Restitution and Dissent in the Late Medieval Renewal Movements: the Waldensians, the Hussites and the Bohemian Brethren

Abstract

HE history of the Christian Church and its impact upon Western civilization has often been interpreted as an alternation between periods of recession and resurgence. The motif of renewal thus serves as the organizing principle of the chronological unfolding of the story of the Church.' When expressed in theological terms, it can become a rallying point for advocates of reform, whether in the history of Protestantism, or in the current Catholic aggiornamento: Insofar as the Church is deformed, she has to be reformed: ecclesia [reformata atque semper] reformanda.2 However, the real dynamic of Christian renewal, whether individual, ecclesiastical or societal, cannot be generated by a mere awareness of the sequence of decay and revival. Rather, it consists in the ever-present tension between those who seek to attain an ideal and those who are willing to compromise. Upon completion of his monumental survey of The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches, Ernst Troeltsch summed up his analysis with the tripartite typology of church, sect and mysticism, and in keeping with his theological orientation, stated: