Reconciliation Between Hussites and the Catholic Church

We have a tendency to overlook the history of the smaller European nations even though they do quite often provide the laboratory where one could have seen the sign of things to come or calamities that could be avoided. One of these nations is Czechia, where events took place that could, should or did impact the History of the Germans, in 1989, in 1968, in 1938, in 1618 and in 1419-1437. Today we will talk about the very last one on this list, the moment when a complete confessional split was prevented, something Martin Luther, emperor Charles V and pope Leo X so disastrously failed to manage a hundred years later.

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Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans: Episode 182 – The Return of the King, also episode 19 of Season 9 The Reformation before the Reformation

We have a tendency to overlook the history of the smaller European nations even though they do quite often provide the laboratory where one could have seen the sign of things to come or calamities that could be avoided. One of these nations is Czechia, where events took place that could, should or did impact the History of the Germans, in 1989, in 1968, in 1938, in 1618 and in 1419-1437. Today we will talk about the very last one on this list, the moment when a complete confessional split was prevented, something Martin Luther, emperor Charles V and pope Leo X so disastrously failed to manage a hundred years later.

I will also provide links in the show notes to books or podcasts relating to the other events in case you want to read ahead.

But before we start just another important warning. If you want to sign up on Patreon rather than on my recently revamped historyofthegermans.com/support website, be very, very careful not to do it on the Patreon app on your iPhone. If you sign up using your iPhone, Apple will add a shocking 30% surcharge to your contribution, which also attracts tax. That comes on top of an 8% Patreon charge, a 10+1% PayPal charge plus tax. What that means is that if you sign on at the highest, the Kurfürst level, as one listeners so kindly did yesterday, you may be charged $15, of which I will receive just $9.58 and that is before they rip me off on the exchange rate. If you were making the same contribution on the historyofthegermans.com/support page, my total expense would ~4%, meaning I would receive $14.4 from this exceedingly generous patron.

Note that the 30% surcharge only applies to new patrons and only if you use the patreon app on your iPhone. And it only kicked in this week. That is why I have not yet pushed you guys to move across to the new platform. However, it is be something you may consider.  One of the perks on the new platform is the History of the Germans Forum where you can discuss all matters relating to the podcast and German history with your fellow listeners and with me.

As for the website, it is being gradually translated into German as we speak. This may take a few months to get through, but it is in progress. I hope you enjoy this and you may want to send the link to some of your friends who prefer reading the history in German.  

Which gets me to my before last point. Many of you have responded to the question about what we want to do next. And whilst this is definitely not a democracy, if the overwhelming majority of you want to do a tour of the empire, we will do a tour of the empire. I am actually quite excited about it and have already done some initial research.

And all that, the website translation, the forum and the next season is only possible because so many of you have signed up on historyofthegermans.com/support. And in particular I want to thank  Harold W., The exceedingly generous Robert MacMillan, Lars S., Hunter T., Mari V., Peter K., Felix and Matthias T. who have already signed up.

And with that, back to the show

Last week we ended on the death of Jan Zizka, the man who turned the Bohemians into a near invincible military force. Though the story of his skin being used as a drum that led his followers to victory is almost certainly fake, the Hussites remained undefeated for another 10 years.

The neighbors of the kingdom, in particular the empire mustered a total of five crusades to put an end to the heresy they found so difficult to accept.

The first crusade was led by Sigismund in 1420 and ended with the battles on Vitkov Hill and Vhysehrad. An alleged 150,000 crusaders returned without anything to show for, except some ransacked villages and burnt Hussite priests.

The second crusade in 1421 ended with the imperial forces running away when they heard a Hussite army approaching. Sigismund’s not quite simultaneous attempt ended with the battles of Kutna Hora and Nemecky Brod where his heavy cavalry drowned in the ice cold Sazava river.

The third crusade in 1423 was such a comprehensive failure that the only one to muster an army at all was king Eric VII of Denmark, who turned around before even getting to the Bohemian border.

