Pavel Soukup, Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS), Prague
Hussitism has been regarded by some historians as the last heretical movement of the Middle Ages, by others as part of the First Reformation. Such classifications depend crucially on how one judges the success of the Hussite revolt: did the Bohemian and Moravian rebels at least partially achieve their reformist goals, or did they end in resignation? The periodic re-actualisation of core religio-political demands by factions on the fringes of the movement may indicate a weakening of reformist momentum in the Hussite mainstream. However, such a vision hardly does justice to the historical importance of the protagonists of the Utraquist establishment, who ultimately ensured the survival of Hussitism as a practically independent confession. This lecture will attempt to capture the significance of the multifaceted radical Hussite groups against the backdrop of the conceptual debates surrounding the radical Reformation, including the Peasants’ War. Attention will be given to the means of communication through which Hussite ideologists were able to attract their following. Hostility to the Hussite version of religious and social reform will be identified as a key factor, for it was only the rejection by existing power structures that made a religious movement rebellious. The efficacy of anti-Hussite measures will also be examined, along with the contribution of anti-heretical policies to the outcome of the Hussite religious rebellion.
