Utraquist Bohemia and the English Martyrs: An Uncommon Witness of Reform

The relationship between the Bohemian reform movements of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the events associated with the traditionally-nominated Reformations of the sixteenth century has been a much understudied topic amongst historians and theologians. There are a number of points of entry for comparison and analysis. One overlooked text is Pavel Bydžovský’s “Several Stories of English Martyrs (with Whom God Deigned to Decorate His Church Just Like the Heaven with Stars)” that was published in 1554. Bydžovský’s treatise, which has not been examined in modern times, offers a remarkable opportunity as an illustration of the little studied or understood Utraquist theological and ecclesiological position. This is displayed by Bydžovský’s sponsorship (especially that of Jan III, Popel z Lobkovic), his relationship to Catholicism and Lutheranism, and by his use of sources (especially, Venerable Bede, Reginald Pole, the Guildhall Report). Thus, the Bydžovský text is useful for the elaboration of the religious relationships that existed between Bohemia and England in the sixteenth century. The text further contributes an important witness to the theological and ecclesiastical via media represented by the Utraquist tradition between Rome on one hand and Wittenberg and Geneva on the other. This is most graphically displayed in what can only be characterized as a highly qualified allegiance to the papacy. This contribution to expanding knowledge around the definition and understanding of Reformation presents a full translation of Pavel Bydžovský’s treatise on the English Martyrs and this is preceded by a contextual commentary that endeavors to more meaningfully bring a forgotten text into the cutting edge of scholatship.

Fides Gratiae Caelestis: Bede, Pelagius and Divine Grace

Writing from his monastery in the seventh and eighth centuries, the Venerable Bede (ca. 672–735) was one of the foremost scholars of his era. Primarily known for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede’s vast corpus also included theological works, sermons, and biblical commentaries. Although most scholarly attention focuses on his historiography, this article explores Bede’s views on the notorious fifth-century monk, Pelagius. After surveying the works of both authors and commenting on the spread of Pelagianism in Britain, the article concludes that Bede saw Pelagianism as a persistent threat to orthodoxy, some three hundred years removed from the Pelagian controversies in the fifth century.

Ut figura sit. Beda Czcigodny o tropach Pisma

The main purpose of the paper is to discuss thirteen tropes presented by the Venerable Bede, a Benedictine monk from the Kingdom of Northumbria, in the manual On figures and tropes (De schematibus et tropis, ca. 710), dedicated to his disciple, Cuthbert. Using the definitions and examples given by Donatus (Ars maior), Bede described thirteen tropes and their variants: metaphor, catachresis, metalepsis, metonymy, antonomasia, epithet, synecdoche (totum a parte, pars a toto), onomatopoeia, periphrasis, hyperbaton (histerologia, anastrophe, paren­thesis, tmesis, synchysis), hyperbole, allegory (irony, antiphrasis, enigma, chari­entism, paremia, sarcasm, asteism), and homoeosis (icon, parable, paradigm). Each of these rhetorical devices was illustrated with examples drawn from the Scripture. Therefore, the categories form the grammatical tradition were trans­formed into the exegetical means, particularly useful during reading the Bible and discovering its hidden meanings. Deploying tropes for interpretative purposes, Bede proposed the model of exegesis concentrated on both what is signified and the mode of signification.