New Series Vol. 2 N° 2 by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences
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New Series Vol. 2 N° 2 by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences KOSMAS CZECHOSLOVAK AND CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL New Series, Volume 2, number 2 KOSMAS ISSN 1056-005X ©2021 by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) Kosmas: Czechoslovak and Central European Journal (Formerly Kosmas: Journal of Czechoslovak and Central European Studies, Vols. 1-7, 1982-1988, and Czechoslovak and Central European Journal, Vols. 8-11, (1989-1993). Kosmas is a peer reviewed, multidisciplinary journal that focuses on Czech, Slovak and Central European Studies. It publishes scholarly articles, memoirs, research materials, and belles-lettres (including translations and original works), dealing with the region and its inhabitants, including their communities abroad. It is published twice a year by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). Editor: Hugh L. Agnew (The George Washington University) Associate Editors: Mary Hrabík Šámal (Oakland University) Thomas A. Fudge (University of New England, Australia) Editorial Board Members: Daniel Miller (University of West Florida) Hana Waisserová (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) Kateřina Králová (Univerzita Karlova) The editors assume no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by contributors. Send manuscript submissions and correspondence concerning editorial matters to the editor, Hugh L. Agnew. The email address is [email protected]. Please ensure that you reference “Kosmas” in the subject line of your email. If postal correspondence proves necessary, the postal address of the editor is Hugh L. Agnew, History Department, The George Washington University, 801 22nd St. NW, Washington, DC, 20052 USA. Please send books for review, book reviews, and all correspondence relating to book reviews to the associate editor responsible for book reviews, Mary Hrabík Šámal, at the email address [email protected]. If postal correspondence proves necessary, send communications to her at 2130 Babcock, Troy, MI, 48084 USA. For information about ordering current and future issues of Kosmas, please consult the SVU website at: https://kosmas.svu2000.org. ii CONTENTS From the Editor By Hugh L. Agnew v Religious Contacts with England during the Bohemian Reformation By Zdenĕk V. David 1 Concerning a Manuscript from a Moravian Immigrant’s Trunk: Postil by Johann Spangenberg By Hana Waisserová 22 Memoir: Part II: From Trial in Berlin to Zuchthaus in Hameln an der Weser (1942-1945) By Martin Hrabík 42 Eda Kriseová and her Prophecy of the Velvet Revolution: “The Gates Opened” (1984) By Hana Waisserová 59 The Gates Opened By Eda Kriseová 67 Searching for Security: Defense Policies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia before and after the Ukrainian Crisis By James W. Peterson 77 ESSAY Internationalizing Our Research and Perspectives: A Librarian’s Manifesto By David Chroust 96 RESEARCH MATERIALS On the Track of Czechs in Canada By Miloslav Rechcigl 104 BOOK REVIEWS Rozmluvy s Antonínem Švehlou a o Švehlovi: Vzpomínky Agrárního diplomata Karla Mečíře. Historico-Kriticka edice, (Conversations with and about Antonín Švehla: Reminiscences of the Agrarian Diplomat Karel Mečíř; A Historical and Critical Edition) Eduard Kubů and Jiří Šouša, ed. (Prague: Universita Karlova, Nakladatelství Karolinum, 2018), ISBN 978-80-246-4099-0 and ISBN 978-80-4150 (pdf), 348 pp. iii iv KOSMAS: Czechoslovak and Central European Journal By Mary Hrabík Šámal 119 Pavel Kreisinger, Češi a Slováci v Austrálii v 1. polovině 20. století a jejich účast ve světových válkách, (Prague: Academia, 2018). ISBN 978-80-200-2821-1, 400 pp. By Milada Polišenská 128 Norman Eisen, The Last Palace: Europe’s Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House, (New York: Crown, 2018). ISBN: 978-0-451-49578-5. 403 pp. By Louis J. Reith 132 Jan Balabán, Maybe We’re Leaving, trans. by Charles S. Kraszewski, (London: Glagoslav Publications, 2017). ISBN: 9781911414698. 166 pp. By Tracy A. Burns 135 Contributors 139 Advice to Prospective Authors 142 From the Editor Hugh L. Agnew It is with some relief during these pandemic times that I can introduce the current, Volume 2, number 2 (New Series) of Kosmas. In this issue, we have contributions from new faces and familiar friends. We begin with an article by Zdeněk David in which he returns to one of his favorite subjects, the Bohemian Reformation—this time to explore its connections with England, and especially the various reformed churches, in particular the Anglican church, as well as the Catholic church in the British Isles. His account brings into focus the ways in which reformed churchmen in England (mis)understood their Utraquist contemporaries and the role of Jan Hus. Next, Hana Waisserová