The fourth crusade in 1426 ended with the battle of Aussig. Frederick the Belligerent of Saxony had invaded Bohemia in 1425 but got stuck in the town of Usti, or Aussig. His wife, the electress Katherine sent reinforcements, allegedly 30,000 men. This time the crusaders were a little more enthusiastic. They believed that the success of the Hussites had been down to the genius of Jan Zizka and that after his death things would be easier. And they had come up with ideas to break through the Wagenburgs. The knights had brought axes and hammers to break the retaining chains between the wagons. And they did indeed break into the circle of wagons, but found the Hussite cavalry had left around the back and was now attacking their flanks and their rear. This battle left a large number of Saxon, Lusatian and Thuringian nobles dead on the battlefield.  

Frederick I of Saxony the Belligerent died in 1428 and was succeeded by Frederick II of Saxony, the gentle, which must have calmed things down a lot on that border.

The fifth and final crusade got under way on August 1, 1431. Though Sigismund had initially promised to lead the effort in person, he ceded command to Frederick of Hohenzollern, the Elector of Brandenburg. On August 14 the army which had begun a siege of the city of Domažlice (Domaschlitze), heard the sound of Hussite warriors singing “Ye Who are Warriors of God” and ran, all 150,000 of them.

These were the major actions. But alongside those ran dozens of smaller ones. The main actors here were on the catholic side duke Albrecht of Austria who had received Moravia from Sigismund as dowry of his daughter Elisabeth, the Brandenburg and Saxon electors. Albrecht wanted to protect his dowry and the other two were trying to add to their property portfolio with a side dish of a free ticket to paradise.

But more significant than these incursions into Bohemia were the “glorious rides” the Hussite armies led into Franconia, Austria, Silesia and even Prussia. These took place mainly in the late 1420s and early 1430s. They could best be described as funding rounds. The armies or brotherhoods of Tabor and of Horeb were not only an extremely effective weapon, they were also a standing army that was extremely expensive to maintain. One way of funding them would have been to collect taxes in the territories the two radical factions controlled, but who would want to do that. The next best option was to rent them out as mercenaries in times Bohemia was comparatively quiet, and finally one could  fund them out of the plunder they made during their campaigns.

The problem with the latter option was that many of these initial campaigns had taken place inside Bohemia and after a decade of war, the economy was on its knees, the rich had lost everything or had fled and the country was utterly destroyed. Hence sparing their fellow Czechs and looting Austrians, Franconians, Saxons and Silesians was the patriotic thing to do.

These Hussite reizen were anything but glorious for their reluctant hosts. As we have heard, even battle hardened soldiers were terrified of the religious warriors from Bohemia. So they encountered barely any resistance to their ransacking and pillaging. Cities closed their gates and paid them off, whilst villages and open towns had to let them do what they wanted to do.

In July 1432 such a Hussite army lay before Naumburg, home to a bishopric and deep inside the empire. The citizens ware terrified and pleaded with Prokop the Shaven, the new priest leader and military commander of the Taborites. In their despair they sent out their children to the Hussite camp, the boys and girls wearing white shirts as a sign of submission and penance. They were singing and begging for mercy.

And here is their song – don’t panic, I will not sing it, I leave that to Rock on Stage from Naumburg

SONG

Just in case you were surprised about the upbeat tone of the song, here is the translation:

The Hussites marched before Naumburg

over Jena and Camburg;

all over the Vogelwies

you saw nothing but sword and spear,

about a hundred thousand.

Now when they lay before Naumburg

there came a great lamentation;

Hunger tormented, thirst hurt,

and a single lot of coffee

came to sixteen pfennigs.

It then goes on for a while and ends with Prokop the Shaven choosing not to massacre the little ones. Instead he gave them cherries and

“then drew his long sword,

commanded: ‘Turn right!

Leave Naumburg behind’

And ever since the city of Naumburg celebrates a Hussite Cherry festival at the end of June with medieval processions, a market and music.

Unfortunately the idea of the generous, cherry distributing Hussite general is as much made up as the idea you get a cup of coffee for 16 pfennig. The Hussites did not go to Naumburg in 1432, but Bohemian Mercenaries did show up in a war between the heirs to the duchy of Saxony 25 years later and the whole thing with the cherries came up in the 16^th century as a festival. Still Augst von Kotzebue wrote a patriotic play that for very good reasons is no longer performed and Salieri wrote an entire opera, which is still performed and which you hear in the background. Ah, and Naumburg is not the only one celebrating these Hussite invasions. The city of Bernau, near Berlin has one too, as does Neunburg vorm Wald.

