Hussitism

Hussitism followed Jan Hus, a Czech preacher influenced by John Wycliffe, who held that Scripture stood above Church tradition and that the laity should receive communion in both bread and wine. The Council of Constance burned Hus in 1415, and Bohemia answered with an uprising. The chalice became the emblem of the movement, whose members were called Calixtines or Utraquists.

The moderates set out their programme in the Four Articles of Prague of 1420. The radical Taborites followed Wycliffe further. Under Jan Žižka the Hussites beat back five crusades in 1419–1434.

In 1434 the Utraquists and Catholics crushed the Taborites at Lipany, and the Peace of Kutná Hora in 1485 gave Catholics and Utraquists equal rights in Bohemia. Catholicism was reimposed after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620.