The Bohemian Reformation

Reforms along the rivers

sources: I checked the details of this essay at the

Linen Hall Library Belfast, which has an section
devoted to religions, plus talked to representatives
of the Moravian church, other details were checked
out at the 'Institut für die Wissenschaft von
Menschen'. www.iwm.at in the Winter of 2001.
Gebrauchsanweisung für Tschechien by Jiri Gruza
also proved useful (ed) Some developments in
Austria made it necessary to put this story in our
library now. Some edits added in Belfast, in August
2010

“The spring pour forth in the shade of the Bohemian

forest – one warm and vivacious, the other cool and
peaceful. Their waves joins, and the forest brook,
bubbling on, becomes the Vlatva (Moldau). It flows
through dense woods then come the sounds of the
chase the hunter’s horn. It flows through pastures,
and lowl ands where a wedding is celebrated with
song and dance. At night, wood and water nymphs
revel in their sparkling waves and castles – witness
to a bygone chivalry – are reflected in its shimmering
surface. At the rapids it races ahead winding
through the rocky chasm into the broad river bed,
finally flowing in majestic calm towards Prague.”
Bedrich Smetana describing “Vlatva”, one of the six
symphonic poems form part of his cycle called “Ma
Vlast” (my homeland).
introduction
In August 2002, torrential rains for days made the
waters rise and the rivers flooded many towns in
Central Europe. It started at Passau then Salzburg
from there into Lower Austria to Vienna, from
Vienna along the Danube to Budapest and the
Black Sea, from Lower Austria to South Bohemia –
Budejowice (Budweis), Krumlov (Krumau) then
Prague, then along the Elbe towards the Saxony
towns Wittenberg, and Dresden. The damages were
considerable and much sorrow was caused as many
people lost their homes. Whilst Dresden,
Wittemberg, Budejovice stood under water,
Salzburg and Vienna themselves were spared by a
few inches. This prompted some fundamentalism to
make a dissertation whether this should be a sign
of God. Myself, I was in Vienna and witnessed the
breakdown of communication to Lower Austria, as I
had some acquaintances living there, and got some
news from Prague and Bohemia. In Vienna itself the
'Cemetary of the nameless' was flooded as was the
former concentration camp of 'Theresienstadt'.
Suddenly, it became clear how vulnerable our
historical archive has become. It has become clear
to think about religious and political tolerance.

One year on, this is the story of reforms along the

rivers. Our story starts in Hungary.
General outline
From Hungary, in the early middle ages, a devoted
man called Martin took to Tours in France and
opened a monastery to praise God. The monastic
movement accused the official Church of Rome of
venality and corruption, and wanted, following the
example of the Syrian Anachorets to bring piety in
religion. The official Church and clergy tolerated the
monastic movement but then conflicts arose and
many monastic movements were suspected of
heresy. The notion of heresy appeared in the 6th
century, when an Irish scholar called Pelagius
contradicted the mainstream creed by saying that
Man can defeat evil through willpower – the Church
replied to Pelagius quoting St Augustine that no
man can defeat evil through willpower because the
flesh is weak. As we can see the Augustinian creed
follows the teachings of St Paul very closely. After
this the Church of Rome would become very strict
on Christian heresies. Other heresies included the
Cathars, the Templars and the Waldenses. The
condemnation of the Hussites and Wittemberg
Heresies marked therefore a continuation in that
pattern . Crusades were undertaken to convert
Pagans or bring heretics back to faith.
All this could not prevent the first major split in the
Christian church: the Orthodox schism in 1054.
Rome lost control of Byzantium, now the Balkans
and in the centuries to come there would be a
rivalry between the Church of Rome and the
Orthodox Church which spread from Byzantium to
Romania and Russia. When the Balkans and the
Middle East were taken over by the Ottoman
Empire which had adopted the Muslim faith, there
would be further Crusades – and new religious
orders established: The Templars and the
Hospitallers. The Templars would later perish after
been declared heretics.

In the middle ages, the Irish clergyman Fergal

(Vergilius) was appointed first bishop of Salzburg,
which is situated near the Celtic site of Hallstatt in
the Austrian alps. It has now been researched by
historians that the missionary movement of the
Irish Christian church spread to sites formerly
known as Celtic. It is important to mention
Salzburg because this is the high seat of the
Austrian Catholic Church, and most decisions
regarding the future Hapsburg Empire were made
there, the capital of faith being of course Rome.

