Preachers, Partisans, and Rebellious Religion conclusively demonstrates the value of late medieval vernacular Czech sources, a wide range of material that scholars have found broadly inaccessible or, frankly, too difficult to utilize. Interest and research from Anglophonic scholars into late medieval Bohemia has certainly increased over the last few decades, most dramatically seen in the wide number of published monographs and articles stemming from the six hundredth anniversary of Jan Hus's martyrdom in 2015. For scholars trained in Latin, French, and German, however, the Czech language remains a lightly used resource. Marcela Perett demonstrates her mastery of the Czech vernacular and reveals just what is missing when we cling to our comfortable Latin sources.

To fully examine a setting as unique as late medieval Prague requires the fluid movement between Latin academic and religious texts in conjunction with the lay vernacular. Perett points to the significance of vernacular texts as popular opinion increasingly challenged traditional Bohemian authorities such as the crown, university, or church. Perett's analysis of that material exposes, as she states, “the narratives that each faction put forth in the form of vernacular compositions, which they deliberately crafted in order to garner lay support” (218). This explicit examination of the purpose of lay texts is a meaningful and needed contribution to Hussite studies wherein the use of the vernacular has, arguably, been assumed with little analysis. Her evidence reveals not only that the predominately Czech-speaking factions utilized the vernacular but also shows that they deliberately employed vernacular texts, songs, and polemics to bring their message outside of clerical and university circles and to the general public (220).

Perett's examination begins in chapters one and two with the movement's namesake, Jan Hus. Hus is an exceptionally complex and dense figure, but Perett succeeds in keeping a narrow focus on Hus's use of the vernacular without digressing too much into biography. Eschewing much of Hus's early academic and Latin work, she scrutinizes Hus's subversive use of language and its correlation to how Hus defended himself in the most tumultuous years of his preaching in the Bethlehem chapel and in exile. Hus's ability to reach a lay audience through both vernacular preaching and his clever use of vernacular writing—on paper and on the walls of the Bethlehem chapel—demonstrates the models utilized by the subsequent Hussite Movement (77).

With Hus's precedent examined, Perett pushes beyond the focus on a single individual and scrutinizes how the vernacular played a crucial role in the growth and splintering of the movement. The third and fourth chapters require a step away from the typical academic and theological sources on which the majority of religious scholars rely. Perett offers an extremely useful survey of the commemoration of Hus and the promotion of reform ideas through vernacular song. The music that Bohemians composed illustrates how contentious debates moved beyond the pulpit and university to be played out in the streets of Prague and Bohemia. Perhaps most unique is Perett's ability to demonstrate the conflicting ideas of the period through a contest of songs and slogans, in which opposing sides both utilized musical anthems (109‒13). These chapters give a detailed glimpse into the contest for the soul of Bohemia—with an outcome far from evident. Perett states, “Although the historiography has treated the growth of the Hussite movement as ‘unstoppable,’ this is a grave misreading of the evidence,” and she succeeds in complicating the movement by showing the attempt to harness public opinion on all sides and the depth of divisions within Bohemia.

Chapter five further develops “how different faction's leaders strategically harnessed the laity's growing interest in theological learning” (145). Focusing on more than songs and slogans, Perett analyzes the deepening arguments between the various factions in Bohemia and the attempts to expand the understanding of the laity to their own benefit. Her analysis tracks such questions as God's favor, exegesis and the communion chalice, the value of ritual, and a variety of other lay concerns that formed the cracks between the reformers. Tabor, in particular, represented a threat to both moderate reformer and Catholic alike and—despite repeated military victories—found itself losing an internal war of propaganda (164).

Along with the arguments among factions, Perett uses chapter six to examine how the reform-minded transmitted English philosopher John Wyclif's ideas to the laity, especially those arguments critical to Eucharistic theology. Although many texts have analyzed the relationship between Hus and Wyclif, this chapter's analysis helps shed substantial light on how Wyclif's thoughts continued at the center of debates in the 1420s and 1430s through the works of Peter Payne and counterarguments of John Příbram. The chapter also draws in the works of leading lay figure Peter Chelčický, who—without formal training—felt confident enough to engage in “theological wrangling” by writing numerous tracts that influenced later movements (187).

Finally, chapter seven looks at how Latin chronicles analyzed the Hussite period. Here, Perett examines how the Hussite chronicler Lawrence of Březová and the future pope Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini engage in the writing of the period as history. Many of the same questions and arguments that appeared in previously covered vernacular sources abound in the chronicles. Although Perett loses her initial focus on the vernacular, it is satisfying to see how vernacular arguments influence the later Latin sources. Obviously, the two figures in question approach the topic from differing perspectives, but Perret again employs a systematic comparison that results in a useful case study of how early historians wrote and shaped the wider narrative.

Preachers, Partisans, and Rebellious Religion is a superb text for expanding one's understanding of the vibrant and complex world of Bohemian religious thought in the fifteenth century. Perhaps what is most valuable in Perett's work is how she decisively shows that the transmission of theological and philosophical arguments came to truly matter to the people of fifteenth-century Bohemia beyond the discussions of the elite. I highly recommend this work as a valuable piece of the fascinating puzzle that is the Hussite period.