Forster, Marc R

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Connecticut CollegeDigital Commons @ Connecticut CollegeHistory Faculty Publications History Department6-1-2005(Review) Finding the Middle Way: The Utraquists'Liberal Challenge to Rome and LutherMarc R. ForsterConnecticut College, mrfor@conncoll.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/histfacpubPart of the European History Commons, and the History of Religion CommonsThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the History Department at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in History Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For moreinformation, please contact bpancier@conncoll.edu.The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.Recommended CitationForster, Marc R. "Finding The Middle Way: The Utraquists' Liberal Challenge To Rome And Luther." Central European History(Cambridge University Press / UK) 38.2 (2005): 277-279. Web.(Review) Finding the Middle Way: The Utraquists' Liberal Challenge toRome and LutherKeywordsCzech, Catholic, Protestant, Utraquists, religionCommentsInitially published in Central European History, v38(2) June 2005: 277 - 279Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005DOI: 10.1017/S0008938900008542http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0008938900008542This book review is available at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/histfacpub/3BOOK REVIEWS 277the scholarship on early and high medieval family consciousness that he invokedat the beginning, I would have liked to know how Rogge would connect hisstory to the ongoing discussions of primogeniture and patrilineage among theEuropean aristocracies of the tenth through twelfth centuries, A nod in thedirection of earlier periods would also have helped me understand what wasnew and different about Wettin behavior. The problem of maintaining thepower and prestige of a ruling family in the face of demands for an equal sharein income and lordship rights among male heirs was hardly unique to the lateMiddle Ages; the Carolingians, for example, had faced, and ultimately failed tomaster, the same problem.It is easy, however, to sit back in a reviewer's chair and ask these questions,less easy to put in the time, imagination, thought, and careful scholarship thatRogge has put into this work. His book is rich and thought-provoking; it willreward the eifort put in to read it.WARREN C. BROWNCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYFinding the Middle Way: The Utraquists' Liberal Challenge toRome and Luther. By Zdenek V. David. Washington, DC:Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Baltimore andLondon: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 2003. Pp.xxii -I- 579. $65.00. ISBN 0-8018-7382-7.Zdenek V. David's study seeks to correct a number of misconceptions aboutthe nature and development of Czech Utraquism between the ProtestantReformation and the Thirty Years' War, The Utraquist Church came intobeing in Bohemia in the fifteenth century in the wake of Johan Hus' hereticalmovement and the successful armed resistance of the Czechs against efforts bythe emperors and the Church to reimpose Catholic orthodoxy. The UtraquistChurch in the Czech-speaking parts of Bohemia developed established institu-tions and was characterized by the giving of communion in both kinds {subutraque specie) and a maintenance of most ofthe traditional Catholic liturgy, thecult of the saints, and a strong Marian piety. Utraquist ecclesiology combined arejection of papal authority with a strong belief in the apostolic succession,which meant that Utraquist priests needed to be consecrated by bishops tied toRome, David calls this path the religious via media of the sixteenth century, themiddle path between Protestantism and Catholicism, He further equates theUtraquist Church with the Church of England, another Church that sought outthe middle ground.278 BOOK REVIEWSDavid has a number of bones to pick with the mostly Czech historiographyon Utraquism, On the one hand, he attacks those historians who have charac-terized Utraquism as "an atrophied community no longer possessed of moral orcreative vitality" (p, 43). He counters this critique, which is apparently wide-spread in the world of Utraquist studies, by pointing to the lively engage-ment of Utraquist theologians with Lutheranism in the sixteenth century.Furthermore, David asserts that Utraquist leaders "continued to uphold theideal of liberal ecclesiology, highlighted by Hus' sacrifice, and its stancevis-a-vis the Roman Curia was one of salutary critique and not one of abjectsycophancy"(p, 43). The Utraquist Church, David argues, was engaged in alively debate with both the Protestants and the Catholics.David's second central argument is that the Utraquist Church both main-tained its distinctive institutions and structures (a Consistory, ties to theUniversity of Prague, and a