A few thoughts – I’m too burnt out from Tuesday to come up with anything coherent.

Mengel, David “A Plague on Bohemia? Mapping the Black Death.” Past and Present 211 (2011): 3-34.

The often-cited “fact” that Bohemia and southern Poland escaped the mid-14^th century bubonic plague epidemic rests on shaky evidence, but total mortality was lower, perhaps 10% in urban areas and less in rural areas. The epidemic of 1380 was more devastating in Bohemia than that of 1350. Though not as dramatic as once thought, the differing mortality in Bohemia compared to other parts of Europe probably was a contributing factor in the different course of reform in the early 15^th century.

The political situation in Bohemia at the turn of the fifteenth century was complicated by conflicts between two ethno-linguistic groups, which to some extent were divided along economic lines. The Kingdom of Bohemia lay on the margins of the Holy Roman Empire, which was predominantly German-speaking, and during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the tide of increasing urbanization and consolidation of wealth and power, both among the laity and the clergy, tended to favor German migrants over the native Czech-speaking rural population. Deane mentions three reforming ministers – Waldhauser, Jan Milic, and Mathew Janov – who achieved popularity preaching personal austerity and ecclesiastical reform along lines somewhat similar to those proposed by Wycliffe in England at about the same time.

The Hussite movement drew on the earlier calls for church reform, and like Lollardism had its origins in a university, in the person of Jan Hus, a Czech theologian and preacher at Charles University in Prague. He was from a humble rural background.