Peter Chelčický

There exists a book, written more than 450 years ago by an unlearned man, Peter from the village of Chelčice, almost entirely unknown.

In this book, entitled The Net of Faith, we find not only a simple, clear, strong, and truthful exposure of that terrible deception in which people lived and live, believing in what is most alien to true Christianity while imagining they profess the Christian teaching; we also find in this book a clear indication of that one good path of life which was opened to people by Christ.

Every vital truth that is meant to serve as a guide for people’s conduct, even if it appears all at once in its fullness in the consciousness of holy people, manifests in the majority of people slowly, gradually, imperceptibly, in fits and starts, sometimes seeming to disappear entirely and then appearing again through new efforts resembling the pangs of childbirth.

So it was, and so it still happens with Christianity. Christian truth was at first accepted in all its meaning by a small number of simple, unimportant, poor people. But as it spread among a greater number of people, including the rich and noble, it was increasingly distorted, and from the time of the establishment of the church (from the time of Constantine, as Chelčický says) it became so perverted that its main, true vital meaning was completely hidden from people and replaced by external forms alien to the essence of Christianity.

But truth, once it has entered the consciousness of people, cannot die out. Outside the church, in what the churchmen called heresies, there always remained faithful interpreters and practitioners of the true Christian teaching. And again and again there occurred new and new efforts at its rebirth. And each time, more and more people became partakers of Christian truth in its real meaning.

Such a faithful interpreter and renewer of Christian truth was Chelčický. Chelčický’s main work, The Net of Faith, is an indication of what Christian society should be according to the teaching of its founder and what it has become under the perverted teaching.

Here is what is said in the preface to the book:

“This book, bearing the title The Net of Faith, was composed by Peter of Chelčice, who lived in the time of Master Rokycana, was well known to him, and often conversed with him. He wrote many useful books according to the law of God for the advancement of the church in the struggle against the Antichrist and his delusions, and if this book has until now seen little light, the reason for this was the clergy, which has not ceased and does not cease to represent Peter Chelčický’s books to the people as debauched and heretical, all because he condemns their way of life. Despite this, many people from all classes gladly read both this book of Peter Chelčický and his other writings, notwithstanding that he was a layman and not learned in Latin, because although he was not a master of the seven arts, he was truly a practitioner of the nine beatitudes and all God’s commandments and was thus a true Czech doctor. In this book Chelčický touches on all classes, beginning with emperors, kings, princes, lords, knights, townsmen, craftsmen, and ending with the rural class; but he pays special attention to the clergy: to popes, cardinals, bishops, archbishops, abbots, and all monastic orders, deans, parish priests, and vicars. In the first part of this book is expounded by what path and means terrible corruption penetrated into the holy church, and it is proved that only by removing from the church all human inventions can one reach its true foundation—Jesus Christ; in the second part is discussed the rise and multiplication in the church of various classes, which only hinder the true knowledge of Christ, for they are filled with the spirit of pride and with all their strength resist the humble and meek Christ.”

And indeed, Chelčický, both in this book and in his other writings, does not contest, as his predecessor Hus did and as Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin who lived and acted after him did, the papal ecclesiastical institutions and dogmas; he only shows that the life of people who consider themselves Christians is not Christian; that a Christian cannot use power, cannot own lands or slaves, cannot live in luxury, cannot live a dissolute life, cannot execute, cannot—most importantly—kill and make war.

Chelčický does not argue about salvation by works or by faith, about predestination, or about dogmas in general; he only demands that all the ordinances of the church be accessible to the understanding of the people. He does not deny them, but speaks of the life of Christians, showing that earthly rulers, armies, courts, and nobility are incompatible with Christian life (he even considers the urban class incompatible with Christianity). Most importantly, he shows that executions and wars are unthinkable for a Christian. He shows that the union of Christianity with the state—that which has now taken place—has ruined and destroyed Christianity, but that it should be the other way around: Christianity, uniting with the state, should destroy the state.

And he proves that this is possible, that the absence of state power not only does not destroy order in people’s lives but destroys the disorder and evil from which people suffer.

This is the reason for the obscurity of Chelčický’s book and activity. Chelčický’s book and activity occupy the same position in the sphere of Christian humanity that Christianity occupies in the sphere of all humanity. It is too far ahead of its time. The season for its fruits has not yet come.

The destruction of papal authority, of indulgences, and much else that was done by Luther was within the power of people of his time, but what Chelčický said could not be accepted—not because it was unclear or unjust (on the contrary, everything he said was all too clear and just), but because what he said was too far ahead of its time.

What Chelčický demanded cannot be accepted even now, still less could it be accepted in his time. To refute what Chelčický said was impossible; at least in those days people were still honest enough to consider it impossible to deny that Christ taught what he taught—that is, that people should love not only those who love them but their enemies, should bear injuries, repay evil with good, and consider all people brothers—and that such teaching is incompatible with the existing order of life. And therefore the question inevitably arose: what to retain, Christianity or the established order?