What is nice is that this whole rather blood-soaked story has turned not just into a number of jolly festivals, but has also brought several Czech, German and Austrian towns together to form the Hussitische Kulturroute where you can follow either Jan Hus’ journey from Prague to Konstance or do a tour of the major battle fields of the war, all in the spirit of reconciliation.

But the reality was still pretty horrific. These clashes between Hussites and their neighbors were terrifying the inhabitants of the border regions and inside Bohemia warfare never completely stopped..

It must have been clear to all observers that this conflict had no military solution. If it had not been obvious after Sigismund’s defeat at Nememtzky Brod, then Aussig should have made that abundantly clear. But some people still need another reminder, which came in the fifth crusade. After that pretty much everybody knew that this was it.

The only question that remained was the following|: Would Europe simply isolate the Hussites and leave them to live their lives under a different religion, or could there be a reconciliation that reopened the borders?

It was time for diplomacy. Some key players, like king Jogaila of Poland and margrave Friedrich of Hohenzollern had kicked things off before the fifth crusade had even started. The whole process took almost 6 years, but before we get into the who did or said what when, let’s just take a look at how incredibly convoluted the situation had become in the 1430s.

At the heart of all this stood the religious differences between the catholic church and the Hussites. The Hussites had been kind enough to narrow down their key demands into the four articles of Prague, which were:

1. That the Word of God shall be freely and without hindrance proclaimed and preached by Christian priests in the kingdom of Bohemia
2. That the Holy Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ under the two kinds of bread and wine shall be freely administered to all true Christians who are not excluded from communion by mortal sin.
3. That since many priests and monks hold many earthly possessions against Christ’s command and to the disadvantage of their spiritual office and also of the temporal lords, such priests shall be deprived of this illegal power and shall live exemplary lives according to the Holy Scripture, in following the way of Christ and the apostles.
4. That all mortal sins, and especially those that are public, as also other disorders contrary to the divine law, shall be prohibited and punished by those whose office it is so that the evil and false repute of this country may be removed and the well-being of the kingdom and of the Bohemian nation may be promoted.

These ideas, maybe with the exception of #4 had a sound basis in the way the original church of Christ and the apostles had been set up. There was not an awful lot in the bible the catholic church could use to refute these demands. However, these ideas would have been the end of the church organization as it had developed over the previous 400 years, basically since emperor Henry III had placed Leo IX on the papal throne and Gregory VII had laid down his Dictatus papae.

Basically the Hussites demanded the Catholic Church in its current form dissolves and the Catholic Church wanted the Hussites to give up on the demands of God.

This was an ideological rift as deep as that between communism and capitalism.

If history teaches us one thing, it is that political expediency can bridge even the deepest ideological divides, just look at the expansion of the Chinese economy, a country still at least nominally communist.

This is however a far as the China/America comparison goes, since the key negotiators, Sigismund and Procop the Shaven were no Richard Nixon or Deng Xiao Ping.

Let us start with Sigismund. The word that is most commonly associated with him is “ueberfordert” which is something like “overstretched” or “out of his depth” or “unable to cope”. I know, this is German efficiency, we need just one word to say all this.

What it relates to is the almost impossible situation he found himself in. Let me try to summarize his main problems in bullet points:

