Fracturing Universal Christianity

Abstract

It has widely been assumed that religious objects were quickly associated with different confessions during the Reformation period. However, the unique environment of Prague enables the conditions, speed, and clarity of this process to be tested. This chapter pushes beyond previous historiography that has focused on mono-confessional contexts to examine the confessional specificity of devotional material cultures. The multiconfessional environment of Prague in the first decades of the seventeenth century enables an examination of the role of material culture in the creation of distinct confessional identities. Prague thus provides a fascinating context in which to study the process of fracturing medieval Christianity along confessional lines. It sustained an environment of what might be called ‘multiple options’ well into the seventeenth century. Three factors that shaped this confessional context are examined: survivalism of pre-Reformation devotional modes, the impact of Utraquism, and the persistence of confessional flexibility. A detailed examination of prayer beads in the inventories and as extant objects provides a microcosm through which to understand confessional identities at ground level. Close up, qualitatively, the records reveal them to be part of a spiritual world of endless possibilities and devotional options, but quantitatively, from a distance, they reveal a striking pattern of plural confessions and religious change.