Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a European City (30 page)
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Authors: Peter Demetz
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Tomáš of Štítný, son of a country squire in southeastern Bohemia, was not particularly radical in his religious reflections, but he was the first layman to write about matters Christian and moral
in Czech
, feeling responsible for the education of his five children and his neighbors who
were unable to read Latin. He must have been one of the earliest students at the University of Prague, but he did not seek or receive a degree, and returned to his father’s fortified tower to marry, to raise children, and to work the land. He did not bury himself in the countryside, though, for he occasionally traveled to Prague, where he listened to Waldhauser, Mili
, and possibly Mat
j of Janov. Tomáš may not have changed the canon of accepted ideas, but he single-handedly created a Czech philosophical syntax, making it possible to write in Czech about matters long reserved to the university masters using Latin. After his wife died, he took care of his aging sisters and then in 1381 left for Prague to be close to the scene of religious reform and to live with his oldest daughter, Anežka, who had gathered a group of women trying to live in the Christian spirit. By that time, he was an old man, and he died before revolution erupted in the Prague streets.
in Czech
, feeling responsible for the education of his five children and his neighbors who
were unable to read Latin. He must have been one of the earliest students at the University of Prague, but he did not seek or receive a degree, and returned to his father’s fortified tower to marry, to raise children, and to work the land. He did not bury himself in the countryside, though, for he occasionally traveled to Prague, where he listened to Waldhauser, Mili
, and possibly Matj of Janov. Tomáš may not have changed the canon of accepted ideas, but he single-handedly created a Czech philosophical syntax, making it possible to write in Czech about matters long reserved to the university masters using Latin. After his wife died, he took care of his aging sisters and then in 1381 left for Prague to be close to the scene of religious reform and to live with his oldest daughter, Anežka, who had gathered a group of women trying to live in the Christian spirit. By that time, he was an old man, and he died before revolution erupted in the Prague streets.Czech historiography, after a long period of considerable isolation, has yet to deal with the record of the medieval Prague communities of pious women who deeply sympathized, to say the least, with the efforts of the time to emulate the life of the early Christians. In their ranks, Czech names of the gentry predominate, and among the first was Tomáš of Štítný’s daughter Anežka. Before 1401 she had bought part of a house in the Czech section of the Old Town, not far away from New Jerusalem, and resided there with her friends Ludmila and Catherine; after a number of property deals, the new co-owner of the house, a noblewoman named St
ežka of Cejkovice, provided shelter for five more young women. Another pious noblewoman, Petra of
í
an, bought a house in 1410 and lived there together with her friends Markéta of Peruc and D
ra of Bethlehem for nine years, praying, attending Czech sermons, and doing good deeds. Such small communities were established elsewhere in Prague too; Catherine Kaplerova of Sulevice, a rich widow, set up a fund to pay for a Czech preacher at St. Vitus Cathedral, and she invited to her comfortable house at Hrad
any Square twelve virgins and widows who were willing to leave the temptations of the world and to serve God. The historian V. V. Tomek believed that at least seven other communities of a similar kind were established near various Prague parish churches. Enemies of the reform movement suspected these spontaneously created associations of heresy, called the women
begutae
, to suggest a link to the heretic Beguines of Flanders, and were quick to demonize or ridicule them. In a satirical street ballad of the time, we are told the story of a Czech
beguta
who lured a young man, eager for Christian instruction, to her room, showed him two
pear-shaped chapters of the Bible, and more, and soon he and she were singing a
Te Deum laudamus
(
We praise thee, O Lord
) in unison.