1. The Ottomans were at the gates of Belgrade, had a much superior military and a huge appetite for land and treasure.
2. The Venetians had left the seclusion of their lagoon and were taking control of territories along the Dalmatian coast, aka Croatia, and in the Northern Italian mainland. The former was part of Sigismund’s Hungarian kingdom and the latter was part of the empire he was also in charge of.
3. The Teutonic Knights and Poland had entered their own 100 years’ war that only concluded with the dissolution of the order in Prussia in 1525. Sigismund was dragged into the conflict in his role as king of the Romans and hence protector of the order whilst Poland Lithuania was of huge importance for his Bohemian and Hungarian kingdoms.
4. Then there was the expansion of the duchy in Burgundy. In 1428 duke Philip the Good took over the counties of Holland, Hainault and Zeeland, and added them to the Franche Comte, Brabant, Geldern and Luxemburg that had been picked up already. The dukes of Burgundy were nominally vassals of France, but vey much on the way to creating their own state. What they were not, was faithful vassals of the empire. Something that applied equally to the dukes of Lorraine, the counts of Provence and anyone else in the Rhone Valey. Basically the whole western side of the empire was sailing off into the sunset.
5. Talking about the empire, Sigismund’s attempts to establish functioning institutions and a funding system for an army to defend it got stuck. Being busy with items 1-4 meant, the empire was left pretty much to its own devices resulting in the chaos we discussed in episode 179.
6. Then we have the minor issue that Sigismund had not yet been crowned emperor despite having been elected 20+ years earlier.
7. And then, finally, but most importantly, Sigismund was seen as responsible for the Bohemian mess, and not only by the Hussites, but by the Pope, the princes and cities as well.

These were only the major issues he had to deal with. There were a lot of other, minor issues, like a difficult marriage to one of the more interesting female figures of the age, Barbara of Cili, who may warrant her own episode.

What made his situation completely untenable was his utter lack of resources. The Hungarian kingdom would only grant funds for the defense of the kingdom, but would not pay for his efforts in any of the other theatres he was involved in. Of his father’s bountiful possessions, Bohemia, Moravia, Luxemburg, Brandenburg, Silesia all he still had was Silesia, the rest was in revolt, sold, pawned, enfeoffed or handed over as dowry of his daughter. He was almost constantly begging for cash, at one point he pawned his crown and he started a cash for honours trade where he – amongst others –  granted the Gonzagas in Mantua the title of margrave in exchange for 12,000 gold coins.

All he had going for him was his charm, intelligence and the prestige as ruler of the empire. In a world were might was right, that did not account for much, which makes what happened next so impressive.

Sigismund never had a very clear political direction. All these various challenges left him swaying this way and that, desperately trying to find a path through these complex scenarios.

But one thing was clear to him. If he ever wanted to regain the position his father had occupied in European politics, and that was very much what he wanted, he needed to have control of a rich and militarily powerful territory. And after trying all sorts of other routes to riches and military might, he settled on Bohemia as the rich and militarily powerful territory he needed to regain if he ever wanted to be an effective emperor.

But that came with an irresolvable conundrum.

He could become king of Bohemia on the back of the support of moderate Hussites and catholic barons if only he signed up to some version of the four articles of Prague. But if he did that, he would at a minimum be deposed by the Prince Electors of the empire and may even lose Hungary as well.

On the other hand, he had tried to take Bohemia by force which failed and after the debacle of the fifth crusade, there was an exactly zero chance of success down that route.

Which means the only viable way to become king of Bohemia and with it an effective emperor, was to forge a reconciliation between Hussites and Catholics which means getting the church to accept some version of the four articles of Prague as canon, whilst at the same time preventing any actual change in church institutions from happening.

And, assuming such language could be agreed upon, he then had to convince the Hussites, who hated him as the man who had burned Jan Hus, and the catholic church, who suspected him as a closet heretic to make him king.

Piece of cake!

There was one thing however that made it at all possible. There was a new church council under way. The old Pope, Martin V, the one that had been elected at the council of Constance had – after much hemming and hawing – finally allowed a gathering of the bishops of all of Christendom to take place. And at this council the delegates were to debate church reform. If you remember, the council of Constance singularly failed to make any material progress on that matter. (Episode 173).

This council, the council of Basel wasn’t off to a great start. When the papal legate opened the event in September 1431, there was hardly anyone there. Things only got under way properly when the new pope, Eugene IV tried to dissolve it. The council responded by reiterating that its authority was superior to papal powers  and by opening proceedings to depose pope Eugene IV. At that point a lot of bishops experienced a severe case of FOMO and made their way to Basel.

The situation was now quite precarious. This could easily end up in another schism,  dissolution of the council or, best case, a transfer of the council to somewhere in the papal states where the pope would have a lot more control.

