The Little-Identified Story of England's First Evangelical Queen The fashionable evangelical motion owes an important debt to England's first evangelical queen. That is the story…
Church politics of the 14th century
The politics of medieval Europe have been sophisticated. In 1378 there was a break up within the Catholic Church and there have been two rival popes, City VI. in Rome and Clement VII. in Avignon, France. These rival popes fashioned political alliances to realize assist and excommunicated one another. There was even a interval of three rival popes within the early 14th century, and the mess was not resolved till 1417.
It was such chaos that it successfully sowed the early seeds of the Reformation, as many individuals started to query your entire papal system and have been appalled that the church was getting concerned in politics and gaining wealth as an alternative of serving to the poor. Dissatisfaction with the papacy had existed for a while. In England, one of the radical voices of protest was John Wycliffe (c1324-1384), typically generally known as the Daybreak of the Reformation, who was supported by the Black Prince.
Richard II
In 1377 Edward III died. His son the Black Prince died in 1376 and so his younger grandson was topped as King Richard II. As he aged, he turned an eligible bachelor and obtained marriage proposals from throughout Europe.
Within the midst of this, Pope City VI, the Pope in Rome, tried to type an alliance amongst his supporters towards his rival Pope. This led to the conclusion of a wedding between the English king Richard II. and the Czech princess Anna, half-sister of the Czech king Václav (Vácslav) IV.
In 1381, Anne left Prague, crossed Europe, and waited at Calais till the climate was favorable to take them to Dover, earlier than crossing the channel on 18 December to journey to London. She introduced together with her a big court docket of Czechs, and a few later married English courtiers. Richard and Anne have been married on 20 January 1382 at Westminster Abbey and have been each topped two days afterward 22 January 1382.
Anna Ceske
Anna Česká was born in 1366. She was the kid of the Czech king Charles IV, who dominated Bohemia and Moravia along with Silesia, which is roughly the scale of the present-day Czech Republic. He’s probably the most well-known of the Czech kings, and in Prague his identify lives on in Charles College, Charles Bridge, Charles Sq. and the close by fairy-tale fort Karlštejn (Karlštejn) and likewise within the Czech spas of Karlovy Differ (additionally Karlsbad). ).
Czech Bible
King Charles supported scholarship and the Czech language. He inspired writers and poets to not write in Latin or German – the language of the Holy Roman Empire – however within the language of the folks, which was Czech. In 1347, King Charles IV commissioned students by translating the Bible from Latin into Czech. In 1348, King Charles based the Charles College in Prague.
King Charles had many youngsters who have been raised in Prague Fort, within the newly remodeled and affluent Prague. They obtained a very good schooling in three languages and have been literate in Czech, German and Latin. The Bible performed an essential position of their upbringing. Princess Anna was born in 1366. She may learn the Bible in Czech, German and Latin and realized components of it by coronary heart. She had girls of the court docket who learn together with her, who held to what we’d at the moment name an evangelical religion. Good Queen Anne Though married to the English king Richard II. was organized, he was apparently profitable. Richard was dedicated to Anna and fondly known as her “My Beloved Bohemia”. Throughout an period when royal infidelities weren’t stunning, each have been devoted and constant.
Queen Anne interceded on behalf of the folks to average her husband's actions and warned him towards shedding harmless blood. Folks have been spared demise on quite a few events as a result of she pleaded on their behalf. After the peasant rebellion of 1381, she persuaded the king to pardon the rebels and introduced them her good will.
She was beneficiant to the needy. She inspired her husband to share the leftovers from their lavish banquets with the poor on the streets of London, and the meals was delivered with sort phrases, lengthy earlier than meals banks have been a factor! Folks known as her “Good Queen Anne”. It’s extremely probably that Chaucer's poem entitled “The Legend of the Good Lady” was a tribute to Queen Anne.
Commissioning the English Gospels
Up to date accounts describe Anne as a humble, sort and compassionate queen, residing a quiet religious Christian religion. She used to learn and research the Bible at a time when it was unusual, though it didn't assist that few knew Latin or had entry to the Bible. Wycliffe famous that she dropped at England copies of the Gospels in Bohemian, Germanic and Latin, i.e. Czech, German and Latin.
When she arrived in England, Queen Anne wished to study English and was dissatisfied to seek out that there have been no gospels in English, so she requested for translations of the 4 gospels to assist her study the language.
