The Hussite Chronicle is the most important single narrative source for the events of the early Hussite movement. The author is Laurence of Březová (c.1370–c.1437), a member of the Czech lower nobility and a supporter of the Hussite creed. The movement arose as an initiative for religious and social reform in fifteenth-century Bohemia and was energized by the burning of the priest Jan Hus in 1415. Church and empire attempted to suppress the movement and raised five crusades against the dissenters. The chronicle offers to history and scholarship a nuanced understanding of what can be regarded as an essential component for a proper understanding of late medieval religion. It is also a considered account of aspects of the later crusades. This is the first English-language translation of the chronicle.
The religious reformation in fifteenth century Bohemia was also a social, political, and cultural revolution - the first of the great upheavals that transformed the medieval into the modern world. Beginning with a revival of evangelical pietism among the people of Prague, then coming under the leadership of the Czech intelligentsia of Prague's university, the reform movement reached its highest point under Master John Hus, who fused the fervor of pietism with the systematic political program developed by the English reformer John Wyclif. When Hus passed from the scene by submitting himself to the Council of Constance, leadership of the movement was taken up by the more radical Jakoubek of Stribro - pioneer of what was to become Hussitism's most characteristic practice, lay communion in both kinds (utraquism). At the same time, the propagation of the reform by Jakoubek's disciples among the townsmen and peasantry of the realm balanced the more conservative tendencies of the university masters and the Hussite feudality; by 1417 the Hussite movement was an uneasy coalition of religio-political tendencies ranging from extreme conservatism to Waldensian sectarianism. Out of the interplay among the Hussite parties and their various reactions to the pressures from Pope and Emporer there emerged two main types of reformation - one centered in Prague, the other in Tabor. Both were condemned by the Roman church, but the movement in Prague, less extreme, never ceased to hope for a reversal of that decision. Tabor, on the other hand, went all the way to heresy, schism, and revolution, ending with the form of the autonomous congregational community, organized as a city-state, in 'de facto' secession from the medieval order. Religious reformism, sectarian heresy of every sort, national passions, class hatreds, laicization, and anticlericalism - all the disturbing factors at work in late-medieval Europe came together in the Hussite revolution, which provided examples of virtually every form of change with which Europe would be concerned for the next three centuries.
"The Hussites (Czech: Husité or Kališníci; "Chalice People") were a Christian movement following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus (c. 1369?1415), who became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. This predominantly religious movement was propelled by social issues and strengthened Czech national awareness."--Wikipedia.
An illustrated study of the fighting men of the Hussite Wars in 15th-century Bohemia, a significant transition point in medieval history. In 1415, the judicial murder of the religious reformer Jan Hus sparked a major uprising in Bohemia. His death led within a few years to the 'Hussite' revolution against the monarchy, the German aristocracy and the Church establishment. In this book, Stephen Turnbull examines how the largely peasant Hussite armies successfully defied a series of international 'crusades' for two decades. He details how the Hussites owed many of their victories to the charismatic general Jan Zizka, and his novel tactical methods based on the use of 'war wagons'. Fully illustrated with archive photography and specially commissioned colour artwork, this book investigates a remarkable episode in medieval warfare, which is remembered not only as the Czech national epic, but as an important forerunner to the wars of the Reformation the following century.
In For the Common Good: The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution Jeanne E. Grant presents an interpretation of the mentality of leading nobles within the Czech kingdom to understand their political actions in the Hussite Revolution. The nobles’ viewpoint derived from a confluence of legal, political, and religious ideas. Analyzing these ideas in the law book written by Ondřej z Dubé, manifestos, and political documents, Jeanne E. Grant shows that both Hussite and Catholic representatives of the kingdom who participated in the revolution adhered to consistent and widespread conceptions of their relationship to the kingdom, crown, and king that compelled them to defend the common good as they understood it.
The Magnificent Ride examines the social and religious dimensions of the Hussite revolutionary movement in 15th-century Bohemia. It argues that ’the magnificent ride’ was, in fact, the first reformation, and not merely a precursor to the reformations of the 16th century. The religious revival which had begun in Prague in the later middle ages reached its zenith in the period between Jan Hus and the Council of Basel. This book reconstructs the Hussite myth and shows how that myth evolved into the historical phenomenon of heresy. Acts of heretical practice in Bohemia, condemnation of Jan Hus, defiance of ecclesiastical authority and attempts by the official church to deal with the dissenters are fascinating chapters in the history of late medieval Europe.
This is a history of the Bohemian revolution in 1419. It is more of a political history of the events that led up to the Hussite War, the war itself, and the process by which it ended.