If any of these things had happened, the reconciliation between Hussites and the Catholics would be off the table. Martin V and his successors had been working hard to turn the wheel of time back to the days before the schism. In their heart of hearts, they wanted to do away with church councils, church reform and if at all possible, the Hussites.

Which is what brings Sigismund on to the stage. If there is one thing he is good at, it is getting popes to recognize church councils. In 1432/33 he travels down to Rome. The journey was anything but easy given he was in an on and off war with Venice, had no money and his allies, the duchy of Milan and the Republic of Florence were weary of the fighting. But he made it down to the eternal city and on May 31^st, 1433 he was finally crowned emperor, aged 65 and suffering horribly from gout.

This coronation, though sparsely attended and badly received by everyone, the Hussites, the church and even the imperial princes, did however guarantee the survival of the council. Pope Eugene IV’s main worry was that the council would depose him. That is why he wanted to dissolve it. Sigismund explained that he could control the council, in part through the strength of his personality, but mainly because he had troops stationed inside and around Basel. So, you, master pope, would be well advised to tie Sigismund to your side. Now, if you crown Sigismund as emperor, he would not only be in your debt, he would also be incentivized to keep you on the throne of St. Peter. After all, the last thing Sigismund wants is to come back to the Empire and find that the pope who had crowned him was illegitimate and with it the whole coronation as well. At which point he would have to go down to Rome again, and he really, really did not want to do that.

So they made a deal, the pope crowned Sigismund, Sigismund promised to keep him in place and Eugene called off the dissolution of the council, at least until that Hussite question was resolved.

And with that the first hurdle was taken. The Hussites had a negotiation partner that wasn’t the irreconcilable pope, but a council of theologians and the council’s decision would be binding on any future pope.

But this was only level one.

The theological problems remained.

A first round of negotiations had taken place in 1432 in the city of Cheb  which is called Eger in German. There both sides agreed that a resolution would be sought quote “by the Law of God and the practices of Christ, the apostles and the early church, along with the teachings of the Councils and the doctors confirming truly thereto” end quote. That was something both moderate and even the Taborites and Orphans could agree to. In fact the military and spiritual leader of the Taborites, Prokop the Shaven was at that meeting and signed on the dotted line. As did the four delegates of the council of Basel.

The Hussites were looking at this “the judgement of Cheb” as a great success. If this was the basis of the upcoming conversation at the council. Surely the whole of mother church would come round to their way of thinking.

In 1433 a delegation of four Hussite leaders came to Basel to hammer out the deal. This time Prokop the Shaven was not amongst them, his place was taken by an Englishman, Peter Payne, who had come to Bohemia way back in 1413 to live by the teachings of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus.

What followed was a slow and scholastic grinding down of the Hussite positions. It was the bishop of Barcelona, Juan Palomar, who described the Czechs as “wild horses who need to be have a halter put on their heads so that they could be captured, tamed and fastened to the manger”.

A statement not exactly dripping with respect for the theological  persuasiveness of the Hussite delegation.

So the negotiators played around with draft after draft, wearing the other side down until each of the articles was adorned with one of Palomar’s halters.

Yes, there will be communion in both kinds, but only to those who have already received it and only if the priest makes clear that the bread alone would be enough.

 Yes, sins shall be punished, but not by the individuals, only by the institutions of the state.

Yes, preaching is free, but only as long as it does not undermine the authority of the church.

And finally, the money question, i.e., should the church remain poor. Well, yes and no. There was no explicit restitution of the lands and properties of the church, but from now on the Catholics could receive endowments from the faithful again.

Even if you are neither a lawyer nor a theologian, it is pretty obvious what has happened here. Somebody had been – as the Germans would say – been pulled across the table. And the horse whisperer Juan Palomar was the one doing the pulling.

News of this compact as it would later be called were not received with enthusiasm back in Bohemia. The Taborites and Orebites saw right through this. That would be the end of their religious beliefs. And remember, for them the four articles were the bare minimum. Their creed went a lot further than that. A gelded version of the four articles were unacceptable to them.

At which point the civil war inside Bohemia resumed in full force. For the last years the foreign raids had provided an outlet for the more belligerent Hussites so that they left their homeland largely in peace. But with the compact, it had again become a question of defending the faith.