The German nations inherited the mantle of the

Holy Roman Empire, and for a long time it was a
complicated feudal system dominated by the kings
of Franconia (capital Nuremberg) , Bavaria and
Bohemia – in the 8th century the legendary Carolus
Magnus (Charlemagne) united the kingdoms of
France and the Holy Roman Empire of German
Nations and founded the capital city of Aix La
Chapelle (Aachen). After Charlemagne, the Empire
fell in three pieces, one became France, the second
Burgundy and the rest the German Empire. For a
while, the capital of the German empire was
Prague. “Praha Caput Regni” as the Przemysl
dynasty of Bohemia became head of the empire.
The Empire extended from Trieste to Gdansk. In
1566, Rudolf II Habsburg defeated Otakar Prezmysl
and that started the long reign of the Hapsburg
dynasty over Central Europe until 1918.

We are following the floods and find ourselves at

the Lazebnicky Bridge in Krumlov watching the
waters rise in the land of Jan Hus….
The Hussites

Jan Hus from Bohemia advocates that the seat of

authenticity in religion is in the conscience, soul
and mind of man in communion with God, and that
God and Man are glorified by this discovery. The
Catholic Church in the 15th century was
authoritarian and detected libertarian tendencies in
Jan Hus who was subsequently tried, accused of
heresy and burnt at a stake in Constance. His
followers were called Hussites divided themselves
into two groups: the 'Utraquists' and the 'Taborites',
with the latter being more radical than the former.
By emphasising that the single human mind can
grasp what was supposed to stay in the domain of
scholars and clergy, Jan Hus opened new
perspectives and inspired the 'Bohemian Brethens'.

During the 14th and 15th century in German-

speaking land, and the Netherlands, there were an
increasing number of lay preachers outside the
official Church. One of them, Richard de Groote,
advocated to develop the inner life of the soul and
to imitate life of Jesus Christ. The movement
became popular but when the official Church
ordered them to stop preaching, they retired in
communes called 'Brethens of the Common Life'.
This was not a religious order such as the monastic
life, but they took informal vows, they were
economically self-supporting, pooled their resources
in common, and redistributed them according to
needs. One can see the germs of practical
communism in that life style, or better said the
communitarian life-style.
The Bohemian Brethens

The 'Bohemian Brethens' or 'Unitas Fratum' differ

from the 'Brethens of Common Life' by the fact that
they took on sacraments, confession and the
celibacy of priests. However, their rejection of
military service and certain aspects of secular life
make them the forerunners of pacifism. They also
had a form of clergy: a synod comprised all leaders
of the communities. The 'Unitas Fratum' lay great
importance in education. One of their most
significant leaders was Bishop Lukas (1496-1528)

The Bohemian nobility assumed the patronage of

the 'Unitas Fratum', however with the kingdom
under Habsburg rule, King Ferdinand saw the
patronage as an act to undermine his authority and
attacked Bohemia in 1547. The seat of the 'Unitas
Fratum' was then transferred to Moravia and then
they fled into exile following the stream of the
Vlatva/Moldau and Elbe to Saxony and some of
them also went to Poland. Only in 1609, they
managed to get home where they struggled to find
recognition and found allies with the 'Utraquists'
who had adopted Martin Luther’s ideas. The news
of 99 proposals for the reform of the Church at
Wittemberg had marked the official beginning of
Reformation for the History Books.

As with the Utraquists, now called 'Bohemian

Lutherans' kept to the Martin Luther’s Augsburg
Confession (AC) , the 'Unitas Fratum' retained their
organisation and their own creed. This
demonstrates a ecumenical approach between two
different Christian organisations.

One of the best well-known Bohemian Brethen is

Jan Amos Komensky, who under the name of
Comenius has written and done most of his works
abroad. He is a forerunner of universal education
for both genders because he defined it as being
necessary to this life and life beyond. He advocated
scientific study of nature and emphasised on
deductive reasoning. His ideas are known as
'Pansophic'. Many of his works had been lost for
centuries, but were finally found in 1935, where
they made a great impact on Prague-born painter
Oskar Kokoschka. In 1966, all seven volumes of his
pansophical work were published by the CSSR
academy. Comenius echoes Jan Hus’ ideas that all
humans have been provided with knowledge and
describes three aspects, which he calls: nature,
reason, revelation. Revelation being in that case the
scriptures. He believes that all humans are capable
of being educated (perfectibility) and explains that
education should be a life-long enterprise thus
paving the way for the idea of continuous
education.
The Thirty Years war of religion 1618-1648
The 'Council of Trent' gave credentials to the
Habsburg imperial authority when it stated that all
subjects must adopt the same religion as their
lords. This was the starting point of the Counter
Reformation in Bohemia and the wider Thirty Years
War of religion (1618-1648). The 'Battle of the White
Mountain' in 1620 marked the defeat of reformation
in Bohemia: Many protestants as well as all
members of reformed churches and organisations
were killed or had to flee abroad. Once again the
'Unitas Fratum' followed the stream upwards and
found refuge in the Kingdom of Saxony, as the lords
of that country had adopted the Lutheran creed. In
Bohemia, Catholic Bohemians identified with
Johannes Nepomuk, a martyr killed during the 30
years war baroque monuments were erected all over
the place and the Jesuits from Spain (a country
also ruled by the Habsburg family) opened schools.