ežka of Cejkovice, provided shelter for five more young women. Another pious noblewoman, Petra ofían, bought a house in 1410 and lived there together with her friends Markéta of Peruc and Dra of Bethlehem for nine years, praying, attending Czech sermons, and doing good deeds. Such small communities were established elsewhere in Prague too; Catherine Kaplerova of Sulevice, a rich widow, set up a fund to pay for a Czech preacher at St. Vitus Cathedral, and she invited to her comfortable house at Hradany Square twelve virgins and widows who were willing to leave the temptations of the world and to serve God. The historian V. V. Tomek believed that at least seven other communities of a similar kind were established near various Prague parish churches. Enemies of the reform movement suspected these spontaneously created associations of heresy, called the womenbegutae
, to suggest a link to the heretic Beguines of Flanders, and were quick to demonize or ridicule them. In a satirical street ballad of the time, we are told the story of a Czech
beguta
who lured a young man, eager for Christian instruction, to her room, showed him two
pear-shaped chapters of the Bible, and more, and soon he and she were singing a
Te Deum laudamus
(
We praise thee, O Lord
) in unison.
Mili
’s New Jerusalem and its small seminary of young clerics had been the first institution created by Prague Christians for a pristine faith of love; when it was closed by royal decree, its lay congregation may first have thought of legal proceedings to repossess the buildings but ultimately decided to create another institution. We do not know exactly who took charge, but it was possibly the theologian Vojt
ch Ra
k
v of Ježov, who later became the first Czech rector of the University of Paris. Adalbertus Ranconis de Ericinio, to use his Latin name, was in many ways the
éminence
grise of the Prague reform movement, and it was possibly he who brought about an effective coalition of interested people, the commercial middle classes, and the court. In any event the Prague synod of 1389, the one which humiliated Mat
j of Janov, seems to have resolved to build a new house of God in which these reform intentions would be continued by young Czech preachers: within three years (1391-94) a new chapel called Bethlehem was constructed not very far from Mili
’s place in the Old Town Czech neighborhood. Leading Czech businessmen and courtiers worked together to organize the project: the merchant K
íž provided the building lot, a former malt house, and a good deal of money; others, including the cloth cutter Machuta (once investigated by the Inquisition), pitched in. Among the people influential at court, Johannes of Mühlheim was won over to the cause by his wife, Anna, of a Czech baronial family, and contributed considerable prestige and diplomatic skills. It was he who signed the document legally establishing the new chapel; it claimed that the word of God, publicly proclaimed, was foremost in shaping the church and all its members; without God’s word, “we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah.” Yet a trace of the old was still part of the new, for the merchant K
íž was proud to present to the new institution the bones of a child allegedly killed by King Herod, though such a dubious relic may not have pleased the new congregation’s preachers.
’s New Jerusalem and its small seminary of young clerics had been the first institution created by Prague Christians for a pristine faith of love; when it was closed by royal decree, its lay congregation may first have thought of legal proceedings to repossess the buildings but ultimately decided to create another institution. We do not know exactly who took charge, but it was possibly the theologian Vojtch Rakv of Ježov, who later became the first Czech rector of the University of Paris. Adalbertus Ranconis de Ericinio, to use his Latin name, was in many ways theéminence
grise of the Prague reform movement, and it was possibly he who brought about an effective coalition of interested people, the commercial middle classes, and the court. In any event the Prague synod of 1389, the one which humiliated Mat
j of Janov, seems to have resolved to build a new house of God in which these reform intentions would be continued by young Czech preachers: within three years (1391-94) a new chapel called Bethlehem was constructed not very far from Mili’s place in the Old Town Czech neighborhood. Leading Czech businessmen and courtiers worked together to organize the project: the merchant Kíž provided the building lot, a former malt house, and a good deal of money; others, including the cloth cutter Machuta (once investigated by the Inquisition), pitched in. Among the people influential at court, Johannes of Mühlheim was won over to the cause by his wife, Anna, of a Czech baronial family, and contributed considerable prestige and diplomatic skills. It was he who signed the document legally establishing the new chapel; it claimed that the word of God, publicly proclaimed, was foremost in shaping the church and all its members; without God’s word, “we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah.” Yet a trace of the old was still part of the new, for the merchant Kíž was proud to present to the new institution the bones of a child allegedly killed by King Herod, though such a dubious relic may not have pleased the new congregation’s preachers.Other books
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