The Taborites and Orebites besieged Pilsen but found resistance stronger than anticipated. They also struggled to provision their troops as support amongst the local population had waned. A detachment sent out to procure food and material from across the border was defeated, the first such defeat since Zelivsky was mauled in 1422.

Things got even more precarious when the two cities of Prague went up against each other. After Zelivsky’s fall The Old Town had fully reverted back to its conservativism and its alliance with the Barons, whilst the New Town had shifted left again and allied closely with the Orebites. On May 5, 1434 the Barons brought their troops into the Old Town, pooled together with the councilors and attacked the New Town. The New Town could not hold out and was sacked by the soldiers whilst prominent radicals were arrested.

That was the call to arms. On May 30^th, the Orebites and Taborites under Prokop the Shaven and Prokop the lesser lined up against the barons, catholic and Hussite, and the city of Prague to fight it out, once and for all. The commanders on both sides had fought together before, they had been pupils of Zizka and they knew how to handle this sophisticated, disciplined, deadly military machine.

The commander of the conservatives, Divis Borek of Miletinek had been the governor of Hradec Kralove Jan Zizka had expelled which had led to the previous battle between Prague and the radicals. This time he would not yield to the brotherhoods.

Both sides set up their wagon burgs near the village of Lipany. Divis was the first to attack. His infantry ran up the hill on to the Taborite and Orebite defenses and was repulsed. In apparent panic they retreated and fled down the hill. The two Prokops knew that this was the moment to strike. The two great brotherhoods came out of their wagon fortress and pursued the infantry of Prague.

But halfway down the hill they realized what a catastrophic blunder they had committed. Nobody had asked where the baronial cavalry had been. Well, it was hidden in the woods. And now that the brothers were out there in the open field they came out and pushed into their flanks. The fighting was over when the Taborite cavalry fled, leaving their infantry to die in the field. Those who put down their weapons were herded into several barns and pitilessly burned to death. Prokop the Shaven and Prokop the Lessert he talented commanders of the brotherhoods, undefeated until that day, both died in the midst of the battle. Divis Borek of Miletinek had his revenge.

One would expect that immediately after this defeat, the city of Prague would open its gates to Sigismund. But it would take another 3 years before that would actually take place. Sigismund had to yield many of the executive, fiscal and religious royal prerogative to the barons who had gotten used to life without a king.

The compacts, that rewriting of the four articles of Prague, were finally approved by the council and the Bohemian diet giving the kingdom a separate religious status but within the Catholic Church.

For the emperor, now 69 and suffering from regular brutal attacks of the gout, this was the long awaited moment when he took possession of the country of his birth, the kingdom and city his father had made into the envy of Europe but which now lay in ruins.

On November 10^th, 1437 he put on his great vestments as emperor, wore his laurel crown and in his litter proceeded out of the city accompanied by his wife Barbara, Hungarian magnates, Bohemian barons, papal legates and imperial princes, followed by 1,000 knights, divisions of infantry and the whores who had been expelled from Prague due to the fourth article and headed home towards Hungary to die. He made it as far as Znojmo near the Austrian Border.

There he prepared his imminent death, instructed his daughter and son in law to take the Bohemian crown as quickly as they could, made his last will and testament, heard mass one last time in his imperial regalia and on December 9^th, 1347 he died, sitting on his throne, Emperor, king of Hungary and Bohemia, margrave of Moravia and duke of Silesia.

He was buried in Oradea, modern day Romania, along the remains of St. Ladislas. But his grave was destroyed during the Turkish invasions, so that nothing remains of him except for a funerary crown now preserved in the Hungarian National Museum.

This is not going to be the last we hear of emperor Sigismund. When we will do our tour of the empire, he will almost certainly make an appearance. Next week we will look at the aftermath of the Hussite revolt, its implications beyond Bohemia and into the following two centuries when there was another, more famous, defenestration, the implications of which were even more catastrophic for the Germans. I hope to see you next week.

And until then, if you feel compelled to support what we do here, sign up at the historyofthegermans.com./support, and make sure you do not go anywhere near the Patreon app.