This article looks at the debate on clerical celibacy among Czech theologians during the Enlightenment. Drawing largely on their writings, which in many cases served as textbooks in the training of future priests and thus had a significant impact, it analyses the origins, arguments and course of the debate. Doubts about the future of celibacy first appeared in canon law in the 1770s, conditioned in part by secular factors such as populationism. In the late 1780s clerical celibacy was publicly challenged by influential university theologians such as the church historian Kaspar Royko in Prague and the theologian Josef Lauber in Olomouc, a former Jansenist. Their main argument was the widespread non-compliance by priests and its harmful social consequences. The law also had its defenders (e.g. Franz Christoph Pittroff), whose main argument was the traditional one of the need for purity in the Eucharist. During the 1790s the public controversy about celibacy disappeared; but for many years the discourse on the subject remained strongly influenced by Enlightenment thinking.
This study examines when mandatory clerical celibacy was instituted in the Czech lands. At first it was only demanded of candidates to become bishops while other priests regularly had wives and children up to the 12th century. The Papal Curia first intervened in favour of celibacy in 1143 through a mission by Cardinal Guido when married clerics were removed from their posts. Another came with Cardinal Peter in 1197 when he (unsuccessfully) demanded that those being ordained also take a vow of purity. Celibacy was then enforced after the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215.
Автор размышляет о славянском наследии ученого, педагога и священника Йозефа Вашицы, который был не только толкователем Великоморавской эпохи, но и занимался вопросами перевода Священного Писания (Библии) и древнечешских текстов и считается первооткрывателем чешского литературного барокко. Он родом из Силезии, области, где с древних времен встречались множество народов и народностей. Вашица с самых ранних времен стремился изучать многослойную формацию, особенно в плане языка (Силезия как посредник древнейшей славянской культуры). Позже научные интересы Вашицы распространились за пределы региона, и Вашица также занимался другими вопросами палеославистики и славистики. в этой статье, упоминается о его вкладе в изучение Кирилла и Мефодия и их наследия. Творчество Вашицы ограничено временем его возникновения и степенью познания, однако его труд может вдохновлять науку 21 века. and The author reflects on the Slavic heritage of the scientist, educator and priest Josef Vašica, who not only an interpreter of the Great Moravian era, but dealt with issues of translation of the Holy Scriptures (Bible) and Old Bohemian texts and is considered to be the discoverer of the Czech literary baroque. He came from Silesia, a region where several nations and nationalities have met since ancient times. Vašica intended to study the multilayered region from the earliest times, especially in terms of language (Silesia as a mediator of the oldest Slavic culture). Later, Vašica's scientific interests extended beyond the region, and Vašica also dealt with other issues of Paleoslavic and Slavic studies. This paper deals with his contribution to the study of Constantine and Methodius and their heritage. Vasica's work is limited by the time of origin and the level of knowledge; however, his works can be inspiring for the science of the 21st century.