The Hussites comprised a proto-ProtestantChristian movement, followers of Jan Hus. This predominantly religious movement was also propelled by social issues and strengthened the Czech national self-awareness.

Effect in Bohemia of the Death of Hus

The arrest of Hus had excited considerable resentment in Bohemia and Moravia. In both countries the estates appealed repeatedly and urgently to Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor to release Hus.

On the arrival of the news of his death at the Council of Constance in 1415, disturbances broke out which were directed at first against the clergy, especially against the monks. Even the archbishop saved himself withdifficulty from the rage of the populace. In the country conditions were not much better.

Everywhere the treatment of Hus was felt as a disgrace inflicted upon the whole country, and his death was looked upon as a criminal act. King Wenceslaus, prompted by his grudge against Sigismund, at first gave free vent to his indignation at the course of events in Constance; and his wife openly favored the friends of Hus. Pronounced Hussites stood at the head of the government. A league was formed by certain lords who pledged themselves to protect the free preaching of the Gospel upon all their possessions and estates, and to obey the power of the bishops only in case their orders accorded with the injunctions of the Bible.

In disputed points the decision of the university should be resorted to. The entire Hussite nobilityjoined the league, and if the king had entered it,its resolutions would have received the sanction ofthe law; but he refused, and approached the RomanCatholic League of lords, which was now formed, the members pledging themselves to cling to the king, the Roman Church, and the Council. Signs of the outbreak of a civil war began to show. Pope Martin V, who, while still Cardinal Otto of Colonna, had attacked Hus with relentless severity, energetically resumed the battle against Hus's teaching after the enactments of the Council of Constance. He intended to eradicate completely the doctrine of Hus. For this purpose the co-operation of King Wenceslaus had to be obtained. In1418 Sigismund succeeded in winning his brotherover to the standpoint of the council by pointingout the inevitability of a religious war if theheretics in Bohemia found further protection.Hussite statesmen and army leaders had to leavethe country, and Roman priests were reinstituted.These measures caused a general commotion whichhastened the death of Wenceslaus by a paralyticstroke in 1419. His heir was Sigismund.

Two Parties in Bohemia

Hussism had

The Four Articles of Prague

The program of the more conservative Hussitesis contained in the four articles of Prague, whichwere agreed upon in July, 1420, andpromulgated in the Latin, Czech, andGerman languages:

1. Freedom to preach the Word of God.
2. Celebration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds (bread and wine to priests and laity alike).
3. No profane power for the clergy.
4. The same law for laity and priests.

(Please note that this is only a widely accepted abbreviation - the full text of the four articles is about two pages long.)

Calixtines or Utraquists, and Taborites

The views of the moderate Hussites wererepresented at the university and among the citizens ofPrague; therefore they were calledthe Prague party; they were alsocalled Calixtines or Utraquists, becausethey emphasized the second article,and the chalice became their emblem.The radicals had their gathering-placein the small town of Usti, on the river Luznice,south of Prague. But as the place was notdefensible, they founded a city upon a neighboring hill,which they named Tábor (after the traditional name of the mountain on which Jesus was expected to return; see Mark 13); hence they were calledTaborites. They comprised the essential force ofHussism. Their aim was to destroy the enemiesof the law of God, and to extend his kingdom bythe sword. For the latter purpose they wagedbloody wars, for the former purpose they establisheda strict jurisdiction, inflicting the severestpunishment not only upon heinous crimes like murder andadultery, but also upon faults like perjury andusury, and tried to apply the conditions requiredin the law of God to the social relations of the world.

The Hussite Wars

The news of the death of King Wenceslaus produced the greatest commotion among the people ofPrague. A revolution swept over thecountry; churches and monasterieswere destroyed, and the ecclesiasticalpossessions were seized by the Hussitenobility.

In 1430, Joan of Arc dictated a March 23 that threatened to lead a crusading army against the Hussites unless they returned to the Catholic Faith; but her capture by English and Burgundian troops two months later would keep her from carrying out this threat.

The Council of Basel and Compacta of Prague

Eventually the opponents of the Hussites found themselves forced to consider an amicable settlement. They invited a Bohemian embassy to appear at the Council of Basel. Thediscussions began on January 10, 1432, centering chieflyin the four articles of Prague. No agreement emerged. After repeated negotiations between the Basel Council and Bohemia, a Bohemian-Moravian state assembly in Prague accepted the Compacta of Prague on November 30, 1433. The agreement granted communion in both kinds to all who desired it, but with the understanding that Christ was entirely present in each kind. Free preaching was granted conditionally: the Church hierarchy had to approve and place priests, and the power of the bishop must be considered. The article which prohibited the secular power of the clergy was almost reversed.

