Calistines

CALISTINES. - A Hussite politico-religious sect of the 15th century, so called because its adherents claimed the use of the eucharistic chalice for all the faithful without distinction; they were therefore supporters of Communion sub utraque specie, and were for this reason also called Utraquists. Its promoter was Jakoubek of Mies (d. 9 August 1429), one of the leaders of the Hussite revolt. After the death of Hus, who on the eve of his execution, 6 July 1415, had supported Jakoubek's faction, the claim of the chalice became like a national fever.

Properly speaking, the Calistini, while upholding the necessity of Communion sub utraque specie against the different practice introduced by the Church, did not deny the real presence of Jesus Christ under each species; indeed Jakoubek himself became a defender of the doctrine of the real presence against those who either denied it absolutely or admitted only a virtual presence; for which reason the true Calistini were closer to the Catholics (Subunists) than to the extremists of their sect (Taborites), who, under the pretext of simplicity, raged against every external liturgical apparatus. In order to avert a schism, Cardinal G. Cesarini in 1432 favored a meeting between the Calistini and the envoys of the Council of Basel for a discussion of the famous four articles of Prague, upheld by the Calistini, namely: Communion under both species, repression of mortal sins, freedom of preaching and administration of ecclesiastical property. In 1433 an apparent basis of agreement was found in the Compactata, subscribed only on 5 July 1436 at Ihlava (Iglau), but never recognized by the Holy See; to the Bohemians, with the obligation of teaching the real presence under each species, the privilege of the chalice was granted. After the election as archbishop of Prague of Rokycana in 1435, never confirmed by Rome, the division between the Calistini and the Catholics deepened: the question turned from religious to political, especially when in 1458 George of Poděbrady succeeded Sigismund as king of Bohemia, bound to Rome by oath to work for the elimination of the claims of the Calistini, but supported in the kingdom by them. In 1471 both the pseudo-bishop Rokycana and the perjured G. of Poděbrady died. Deprived of political and religious leaders, the Calistini rapidly declined as a sect apart; they continued to linger on, tolerated but not legally authorized. After the "Defenestration of Prague" (1618), motivated by them, the Calistini disappear, absorbed either into the ranks of the Catholics or into those of the Protestants, especially of the Bohemian Brethren.

Vito Zollini