unpacks a literary detective story detailing the search for the provenance of a literary treasure owned by a Nebraska family whose ancestors came over from Moravia. Their prized possession was a printed Postil but it was missing the title page. Waisserová identifies the family’s prized possession as a Postil printed in Czech in the sixteenth century, but not directly from the pen of Jan Hus. Jumping into the twentieth century, Mary Hrabík Šámal brings the next instalment of her father, Martin Hrabík’s, memoirs, covering his experiences after sentencing and during confinement in Germany, and covering the light and dark moments of those difficult years. That first-hand account is followed by another rare publication of documentary importance, an English translation of a short story by Eda Kriseová, “The Gates Opened,” which is preceded by a thorough introductory essay by Hana Waisserová. The translation is presented in facsimile as a document of its time, prepared as it was by the translators for Kriseová to present in public, and marked in her own handwriting with reminders for English pronunciation and other presentation notes. James Peterson’s recounts the challenges faced by the Czech Republic and Slovakia as they search for the proper policies to ensure their security in a Europe affected by the Russian actions in Crimea and Ukraine, as well as the changing winds blowing from Washington towards NATO. In his essay “A Librarian’s Manifesto,” David Chroust takes on the challenges of a globalizing world from the perspective of his profession, arguing that the new technologies and opportunities they bring pose new and important challenges to librarians—but also tremendous new opportunities to internationalize the research and perspectives of the scholars who depend upon their work. The indefatigable Miloslav Rechcigl provides another of his research compendia of genealogical information about Czechs abroad, this time focusing on our neighbor to the north, Canada. Finally, four book reviews by Mary Hrabík Šámal, Milada Polišenská, Louis J. Reith, and Tracy A. Burns close out this particular issue. In closing may I wish all readers and supporters of Kosmas continued health, and may we all come through this pandemic and the other challenges we face successfully! v ARTICLES Religious Contacts with England during the Bohemian Reformation1 Zdenĕk V. David While there were contacts between Bohemia and England from the very start of the Bohemian Reformation, the subsequent course of religious development diverged in the two countries, often drastically. It was only after the Elizabethan Settlement of the ecclesiastical issues in 1563 that the English or Anglican Church at last firmly embarked on the religious middle way that the mainline Utraquist church of Bohemia had pursued—initially between Rome and Taboritism—since the 1420s.2 Hence, there are three stages in the process from the standpoint of the Utraquist church. Initially, during the first century after the onset of the Bohemian Reformation, the ideas of John Wyclif (c.1330-1384) obtained a strong, but mixed reception. Second, during the thirty years after the onset of the English Reformation its course swung—from the Utraquists’ point of view—from unacceptable conservatism to unacceptable radicalism and back (1534-1558). Only after 1563, until the suppression of the Utraquist church in 1620, did the two churches pursue a parallel course along the middle road (via media) between Rome and Heidelberg/Geneva. This study attempts for the first time to place two hundred years of religious contacts between England and Bohemia into a single continuum. The central thesis of this study is the proposition that the Utraquist church’s negative imaging in historical literature primarily stemmed from its distinctive religious orientation. The middle way ran initially against the ingrained principles of the chief protagonists emerging from the Reformation era (post-Tridentine Catholicism and fully reformed Protestantism), and then, more importantly for our times, against the later ingrained conventions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century secular historiography, favoring a more or less determinist unhesitating progress from Catholicism to Protestantism to Secularism.3 Nevertheless, the Utraquist Church made a 1 This paper was originally presented at the Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice International Symposium (BRRP 12), Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences ČR, Prague, June 15-17, 2016. It is partly based on my previous studies: “Bohemian and English Reformations Compared,” in Contributions of the Moravian Brethren to America, ed. Zdenĕk V. David (New York: Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, 2008), 7-16; “Hus a anglická homiletika: Beda Ctihodný a Wyclif v Husových českých spisech” [Jan Hus and English Homiletics: The Venerable Bede