In summer 1521, the German radical reformer Thomas Müntzer traveled to Prague, where he drafted his famed Prague Manifesto. In this text, Müntzer presents himself as a new Jan Hus and announces a coming universal renewal of Christianity, starting out from Bohemia. He evokes a scenario, in which Christ and Antichrist are gathering their troops for the final clash, before the elect of God will gain dominion over the world. Because of evident parallels, many scholars have speculated about possible links between the revolutionary theology of Müntzer and that of the Hussites. However, in my analysis of the Prague Manifesto I will show that Müntzer was much more interested in the thought of Jan Hus himself rather than in Hussite theology. In particular, he adopted the Czech reformer’s ecclesiology into his complex theological program, which presents itself as a curious blend of apocalyptic eschatology, mysticism, and Neo-Platonic cosmology.

Dr. Matthias Riedl is Associate Professor of History, Chair of Comparative Religious Studies, Director of the Center for Religious Studies, Head of the Department of History of the Central European University in Budapest. His main research interests cover intellectual history, political thought, church history, history of theology, religious dissent, reformation studies, religion and politics and religious violence. In all these fields he has published many books and numerous articles.