the laity could disobey clerics who were more interested in pomp than the salvation
of souls. Hus translated parts of the Bible into Czech while encouraging German
translations as well. Furthering their vision of equality within the church, Hus’s
followers demanded that all the faithful be offered not just the bread but also the
consecrated wine at Mass. (This was later called Utraquism, from the Latin sub
utraque specie—communion “in both kinds.”) In these ways, the Hussites gave
shape to their vision of the church as the community of believers—women and the
poor included. Hus’s friend Jerome of Prague identified the whole reform movement
with the good of the Bohemian nation itself, appropriating the traditional claim of the
nobility.
Burned as a heretic at the Council of Constance, Hus nevertheless inspired a
movement that transformed the Bohemian church. The Hussites soon disagreed
about demands and methods (the most radical, the Taborites, set up a sort of
government in exile in southern Bohemia, pooling their resources while awaiting the
Second Coming), but most found willing protectors among the Bohemian nobility. In
the struggle between these groups and imperial troops—backed by a papal declaration
of crusade in Bohemia—a peculiarly Bohemian church was created, with its own
special liturgy for the Mass.
CHURCHES UNDER ROYAL LEADERSHIP: FRANCE AND SPAIN
“National” churches did not need popular revolts to spark them. Indeed, in France
and Spain they were forged in the crucible of growing royal power. In the Pragmatic
Sanction of Bourges (1438), Charles VII surveyed the various failings of the church
in France and declared himself the guarantor of its reform. Popes were no longer to
appoint French prelates nor grant benefices to churchmen; these matters now came
under the jurisdiction of the king.
The crown in Spain claimed similar rights about a half-century later, when the
marriage of Ferdinand (r.1479–1516) and Isabella (r.1474–1504)—dubbed the
“Catholic Monarchs” by the pope—united Aragon and Castile. In their hands,
Catholicism became an instrument of militant royal sovereignty. King and queen
launched an offensive against the Muslims in Granada (conquering the last bit in
1492). In 1502 the remaining Muslims were required to convert to Christianity or
leave Spain. Many chose to convert (coming to be known as moriscos), but they
were never integrated into the mainstream and were expelled from the kingdom in the
early seventeenth century.