If Christianity is retained, then it is clear that those in power must give up power, the rich must give up their wealth, the middle classes must give up their reliance on violence, the poor and subject must give up obedience to what is contrary to Christian law (and in the state all public activity is contrary to Christian law), and therefore expose themselves to persecution. And all this is frightening.

But if the existing order is retained, knowing that it is un-Christian, this means renouncing Christianity. And this too is frightening. What then was to be done? One thing: to forget what Christ said, what Chelčický said, and what conscience says—and not think or speak about it.

This is the reason for the obscurity of Chelčický and his book.

The book was hushed up, forgotten. If a dozen scholars know about it, they regard it only as a historical, literary monument.

But the spiritual riches of humanity never perish; they only ripen, like hard fruits. And the longer they await their time, the more valuable they become. So it is with Chelčický and his book.

His book was recently and for the first time printed by the Russian Academy of Sciences, and of course no one has not only read it but even heard of it, as of all that with such great expense and self-importance is printed in the Academy’s publications. The writings of Nietzsche, Zola, and Verlaine are printed in dozens of editions and hundreds of thousands of copies. Everyone knows the smallest details of the lives of these men, but Chelčický’s books have not been printed to this day, not even in Czechia or Germany, not to mention England and France.

And almost nothing is known about Chelčický himself. It is supposed that he was born about 1390 and died about 1460. Some think he was a nobleman, others that he was a peasant, a cobbler, or a farmer. I think he was a farmer.

That he was a farmer, a peasant, I conclude, first, from the strong, simple, clear language of the book; secondly, from the wisdom of the book, as a result of which the author always knows what is important and what is less important, and always puts the important in first place; thirdly, from the heartfelt sincerity and naivety with which he sometimes speaks in a peasant way, coarsely and strongly, with indignation, sometimes with bitter mockery, about what evidently pains his soul.

The Net of Faith is an old book by date; but in its meaning and content it is the newest book, so new that people of our time are still far from being prepared by true enlightenment to be able to understand it. But its time will come and is coming.

For Christianity is not a human invention, not one of the temporary forms into which human societies shape themselves, but truth—if not appearing on stone tablets on Sinai, then more firmly than on stone written on the hearts of all people. And as soon as it is expressed, nothing can be scratched out of people’s consciousness. This truth has waited and will wait still, but from this it will only become more evident and only more insistently demand its fulfillment.

What cannot be erased from Christianity is that Christians, as Chelčický says, must “not be participants in worldly wisdom,” must not be officials, judges, soldiers, but bear all injustices humbly, patiently, not repaying evil with evil, not murmuring, not taking revenge. No matter how much people tried and try to talk away these truths, these truths remain truths and through all the sophisms invented over centuries to hide them, they continue to seize people’s hearts directly and immediately.

What then is to be done? Until now the dilemma has been resolved by hushing up Christianity or crudely lying about it and retaining the state.

But people cannot avoid trying the other, opposite solution: to renounce the state and give themselves to Christianity.

And this decision will be all the more reasonable because all states with their violent organization have so far not only failed to give the blessings they promised but, on the contrary, have more and more increased the calamities that people suffer, and people more and more lose faith in them.

It is precisely this new and good decision that this wise, heartfelt, and necessary book of Chelčický promotes.

Several excerpts from it are placed in the weekly readings of Circle of Reading.

—L. N. Tolstoy

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Translator’s Notes:

• Peter Chelčický (c. 1390–c. 1460) was a Czech religious thinker and writer, considered a precursor of Christian anarchism and pacifism. His major work, Sít’ víry (The Net of Faith), written around 1440, argued that the true church of Christ was corrupted when Constantine made Christianity the state religion.
• Jan Rokycana (c. 1396–1471) was an important Czech Hussite theologian who became Archbishop of Prague. Chelčický knew him but criticized his willingness to compromise with secular power.
• Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415) was the Czech reformer burned at the stake for heresy, whose followers became known as Hussites. Chelčický was influenced by Hus but went further in rejecting all violence and state involvement in religion.
• The reformers Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin challenged specific Catholic doctrines and institutions but did not reject the legitimacy of state power itself, which is Chelčický’s (and Tolstoy’s) central point.
• Tolstoy discovered Chelčický’s work in the 1880s through a Russian translation published by the Academy of Sciences. He was struck by the parallel between Chelčický’s 15th-century critique and his own conclusions about Christianity and the state.
• The “seven arts” refers to the medieval liberal arts curriculum (grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy); the “nine beatitudes” are from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12).
• Tolstoy’s preference to think of Chelčický as a peasant reflects his own valorization of peasant wisdom and his belief that true religious insight comes from simple people rather than learned theologians.
• This essay explains why excerpts from The Net of Faith appear throughout Circle of Reading—Tolstoy saw Chelčický as a crucial witness to authentic Christianity.