John Wycliffe
Anne befriended John Wycliffe of Oxford, who shared a typical curiosity within the Bible, and got here below her patronage. Viklef was within the Scripture of Anna in Czech and German. He’s stated to have remarked that if a small nation just like the Czechs may have their very own translation, why not the English? In 1382, when Wycliffe was tried for heresy, Queen Anne interceded and ended the trial and he was acquitted. Later, Anne treasured and skim her personal handwritten copy of the 4 Gospels in English.
It appears probably that the Gospels have been translated for Queen Anne by John Trevisa, Vicar of Berkeley in Gloucestershire. That is talked about within the unique preface to the King James Model (KJV) of the Bible revealed in 1611. Right here within the preface known as “The Translators to the Reader” there’s a part documenting the historical past of the translations of the gospels that claims “even in our King Richard the second day is John Trevisa translated into English”.
Wycliffe died in 1384, however Queen Anne allowed Czech college students to return and research at Oxford, beginning an mental alternate between Oxford and Prague utilizing Latin, the tutorial lingua franca of the day. Wycliffe's followers—itinerant poor monks later generally known as Lollards—have been the primary evangelical motion in England.
Demise Queen Anne died in London, most likely of the plague, on June 7, 1394, aged simply 28. King Richard II and Queen Anne had no youngsters, so our present royal household doesn’t descend from her. After her demise, the king was distraught. He commissioned the primary ever royal double tomb in England, the place the king and queen have been to be buried collectively, each with effigies in Westminster Abbey. On the funeral oration, Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury commented on her data and research of the Bible. He stated that though she was a foreigner, she continually studied the 4 gospels in English and defined them. The archbishop stated that in her data of the Gospels and studying of devotional books “she was extra diligent than the prelates themselves, although their workplace and enterprise require it of them.”
The Latin inscription by her effigy, when translated, reads: “She was dedicated to Christ and well-known for her deeds; she was at all times inclined to present her presents to the poor; she calmed quarrels and relieved pregnant girls. She was stunning in physique and her face was comfortable and fairly, she gave consolation to widows and drugs to the sick.”
The king promised to not enter any constructing for a complete 12 months besides the church the place he hung out with Anna. He was a widower and later remarried. After he died, he was buried along with his first spouse, Queen Anne, in a double tomb that he commissioned and which might nonetheless be seen in Westminster Abbey.
An emblem of Anglo-Czech relations
For the Czech group in England, Queen Anne was an essential determine. Earlier than the Nice Conflict, when the Czechs sought assist for independence from Austria-Hungary, it turned an emblem of the traditional Anglo-Czech friendship, which they wished to revive. A delegation of London bohemians (Bohemians) visited the tomb yearly on the anniversary of her demise, the place, with the permission of the dean of the abbey, they laid purple and white roses – the colours of the arms of Bohemia. That is recorded in London newspapers from 1904 to 1907, and after they discovered, the Czech embassy repeated it in 2022.
Evangelical reference
Nonetheless, greater than political symbolism, Queen Anne's legacy has ramifications in a direct line of affect all through Protestant historical past. After her demise in 1394, her buddies and servants returned to Bohemia with copies of Viklef's writings. These in flip influenced the Czech scholar Jan Hus, who in 1398 started instructing at Charles College in Prague. Quickly after, in 1399, he publicly defended the religion of Jan Viklef for the primary time. He brazenly declared that he was influenced by Wycliffe's writings and translated a few of them into Czech.
In 1415, Jan Hus was introduced earlier than the Council of Kostnica, the place he confessed his admiration for the writings of Jan Viklef. The council condemned Hus for heresy and burned him, and in flip condemned Jan Viklef for heresy.
The English Lollards and the Hussites from Bohemia and Moravia have been the forerunners of the Reformation. In 1521, when Martin Luther was tried on the curiously named Council of Worms, it was an endorsement of Huss that condemned him as a heretic.
Over the next centuries, the Hussite motion led to the Moravians, who began the primary Protestant missionary motion. It was in 1738 that John Wesley's coronary heart was surprisingly warmed by contact with the Moravians in England, which was the catalyst for the evangelical revival.
You may hint the road from Queen Anne of Bohemia, the lady who wished the Scriptures in English, and John Wicklef, to the Hussites, the Moravians, John Wesley, and the evangelical revival. She was by no means canonized as a saint and thus has no commemoration day in any liturgical church calendar. Nonetheless, she performed an essential position within the first Bible in English, and your entire evangelical motion owes deep gratitude to Anne of Bohemia, the primary English evangelical queen.
