Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a European City (29 page)
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Authors: Peter Demetz
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Mat
j was born into a gentry family in southern Bohemia, and like other penniless and brilliant young men, he thought of a comfortable career in the church, which richly rewarded its own. He went to Paris in 1375, received his M.A. after three years, and continued, for nearly six more years, to read for the difficult doctorate of theology. The politics of the schism interfered: at least initially, the University of Paris preferred the Avignon pope, but most Bohemian members of the English “nation” at the Sorbonne (to which Mat
j paradoxically belonged) were loyal to Rome, since not supporting the Roman hierarchy would have spoiled their chances for an appointment in Bohemia. Of course, Mat
j returned from Paris to Prague via Rome, where he had a chance to acquire a “letter of grace” from the pope, promising a future appointment. When he came to Prague in October 1381, he was appointed to a titular canonry of the cathedral (with no income), made a meager living by occasionally preaching and hearing confession, by the grace of the archbishop, but he felt frustrated. When, in 1388, he was appointed to a poor little parish in a village on the road from Prague to M
lník, his great hopes for preferment were utterly shattered, and he underwent a spiritual crisis as intense as Mili
’s before him, though for different reasons.
j was born into a gentry family in southern Bohemia, and like other penniless and brilliant young men, he thought of a comfortable career in the church, which richly rewarded its own. He went to Paris in 1375, received his M.A. after three years, and continued, for nearly six more years, to read for the difficult doctorate of theology. The politics of the schism interfered: at least initially, the University of Paris preferred the Avignon pope, but most Bohemian members of the English “nation” at the Sorbonne (to which Matj paradoxically belonged) were loyal to Rome, since not supporting the Roman hierarchy would have spoiled their chances for an appointment in Bohemia. Of course, Matj returned from Paris to Prague via Rome, where he had a chance to acquire a “letter of grace” from the pope, promising a future appointment. When he came to Prague in October 1381, he was appointed to a titular canonry of the cathedral (with no income), made a meager living by occasionally preaching and hearing confession, by the grace of the archbishop, but he felt frustrated. When, in 1388, he was appointed to a poor little parish in a village on the road from Prague to Mlník, his great hopes for preferment were utterly shattered, and he underwent a spiritual crisis as intense as Mili’s before him, though for different reasons.Turning his early foolish aspirations against himself, Mat
j began to believe that his failure to be appointed to a comfortable living corresponding to his talents and dignity was a divine sign telling him to choose the path of Christ, of evangelical truth and simplicity. He wrote that it was not an easy question “whether to go after benefices and offices or whether instead to bear the poverty and reproaches suffered by Jesus Christ.” His
eyes sharpened by lack of success, he turned against prelates and “great canons,” castigating their “systematic vanity, their great discrepancy from the virtue and truth of Jesus and from his words and deeds, which they zealously praised with their mouths alone.” If Konrad Waldhauser had been an effective preacher and Mili
the practical visionary, Mat
j was the learned theologian of the growing reform movement in Bohemia, still untouched by the ideas of John Wyclif, later important to the Hussites; and it is probably necessary to distinguish between what he himself wrote and what his willful assistants, Ond
ej and Jakub, preached (in Czech) when they served at the church of St. Nicholas as guests of the Old Town parish.
j began to believe that his failure to be appointed to a comfortable living corresponding to his talents and dignity was a divine sign telling him to choose the path of Christ, of evangelical truth and simplicity. He wrote that it was not an easy question “whether to go after benefices and offices or whether instead to bear the poverty and reproaches suffered by Jesus Christ.” Hiseyes sharpened by lack of success, he turned against prelates and “great canons,” castigating their “systematic vanity, their great discrepancy from the virtue and truth of Jesus and from his words and deeds, which they zealously praised with their mouths alone.” If Konrad Waldhauser had been an effective preacher and Mili
the practical visionary, Matj was the learned theologian of the growing reform movement in Bohemia, still untouched by the ideas of John Wyclif, later important to the Hussites; and it is probably necessary to distinguish between what he himself wrote and what his willful assistants, Ondej and Jakub, preached (in Czech) when they served at the church of St. Nicholas as guests of the Old Town parish.Mat
j was well known for asking the pious to come to mass frequently, if not daily, and he did not hesitate to express doubts about venerating pictures, relics of the saints, or miracles caused by material things. However, the Prague synod of 1388 ruled (following the advice of the masters of the university) that frequent communion was in error (once a month was enough) and decreed that images should be venerated as they had always been; a year later, the synod of 1389 ordered Mat
j and his two assistants to appear before a clerical assembly gathered at the cathedral. Jakub was forbidden to preach for ten years, but Mat
j, who submitted to the better judgment of the Holy Church, was let go more lightly (six months) and was given the friendly advice to concentrate on his job at his little village parish rather than hang around in Prague. Yet he did not change his mind; and in his learned Latin volumes he condemned the church, involved in worldly affairs, as the
mulier fornicaria,
and extolled a poor and simple Church of Christ, free of ceremonies, mandates, decrees, and rules. It is not surprising that the archbishop’s office kept a close eye on Mat
j: shortly before he died in 1393, he was asked to deliver two books, one in Latin and one in vulgari Boemico, or Czech, to the hands of the archbishop’s lawyer and adviser Johann of Pomuk, the future victim of royal revenge. F. M. Bartoš, most knowledgeable in Hussite affairs, believes that the Latin manuscript was the
Regulae veteris et novi testamenti,
Mat
j’s thoughts about the interpretation of the Bible (Mat
j assured the office he had not yet corrected them), and the other part of a Czech translation of the Bible to which Mat
j substantially contributed. It is a speculative but impressive idea.
j was well known for asking the pious to come to mass frequently, if not daily, and he did not hesitate to express doubts about venerating pictures, relics of the saints, or miracles caused by material things. However, the Prague synod of 1388 ruled (following the advice of the masters of the university) that frequent communion was in error (once a month was enough) and decreed that images should be venerated as they had always been; a year later, the synod of 1389 ordered Matj and his two assistants to appear before a clerical assembly gathered at the cathedral. Jakub was forbidden to preach for ten years, but Matj, who submitted to the better judgment of the Holy Church, was let go more lightly (six months) and was given the friendly advice to concentrate on his job at his little village parish rather than hang around in Prague. Yet he did not change his mind; and in his learned Latin volumes he condemned the church, involved in worldly affairs, as themulier fornicaria,
and extolled a poor and simple Church of Christ, free of ceremonies, mandates, decrees, and rules. It is not surprising that the archbishop’s office kept a close eye on Mat
j: shortly before he died in 1393, he was asked to deliver two books, one in Latin and one in vulgari Boemico, or Czech, to the hands of the archbishop’s lawyer and adviser Johann of Pomuk, the future victim of royal revenge. F. M. Bartoš, most knowledgeable in Hussite affairs, believes that the Latin manuscript was theRegulae veteris et novi testamenti,
Mat
j’s thoughts about the interpretation of the Bible (Matj assured the office he had not yet corrected them), and the other part of a Czech translation of the Bible to which Matj substantially contributed. It is a speculative but impressive idea.Other books
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