Czech Socio-historical Thought of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

Abstract

The book presents the development of socio-historical thought in Czechia, regarded as «the heart of Europe» not only by the Czechs, but by other Europeans. A great historical period from X to the beginning of XVII cc. is examined, when Czechia had gradually transformed from a major Slavonic principality into the center of the Holy Roman Empire, having reached its peak in XIV с. under the reign of Charles IV. In XV c. Czechia was in the forefront of the fight to reform the Catholic Church (Hussite movement). During the Renaissance and the Reformation it was an example of tolerance among religious wars that disturbed Europe, but at the beginning of XVII c. Czechia had lost its independency as a result of a political and confessional struggle between the estates and the power of the Habsburgers. The main sources of analysis are medieval chronicles and other essays of the epoch that give ground to reconstruct a socio-political thought of every historical period of the Czech development. The main focus is on such significant aspects as the relationship between the supreme power and the society, the forming, translation, and reinterpretation of the historical tradition and memory, the use of historical argumentation in politics, the forming of sustainable state-historical and patriotic ideas, the development of ethnic self-consciousness and its reflection in written documents of the Middle Ages. The transformations of the Czech patriotism, one of the basic ideologems, are traced during various historical periods, in various social and confessional groups of the Czech society.