The Taborites refused to conform, and the Calixtines united with the Roman Catholics and destroyed the Taborites in a battle near Lipany (May 30, 1434). From that time the Taborites lost their importance. The state assembly of Jihlava in 1436 confirmed the Compactata and gave them the sanction of law. This accomplished the reconciliation of Bohemia with Rome and the Western Church, and now Sigismund first obtained possession of the Bohemian crown. His reactionary measures caused a ferment in the whole country, but he died in 1437. The state assembly in Prague rejected Wyclif's doctrine of the Lord's Supper, which was obnoxious to the Utraquists, as heresy in 1444. Most of the Taborites now went over to the party of the Utraquists; the rest joined the "Brothers of the Law of Christ" (Unitas Fratrum in the Latin)(see Unity of the Brethren; also Bohemian Brethren and Moravians).

Disappearance of the Hussites

The Utraquists had retained hardly anything ofthe doctrines of Hus except communion in bothkinds. In 1462 Pope Pius II declared theCompactata null and void, prohibitedcommunion in both kinds, and acknowledged George of Podebrady asking under the condition that he wouldpromise an unconditional harmonywith the Roman Church. This he refused, but hissuccessor, King Vladislaus II, favored the RomanCatholics and proceeded against some zealousclergymen of the Calixtines. The troubles of theUtraquists increased from year to year. In 1485, at thediet of Kutná Hora, an agreement between theRoman Catholics and Utraquists was obtainedwhich lasted for thirty-one years. But it wasconsiderably later, at the diet of 1512, that the equalrights of both religions were permanentlyestablished. Luther's appearance was hailed by theUtraquist clergy, and Martin Luther himself was astonished to find so many points of agreement between thedoctrines of Hus and his own. But not all Utraquistsapproved of the German Reformation; a schismarose among them, and many returned to theRoman doctrine, while other elements had longbefore joined the Unitas Fratrum. UnderMaximilian II, the Bohemian state assembly establishedthe Confessio Bohemica, upon which Lutherans,Reformed, and Bohemian Brethren agreed. Fromthat time Hussism began to die out; but it was - for a time - completely eradicated only after the battle of the White Mountain (November 8, 1620) and the Roman Catholic reaction which fundamentally changed the ecclesiastical conditions of Bohemia and Moravia.

Rebirth of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church

Astoundingly, the Hussite movement was to be reborn in the twentieth century as the Czechoslovak Hussite Church (Církev československá husitská - CCH). The Czechoslovak Hussite Church (until 1971 the Czechoslovak Church) was refounded in 1919 during the Christmas season, when for the first time in many Catholic churches the Divine service was celebrated in Czech rather than Latin - a move designed to outrage Czech hierarchy. Its forerunner was the Jednota (Union of the Catholic Czechoslovak Clergy), founded in 1890 to promote such reforms as use of the vernacular in the liturgy and voluntary clerical celibacy. Officially the Czechoslovak Hussite Church was reestablished on January 8, 1920 in Prague. Its founders, headed by ThDr. Karel Farský, who later became the new church´s first patriarch, belonged to the radical wing of the modernist reform movement of Roman Catholic clergy.

Relations between the Church and its fellow members of the ecumenical movement are cordial, but remained strained with the country's Roman Catholic leadership. The first female bishop of the Czechoslovak-Hussite church was elected to a 7-year term of office in April 1999. In January 1999, Catholic Archbishop Miloslav Vlk initially made a public statement of disapproval, warning against election of a woman to this position and saying that it would cause deterioration of ecumenical relations. Following criticism by the Czech-Hussite Church for interfering in their affairs, Vlk retracted his remarks later in January and stated that the Roman Catholic Church would exert no pressure against her election.

The Czech-Hussite Church accepted the Archbishop's apology.The Church is a member of the World Council of Churches, the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic, the Conference of European Churches, and the Leuenberg Community of Churches. The CHC has 180.000 adherents. In 307 congregations divided into five dioceses situated in Prague, Pilsen, Hradec Králové, Brno and Olomouc. There are approximately 266 priests in active ministry, of which 130 are women. Candidates of ministry are prepared at the Hussite Faculty of Theology at Charles University in Prague

This article includes content derived from the public domain Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914.

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