Standard:

Recensione: Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi 97 (giugno 1976) n. 139, pp. 93-94 [Valdo Vinay]

The essay is a concise overview, with bibliographical references, of the interaction between the 'reformist and restitutionist streams of late medieval dissent' in Central Europe between 1378 and 1525. The reformist thrust was expressed by Hus' precursors, the impact of Wyclif's writings in Bohemia, Hus himself and his moderate followers, the Utraquists. The restitutionist or separatist stream was embodied in the Waldensians, the early Taborites, Peter Chelcicky and the Bohemian Brethren. Their separatism was at once ecclesiastical and societal. After a brief discussion of the typologies proposed by Troeltsch, Leff, Littell and others, the author suggests that 'late medieval dissent was basically a response to a threefold crisis in church and society': the crisis of authority, morality and spirituality