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Žižka's Drum: The Political Uses of Popular Religion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2008
Extract
Now Žižka had appointed a time to assemble for the purpose of attacking Sigismund when, near the castle of Přibyslav, by divine inspiration, if you will, that detestable, cruel, horrible and savage monster was stricken with an infectious disease and died. The one whom no mortal hand could destroy was extinguished by the finger of God. As he lay ill he was asked where he wished to be buried after his death. He ordered that his body be flayed, the flesh discarded for the birds and animals, and a drum be fashioned from his skin. With this drum in the lead they should go to war. The enemies would turn to flight as soon as they heard its voice.
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References
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17. Noted in the preface to his Historia Bohemica, 6.
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33. Vavřinec of Březová, “Historia Hussitica,” 364.
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44. For example, there is a folk carving of him in the Regional Museum in Netolice, a walking stick in the collection at Orlík Castle, and the work of Mikoláš Aleš featured frequently Hussite motifs as well as Žižka.
45. Kronika velmi pěkná o Janovi Žižkovi, Čeledína Krále Vácslava, xxiii.
46. Sylvius, Aeneas, Historia Bohemica, 138Google Scholar. The oldest stone likeness of Žižka is the “little head from Tábor” from around 1500 now preserved in the National Museum in Prague.
47. See below note 54 on the “sainthood” of Hus.
48. He is called a “snöden man” in the contemporary biography of Sigismund. Windecke, Eberhard, Denkwürdigkeiten zur Geschichte des Zeitalters Kaiser Sigmunds, ed., Altmann, Wilhelm (Berlin, 1893), 197Google Scholar.
49. All three date from the second half of the fifteenth century and survive in Prague museums. Two of the tiles have been reproduced in Kejř, Jiří, The Hussite Revolution, trans. Gottheinerová, Till (Prague, 1988), 74, 78Google Scholar. A third can be found in Všetečka, Jiří and Klučina, Petr, Praha Husitská (Prague, 1986), unpaginated textGoogle Scholar.
50. Göttingen, Universitätsbibliothek MS. Theol. 182, p. 75.
51. Jistebnice Gradual, Prague, National Museum Library MS. XII F 14 fol. 61r. The drawing, once discernable, has now been completely obliterated save for the upper parts of the banner. The most recent codicological studies place this gradual in the second half of the fifteenth century. There are no indications internally to help date the text more precisely.
52. The Czech inscription reads “Žižka, bratr náš věrný” in the Jena Codex, Prague. National Museum Library MS. IV B 24, fol. 76r. Another depiction of Žižka with his troops is a woodcut in the Czech version of Sylvius's, AeneasHistoria Bohemia by Mikuláš Konáč of Hodiškov (Prague, 1510), fol. 48rGoogle Scholar.
53. Jena Codex, Prague, National Museum Library MS. IV B 24, fols. 5v–6r.
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55. For example, the illumination of Hus's transformation from condemned heretic to resident of paradise. Litoměřice Gradual, Terezín, Regional Archives MS. IV C 1 fol. 244v.
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59. It is a Baroque painting and appears in Kejř, The Hussite Revolution, 153. There are a variety of other examples in Urbánek, ed., Ibid.
60. See Fudge, Thomas A., “‘The Shouting Hus’: Heresy Appropriated as Propaganda in the Sixteenth Century,” Communio Viatorum 38 (1996): 197–231Google Scholar.
61. Particularly the implementation and enforcement of the “St. James Day Mandate” against the Unity of the Brethren. See Fudge, Thomas A., “The Problem of Religious Liberty in Early Modern Bohemia,” Communio Viatorum 38 (1996): 71–75, 78–79, 81–83Google Scholar.
62. “Böhmischer Jesuiten Kehraus und teutsche Weckuhr. Wunderliche Geheimnusse umb nachdenkliche des römischen Reiches.” Formerly Marburg, Westdeutsche Bibliothek, Plate no. 51, now Berlin, Staatsbibliothek.
63. The pope is shown mouthing these words: “Ich bin Successor Petri und Vicarius aller Reich. Ich hab macht Konig ab und ein Zusetzen.”
64. The Bohemian king was often referred to as a Lion. The image appears in popular songs of the fifteenth century. See for example, “A Song about Archbishop Zbyněk” in Nejedlý, Zdeněk, Dějiny husitského zpěvu (Prague, 1954–1956), vol. 3, 442–43Google Scholar and “When the Lion Died of Right Desire” in Ktož jsú boží bojovníci; čtení o Táboře v husitském revolučním hnutí, ed. Macek, Josef (Prague, 1951), 50–52Google Scholar. There are partial translations of both songs in Fudge, The Magnificent Ride, 199–200.
65. “Böhmischer Unruh Schauspiegel in Welchem ein artiche und Eigendliche Transgiguratio und Abbildung aller deren Handlungen, Aufstand und Thätlichkeiten, so im vergangenen 1618 Jarh, auch biss noch auff dato in dem Hochlöblichen Königreich Böhmen verloffen, zu sehen.” Formerly Marburg, Westdeutsche Bibliothek, Plate no. 58, now Berlin, Staatsbibliothek.
66. Klesl was Ferdinand's Jesuit confessor as well as an imperial advisor. He seems out of place in this broadsheet depiction for he had been somewhat of an advocate for religious liberty and on this account had been arrested on 20 July 1618 by Ferdinand for his views on this very point. Klesl was deported to Tyrol where he was incarcerated at the Ambras Fortress.
67. The Church at Karlov was established around 1350 by Charles IV. The present vaulting dates from the late fifteenth century, while the main nave must be dated to 1575. Architecturally, the star-shaped vaulted main nave is of considerable interest. The Hussites did not succeed in destroying the building.
68. See the discussion in Urbánek, , Žižka v památkách a úctě lidu českého, 53Google Scholar.
69. I cite the correspondence from Caha, Arnošt, Žižkův sborník (Brno, 1924), 92Google Scholar.
70. Fudge, , The Crusade against Heretics in Bohemia, 400Google Scholar.