ChebCheb (xɛp; Eger) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře river. Before the 1945 expulsion of the German-speaking population, the town was the centre of the German-speaking region known as Egerland, part of the Northern Austro-Bavarian dialect area. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
TáborTábor (ˈtaːbor; Tabor) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants, which makes it the second most populated town in the region. The town was founded by the Hussites in the 1420. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
ProtestantismProtestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began in the 16th century with the goal of reforming the Catholic Church from perceived errors, abuses, and discrepancies. Protestantism emphasizes the Christian believer's justification by God in faith alone (sola fide) rather than by a combination of faith with good works as in Catholicism; the teaching that salvation comes by divine grace or "unmerited favor" only (sola gratia); the priesthood of all believers in the Church; and the sola scriptura ("scripture alone") that posits the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice.
Defenestrations of PragueThe Defenestrations of Prague (Pražská defenestrace, Prager Fenstersturz, Defenestratio Pragensis) were three incidents in the history of Bohemia in which people were defenestrated (thrown out of a window). Though already existing in Middle French, the word defenestrate ("out of the window") is believed to have first been used in English in reference to the episodes in Prague in 1618 when the disgruntled Protestant estates threw two royal governors and their secretary out of a window of the Hradčany Castle and wrote an extensive apologia explaining their action.
Czech landsThe Czech lands or the Bohemian lands (České země ˈtʃɛskɛː ˈzɛmɲɛ) are the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia. Together the three have formed the Czech part of Czechoslovakia since 1918, the Czech Socialist Republic since 1 January 1969 and the Czech Republic since 1 January 1993. The Czech lands are also referred to as Czechia. In a historical context, Czech texts use the term to refer to any territory ruled by the Kings of Bohemia, i.e.
HussitesThe Hussites (Husité or Kališníci; "Chalice People") were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation. The Hussite movement began in the Kingdom of Bohemia and quickly spread throughout the remaining Lands of the Bohemian Crown, including Moravia and Silesia. It also made inroads into the northern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia), but was rejected and gained infamy for the plundering behaviour of the Hussite soldiers.
UtraquismUtraquism (from the Latin sub utraque specie, meaning "under both kinds") or Calixtinism (from chalice; Latin: calix, mug, borrowed from Greek kalyx, shell, husk; Czech: kališníci) was a belief amongst Hussites, a reformist Christian movement, that communion under both kinds (both bread and wine, as opposed to the bread alone) should be administered to the laity during the celebration of the Eucharist. It was a principal dogma of the Hussites and one of the Four Articles of Prague.
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Christian Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these military expeditions are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to conquer Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Muslim rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which resulted in the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, dozens of military campaigns were organised, providing a focal point of European history for centuries.
Electorate of SaxonyThe Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (Kurfürstentum Sachsen or Kursachsen), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charles IV designated the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg an electorate, a territory whose ruler was one of the prince-electors who chose the Holy Roman emperor. After the extinction of the male Saxe-Wittenberg line of the House of Ascania in 1422, the duchy and the electorate passed to the House of Wettin.
TaboritesThe Taborites (Táborité, singular Táborita), known by their enemies as the Picards, were a faction within the Hussite movement in the medieval Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Although most of the Taborites were of rural origin, they played a major role in the town of Tábor. Taborite politics were also encroached upon by their priests. The most important Taborites included the governors Jan Žižka of Trocnov, Mikuláš of Hus, Bohuslav of Švamberk, Chval Řepický of Machovice, and Jan Roháč of Dubá, and the priest Prokop Holý.