parish clergy committed to Utraquism), and keptthe loyalty of the vast majority of the Czech-speaking population of Bohemiaup until the Thirty Years' War. Here he chaUenges scholars who claim thatUtraquism lost adherents first to the advance of Lutheranism and then toTridentine Catholicism, Furthermore, many scholars claim that after the 1560s,the revived Catholic Church, supported by the Habsburgs, gradually reabsorbedthe Utraquist establishment. Drawing primarily on the writings of membersof the Utraquist Consistory and leading theologians, David argues that theUtraquists worked hard to defend and maintain their via media, even as Lutheranpreachers and Jesuit fathers inflamed the passions of confessional conflict.David provides convincing evidence that Utraquist leaders actively defendedtheir distinct theological and institutional position; however, there is less evi-dence here of religious vitality at the parish level. We learn little about popularloyalty to communion in both kinds, or about the popular reception of eitherLutheranism or reformed Catholicism, David does posit a new "social cleavage"after about 1560, as the nobility abandoned Utraquism for Lutheranism and themiddle class took leadership of mainstream Utraquism. Indeed, he views thisshift "as symptomatic of a more fundamental watershed in Czech history,namely the passing of intellectual leadership from the nobility to the middleclasses" (p. 195). This assertion, however, is not strongly supported by the evi-dence and seems to contradict the cultural domination of the nobihty in theHabsburg lands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,David argues that his effort to resurrect the Utraquist Church is necessarybecause Protestant, Catholic, and nationalist scholars have all produced one-sided interpretations of Utraquism as old-fashioned, equivocating, and anti-modern. At times, his points are refreshing and valuable. He points out that theUtraquist encounter with Lutheranism, especiaUy in the early sixteenth century,was characterized by "curiosity, broad-mindedness, and politeness" (p. 61), anattitude that rings true, David also correctly points out that this attitude is sim-BOOK REVIEWS 279ilar to the initial view of many humanists, including Erasmus, toward Luther, Asis often the case with studies of this kind, however, David goes overboard in hisdefense of his subject, "Lapsing into Hegelian terminology, it could be said thatstaying within the Roman Church (and serving as its Socratic gadfly) endowedUtraquism with a world-historical role, which would be lost if it had remainedan isolated provincial movement, or if it had simply merged with the Protestantmainstream" (p, 291). Unfortunately, David engages this issue exclusively fromthe perspective of Utraquism, and the reader learns very little about how orif Catholics and Protestants responded to the "world historical" role ofUtraquism,David's book is also marred by an almost stereotypical treatment of bothLutheranism and Catholicism. David states, for example, that "the Utraquistswere , , , fuUy aware of Luther's reductionist propositions" (p, 56) and that theyexhibited a "readiness to resist the aUure of Luther's aUegedly novel theologicalpropositions" (p. 57). In a strong statement of his central theme, David states:"The Utraquist Church, in fact, continued to maintain its steady course, the viamedia, vis-a-vis Roman authoritarianism on the right, and with respect toLutheran bibHcal reductionism on the left" (p. 166), Furthermore, "Utraquismpossessed neither the pride of the Roman Church, nor the submissiveness ofLutheranism" (p. 178). Finally (at risk of providing too many examples), "theUtraquists under the Consistory maintained their adherence to a liberal eccle-siology, while the Roman Church in the Tridentine settlement reaffirmed andfortified its adherence to the authoritarian ecclesiastical Befehlstaat that emergedfrom the late Middle Ages" (p. 241),This breathtakingly anachronistic language undermines David's arguments.After aU, his goal is to convince historians to reject the confessionalized historyof the past, which marginalized and even effaced the history of Utraquism.Finding the Middle Way asks historians to understand the complexities ofUtraquism, yet fails to see the complexity and variety in Protestantism andCatholicism, Rather than transcend older interpretations of Utraquism,this book remains far too deeply embedded in an old-fashioned confessionalhistoriography.MARC R , FORSTERCONNECTICUT COLLEGECopyright of Central European History (Cambridge University Press / UK) is the property of CambridgeUniversity Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without thecopyright holder's express written permission. 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(Review) Finding the Middle Way: The Utraquists\u27 Liberal Challenge to Rome and Luther

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