Petre of Chelcice

Petr Chelčický was an important religious thinker of the 15th century. He lived in the village of Chelčice near Vodňany and was not part of the Hussite mainstream. He knew the leading figures of the Hussite movement, notably Jan Hus, and his Christian principles also relied on the equality of all Christians. According to Chelčický, people must bear evil on earth in favour of life aft er death. That made him different from the Hussites, who defended their as well as God’s truth with weapons. The painting depicts an event of the autumn of 1420 when the victorious Hussite troops were returning from Prague to South Bohemia. At that time, the powerful feudal lord, Oldřich of Rožmberk – an implacable enemy of the Hussites since his defeat at Tábor – had attacked the town of Vodňany with his mercenaries. He murdered or drove away the supporters of the reformist movement, tore down the walls of the town and appointed an anti-Hussite administration of town councillors. The news of this act soon reached the Hussite army which then left its
camp near Písek and stormed to Vodňany in order to punish the enemy for the atrocities.

In the background, smoke can be seen rising from the plundered and burning town. The inhabitants are running towards a pond near Chelčice, putting their dead and wounded onto its shore. Many of the faces express hopelessness, fear and anxiety: on the left there is a crying girl, who has only saved some dishes in a basket and a caged bird from the household, and next to her a young woman is lamenting the death of her loved ones. However, the view of their plundered home also provokes other feelings in the people. Their desire for revenge is stifling everything else. At that very moment, Petr Chelčický comes to them with his faith in the power of love, tolerance and forgiveness. He holds a man’s threatening fist and says to him: “You must not return evil for evil because it multiplies and becomes endless. Let evil perish through itself.”

In his tracts, Petr Chelčický denounces anything that contradicts Christian love, faith and hope, and condemns violence in any form. He lived to see concrete fulfi lment of his ideals when Jan Řehoč founded the Bohemian Brethren in Kunštát, based on his teachings.