The Thirty Years War of religion in Europe ended

with a status quo: political borders were confirmed
or set, the reformed movement recognised as such.
The Habsburg Empire remained Catholic, and
sidelined other creeds. It prided itself that not only
had it saved Europe from Turkish Muslim attacks
at the 'Battle of Kahlenberg', but now it has
successfully stood up against the Protestant
alliance, mostly the Saxons with the Scandinavians.
At that stage it was not possible to get an official
post without being a Catholic and speaking
German. Austrian German is different to the
language spoken in Saxony and so the
Austrian/German rivalry stems from that period.
Austrians still regard their Protestant citizens as
“Germans”. But for now the Treaty of Westphalia of
1648 marked the end of religious wars in Europe.
Pious revival

Protestantism was able to flourish in some German-

speaking provinces but became very much a
scholastic affair and soon it seemed to certain
Protestants that religion has become nothing more
than an intellectual exercise in style and would run
the danger of becoming elitist. Philip Jakob Spener
(1635-1705) started the devotional revival within
the reformed movement. His book 'Pia
Desideria'(1674) condemned the sins and errors of
the times and listed six requirements for a good
faith: A better knowledge of the Bible from
everyone, the restoration of mutual Christian
concern, emphasis on good works, avoidance of
controversy, better spiritual training for ministers,
more fervent preaching. His teachings found
resonance in Dresden and Leipzig where he taught
at university. A.H. Francke and his group took the
teaching further: in his book, 'Pieta Hallensis',
Francke emphasises the humanitarian aspect of
faith. He would therefore be an advocator of social
reforms in order to soothe conditions of the poor,
and then bringing faith to the poor and destitute.
His reforms which took place in the town of Halle
-on the bank of the river Moldau - included: a
school for the poor, an orphanage, a hospital, a
widows’ home, a teachers’ training institute, a bible
school, a book depot, a Bible house. He also
emphasised the necessity of missions abroad.
The 'Pietist' movement echoes many similar reforms
made in the Catholic Church where the Jesuits also
emphasised on education, St Vincent de Paul
devoted his life to social reforms and created many
institutions such as hospitals for the poors and
homes for orphans and St Francis de Sales who
related piety to real-life situations outside the
monasteries. It has been said that Pietism is a mere
revival of medieval monastic and mystical piety but
it can also be said, especially, that Francke’s
Pietism shows that Faith can only progress if it
revives the positive aspects of the past, and
combines them with modern thoughts.
Nicholaus Ludwig Count von Zinzendorf (1700-
1760), a nobleman living in Dresden of Austrian
origins had been influenced by the Pietists as his
grandmother has been a close friend to Spener and
Francke. In 1722, he met with some members of
the 'Unitas Fratum' led by David Christian (1691-
1791) who was living in exile. Zinzendorf purchased
an estate at Berthelhof, where they founded a
community called 'Herrnhut'. Zinzendorf thought
that the Pietist movement, after promising start was
becoming too much set in its own ways and
encouraged a return to basics: a mystical-
experimental faith, world-wide evangelism and
ecumenic friendships.
Earlier, we saw that the roots of ecumenism can be
traced as far as the Bohemian Lutherans in the
16th century. Now, at the eve of the nineteenth
century, the conventional 'Pietists' had long moved
towards a more Lutheran shore, whilst Zinzendorf
favoured rapprochement to the Roman Catholic and
Orthodox Churches. In the end, he and his
followers had to adopt a different name: they
became the 'Moravians'. Soon however, they would
have to emigrate and in the 19th century we find
the Moravians in British exile where they close
ranks with other Lutheran or reformed Churches.
Many moved to America where they formed
communities.
radical cohabitation
In the nineteenth century faith seemed to get a
back seat as nationalism, philosophy and politics
became more important. The atheist French
revolution and the Napoleonic wars shook Europe.
In addition, as different cultures in the world
started to meet, both Germany and Austria became
involved in the middle-east. In those days
classicism and romantic, mysticism and atheism,
occult and Pietism, nationalism and melting-pot all
cohabited next to each other. In Vienna, the
Catholic Josef-Mathias Hauer preached a return to
virtue and simplicity and a ministry of the poor and
is known as the priest of the romantic and
associated with writers like Hebbel.

