first half of the fifteenth century in Bohemia (today Czech Republic) is characterized by the long struggle of the Czech people against the Roman Catholic Church, feudal oppression and German domination.The term "Hussite Wars" is used to describe a series of clashes that occurred in the period between 1419 and 1434 years.The majority of the Czech population of Bohemia was formed a powerful military force, has gained up in the Crusades, the Pope declared.The fight ended in 1434 when the moderate faction of the radical faction won Utraquists Taborites, who had to submit to the authority of the King of Bohemia and the church, but with the condition that it was allowed to practice several different religious ceremonies.
originally ecclesiastical leader of the national movement became a thinker and priest Jan Hus, who opposed the Catholic Church, with a noble ardor condemning her wealth and exposing the shortcomings of the clergy.His sermons in the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague he spent on the Czech language understandable to ordinary people.The ideology of Hus, whose outlook was formed under the influence of labor reformer and precursor of Protestantism John Wycliffe, the Church did not like.
in the University of Prague in 1410 was organized a dispute, the cause of which was the burning of the works of Wycliffe.Gus and other professors appealed to the Pope, trying to prove that only ignorant people can burn the scientific and philosophical works.But the result was the excommunication of Huss, and the movement that he led, has evolved from a university in the national and religious.
In 1415, by decision of the Council of Constance, Hus was accused of heresy, was sentenced to death and burned at the stake.His murder provoked a mass protest movement of his followers, and which resulted in the Hussite Wars.Against the Emperor Sigismund, persuaded the pope to convene the Council of Constance, rose a storm of charges, expressed outrage at the attacks orthodox priests.
Almost from the beginning the movement was divided into two main areas - the moderate and radical.Shortly before his death, Gus took doctrine Utraquists (or Calixtines-Chashnikov), who considered themselves Catholics, but supported the calls for reform, the main of which was the fact that all believers must partake of bread and wine (sub utraque specie - under bothspecies), not just the clergy.It consisted mainly of urban merchants and petty nobility.
Between 1419 and 1420, when "the Hussite wars" has already passed, the faction leaders tried to secretly negotiate with the Emperor Sigismund, but he refused to go to any compromise, and this has led to what Utraquists supported armed uprising.More radical, denied any form of government (secular or religious), were known as the Taborites (after the town of Tabor, founded by them in 1420, which was their stronghold).The group consisted mainly of peasants and artisans.
Hussite Wars known fact that during the clashes was widely used manual firearms (Pishalnikov).
First Defenestration of Prague took place 30 July 1419.The Prague poor led by Jan Želivského, a priest of the Church of Our Lady of the Snows, passed through the city streets to the town hall in Nove Mesto with the main requirement - the communion of bread and wine.Someone threw out the window of City Hall in a procession of stone.Outraged people broke into the building and, once in the room, was thrown from the window of the seven mountain councilors, including the mayor and the judge.King Vaclav IV was so overwhelmed by this act, it is said, he suffered a stroke, became the cause of his death August 16, 1419.
country is divided into two warring camps - a Catholic who supported the clergy, the feudal lords, the German patricians and Hussite.Sigismund, after the death of the childless Wenceslas, laid claim to the Czech crown.He was a firm adherent of the Church of Rome, an accomplice of Pope Martin V, issued a bull March 17, 1420, proclaimed a crusade "for the destruction of all heretics in Bohemia".It was attended not only by German and Polish knights and adventurers from all over Europe, attracted by the hopes of plunder.
