| Abstract | Paper -a:
The Waldensians were known primarily for their modest life-style and Bible translations. A significant body of religious literature in an Occitan dialect survives to this day. Traditionally, this corpus has been divided into biblical texts, poems, sermons, and treatises. The texts comprise original creations, faithful translations, adaptations, or rewritings of different sources, for example Catholic and Hussite texts. In this paper, I will analyse how the concept of individual and collective memory is affected by translation and adaptation as well as the implications of textual genre. Ultimately, I will consider how these factors help to shape a religious identity.
Paper -b:
The influence of John Wycliffe in Jan Hus's work is one of the popular topics in the research of Hus's work. There are various views of this issue. It is caused by the existence of a very complicated web of various influences whereas some of them are only the part of the oral tradition. This is one of the reasons why the influence of John Wycliffe is such a frequent topic and the other (e.g. Czech oral tradition) not. But also the influence of Wycliffe is problematic in regard to the topic of the Antichrist. Hus uses only some of Wycliffe's ideas which are known also through St Augustinus; Hus uses some long passages from Wycliffe's argumentation but mostly without the term Antichrist and its derivations, and he misses very strict passages e.g. about the identification of the pope with the Antichrist. The adaptation is very complicated and I would like to present - with the help of the manuscripts of Hus's - some new important details about this influence.
Paper -c:
From the earliest Christian period and throughout the Middle Ages, the various symbols and narratives of the Christian apocalypse were continually contested and reinterpreted. The identity of the Antichrist was continually adapted, prophecies of the end-time were constantly amended, and the exact chronology of the ultimate events was always a matter of speculation. Nevertheless, for almost a millennium after the foundational works of Augustine of Hippo, one detail of the apocalyptic narrative remained constant, namely man's passive role therein. Despite the widespread acceptance of the final events, which would include cosmic wars, persecutions, and destruction, regular believers were rarely seen as anything more than passive observers in the epic drama. This did not change even with the popularisation of apocalyptic movements in the 13th century, and arguably only the most radical of the Hussites of the early 15th century, the so-called Táborites, gave believers an active role the apocalyptic narrative with their calls to nihilistic violence. As such, the Táborites represented a significant shift in late medieval intellectual history, one in which human historical progression, based on the will of God, actually required the cooperation of human with divine agency in order for that will to be fulfilled and realised. Furthermore, the Táborites represent a unique case in the Christian apocalyptic tradition in that they sought to help implement Christ's kingdom in the inner-worldly sphere, rather than seeing it as a part of the next (heavenly) existence.
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