In 1848, a wave of revolutions against autocratic

regimes spread across Europe. The motto in Vienna
was 'the Freedom that I mean' generated by the
student movement. After 1848 the student
libertarian movement split into radical subgroups.
Some were German republicans who wanted to see
the end of Habsburg rule, then various national
liberation movements, also occult movement and
international organisations such as Marxism and
anarchism. The 'Communist Manifesto' by Karl
Marx from Saxony was published in 1848, so was
'The future of Bohemia' by Franz Palacky, where
the author advocates humanism. In fact, to many
philosophers humanism, the belief in human
perfectibility was compatible with atheism. Ludwig
Feuerbach in Germany was one of the most famous
voices of German-speaking atheism.

Rudolf Steiner from Austria (1861-1925) had

studied sciences and worked until 1897 on the
'Weimer' Edition of Goethe’s work. At the same
time, he had been interested in the 'Theosophist'
movement that had been flourishing during the
19th century, a reaction to the Anglo-French
philosophy of rule and reason and also a reaction to
the ideas of 'evolution of the species' by Charles
Darwin’s and communism by Karl Marx. A with
Goethe, Steiner had an interest in Chinese
philosophy and tried to incorporate it in his
“Anthroposophy” together with Indian and Persian,
Russian Orthodox elements – yet it essentially is
Christian. In 1913, he established his institute at
Dornach in Switzerland to pursue his researches.
He believed in the principle of raising the faculties
of the soul to develop organs or spiritual insight. He
argued that humans were made in god’s image but
distorted as the soul got a human body: hence God
in the form of Christ intervened to keep man away
from earthly entanglement. One also sees the
influence of Buddhism in Steiner’s thoughts. We
can see in Steiner one of the forerunner for the
'New Age Universalist' movement which is an
amalgam of various religious motives.

Universalists
The 'spiritual universalist' movement had originally
sprung from the United States in 1779 and started
as an amalgam between 'Mysticism', 'Anabaptist'
(baptism in an adult age as preached by the French
'Mennonites' who had to flee the Alsace) and
'Gnosticism' (search of God in philosophy). The
'spiritual Universalists' decided to publish a creed
which is similar to 'Unitarianism' but at the
'Winchester Platform of 1813' decided on
'creedlessness' and came with following principles:
perfectibility of men, ultimate salvation by God, the
humanity of Christ (Christ was sent by God but is
not the Son of God). By the end of the century they
had dropped the idea of salvation and divine
revelation and replaced it with the term humanism.
That lead in 1942 to the Ecumenist Movement as
they welcomed all types of humanisms, Christian or
not. The 'World Council of Churches' where Church
Leaders of all kind would meet was created also at
the same time. For the first time, platforms were
established for all various religions and ideas to
meet and find a dialogue. We can compare these
platforms to a similar venture in politics when the
United Nations were created to create a dialogue
between the various nation states. It is remarkable
that both movements were created at the time, as
the World was immersed in a deep war.
Indeed the Second World War marked the
beginning of a new era. Mankind became aware
that it has the capacity to destruct the world and
that peace should no longer become an interval
between two wars or a status quo but a desirable
state of affairs. Indeed between the years 1945 and
1947, there was much idealism as to re-organise
the world. The Universal Declaration of Human was
a political and social document with a universal
message: those rights were signed by most states
and freedom of religion officially instated as a right.

The Cold War

The Cold War – a period of political tensions

between the allies of the USA and the allies of the
Soviet Union marked a halt between 1947 and
1962. Bohemia had become the independent
Czechoslovak republic in 1918 and now in the
sixties, it was the Socialist People’s Republic of
Czechoslovakia. The spirit of the first republic had
been inspired by Franz Palacky and Tomas Mazaryk
who had sought an independent, multicultural
federal, republic based on humanitarian values and
neutrality. Historical events eradicated
Czecholovakia between 1938 and 1945, and from
1948 it had become a satellite country of the
Marxist Soviet Union.The Czech republic became a
People Democracy and the ruling Marxist regime
insisted on its Atheism as a condition for good
citizenship.
During this time, we notice that all sides got more
radical. Marxism insisted on its atheism, many
churches of all kind insisted on their ideas of
salvation and predestination. When Jewish
philosopher George Steiner speaks of the 'Chosen
People', he speaks with the same voice as
evangelical Jean Calvin who advocated
'Predestination', or some radical movements within
Islam, Hindu, Catholic churches. The 1950s saw all
reforms freeze.

