OBSAH / CONTENTS

PAWEŁ KRAS, Donacja Konstantyna – legenda w służbie polityki papieskiej (The Donation of Constantine – the legend in the service of papal policy) pp. 7–32

The article reexamines the origins of the legend of the donation which Emperor Constantine the Great was to make to Pope Sylvester I, offering him Rome and the secular power over the western part of the Roman Empire. Its main purpose is to analyze how the hagiographical text produced in the late fifth century to promote the cult of St. Sylvester was adopted and used by medieval popes to endorse their dominant position in Latin Christendom. The charter of Constantine’s Donation became one of the most famous medieval forgeries, which served to legitimize the existence of papal state in Italy and to promote the idea of popes’ superiority over emperors and other secular rulers. It was only in the middle of the fifteenth century that the authenticity of that document was successfully questioned by Nicholas of Cusa and in particular by Lorenzo Valla. The latter in his treatise De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione by means of a careful historical and philological analysis demonstrated that Constantine’s Donation was a pure forgery.

Keywords: Donation of Constantine, Sylvester I, papal policy

JIŘÍ DOLEŽEL, Tišnovský tympanon. K rané úctě a ikonografii sv. Alžběty Durynské (Tišnov tympanum. On the early devotion and iconography of Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia) pp. 33–67

The study newly identifies a woman depicted in relief on a sandstone tympanum, walled-in secondarily in building Reg. No. 72 in Tišnov in Moravia. The tympanum can be assigned to the second half of the 1230s or to the 1240s, with its vegetable décor matching in detail a similar motif on the well-known western portal of the church of the Cistercian convent at Porta Coeli at Tišnov. Characteristic features establish the woman as being Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia (1207–1231), a major person in European spirituality of the 13th C., canonised in 1235. This is, then, evidence of very early reception of the new saint in the Czech Lands, clearly inspired by tight dynastic ties: the Czech queen – widow Constance of Hungary, who founded the Porta Coeli convent in 1232, was Elisabeth’s aunt by bloodline. The sculpture is at the same time one of the very oldest artistic depiction of Saint Elisabeth in the European context, with typical accent on the saint’s tight ties to the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi. Nevertheless, we do not yet know the original location of the tympanum, but apart from the site of Porta Coeli itself the parish church of Saint Wenceslas at Tišnov does fall into consideration.

Keywords: iconography, St Elisabeth of Thuringia, early gothic sculpture, the Tišnov tympanum

SEBASTIÁN PROVVIDENTE, Clavis scientiae et clavis potestatis. La causa Hus entre le pouvoir épiscopal, universitaire et conciliaire (Clavis scientiae and clavis potestatis. Hus’ causa among the ecclesiastical, university and council powers) pp. 69–93

The Schism from 1378 evoked an essential need for a redefinition of doctrinal authority within the church. One of the aims of this study is to show that the Council of Constance did not condemn Hus’ theses only from the doctrinal perspective but also endeavoured to consolidate a certain modus procedendi in relation to the scholar’s heresy. In the context of Hus’ cause, it is evident that the doctrinal questions had great gravity in the eyes of the council fathers. Most likely for the reason of this great attention being paid to the theological aspects, attention was not paid to the fact that in parallel with the condemnation of Hus’ theses some of the main representatives of the council endeavoured for the consolidation of a certain modus procedendi in the cases of the processes whose beginning can be found within the universities. Both in the case of Wycliffe and in the case of Hus, the council confirmed the previous condemnation of university instances in accord with ecclesiastical power. The promise of a public hearing of Hus aroused great disorder, because in that two entirely opposing evidential principles clashed, the theological and legal. The basic problem was in the question of how to define the relation between the two authorities: the Holy Scripture and the Church. The schism from 1378 and general inquiry about the principles in the instances of ecclesiastical power aroused a renewed interest in this problem. Nevertheless, in the thought of some significant council fathers, the principle appeared that auctoritas ecclesiae should serve as a guarantee of the proper interpretation of the Bible. Besides the ambiguity between the two evidential principles (legal and theological), the core of the dispute between Hus and the council fathers lay precisely in this ecclesiological problem. A significant role in the legal course of Hus’ process was analogically played also by the question of the infallibility of the council.

Keywords: John Hus, Council of Constance, ecclesiology

ALENA M. ČERNÁ, První redakce Starých letopisů českých z pohledu lingvisty (The First Redaction of the Old Bohemian Annals from the Perspective of a Linguist) pp. 95–105

The treatise deals with the language of the earliest redaction of the Old Bohemian Annals written in Czech, which were issued i.a. through the merit of the author of this article. The focus of attention are six texts from the middle of the fifteenth century; the objective of the treatise is to verify from the position of a linguist the validity of the conclusions on the filial relations between the individual annals, which were formulated by the historian P. Čornej, to date the texts more precisely and formulate the specific language features of the individual annals. The article discusses the linguistic phenomena typical, or on the other hand exceptional, for the annals and the period of their origin, namely from all of the linguistic levels (orthography and phonetics, morphology, syntax, stylistics, lexis). Through the analysis, it was proved that the annals capture many times a distinctly archaic form of the Czech language, predominantly on the lower levels. On the other hand, progress is recorded in the lexis, which reacts to the social development most flexibly. The opinion of filial relations between the manuscripts is in agreement with the opinion of the historian.

Keywords: chronicles, Old Bohemian Annals, linguistics

RECENZE / REVIEWS

Anna Kernbach, Vincenciova a Jarlochova kronika v kontextu svého vzniku.K dějepisectví přemyslovského období (Jan Kremer) pp. 121–130

Jiří Stočes, Pražské univerzitní národy do roku 1409 (Blanka Zilynská) pp. 130–134

Martin Nodl, Dekret kutnohorský (Olivier Marin) pp. 135–138

Thomas A. Fudge, Jan Hus. Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia (Pavel Soukup) pp. 139–143

Stanisław Bylina, Rewolucja husycka. Przedświt i pierwsze lata (František Šmahel) pp. 143–146

ZPRÁVY A REFERÁTY / BRIEF NOTICES
pp. 147–195

NEKROLOG

„Při dobré paměti a z věrného přátelství…“ Odešel Bernard Guenée (6. února 1927 – 25. září 2010) (Alain Demurger – Martin Nejedlý) pp. 197–202