Heretic hat

Jan Hus is led to the execution in a heretic hat (Konzilschronik fol.57v, Rosgartenmuseum Konstanz)

Jan Hus at the stake (Hussite Museum, Tábor)

A heretic hat is a paper headgear that was put on the stake of condemned " heretics " before their execution .

Jan Hus

Chronicle of the Council of Constance

The heretic hat is known from the iconography of Jan Hus . After he was condemned as a heretic on July 6, 1415 during the Council of Constance , he was degraded from his spiritual status. Ulrich von Richental's chronicle depicts this scene: Two archbishops remove the chasuble from the convict standing in the middle . Now he is subject to worldly violence. The following illustration in Richental's chronicle of the council shows how Hus is led away with the heretic hat and black heretic shirt. Richental's account of the execution contains the peculiarity that the "paper miter with the painted devils" does not burn immediately, but has to be thrown into the fire again.

Triptych from Roudníky

The side wings of an altar (1486), which come from the Wenceslas Church in Roudníky, today a district of Chabařovice , and are now in the Hussite Museum Tábor , show three martyrs ( James the Elder , Laurentius and Sebastian ) and Hus at the stake. The moment before the execution is shown. Hus is chained to the stake, the wood of the pyre is layered around his feet. He carries the Alba of the priest and the papery Ketzerhut with three painted devils. The depiction shows the ambivalence of the memory of Hus in Bohemia: he is clearly branded with the heretic hat, but the composition of the picture suggests that he is a martyr.

Literary use of the motif

The subject of the execution of Hus was dealt with artistically and literarily in the 19th century. In the poem Vision (1897), Rainer Maria Rilke imagined a walk through the nocturnal Constance, in which, looking back, he perceived the tower of the Constance Minster as a gigantic "hero with the heretic hat".

Spanish inquisition

Those convicted at the car dairy had to wear a dress of shame ( Sanbenito ) and a high, pointed hat ( Carocha ). The latter was referred to by Johann Fischart as the "Papirener heretic hat of the Inquisition" ( Binkorb Des Heyl. Römischen Imenschwarms , 1579).

literature

Beverly Chico: Hats and Headwear around the World: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, 2013, ISBN 978-1-61069-062-1 , p. 104 (Heretic Hat)

Web links

Commons : Heretic hat - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Veronika Drescher: Degradation of Jan Hus. In: historicum.net . June 6, 2012, accessed February 28, 2019 .
↑ Wilhelm Köller: Perspectivity and Language: On the Structure of Objectification Forms in Images, in Thinking and in Language . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2004, ISBN 978-3-11-018104-3 , pp. 294 .
↑ Jakub Hnilička: The Altar Wings of Roudníky. In: Husitské muzeum v Táboře. Accessed February 28, 2019 .
↑ Heretic hat. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 11 : K - (V). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1873, Sp. 643 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).

[1] Veronika Drescher: Degradation of Jan Hus. In: historicum.net . June 6, 2012, accessed February 28, 2019 .

[2] Wilhelm Köller: Perspectivity and Language: On the Structure of Objectification Forms in Images, in Thinking and in Language . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2004, ISBN 978-3-11-018104-3 , pp. 294 .

[3] Jakub Hnilička: The Altar Wings of Roudníky. In: Husitské muzeum v Táboře. Accessed February 28, 2019 .

[4] Heretic hat. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 11 : K - (V). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1873, Sp. 643 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).