A Study of Peter Chelčický's Life and a Translation from Czech of Part I of His Net of Faith (1947)/Introduction
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 it is sad to admit, the whole ideological content of Czechoslovak Protestantism as well as the ecclesiastical history of the Slavic peoples remain, for the great part, an uncharted map to Anglo-American Protestantism which is still often compelled to inscribe the blank spaces with the legend hic sunt leones.)
The Net of Faith consists of two parts: in the first part, composed of ninety-five chapters, Chelc̄icky̍ presents his basic philosophy; the second part, divided into fifty-one chapters, contains 'illustrative material' in elaboration of Part I. Even though this section is – from the literary point of view – by far most interesting in that it vividly portrays the different facets of medieval life, it is omitted in the present thesis. In translating I used the critical edition of Peter Chelc̄icky̍'s Net of Faith made by Dr. Emil Smeta̍nka, Professor of Czech Language at Charles University, Prague2; this I often compared with the facsimile reprint of the first printed edition of A.D. 1521, a copy of which is available in the Library of the University of California.3</ref>
I am indebted to Professor George H. Williams of Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, who read parts of the translation while it was in the process of growth, and who has made many helpful suggestions; to the editors of The Moravian for permission to use large portions of my article, "The Prehistory of Moravianism," which appeared in that magazine, and especially to my brother, Rev. Amedeo Molna̍r of Prague, who supplied me with much needed critical literature about Chelc̄icky̍ published in Bohemia during the war years, beside contributing many constructive suggestions. And finally, I owe many thanks to my wife who learned that helping with a thesis in many practical ways is essential in making marriage a success.
1 See Key to Czech pronunciation on p. 2.
2 Petr Chelc̄icky̍ , Si̍t̄ vi̍ry, revised new edition, Emil Smeta̍nka, ed., Prague: Melantrich, 1929.
3 Petr z Chelcz̄icz, Siet Wiery, Bohemiae Monumenta Typographica. Facsimile Reprint of the Vilemov Edition of 1521, ed. by Zdenēk Tobolka. Prague: Taussig, 1925.