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The Birth, Life, and Death of the Bohemian Revival

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The Birth, Life, and Death of the Bohemian Revival The Birth, Life, and Death of the Bohemian Revival The Birth, Life, and Death of the Bohemian Revival Mike Atnip In the spirit of: Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price, and Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again, and Act 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and Act 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common, this book is given to the public domain by the author. God have mercy on the soul who may use it outside of this spirit. Photo credits: Most of the photos used in this book are public domain or CC images taken from Wikipedia. Check the Wikipedia article for complete details of any photo. The following are either used with a CC license, or the permission request was incomplete at the time of publication (I asked permission but have not heard back. If permission is denied later, these photos will be pulled from future editions. Anyone who will be printing this book for profit should be aware of this, and is responsible for all copyright issues.) p. 16 Interior of Bethlehem Chapel http://flickr.com/photos/petirrojo/2038086451/ CC License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en p. 56 Kunvald-Lost URL-Incompleted permission request. p. 71 Kunvald http://www.orlicko.cz/ubytovani/Svjan/Index_uk.htm Incompleted permission request. p. 121 and 127 Castles-czech-castles.blogspot.com CC License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Prologue It is with great joy that I present the following story to the public. There are those who have no interest in history; that is perfectly fine. Then there are the rest of us. To these latter I dedicate this book. History holds within her bosom innumerable lessons for the inquiring soul. Some inquiries are easy enough, because someone who has trod before put some thought into the future and recorded the deeds that he had witnessed. Other inquiries are not so simple. The story that this book unfolds to us is one of this latter class. Actually, one of the early Bohemian Brethren bishops did think of the future and record the story for us: but alas all found copies were destroyed by his enemies, and none have appeared since that time. This narrative is thus pieced together from many sources. I am not really the author of this story as much as I am the compiler. In fact, some sections of this book are almost completely made up of long quotations from other works, with a few minor edits and perhaps a phrase or two stuck in here or there. Now for the confession: With great resolution I started putting this book together with the intention to duly recognize each source, in the bibliography. Well, here we are, two changes of residency—with the resulting topsy-turvy mix of notes and papers—and a couple of years or so later... You probably know what I am about to say: it did not happen. This project had to be put on the back burner several times. As well, in my excitement of finding an interesting quote or tidbit to mix into the narrative, I sometimes just plumb forgot to write down the source. This is especially true of information gleaned from the internet. It is so easy to copy and paste...and forget to acknowledge the source. As far as I know, I have not infringed upon any copyrights, as copyright law permits short quotations for educational purposes. All of the longer quotes I mentioned above are from public domain sources. And a word about names: Using sources from Czech, English, and German, the variants in names of places and people have been immense and confusing. Top that off with the fact that I do not read Czech, and very little German. While I have tried to standardize the names, keep in mind as you go through the story that you may see variants. This is especially true for name places, as Bohemia was the meeting place of two cultures, German and Slav. The Germans had names for some of the towns that differed from the name that the Slavs used; not just a German form, but a totally different name in some cases. Mix that in with the English name of the same place and you have a real potpourri. In cases where I know the anglicanized version of a person's given name, I have tried to use that, as I am an English speaker and most of the readers of this book will be also. Thus Jiri is George and Jan is John. I know Georges and Johns, but Jiri is some unknown fellow who hales from some other people group; maybe not quite like I am. And Jan is a girl, is she not? It is my desire that the characters in this story seem like real folks, just like the ones who live just down the road from you. And the fact is, they were real, common, everyday humans just like the people in the house down the road from you. For place names, I have used the anglicanized Czech name (accent marks removed), if I could find it. For those who may not know—like I did not before starting this book—where Bohemia was, it is basically the western half of the modern Czech Republic (the darker portion of the front cover). The eastern half of this country is made up of what used to be Moravia, and parts of Silesia (lighter portion). This book is not really finished, I just quit working on it. If anyone desires to refine it further, they are welcome. Without any further delay, I commend you to the story of the birth, life, and death of a revival of primitive Christianity. —Mike Atnip —January, 2009 —[email protected] www.PrimitiveChristianity.org Table of Contents Part 1 Birth Pangs..............................................................................2 Part II Birth......................................................................................24 Part III Maturity...............................................................................55 Part IV Sick unto Death..................................................................85 Part V Burial...................................................................................106 Part VI The Hidden Seed..............................................................144 Part VII Lessons from the Bohemians...........................................149 Bibliography of Major Sources.......................................................155 The beautiful Czech countryside, “where only man is vile...” 1 Part 1 Birth Pangs Fired by the WORD “The Czech Reformation was born under the impetus of the Word of God”.1 Sound familiar? It does to me! Countless times I have heard a testimony along the following strain: “And then I started to read the Bible…” The revival that occurred in 14th and 15th-century Bohemia was started when men and women began once again to take the Word of God at face value. One of the quickest ways to drown a revival is to separate it from what God has said. Once there is no more “Thus saith the Lord”, death is at the door, if not already over the threshold. And... There were a people in Bo- hemia that proclaimed God’s Word during the so-called “dark ages”. 2 Peter Waldo, a famed Waldensian, Peter Waldo obeyed Je- was said to have died there in 1218, sus by giving away his after being chased out of his native wealth. Lyons for “heresy”. For the next couple of decades, these “Waldensian” believers followed Jesus, preached itinerantly, and lived in simplicity in Bohemia, gathering in little groups at night or in secluded places, for fear of reprisal by the “official” church. 1 A quote from Rudolf Rican’s book, “The History of the Unity of Brethren”. 2 Many historians now believe that this Peter Waldo did not begin the “Waldensian” movement as many have previously believed. Some medieval Waldensians referred to Waldo as the “Restorer”, with the understanding that Waldensian-type churches had existed for centuries before Peter Waldo came on the scene. And, there is historical evidence for this view. 2 But God has no grandchildren, and the following generations slowly began to conform themselves to the society around them to soften the persecution. Some attended mass and baptized their ba- bies, even though officially they did not all agree with such prac- tices. And besides, instead of practicing what they had previously called “apostolic poverty”, they now began to accumulate wealth. There were those among them who did not compromise as much, and these were willing to admit the drift. Brother Gregory, whom we shall meet a little later, wrote of them as follows: Certain Waldensians admitted that they had strayed from the paths of their predecessors, and that there ex- isted among them the iniquity of taking money away from the people, amassing wealth, and neglecting the poor; whereas it is certainly opposed to Christian belief that a minister should accumulate wealth, since he should employ his own worldly possessions, and even those inherited from his parents, in the giving of alms, and not leave the poor in their necessity… The Waldensians are not to be thought of as one homogeneous group with a unified doctrinal statement and practice of faith.3 At the time of our story, one Fred Reiser was a leader among the Ger- man Waldensians.
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