CHAPTER NINETEEN THE USE OF POWER AND VIOLENCE AS METHODS OF CONDUCTING A RELIGIOUS DISPUTE: THE CASE OF THE HUSSITE POLEMICS P AWEà F. NOWAKOWSKI The Hussite revolution is widely recognised as a highly violent period in Czech medieval history. Violence was a part of the Hussite movement from its very beginning. The death of John Huss was undoubtedly a violent occurrence, no matter if one agrees with the decisions that were made at the Council of Constance or not. The outbreak of the revolution, as a consequence of a violent procession ending with the first Prague defenestration, was a sequence of violent incidents, with the ruin of cloisters as the best-known, but not only, example. The later years saw regular wars, both domestic and with the consecutive crusades. 1 If one has to think about the Hussite movement it therefore seems inevitable to link it with a great deal of aggression and direct violence on all sides of the conflict. But the most well-known and obvious forms of violent behaviour were not the only ones that occurred. The use of violence in different forms was also present during the disputes and other events of organising religious life. They presented differently, sometimes in a softer form or as a topic for discussion, but also as indirect and direct uses of legal power to 1 The military aspect of the Hussite period has been a field of study for a long time, and still brings interesting results. Among them are those which show a wider perspective of the Hussite wars as a series of crusade and anti-crusade campaigns, such as: Norman Housley, Religious Warfare in Europe 1400௅1536 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 33௅61; Jerzy Grygiel, “‘Contra Bohemos’ – wokóá problemu krucjat antyhusyckich w XV-wiecznej Europie,” Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu JagielloĔskiego. Prace Historyczne 126 (1999): 59௅75.