Quam ecclesiam in honore sancta Marie Virginis intitulari volumus: Study on the Kłodzko Monastery of Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the Pre-Hussite Period by Pavel Otmar Krafl (review)

Since the Potsdam conference at the end of World War Two, Kłodzko has been part of Poland. In the Middle Ages, it belonged to the Kingdom of Bohemia (as Kladsko), though there were bitter conflicts because Poland also claimed the town. Modern Kłodzko lies ninety kilometres south of Wrocław, 150 kilometres north of Brno (the capital of Moravia), and 200 kilometres east and slightly north of Prague. These relevant details are absent from the book and the author takes for granted that Western readers are au fait with Central European geography. The volume could benefit from the inclusion of a map. Established formally on 25 March 1349, the Augustinian cloister emerged as a key font of culture in late medieval Central Europe and played a significant religious and political role in the history of Bohemia. Between the 1330s and the outbreak of the Hussite Revolution, the Canons Regular of St Augustine were a major influence in the Czech territories. These religious houses were centres of education and artistic achievement. For scholars of religious renewal it is worth noting that the Devotio moderna found receptive soil amongst the Augustinians. Czech bishops seemed to favour the order and many of the monasteries established in the Kingdom of Bohemia owe their foundations to episcopal influence. This slim volume seeks to emphasize the role of the Kłodzko canonry in the period leading up to the Hussite movement. Pavel Krafl is among the very best scholars equipped to deal with the topic, having established himself over the past twenty years as a leading scholar of Czech religious history, publishing numerous papers, essays, monographs, and editions in areas related to the present study. The bibliography lists no fewer than twenty-seven items from his pen.

In late medieval Czech history, the Hussite uprising forms a dividing line in the historiography. This is true of this book and its author adheres to that demarcation. The entire district of Kłodzko plays a role in the history of Hussites but that is not part of the present study. In the period between its foundation and the Hussite movement (c. 1350 to c. 1415) numerous conflicts involving the religious house and the community can be observed. Beyond these, extant records reveal numerous internal disputes that convulsed the Kłodzko canonry.

The book comprises a brief introduction, a substantial survey of sources, and relevant historiography including editions of monastic records, encyclopaedias, synthetic studies, monographs, and essays. This enables the reader to situate the present volume within the larger body of scholarship. This introduction is followed by chapters dealing with the foundation of the Augustinian house at Kłodzko, especially the role of Ernest of Pardubice, archbishop of Prague, an elaboration of the canonry and its sphere of operations, an explanation of the law of patronage and its relation to incorporated churches, a discussion of the important dispute with the Hospitaller commandery (Order of Saint John), and a delineation of the election of provosts in the pre-Hussite period, complemented with brief treatments addressing the jurisdiction of the provost and prior over members of the convent, and disputes between the Augustinian provost and the convent. One of the longer chapters deals with the confraternities of the convent followed by a prosopographical survey up to the Hussite period.

Krafl presents the reader with brief allusions to a number of particularly interesting and piquant notes from the sources. These include an archiepiscopal mandate against anyone wishing to attack the monastery or rob the Augustinians, and a decree issued by King Charles IV enlarging the judicial immunities enjoyed by the Kłodzko canonry. The most interesting element...