Search

The study is dedicated to the cult of St. Denis, the first Bishop of Paris and the French “national” patron saint in medieval Bohemia and Moravia. The cult of St. Denis had played a rather important role already in the Duchy of Bohemia, having probably propagated there via Bavaria during the initial Christianization efforts. This is documented by the pilgrimage of St. Adalbert of Prague to SaintDenis monastery and the general presence of St. Denis in Bohemian liturgy from, at the latest, the 12th century. Although isolated monuments and altar dedications of Saint Denis had existed since the 13th century, it was not until the 14th century that the cult of Saint Denis grew stronger, driven by French influences. Its ebb and flow seem to have faithfully reflected the intensity of friendly contacts between the Kingdoms of Bohemia and France. Charles IV, the famous King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, privately venerated St. Denis, probably due to having spent his childhood in Paris. This is evidenced not only by his acquisition of two St. Denis relics and commissioning of the image of St. Denis for the Chapel of the Holy Cross at Karlštejn but also by his personal visit to the SaintDenis monastery in January 1378, when he expressed his devotion at the saint’s tomb and kissed the saint’s head. Although the cult of St. Denis declined in the period leading up to and, especially, following the Hussite Wars, it remained present in late medieval Czech society thanks to the saint’s inclusion in the group of Fourteen Holy Helpers and the celebration of his feast day in the liturgy of all Catholic churches. Although St. Denis never became a popular saint in the Czech lands during the Middle Ages, he was widely known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conciliarism is the theory of the supremacy of the Council over the papacy. The study investigates whether such ideas were known in Bohemia. It traces the environment of the court of Wenceslas IV, the role of the University of Prague, Hussitism with its Wycliffian definition of the Church, and the period after the conclusion of the Compactata and during the reign of George of Poděbrady. The knowledge of conciliarist theories in Bohemia is a fact, even if their development and application did not take place on Bohemian soil. The Czech lands were not a fertile ground for Conciliarist ideas, yet at certain moments the Czech environment reached for Conciliarist arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the issue of burial of revenants, which in current ideas merges more with the listing of various antivampire rituals. At the heart of the debate is the grave of an alleged werewolf in the area of Livonia (today's Latvia), and a comparison with the execution of an alleged werewolf, Peter Stumpp, near Cologne. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A priest administering a parish did not live in the Early Modern times, despite the ideals of the post-Tridentine Church, in isolation from the surrounding world. Following this initial thesis, the study focuses on analysing various factors that integrated the clergy with the rural society, on the one hand, and those that separated it from it, on the other hand. The status of the parish priest as an elite member of rural society is explored both in the context of his exclusive position as a spiritual administrator and his economic activities and, last but not least, of his relations with his superiors, parishioners and patron. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study considers the ratio between books written in one of the national languages (German, Czech), books written in Latin in the total book production of Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia in 1751, 1761, 1771, 1781, and 1791. Data obtained by excerpting the catalogues of the National Library of Prague and the Scientific Library in Olomouc are used to outline the changing language situation in the Czech Lands. The author indicates that Czech as a language for more demanding communication (both written and printed) only faced a real threat at the end of the 18th century, when German occupied positions previously occupied by Latin, while the imports of German-language literature from the countries beyond the borders of Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia were rising. Furthermore, the author draws attention to the importance of Czech-language books in the output of Slovak and Hungarian printers for the creation of a language consciousness in the Czech Lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper summarises the possibilities of studying the tax burden on the Czech countryside in 1780-1850. For its analysis it proposes to use the archival collection ‘Contribution Funds', consisting of individual schedules for the planned contributions (so-called sub-repartitions), and contributory accounts recording all receipts and outlays. Due to the limited ‘sub-repartition' for land tax only, it recommends to use the sums in the contributory accounts and to work with values for the whole estate. The most suitable comparative figures are grain prices, preserved from commodity prices that are important for the rural environment in the most comprehensive price ranges. Both series of numbers need to be subjected to source criticism (the most important for the period under review is the variability of the currencies used) and then compared with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines some real personalities in the Early Modern-Age Czech history who appear in legends as revenants (Jiří Tunkl of Brníčko and Zábřeh, Zdeněk senior Kavka Říčanský of Říčany, Rudolf Karel Rašín of Rýzmburk). The paper presents, interprets and evaluates selected legends about these protagonists, describes their common stereotypes and the specificities they characterise, and outlines the legends' genesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]