Heresy
Radical Developments
We can tell the radicals were becoming a concern within the Hussite movement because a Hussite synold held in 1418 took steps to control them. On 28 September, the synod accepted twenty-three articles defining the Christian faith. The synod then stipulated that no new ideas should be taught without first submitting them to the community. This might have caused a split, but the pressure from the Council and the Emperor made Utraquists and Taborites stand together and suppress their disputes.
In the summer of 1419, Wenceslaus finally took action. He suppressed Utraquism in Prague and other royal towns. The Catholics went on the offensive. They reconsecrated altars that had been used by Hussites, and they refused absolution to the sick who refused to renounce the chalice. The drove Hussite officials from public office and barred them from preaching in the churches. The first pitched battle of the Hussite Wars took place in November, when royalist Czech nobles cut off a band of Hussites who were headed for Prague and engaged them in battle. It was a minor skirmish, but it portended more.
In Prague, the Utraquists refused to give up their parish schools, so the Catholics formed their own in bell towers and other Church properties. Soon, boys from both sides were getting into fights. Naturally, their fathers and uncles got involved, and very quickly men were getting killed. The moderates generally refused to resist, which left the radicals to defend the Hussite position.
In the other towns, where the king's decree was effective, the Hussite congregations were dissolved. By Easter 1420, radicals were beginning to gather in certain areas, having been driven out of the towns. Easter was a flash point, for that is when most people took communion, which meant a physical, public declaration of one's position. Moderates might go to the Catholic mass, but the radicals would not.