INTRODUCTION
The two-fold aim of the following thesis is defined by its title: it presents a translation, from the Czech language, of a religio-political treatise called The Net of Faith, written sometime between A.D. 1440–1443 by Peter Chelc̄icky̍,1 a yeoman from southern Bohemia, and a contemporary of the Hussite Revolution. Chelc̄icky̍ is the most original thinker of the Bohemian Reformation; today there are preserved some thirty writings of different length coming from his pen. His most mature and most representative work is the Net of Faith.
I consider this translation of The Net as the core of my thesis; to it I have prefaced several chapters in which I am endeavoring to evaluate the significance of Peter Chelc̄icky̍, to show his unique position in the Czech reformation and to underscore his characteristic contribution to the European Protestant religious thought.
In choosing this subject for my thesis I am conscious that I am also paying back a debt which I owe Chelc̄icky̍; the reading of his book led me to the choice of my vocation. I am also aware that he and his work is literally unknown in what is loosely termed the West. (For that matter, and
1 See Key to Czech pronunciation on p. 2.
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