Hussite Crusades: Religious Violence in Medieval Europe

Barış Saday

Abstract

The Hussite crusades are characterized as religious in nature in terms of the volume and content of military activities in Bohemia. The initiators, participants and advocates of these activities impart the aforementioned religious nature. Following Huss’s complaint at Constance in 1415, the religious reform movement that began in the Czech-speaking lands of Bohemia identified with a well-defined political community that defined itself in national terms. When Sigismund of Luxembourg decided to impose his will on Bohemia by force in 1420, a broad coalition of reformist factions decided to use military force to defend what they interpreted as the “Law of God” (lex Dei). Sigismund’s infamous invasion was proclaimed as a crusade through the Papacy. The coalition is likely to perceive this defense as a religious war. But the elected emperor’s agreement that this should take the form of a crusade was undoubtedly to sharpen his opponents’ sense of the sacred character of the conflict. Except for the Crusades, there is no example of such a sustained and organized defense of religious doctrines against
attack in the Middle Ages, and nothing similar until the Reformation. In the Hussite Crusades, a group of people waging a religious war faced another group of similar views: those who wore the cross fought those who defended the nondescript chalice. Our study aims to deal with the Hussite-centered Reform movements in the Bohemian lands and the military expeditions as a result. Our research examines the use of the Papacy for political purposes by instrumentalizing religion through the “Hussite Crusades”.

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Hussite Crusades: Religious Violence in Medieval Europe