Slavatova obrana jezuitského řádu a jeho představy o konfesijním uspořádání Čech z počátku dvacátých let 17. století

• Authors: Hrdlicka J.

Title variants

EN

SLAVATA'S DEFENSE OF THE JESUIT ORDER AND HIS CONCEPTION OF THE CONFESSIONAL ARRANGEMENT IN BOHEMIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 1620'S

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

When the Estates Government took power in Bohemia after the Prague Defenestration in May 1618, one of its first steps was the expulsion of the Jesuit order from the country in early June. This act provoked a polemical reaction not only from the Jesuits, but also from other authors who sought to vindicate the more than sixty-year-long presence of the order in the Bohemian Kingdom. In the early 1620's, an important Bohemian Catholic nobleman, Vilem Slavata, became one of these apologists for the Jesuits. Although he was initially a member of the Unity of Brethren, Slavata converted to the Catholic Church in 1597. At the beginning of the 17th century, he became one of the most significant supporters of the Catholic Church in the Bohemian Lands and thus an archenemy of the Protestant estate leaders. As a hated royal governor, he became one of the victims of the Prague Defenestration in May 1618. In 1619, he managed to escape from his house arrest to Passau, the centre of noble Catholic emigration. While staying in Passau in 1621-1622, he formulated plans for improving religious and political conditions in the kingdom. He also dedicated himself to writing an extensive manuscript which, as a polemical response to the 1618 apology of the Evangelical estates, was intended to defend the work of the Jesuit order in the country. Manuscript also reveals Slavata's opinions about the confessional situation in the kingdom. He blamed the Calvinist church, and especially the Unity of Brethren, for radicalizing the situation before the Battle of White Mountain. In Slavata's view, the Unity of Brethren was the main source of religious intolerance in the land and the cause of all the hardship brought about by the Estates Uprising of 1618-1620. He vigorously rejected religious freedom, which was 'harmful and venomous', hindered salvation of the soul, and disrupted general tranquility. He also found evidence for the impossibility of religious freedom in the Holy Roman Empire, where the Peace of Augsburg principle of 'cuius regio, eius religio' applied. In his opinion, the Bohemian Kingdom should renew its obedience to the monarchy and the papacy and return to the religious arrangement of the past, when there was only one church, which had, according to 'old Czech' tradition, two parts distinguished only by their communion service. Slavata's ideas correspond somewhat to proposals in the early 20's that envisioned the possible coexistence of the Catholic and Utraquist churches, of course with Catholics in the leading role. However, Slavata was not concerned with the practical details of this possible coexistence; his argumentation was predominantly historical. He entrusted the key role in improving the confessional situation to the Jesuits, who in his opinion, were predestined to return the country to the Catholic faith and lead it back to the papacy.

Keywords

EN

JESUITS; RECATHOLIZATION; RELIGION

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Folia historica Bohemica
• Year: 2008
• Issue: 23
• Pages: 225-248
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Hrdlicka J.

• J. Hrdlicka, Ustav archivnictvi a PVH, Filozoficka fakulta Jihoceske university v Ceskych Budejovicich, Na Mlynske stoce 35, 370 01 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, http://dlib.lib.cas.cz/3437/

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

08CZAAAA053910