Wycliffism and Hussitism: Methods of Thinking, Writing, and Persuasion, C. 1360-c. 1460 (Medieval Church Studies, 47)

A groundbreaking interdisciplinary volume bringing together the latest in Wycliffite and Hussite scholarship on methods, impact, and responses. John Wyclif (d. 1384), famous Oxford philosopher-theologian and controversialist, was posthumously condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance in 1415. Wyclifs influence was pan-European and had a particular impact on Prague, where Jan Hus, from Charles University, was his avowed disciple and the leader of a dissident reformist movement. Hus, condemned to the stake at Constance, gathered around him a prolific circle of disciples who changed the landscape of late medieval religion and literature in Bohemia, just as Wyclifs own followers had done in England. Both thinkers, and the movements associated with them, played a crucial role in the transformation of later medieval European thought, in particular through a radically enlarged role of textual production in the vernaculars (especially Middle English and Old Czech), as well as in Latin, in the philosophical, theological, and ecclesiological realms. This interdisciplinary volume of essays brings together cutting-edge research from scholars working in these and contiguous fields and asks fundamental questions about the methods that informed Wycliffite and Hussite writings and those by their interlocutors and opponents. Viewing these debates through a methodological lens enables a reassessment of the impact that they had, and the responses they elicited, across a range of European cultures, from England in the west via France and Austria to Bohemia in the east. "John Wyclif (d. 1384), famous Oxford philosopher-theologian and controversialist, was posthumously condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance in 1415. Wyclif's influence was pan-European and had a particular impact on Prague, where Jan Hus, from Charles University, was his avowed disciple and the leader of a dissident reformist movement. Hus, condemned to the stake at Constance, gathered around him a prolific circle of disciples who changed the landscape of late medieval religion and literature in Bohemia, just as Wyclif's own followers had done in England. Both thinkers, and the movements associated with them, played a crucial role in the transformation of later medieval European thought, in particular through a radically enlarged role of textual production in the vernaculars (especially Middle English and Old Czech), as well as in Latin, in the philosophical, theological, and ecclesiological realms. This interdisciplinary volume of essays brings together cutting-edge research from scholars working in these and contiguous fields and asks fundamental questions about the methods that informed Wycliffite and Hussite writings and those by their interlocutors and opponents. Viewing these debates through a methodological lens enables a reassessment of the impact that they had, and the responses they elicited, across a range of European cultures, from England in the west via France and Austria to Bohemia in the east." --Provided by publisher Front Matter 1 Kantik Ghosh and Pavel Soukup. Philosophy, Politics, and perplexitas 9 Maarten J. F. M. Hoenen. Ideas, Institutions, and Public Scandal 29 Christophe Grellard. John Wyclif on Implicit Faith 75 Isabel Iribarren. A Question of Style 99 Luigi Campi. Puri philosophi non est theologizare 117 Martin Dekarli. New Texts Relevant to the Reception of John Wyclif in Late Medieval Bohemia* 139 Dušan Coufal. From Oath to Confession and Back? 157 Fiona Somerset. Trewe and Pretended 181 Hannah Schühle-Lewis. ‘Openliere and shortliere’ 201 Petra Mutlová. Wyclif and Hus at the Council of Constance 223 Monica Brînzei. Stanislav of Znojmo and the Arrival of Wyclif’s Remanence Theory at the University of Vienna 245 Kateřina Voleková. Non-biblical Texts in Old Czech Bibles 275 Michael Van Dussen. Thomas Gascoigne’s Research on Central Europe c. 1456 299 Pavlína Cermanová. The Mediation of God’s Word in Hussite Apocalyptic Exegesis and the Influence of Joachimism 321 Pavel Soukup. Scriptural Exegesis and Clerical Discourse in Hussite Preaching* 341 Pavlína Rychterová. Fighting for the Minds of the People 361 Christina Traxler. Patchwork Campaigning Against Hussitism 387 Thomas Woelki. Theological Diplomacy? 409 Back Matter 433