Bi-confessionalism in post-Hussite Bohemian Towns and its Legal Regulation ROBERT NOVOTNÝ Research on the coexistence of multiple Christian confessions is mainly associated with the early- modern period and the rise of the Reformation Churches. Scholarly interest in the last half-century, associated with the concept of confessionalisation, has brought entirely new insights into the dynamic social and political changes that took place against the background of religious transformations.1 In fact, however, these processes had already taken place on a smaller scale in the Bohemian lands a century before Martin Luther, albeit not in such intensity and regional breadth. Alongside the traditional Roman Church, the Utraquist Church, whose adherents sought to defend their existence, established itself there after the Hussite Wars (1419–34). To a certain extent, this presented analogous processes, with equal social dynamics taking place against the backdrop of religious developments. The conclusion of the Compactata in 1436 marked the first step towards a more peaceful coexistence between the two confessions. Although the treaties with the Council of Basel and the subsequent privileges of Sigismund of Luxembourg ruled out more violent means of resolving conflict, Bohemian society still had a long way to go to find a truly functional solution.2 This was not just a matter of religion alone, as confessional arguments often served as the most compelling justification to support other demands, be they related to property, nation, or politics. Often the confessional card was used purely for expedience, but this did not change the fact that it complicated coexistence in the country. When confessional arguments were revived by the opposition to King George of Poděbrady in the second half of the 1460s, the consequences remained for the Bohemian Kingdom long after George’s death.3 The search for a modus vivendi was particularly difficult in towns.4 Many of them were subject to transformations in national and social terms, as well as in property holding during the Hussite Revolution, with which the confessional question was inextricably linked. Thus, the struggle for 1 A Companion to Multiconfessionalism in the Early Modern World, ed. Thomas Max Safley, Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition, 28 (Leiden, 2011). 2 František Šmahel, Die Basler Kompaktaten mit den Hussiten (1436). Untersuchung und Edition, MGH Studien und Texte, 65 (Wiesbaden, 2019). 3 The basic outline is given by František Šmahel, Die Hussitische Revolution, vol. 3, trans. Thomas Krzenck, MGH Schriften, 43 (Hannover, 2002), 1819–65. The following chapter deals with the conditions in the Bohemian towns, and includes the situation in Moravia only in the necessary context. 4 Martin Musílek, “Města,” in Husitské století, eds. Pavlína Cermanová, Robert Novotný, and Pavel Soukup (Prague, 2014), 317–32. On the religious conditions with an emphasis on royal cities, see esp. 326–28.
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