Heresy and Hussites in Late Medieval Europe

Abstract

Over the past twenty-five years my research has included investigations into the religious history of late medieval Bohemia. These inquiries have focused on the priest Jan Hus (1371-1415) and on the history of his followers between c. 1415 and c. 1500. Inasmuch as I have recently completed a three-volume study of the life and career of Hus, I have chosen not to include essays specifically about him in this book (essay IV being the partial exception). My preoccupation with Hussite history has taken into account the phenomenon of heresy, religious practice, theology, the social implications of Hussite religion, crusade, propaganda, memoria, and the nature of Hussite identity. ... It is altogether amazing what has survived given systematic efforts to destroy Hussite history after the Battle of the White Mountain outside Prague in 1620. While primary source lacunae exist, the scholar of Hussitica has a rich repository to explore. Heresy, even more than orthodox theology, cannot be studied as abstract ideas separated from the daily experiences of its adherents. The patterns of behavior which it encouraged and the relationships it created are as equally important as its theory. Heresy is both doctrinal innovation and social behavior. In many ways, heretofore unnoticed or unexplored, heresy was a subtle force in the formation of history generally, and Hussite Bohemia specifically, as this book shows, and it forms a riposte to the idea that medieval heresy is a study in the history of failure. The selection of essays has been guided by the desire to illuminate particular dimensions of heresy within Hussite history. I have been especially committed to investigating the nature and history of radical Hussite religious thought and practice associated with the community at Tábor in south Bohemia. The Táborites represented the greatest divergence from medieval Christianity and were the most troubling aspect of Hussite religion for the official church.