# Cruelty, Savagery and the Formation of a National Community in the Bohemian Reformation

The Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century was a seminal event in the history of late medieval Europe. Kluge Fellow Joel Seltzer contends that for the first time, the authority of the Roman Church over Latin Christendom was broken by a religious reform that sought to return to the primitive roots of the early Church. Anticipating the Protestant Reformation by a full century, the Bohemian reform emphasized the authority of the Bible, preaching and reading the Gospels in the vernacular, clerical poverty, and the lowering of divisions between clergy and laity. Additionally, this reform led to five crusades, civil war and the hardening of linguistic divisions between Czechs and Germans. This talk explores the role of medieval chronicle writing in establishing and maintaining this national, Czech-speaking religious revolution. It focuses particularly on the rhetorical uses of violence as a means of binding the Czech community literally over the "dead bodies" of the fallen, and creating a sense of a national destiny centuries before the advent of the modern ideology of nationalism.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2008
- By: Library Of Congress
- Genres: History, Religion
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687995/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021687995?play=1)