Hussitism as Tares: The Hussite Calendar in the Sermon Dominica V post Epiphaniam of Jan z Paczkowa Wettziger from the End of the Fifteenth Century

Abstract

In a manuscript from the end of the fifteenth century in the University of Wrocław Library, which derives from the Augustinian Monastery (canonici regulares) in Żagań (under the Provost in Zielona Góra), a collection of sermons has survived, a collection of homilies for the entire liturgical year, entitled Sermones varii de tempore et de sanctis, transcribed by Jan z Paczkowa Wettziger (died after 1497). Wettzinger, a canon regularis from Kłodzko (he later lived in Żagań, Wrocław, and Zielona Góra), was not, despite appearances, the author of the collection, but he edited it on the basis of a collection of sermons of the Bernardine Patrick during his stay in Zielona Góra. Between pages 49r and 50v of the manuscript, there is the second (in sequence) sermon Sermo II: Dominica V post Epiphaniam. It is devoted to the phenomenon of heresy, which the preacher compares allegorically to the biblical tares. Wettzinger concentrates, above all, on an anti‑Hussite polemic. He transforms a critical interpretation of heresy into a chronicle‑style piece, incorporating into the sermon a calendar of the history of Czech Hussitism in the form of a long chronicler’s note.