The Magnificent Ride: The First Reformation in Hussite Bohemia

By the fifteenth century, most of the heretical movements of the previous centuries had been wiped out (Cathars) or marginalized (Waldensians). From the end of the Great Schism at the Council of Constance in 1415 to the Protestant Reformation one hundred years later, the only significant challenge to Latin Christianity in Europe occurred in Bohemia. In the early fifteenth century a Czech scholar and preacher named Jan Hus became the center of a group of Prague intellectuals who began espousing theories for which they would be condemned. Among the most controversial were worship and Bible translations into local vernacular languages, the offering of both the bread and wine to the laity during Communion, and the denial of the authority of priests to discipline lay people. After Hus was executed as a heretic at the Council of Constance, these religious ideas combined with Czech resentment of German imperialism to foment a general rebellion in Bohemia. After a series of military engagements, Bohemian Hussites were allowed to enact their religious ideas without interference from the papacy or German bishops and nobles. Viewed from the top down, the Hussite rebellion seems to indicate a general failure of Latin Christianity. Viewed from the bottom up, however, the event highlights the fundamental role of Christianity in European society. In this selection, Thomas A. Fudge explains how popular songs and slogans help us discover the beliefs of everyday people on both sides of the conflicts. Why does Fudge choose songs and slogans for his sources? What do they reveal that other sources do not?