The Crusade against Heretics in Bohemia, 1418-1437: Sources and Documents for the Hussite Crusades by Thomas A. s> Fudge (review)

Abstract

I04 SEER, 82, I, 2004 Since it is Stark's contention that human approaches to sacred agents, whether saints or nature spirits, were most often made following some breakdown in normal, ordered life, whether personal (illness) or of the community (cattle attacked by forest predators), a significant part of her study deals with the restoration of order through negotiation with the sacred agent. Of particular interest are sections dealing with divination rituals and the use of healers, who employed their special knowledge and the insights received in dreams to control the disease-inducing vakiwho came, in response to some perceived insult or omission, from the wilderness and the spaces occupied by the dead in order to invade the 'open' and vulnerable body of individuals. Through their intervention, the patient's sense of wholeness was restored and the boundaries dividing the world of living humans from that of the Other reestablished . This book is full of interesting ideas and encourages further questioning and speculation. Some of its conclusions may seem a little exaggerated. By creating an artificial split between hunters and pastoralists, and by consciously eliminating rituals concerning the former from her study Stark has, in my opinion, created an imbalance. Her examination of the relationship between humans and sacred agents in the forest concentrates, almost exclusively, on ritual behaviour designed to reverse misfortune and restore order, equilibrium, or the 'limited good' (give me back what is mine) which supposedly regulated relations in the peasant community itself. The significance of ritual designed to enhance the material prosperity of individuals, hunters and others who entered the forest in order to exploit its riches (game, mushrooms, wood) is ignored. Since hunting, agriculture and animal husbandry were conducted by essentially the same people, a significant aspect of their relationship with the Other is lost. Nevertheless, the book represents a major contribution to our understanding of the bases for the formation of relationships between humans and supernatural agents in folk belief. In addition to being of great interest to folklorists and anthropologists in general, as well as to specialists in Karelian/Finnish cultural studies, it provides some fascinating material for comparative research into the patently similar beliefs and attitudes to nature spirits and the dead to be found among the Russian population in regions in, or bordering on, Karelia. UniversityofDurham ELIZABETH WARNER Fudge, Thomas A. TheCrusade against Heretics in Bohemia, I4I8-I437'. Sources and Documents for the Hussite Crusades.Crusade Texts in Translation, 9. Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 2002. XXVi?49 pP. Notes. Maps. Select Bibliography. Index. [42.50; $74.96. ONCE again Thomas A. Fudge has given us an important contribution to Hussite studies. His The Magnificent Ride (Aldershot, i999) constituted a stimulating interpretation of ideology and propaganda, primarily from the Hussite side. Here he presents, for the most part for the first time in English, translations from more than 200 documents illustrating a wide range of REVIEWS I05 elements related to the crusade against Hussite heretics in fifteenth-century Bohemia. There is an enormous documentary basis for this topic, much of which has been published in original language critical editions in the last two centuries, and scholars have utilized these sources effectively in the substantial historiographical corpus that has appeared in this period. (Fudge suggests rather boldly [p. I2] that despite this work there 'has yet to be a definitive history written in a major language either of the Hussite movement generally or the crusade specifically'.) Relatively little of the primary material has been translated into English, however, and this volume is very welcome indeed. Although the crusade period formally lasted only from 1420 until 1431, Fudge justifies his broader scope effectively. He argues that the crusade was rooted in discussions and developments during and subsequent to the Council of Constance. Further, though there was no crusade after I 43 1, there certainly was the possibility and even expectation that the movement would be revived as long as Hussites held out in Bohemia and Sigismund of Luxembourg lived. Finally, military activity even if not formally designated as a crusade continued after 1431 on both the Hussite and Catholic side. This expanded chronological framework therefore enables one to put the Hussite movement and...