Nation and the Church: the Role of the Priests during the Czech National Revival

Abstract

The paper studies the role of the priests and of the Church during the Czech national revival that, starting with the Josephinism, leads to founding the new ecclesiastical administration and a tighter connections between the priests and the faithful. Only after 1848, the Catholic Clergy enters among the main protagonists of the Czech national emancipation movement.

The Author tries to analyse the main reasons for the later fast estrangement of the Catholic identity of the Czech nation and the main stream of the Czech national thinking. One of the reasons seams to by the Palacký?s concept of the Czech history, especially when elaborated in the works of his epigons.

The end proposes a sketch of the future development.