Page 173 - Vinkler, Jonatan. 2021. »Češka gos«, Božji bojevniki, obstranci: češka »reformacija pred reformacijo« in njeni evropski ter slovenski konteksti, ideariji in imaginariji. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut
P. 173
summary
they were involved in civic and provincial administration, and the Czech
Brethren nobility accepted military command responsibilities. The position
of the aristocracy and intelligentsia among the Czech Brethren also changed.
If both groups had previously been more or less merely a “tolerated” estate,
without any important voice within the church, which did not demand any
higher humanistic and theological education even from its priests, with the
advent of Bishop Jan Avgusta (after 1537) aristocrats and intellectuals became
leading representatives of the church in Bohemian society. On account of the
Turkish danger at the gates of Central Europe (after 1529, when Suleiman the
Magnificent besieged Vienna), the Czech Brethren theologians stopped es
pecially pointing out the pitfalls that lurked with every political engagement
of individual important aristocrats among the Czech Brethren. It was these
who cooperated in the First Smalkaldic War on the Protestant side, which
Emperor Charles V defeated in the Holy Roman Empire. Thus the Bohemian
king Ferdinand I implemented numerous measures against the church, in
cluding reviving the St James mandate of King Vladislaus Jagiellon of 1508.
All these interventions against the Czech Brethren were a warning for the
future, since they clearly underlined the uncertain political and social po
sition of the Czech Brethren against the Bohemian king as the Utraquist
church.
On the intellectual stage: Jan Blahoslav
With Jan Blahoslav (1523-1571), the Czech Brethren reached one of their in
tellectual pinnacles, because the importance of his textual production for
the development of the Czech language and literature can only be com
pared with that of Luke of Prague (Lukáš Pražský, 1460-1528) and John
Amos Comenius (Jan Amos Komenský, 1592-1670). Additionally, due to
Blahoslav, the Czech Brethren finally ceased to be intellectual “outsiders”
or mere observers in the scholarly culture and passers-by.
Blahoslav’s intellectual formation took place in Czech Brethren schools,
in the Latin school in Goldberg and universities in German-speaking lands
(Wittenberg, Königsberg, Basel) as well as through contact with prominent
contemporary humanists. As a Christian humanist, he wished that faith in
the Saviour and piety would harmonically accompany the best education
a Christian could obtain at that time. His concept of Christian human
ism brought to the fore the learned Christian, of whom constant conscious
training of the mind and capabilities and their perfecting with learning
173
they were involved in civic and provincial administration, and the Czech
Brethren nobility accepted military command responsibilities. The position
of the aristocracy and intelligentsia among the Czech Brethren also changed.
If both groups had previously been more or less merely a “tolerated” estate,
without any important voice within the church, which did not demand any
higher humanistic and theological education even from its priests, with the
advent of Bishop Jan Avgusta (after 1537) aristocrats and intellectuals became
leading representatives of the church in Bohemian society. On account of the
Turkish danger at the gates of Central Europe (after 1529, when Suleiman the
Magnificent besieged Vienna), the Czech Brethren theologians stopped es
pecially pointing out the pitfalls that lurked with every political engagement
of individual important aristocrats among the Czech Brethren. It was these
who cooperated in the First Smalkaldic War on the Protestant side, which
Emperor Charles V defeated in the Holy Roman Empire. Thus the Bohemian
king Ferdinand I implemented numerous measures against the church, in
cluding reviving the St James mandate of King Vladislaus Jagiellon of 1508.
All these interventions against the Czech Brethren were a warning for the
future, since they clearly underlined the uncertain political and social po
sition of the Czech Brethren against the Bohemian king as the Utraquist
church.
On the intellectual stage: Jan Blahoslav
With Jan Blahoslav (1523-1571), the Czech Brethren reached one of their in
tellectual pinnacles, because the importance of his textual production for
the development of the Czech language and literature can only be com
pared with that of Luke of Prague (Lukáš Pražský, 1460-1528) and John
Amos Comenius (Jan Amos Komenský, 1592-1670). Additionally, due to
Blahoslav, the Czech Brethren finally ceased to be intellectual “outsiders”
or mere observers in the scholarly culture and passers-by.
Blahoslav’s intellectual formation took place in Czech Brethren schools,
in the Latin school in Goldberg and universities in German-speaking lands
(Wittenberg, Königsberg, Basel) as well as through contact with prominent
contemporary humanists. As a Christian humanist, he wished that faith in
the Saviour and piety would harmonically accompany the best education
a Christian could obtain at that time. His concept of Christian human
ism brought to the fore the learned Christian, of whom constant conscious
training of the mind and capabilities and their perfecting with learning
173
