also a fairly comprehensive propaganda program.