Unenlightened and Disobedient - the Regulation of Religious Practice and the Reaction to It in Bohemia in the Latter Half of the 18th Century (the region of Český Krumlov and Vimperk, Strakonice and Žatec)
Abstract
The study raises the question of whether enlightenment interference in popular religiosity was a new and different type of regulation of popular religious practice to that predating 1750. The article focuses on the effects of two reforms in the latter half of the 18th century: the reduction in the number of religious holidays in 1753/54 and the prohibition of bell-ringing to ward off storms and dark clouds in 1783.
Failure to respect these prohibitions was an offence and so the lower municipal and seignorial authorities classified such behaviour as "irrational" and "prejudices". Both before and after 1750, these subjects generally refused to give way to the collective demand for the disposal of funds and mediation of salvation and holiness; they were willing to risk repeated prosecutions.
Hence enlightenment reforms of popular religiosity came up against obvious limitations at least up to the end of the 18th century.