The Bohemian Brethren and the Protestant Reformation

Craig Atwood

doi:10.3390/rel12050360

Abstract

The smallest, but in some ways the most influential, church to emerge from the Hussite Reformation was the Unity of the Brethren founded by Gregory the Patriarch in 1457. The Unity was a voluntary church that separated entirely from the established churches, and chose its own priests, published the first Protestant hymnal and catechism, and operated several schools. Soon after Martin Luther broke with Rome, the Brethren established cordial relations with Wittenberg and introduced their irenic and ecumenical theology to the Protestant Reformation. Over time, they gravitated more toward the Reformed tradition, and influenced Martin Bucer’s views on confirmation, church discipline, and the Eucharist. In many ways, the pacifist Brethren offered a middle way between the Magisterial Reformation and the Radical Reformation. Study of the Brethren complicates and enhances our understanding of the Protestant Reformation and the rise of religious toleration in Europe.

Highlights

Jan Hus was burned at the Council of Constance in 1415 as a heresiarch, and his followers in Bohemia and Moravia, especially the Bohemian Brethren, were condemned as schismatics teaching dangerous doctrines
When I came upon some books of John Hus unawares one time and saw that the Scriptures were treated so powerfully and purely that I began to wonder why the pope and council had burned such a great man, I immediately closed the book in terror, suspecting that there was poison hidden under the honey by which my simplicity might be infected; such a violent fascination with the name of the pope and council ruled over me. (Pelikan and Hotchkiss 2003, p. 799)
Molnár concluded that “the tangle and contention of theological disputes in the bosom of the western Reformation about the limits of orthodoxy, into which the Unity did not wish to be drawn, acted as a brake on the development of the individuality of the Brethren’s approach to theology.”27 The Brethren were especially suspicious of the doctrine of double predestination that asserted that God had predestined some souls to eternal damnation regardless of their works (Hägglund 1968, pp. 260–62)

Summary

Introduction

Jan Hus was burned at the Council of Constance in 1415 as a heresiarch, and his followers in Bohemia and Moravia, especially the Bohemian Brethren, were condemned as schismatics teaching dangerous doctrines. Prior to the posting of the Ninety-five Theses, Martin Luther, like most doctors of theology, viewed the Hussites as heretics to be avoided. He wrote: When I was a papist, I truly and cordially hated these Pickard Brethren with great zeal toward God and religion and without any aim of gaining money or glory. Soon after the Leipzig debate, Luther and Philip Melanchthon established cordial relations with the Utraquist Church and the Bohemian Brethren We will begin with a brief look at the history of the Brethren and their religious practices prior to contact with Luther.

The Unity of the Brethren

The New Brethren

Erasmus and the Brethren

Luther and the Brethren

The Brethren and the Reformed Tradition

Conclusions