Page 223 - Stati inu obstati, revija za vprašanja protestantizma, letnik XIII (2017), številka 25, ISSN 1408-8363
P. 223
SYNOPSES, ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN
UDC: 284.1:289(437.1)"14"(091)
Jonatan Vinkler
The Czech Brethren – 560 years
I: Between the incomplete Hussite break with Rome
and the Lutheran Reformation
This year 560 years have passed since the beginning of organized activity by a par-
ticular branch of the Reformation in the Czech kingdom, known as the Unity of the
Brethren (Unitas Fratrum /Jednota bratská/the Czech/Bohemian Brethren), which can be
considered in their activity as well as their theology as an original European Reformation
preceding Martin Luther. The referential framework for the birth of the Czech Brethren,
historically and in terms of church organization, differed considerably from the origin and
establishment of the Lutheran Reformation in Germany. The basic difference, apart from
the noticeably greater age of the Czech religious reform, is that in the lands of St Václav
(Wenceslaus) the concept of church reform is closely linked with the pre-Reformation
striving for a good spiritual pastor and the idea that church reform is primarily a matter of
practical everyday morality, and not (necessarily) of theology. The call for church reform
means primarily the correction of the individual and that applies first of all to the head
of medieval society, i.e. the preacher or priest. The Czech Reformation (the Utraquist
Church and after that the Czech Brethren) was above all a broad folk movement “from
the bottom up”, which gains through its own development a theological articulation and
reflection, while with Luther it was first of all an intellectual current “from the top down”,
a dissemination of the insights and reflections (including intuitive ones) of a highly
educated professor, a member of a learned culture, which at a certain moment – on the
question of church authority – becomes the subject of debate and identification in the
vernacular folk culture, and then develops into a movement and finally into a new church.
After accepting the Compactata of Jihlava (1436), the Hussite party spoke with a sin-
gle, unified political voice, which was not the case in practical religious life. For although
the Taborites with their radical anti-Rome theology were also pressed into a subordinate
position and the Utraquist Church at least outwardly acted in a unified way, there re-
221
UDC: 284.1:289(437.1)"14"(091)
Jonatan Vinkler
The Czech Brethren – 560 years
I: Between the incomplete Hussite break with Rome
and the Lutheran Reformation
This year 560 years have passed since the beginning of organized activity by a par-
ticular branch of the Reformation in the Czech kingdom, known as the Unity of the
Brethren (Unitas Fratrum /Jednota bratská/the Czech/Bohemian Brethren), which can be
considered in their activity as well as their theology as an original European Reformation
preceding Martin Luther. The referential framework for the birth of the Czech Brethren,
historically and in terms of church organization, differed considerably from the origin and
establishment of the Lutheran Reformation in Germany. The basic difference, apart from
the noticeably greater age of the Czech religious reform, is that in the lands of St Václav
(Wenceslaus) the concept of church reform is closely linked with the pre-Reformation
striving for a good spiritual pastor and the idea that church reform is primarily a matter of
practical everyday morality, and not (necessarily) of theology. The call for church reform
means primarily the correction of the individual and that applies first of all to the head
of medieval society, i.e. the preacher or priest. The Czech Reformation (the Utraquist
Church and after that the Czech Brethren) was above all a broad folk movement “from
the bottom up”, which gains through its own development a theological articulation and
reflection, while with Luther it was first of all an intellectual current “from the top down”,
a dissemination of the insights and reflections (including intuitive ones) of a highly
educated professor, a member of a learned culture, which at a certain moment – on the
question of church authority – becomes the subject of debate and identification in the
vernacular folk culture, and then develops into a movement and finally into a new church.
After accepting the Compactata of Jihlava (1436), the Hussite party spoke with a sin-
gle, unified political voice, which was not the case in practical religious life. For although
the Taborites with their radical anti-Rome theology were also pressed into a subordinate
position and the Utraquist Church at least outwardly acted in a unified way, there re-
221
