Europe (c.1400-1458)

34. Bohemia

170 Bohemia Vistula. Christian, a man superior to him in piety and justice, was chosen in his place and in our time has once again combined the three kingdoms into one. Gotland, too, which was once the abode and homeland of the Goths, is subject to his rule. 34 BOHEMIA 118. THE GEOGRAPHICAL order of places would now require me to take up the deeds of the Bohemians and describe their location , for they border the Saxons in the south. Many things of note have happened among them in the present age; many battles have been fought there and much blood spilled; cities have been razed to the ground, religion spurned and trampled upon. The heresy of the Hussites emerged; the madness of the Adamites sprang up; the armies of the Taborites and Orphans ran riot;401 the two thunderbolts of war, Žižka and Prokop, looted the country at their pleasure .402 Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague deceived the people and were finally burned at the stake at the great synod of Constance.403 Jacobellus, Koranda, Rokycana, and Peter the Englishman, all of them corruptors of the Gospel, were regarded as teachers of the 401. “Adamites” was a name attributed to a radical offshoot of the Hussites led by Martin Huska, who supposedly imitated Adam’s innocence by going naked and having sexual relations at will; their beliefs may have been fabricated by their enemies. The Taborites and Orphans were military wings of the Hussites; see Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus (London: E. Arnold, 1977). 402. Jan Žižka and Prokop Holý (i.e., the Bald) were military leaders of the Hussites. žižka (d. 1424), from the lesser nobility of southern Bohemia, rose to become a brilliant military leader of the Taborites (a peasant military wing of the Hussites) and continued to press for acceptance of Hus’s reforms after his death. He is known for the military innovation of mobile artillery; see Fudge, Crusade in Bohemia, and John Martin Klassen, “Hus, the Hussites, and Bohemia,” in CMH, vol. 7. For more on Aeneas’s impressions of the Hussites, see Howard Kaminsky, “Pius Aeneas among the Taborites,” Church History 28, no. 3 (1959): 281–309. 403. Reformers Jan Hus (1369–1415) and Jerome of Prague (c. 1365–1416)—not to be confused with John Jerome of Prague—were condemned and burned as heretics at the Council of Constance, despite assurances of protection from Emperor Sigismund. See para. 85. Centuries later, Pope John Paul II apologized for Hus’s death. Frisia 171 truth.404 Four kings were unable to eradicate the deadly venom: Wenceslas, Sigismund, Albert, and Ladislas (who is believed to have been poisoned to death there).405 Finally, George Podiebrad was made king, who is thought to be tainted with the Hussite stain, though in other respects he is a great man and famous for his deeds in war. But all these matters have been written up in the History of Bohemia, which I published recently.406 I have also described there, to the best of my ability, the topography of the region and its national customs. Therefore, whatever appears to be missing from the present work on the subject of Bohemia will have to be acquired from there. Continuing on the path I began, I will run through the countries of lower Germany and then return to its upper regions.407 35 FRISIA 119. THE FRISIANS, who live next to the ocean, border on Saxony to the east and Westphalia to the south; in the west they adjoin the territory of Utrecht (though the people of Utrecht, too, are alleged to be Frisians by many authors, including Otto, bishop of Freising , who wrote a history of Germany that is not without merit).408 Albert, bishop of Mainz, who built the monastery of Fulda, was killed by the Frisians and crowned with martyrdom while striving to convert them to Christianity.409 404.JacobellusofMiestookupandexpandedHus’sagendaattheUniversityofPrague following Hus’s death. Václav Koranda of Plzen was a radical Hussite preacher. Hussite priest Jan Rokycana (or Rokyzana) was named archbishop of Prague, but the pope never confirmed him. Oxford Wycliffite Peter Payne joined the faculty at Prague in 1418. 405. The Utraquists, a Hussite group who demanded communion in both forms, would continue to fight for recognition until they were granted full rights by the crown in 1485. On Ladislas’s death, see para. 10. 406. See Historia Bohemica, eds. Hejnic and Rothe. 407...