This study is the first part of a planned series of articles on the issue of disputations about Wyclif in connection with his 45 articles. It analyses the anonymous undated refutation of Oxford University’s testimonial on the blameless life and work of John Wyclif, and makes it accessible in a critical edition in the form of an appendix. By taking into consideration manuscript preservation, argumentation, and literary arrangement as well as chronology, the author proves for the first time the immediate relation of the refutation to the Carthusian cloister of Údolí Josafat (Valley of Josephat) in Dolany near Olomouc and its prior Štěpán of Dolany. A component of the study is an excursion into the issue of Archbishop Zbyněk’s synodal directive to surrender books by Wyclif. and Dušan Coufal.
The article publishes an as yet unknown fundamental report on the history of the Cistercian Monastery in Sedlec near Kutná Hora and its Gothic Convent Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and Saint John the Baptist. According to annals dating back to the mid-fifteenth century, namely folio 169v in codex Mk 108 of the Moravian Library in Brno, the foundation stone for the new Convent Basilica was laid in 1304 by the Bohemian King Wenceslas II. This record thus gives a precise date for the commencement of work to build this exceptional example of Gothic architecture and presents further proof of the close ties between Wenceslas II and the Cistercian order and Heidenreich, the abbot of Sedlec. and Jiří Doležel.
In the summer of 1096, Pegau Abbey not far from Leipzig was consecrated. The founder of the monastery Wiprecht of Groitzsch and his wife the Přemyslid Judita, daughter of King of Bohemia Vratislaus II (1061-1092) were not absent from the spectacular celebration. According to the Annals of Pegau, Judita approached then with a golden crown on her head and wearing a dress with golden thread with a cloak to the local altar on which she placed the items decorated with gold and precious stones and dedicated them to the monastery. The study sets the question of to what extent this report is trustworthy, whether these objects were royal insignia and whether the act itself belongs to the ritual of ´sacrificing crowns´. Regarding the sovereign acts of this type, the study attempts to map the various symbolic levels of these acts, which the literature does not reflect in its entirety. The work predominantly offers an answer concerning the character and origin of the donated gems and paces it in the practice then of using specific royal diadems. and Lukáš Reitinger.