In 1962, the world became aware once again that it

could destroy itself. The now legendary Cuba crisis
raised fears that a new world war would start and
the danger was alerted when the leaders of the two
blocks got together at the United Nations
headquarters to discuss a status-quo of tolerance,
maybe rapprochement. Since the Cuba crisis,
idealism for peace has given way to how to prevent
a major disaster.

New co-operations

At the beginning of the 1960ies, the necessity of

political and religious rapprochement was starting
to show. The Catholic church undertook reforms at
the Vatican II Council led by Pope Paul VI: now
mass and bible were in the local languages and
some rapprochements between the Catholic leaders
and Protestant, Jewish, Socialists were possible
and a few humanitarian projects were started as
the extreme poverty of the decolonised third world
needed relief. The United Nations recognised the so-
called 'NGOs' (= non governmental organisations) as
legal actors and now many of them have become
researchers and advisers in politics, social reforms
and economics. 'Caritas', 'Christian Aid' and many
charities have been operating since these times.

At the same time Josef Luki Hromacka, co-founder

of the World Council of Churches who had studied
at the Jan Hus Theological Faculty of Prague
became a pastor of the 'Czech Brethens' and served
within the 'World Council of Churches'. In a
country that had become firmly anchored and
indoctrinated within a de-facto empire, the
'Christian Peace Conference' led by Hromacka was
one of the last podiums of discussion.

The Conference was a vehicle of dialogue between

Christians from Eastern and Western Europe.
Hromacka also urged reconciliation between the
Christians and the Marxists. In 1966, linked or not
linked to Hromacka, the 'Pansophical Works' of
Comenius were published by the CSSR academy
and it is undeniable that these ideas had much
influence on philosopher Jan Patočka who is seen
as one of the most important philosophical figures
of the Prague Spring of 1968. The reform movement
within the Communist Party (KPCs) and the ideas
of first secretary Alexander Dubcek about a
'Socialism with a Human Face' show that reform
was possible. The Prague spring owed much of its
ideologies from Mazaryk’s 'humanism'. Hromaka
vividly condemned the 'Warsaw Pact' invasion of
Czechoslovakia in August 1968, and was
subsequently made to resign from his post at the
'Christian Peace Conference' and died six weeks
later.

Throughout the spiritual and the humanist

movements continued to exist and it struggles hard
against the process of Marxist normalisation that
the CSSR government started in 1969. Many
reformists like Pavel Kohout or writers like Milan
Kundera had to emigrated or some like Vaclav
Havel or Jan Pantocka were forced to internal exile
or prison, or faced censorship. This is why Jan Hus
is still seen as symbolic figure of resistance.

The reform movement in Czech Republic since

1966
A brief summary
The reform movement in the Czech Republic had
started in 1966, with liberal trend within the ranks
of the Communist Party. Critical voices from the
university and intellectuals were calling reforms. So
the new party secretary, Alexander Dubcek initiated
'The Prague Spring', called after the 'Prague Spring
Music Festival' - the period of liberalisation. The
totalitarian imperialistic regime from Moscow did
not tolerate this and invaded the country (for its
own good). The consequent normalisation lead to
arrests and exiles, and censorship.
In 1977, a group of intellectuals led by Vaclav Havel
and Jan Patočka, set up the 'Charta 77' which was
asking for more human rights and reforms. Much
sympathy came from abroad, mostly from
intellectuals, trade unions and ordinary people.
Within a decade, the new Soviet head of state,
Michael Gorbatchev initiated policies of reformation
and ended the cold war ('Glasnost' and
'Perestroika'), the totalitarian system fell apart, and
in the CSSR, as well as other countries, the era of
normalisation was ended in 1989 with the Velvet
Revolution, which saw the comeback of Alexander
Dubček and Vaclav Havel, who created the 'Civic
Forum'. The CSSR became the 'CSFR', 'Czecho-
Slovak Federal Republic'. Then the two regions
separated amicably in 1990, and we have now the
Czech Republic and Slovakia, who subsequently
joined the European Union.

Conclusions
When asked to look back on his own involvement in
recent History, Vaclav Havel said in 2009: “I made a
lot of mistakes. I believed my experts on economic
reforms even if I didn't agree much. More accent (=
emphasis) on moral should have been put. If there
is no moral in society it can't work. People write
that I am a moralist, but I feel that I wasn't enough
of a moralist”

It is important that each of us we make our ethical

choices, without this aspect, a dimension of our
human identity will be lost.
As we see, conflicts due to belief are not the linked
of given locations. The future if we want peace is
non-sectarian and respects all people whatever
their creed, sex, inclination or race - as long as they
are not using any form of gratuitous violence. And
this is democracy.