Marcela Perett's book will stand at the forefront of essential contributions to Hussite studies. She has fixed her gaze not on theology or Latin sources but on vernacular texts, examining how they contributed to the formation of symbols, myths, rituals, communities, and discrete religious identities in the period 1419–36. Perett consciously strives to address the lack of scholarly engagement with an “entire discourse in the vernacular” (19; see also 226). The shift from Latin to the common language in Hussite Bohemia facilitated the democratization of medieval theology and religious practice.
Perett proposes new ways of looking at one of the more compelling and thorough medieval religious uprisings. She claims words stimulated the laity to support reform and persuaded them to take up weapons, risk their lives, and defend something they believed worth living and dying for. She argues that Jan Hus, that pious priest, came to prominence by engaging the laity through vernacular writing and by positioning himself as the hero of his own story (as saint and martyr) in a bid to shape public opinion. She suggests, somewhat stunningly, that what divided Bohemia was not Hus's gruesome execution on the pyre at Constance in 1415, but rather his activities while in exile (1412–14).
Perett argues that it was in this period that Hus turned vernacular and took his case out of the courts and lecture halls of theology faculties and utilized the late medieval media to shape public opinion and influence the masses and persuade them to take sides; perhaps just as importantly, he sought to define his own reputation and historical legacy. Such claims fly in the face of conventional understandings of Hus. A 2019 University of New England PhD dissertation by Antonín Váhala treats the same period and the same writings and comes to quite different conclusions. Just as Hus admitted a variety of possible interpretations of biblical texts, so it must be possible to see Hus in different perspectives. Perett's last chapter (on two Latin chronicles) is not as convincing as the rest of the book, and the question of just how many Bohemians could read requires more evaluation. But the rest is brilliant.
The subtitle of the book accurately reveals the subject. Perett observes that few, such as František Šmahel and Howard Kaminsky, have looked carefully at vernacular culture; she acknowledges this reviewer's pioneering work (4, 79–80). Perett's book will stand as a highwater mark. She maintains it was the vernacular that caused Hus to transition from “golden boy” to “rabble-rouser,” that functioned as a game changer in creating discrete factions, and that became the key mechanism in the battle for the minds of the laity. She suggests vernacular songs and prose texts heightened and accentuated the split between major religious communities at Prague and Tábor and provides some useful translated extracts. Crucially, she recognizes the dangers in popularizing John Wyclif, whose ideas did not translate well—at least without perversion—into common parlance.
On the other hand, she is not ignorant of the limitations and pitfalls of vernacular discourse. Lionizing the vernacular medium uncritically is naïve, and this book shows the ways in which vernacular discussion of technical theology exposed serious and fatal limitations in unedifying ways. In short, some people had no business doing theology. They lacked essential qualifications. The much-acclaimed Petr Chelčický is an example. Perett judges him out of his depth, blatantly wrong, a muddled blunderer who did more harm than good. It is rather like a carpenter advising a cardiac physician on surgical procedure. This will strike some as highly offensive, but Perett is right. Vernacular learning often caused more harm than good, and many of the laity learned just enough to act on personal preferences, sometimes creating sheer chaos, convinced as they were of their own rectitude. The Moravian priest Martin Húska was not the only “chatterer”; he was just one of countless faceless and nameless chatterers who liked the sound of their own voices and delighted in shared ignorance, empowered by the common tongue.
Perett's narrative questions the capacity of the vernacular and unflinchingly exposes its limitations. This is an insightful, courageous, and original book that will delight and disturb, and for that reason can be highly recommended.
