The Decree of Kutná Hora

JAN 01 1409 · 12:00

The Decree of Kutná Hora, 18 January 1409, which gave the Czech nation three votes at the university to the foreigners' one. Place: The royal mining town of Kutná Hora, sixty-five kilometers east of Prague Figures: Wenceslas IV, king · Jan Hus, master of arts and preacher at the Bethlehem Chapel · Jeroným of Prague, ally of Hus · the four nationes of the Charles University: Bohemian, Bavarian, Polish, Saxon Charles's foundation of 1348 gave the university four nationes, each with one vote in matters of governance, doctrinal positions, and the election of the rector. The four nations are notional rather than ethnic: Bohemian (in practice Czech-speaking and Polish-speaking masters of Slavic origin), Bavarian, Polish (mostly Silesian Germans), and Saxon. Three of the four nations are by 1409 effectively German-speaking. On any disputed question (the philosophy of Wycliffe, the policy of the Pisan council, the orthodoxy of Hus's preaching at the Bethlehem Chapel), the Germans outvote the Bohemians three to one. Wenceslas IV needs the university to back his support for the Council of Pisa, which is trying to end the Schism by deposing both rival popes. The German nations support neither pope's deposition. Hus and the Bohemian nation support Pisa. The king finds himself outvoted in his own foundation.