The Magnificent Ride: The First Reformation in Hussite Bohemia (St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History)

The Magnificent Ride examines the social and religious dimensions of the Hussite revolutionary movement in 15th-century Bohemia. It argues that ’the magnificent ride’ was, in fact, the first reformation, and not merely a precursor to the reformations of the 16th century. The religious revival which had begun in Prague in the later middle ages reached its zenith in the period between Jan Hus and the Council of Basel. This book reconstructs the Hussite myth and shows how that myth evolved into the historical phenomenon of heresy. Acts of heretical practice in Bohemia, condemnation of Jan Hus, defiance of ecclesiastical authority and attempts by the official church to deal with the dissenters are fascinating chapters in the history of late medieval Europe. Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures and plates -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- Dedication -- Introduction -- 1 Bohemia on the eve of the Hussite movement -- Politics and the Luxemburgs -- Religious affairs -- Profile of Bohemian society -- Intellectual antecedents -- 2 Anatomy of a revolutionary reformation -- Jan Hus and the continuation of reform -- The dissenter, the king, the council: conflict and danger -- Žižka, Prokop and Roháč: warriors of God -- 3 St Jan Hus, the law of God and the forbidden chalice -- Theological foundations of the Hussite myth -- The social configuration of the Hussite myth -- 4 Paint, poetry and pamphlets: the politics of reformation -- Functional literacy and Hussite ideas -- Songs of slander, subversion and sedition -- Slogans and proverbial sayings: no whispering campaign -- Learn it on the wall - images of dissent -- Protests, processions and public demonstrations -- Manifestos as Hussite literary propaganda -- The witness of 'women' in high places -- 5 The ascent of dissent -- Select bibliography -- Index