Hussites

I

Introduction

Hussites, followers of John Huss (Jan Hus) in Bohemia during the early 15th century, whose demands prefigured many elements of the Protestant Reformation. The agitation for Bohemian independence and Church reform began well before the burning of Huss at the Council of Constance in 1415. These goals, articulated in his teaching, became vital causes that inspired a national movement when he was martyred.

II

The Four Articles

Huss's supporters in Bohemia and neighbouring Moravia refused to accept the verdicts of Constance. Organized resistance was led by Jakoubek of Stribo, successor to Huss in Prague's Bethlehem Chapel. He drew up the Four Articles of Prague (1420), which demanded (1) the freedom of priests to preach from the Scriptures; (2) Holy Communion for the laity in both kinds, the cup (or chalice) as well as the bread (or host); (3) mandatory poverty of the clergy and the return of most Church lands to secular owners; (4) the prohibition of prostitution and the punishment of serious sinners.

III

Factions

As the Hussite movement evolved, it divided into moderate and radical factions. The moderates, called Utraquists (from the Latin word for “both”, referring to Communion in both kinds), or Calixtines (from the Latin word for “chalice”), essentially limited their demands to reform along the lines of the Four Articles. The radical faction, drawn mostly from the rural peasantry and poor, became known as Taborites (after Mount Tabor, their meeting place near Prague, which they named after the place of Christ's transfiguration). The Taborites called for the abolition of clerical vestments and the Latin liturgy and also attacked monarchy and the feudal system. Inspired by their millennarian beliefs, the Taborites and a similar group named the Horebites (after the biblical Mount Horeb) considered themselves invincible in battle.

IV

The Hussite Wars

Even before the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, king of the Hungarians, was crowned in 1419 as king of Bohemia, the Hussites in Bohemia had achieved virtual independence. Sigismund was determined to suppress them, but when Pope Martin V, with Sigismund's support, declared a crusade against them, the Hussites gave the invading armies several stunning defeats in the Hussite Wars. The Hussites at first fought only defensive battles under the leadership of John Zizka. Attempting to unify and solidify their position, Zizka suppressed dissidence throughout Bohemia and expelled thousands of anti-Hussite Germans from the country. After Zizka's death, his followers called themselves the Brotherhood of Orphans. Under Procopius the Great, Zizka's successor, the Bohemians won several more important defensive victories and then took the offensive, attacking Catholic strongholds in Slovakia, Silesia, and Lusatia.