Charles IV and the Origins of the Great Schism, c. 1375–1378
Emperor Otto I the Great made history in the Holy Roman Empire with a significant dynastic achievement: in 967, he persuaded the pope to crown his son co-emperor in Rome. Two centuries later, another renowned emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, attempted a similar feat, negotiating with four different popes for the coronation of his descendant, but ultimately failed. A lesser-known parallel can be found in the life of Emperor Charles IV of the Luxembourg dynasty in the fourteenth century. After the Papal Curia returned to Rome from Avignon in early 1377, Charles made concerted efforts in Italy, France, and Germany to secure the imperial coronation of his son, Wenceslas. However, this bold ambition coincided with an unprecedented crisis in relations between the ‟French” cardinals and the newly elected Italian pope, Urban VI. Recognizing that the final chapter of Charles IV’s biography is deeply intertwined with the early history of the Great Western Schism offers a fresh perspective on a subject that has long captivated international scholarship.
Author(s):
Dušan Coufal
Publisher: Karolinum
Series: Prague Medieval Studies
Language: English
Place: Praha
Year: 2026
Počet stran: 349
ISBN: 978-80-246-6208-4
Available in Open Access
Prague, Jan Hus and Prague University
The Bohemian Reformation — the reformation before the Reformation — offered a radical solution to the spiritual and institutional crisis of the late medieval church at the end of the fourteenth century. The beginnings of this reform are distinctly connected with Prague University, which drew many educated people to Prague from across Europe. Through Jan Hus — a former Prague University student who became its rector in 1409/1410 — the Bohemian Reformation gave rise to a new, radical ecclesiology. Not only did Hus challenge the hierarchical system of the church, but under his influence, the Bohemian Reformation acquired a specific national shape, and elements of Czech messianism emerged with the university.
The book Prague, Jan Hus and Prague University analyzes these processes within Prague University, as well as its limits and restrictive consequences for the Bohemian Reformation and Czech medieval society. Emphasis is placed on showing how Prague and the university became a world that successfully struggled for its own existence in late medieval Christian Europe.
Author(s):
Martin Nodl
Publisher: Karolinum
Language: English
Place: Praha
Year: 2026
Pages: 274
ISBN: 978-80-246-5636-6
Buy: 550 CZK
Christians, Pagans, Dissidents: Christianisation in Late Medieval Bohemia and Poland
This collective monograph has three objectives: to clarify the form of paganism‘s survival in the Christian society of the Czech and Polish kingdoms in the Middle Ages; to examine the coexistence of paganism and Christianity in Bohemia and Poland between the 11th and 15th centuries; to shed new light on the processes of external and internal Christianization, which significantly shaped late medieval piety. It seems clear that significant and in many ways unique religious processes took place in medieval Central Europe, conditioned by the need to cope with paganism and the delayed adoption of Western European models of church administration and religious life. In the 15th century, however, Christianized society in the Bohemian and Polish kingdoms began to ask questions that went beyond the intellectual horizons of Western Europe. In the Czech milieu, this process resulted in the Hussite Reformation, a reformation before the Reformation, while in the Polish milieu it gave rise to the concept of unlimited religious tolerance towards pagans derived from natural law and embodied om the, doctrine of ius gentium, as well as to the development of ideas about the uniqueness of Polish Christianity as a bulwark against heresy (Hussite) and Islam.
Editors:
Martin Nodl – Krzystof Bracha
Publisher: Sandstein kultur
Language: angličtina
Place: Dresden
Year: 2026
Pages: 272
ISBN: 978-3-95498-913-3
Buy: 38 €
Martin Lupáč z Újezda: Osobitý myslitel husitské éry
The monograph focuses on the prominent writer and cleric Martin Lupáč of Újezd († 1468), who played a key role in the history of Czech Utraquism. The book analyzes his literary work, ideological positions, and historical reflections, particularly in relation to the Basel Compacts, which he helped to negotiate and to which he returned throughout the rest of his life.
Images of the European Middle Ages today are shaped by a wide range of mutually interacting disciplines: history, archaeology, art history, philology, theology, and philosophy. The encounter of different fields and evolving methodological approaches invites a reappraisal of traditional and seemingly closed topics. It is precisely in this direction that the series Středověk (The Middle Ages) proceeds, offering both scholarly monographs and thematic volumes, as well as original sources and their translations. Particular emphasis is placed on making medieval texts accessible, providing commentary on them, and presenting the various ways in which their meanings may be understood.
Author: Adam Pálka
Publisher: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny
Language: Czech
Place of publication: Prague
Year of publication: 2026
Number of pages: 332
ISBN: 978-80-7422-882-7
Buy: 299 Kč