Abstract
This article looks at a form written up in a manuscript at the town library in Bautzen (Stadtbibliothek Bautzen), which contains judgements in matrimonial disputes passed in Prague in 1432, as administered by Wenceslas of Dráchov as an official of the Archdiocese of Prague. As an important Hussite, Wenceslas was a contemporary and colleague of John of Rokycany.
It appears he was assigned the role of official in 1429 by Archbishop of Prague, Conrad of Vechta, who became a Hussite in 1421, and Wenceslas fulfilled the role until at least 1437 when the church administration in Prague was in the control of the moderate Hussite party. The published text is unique in the fact that it provides an insight into the daily goings on of the Utraquist Church administration shortly after the Archbishop Conrad of Vechta's death in terms of dealing with matrimonial disputes.
It also represents an important factor in finding out about the development and continuity of individual administrative offices within the Utraquist Church, as we would otherwise be mainly reliant in this context on patchy references within polemic publications. It has been demonstrated that the Church administration was fully bureaucratised at the time, with written minutes of individual meetings acquired and transcripts of interviews with witnesses published to parties who asked for them.
Furthermore, some judicial powers were commonly delegated to rural parish priests, who were authorised to hold interviews or mediate the summoning of the laity to court in Prague. The appendix to the study provides the full text of the form.