«The Fear of God» in Late Medieval Bohemia

Abstract

The paper deals with the semantics of the Old-Czech terms which were used in Bohemia to define “the fear of God” during the 14th and the first third of the 15th century. The first part of the paper considers the Latin-Czech word pairs written in Klaret’s Dictionary (the 14th century). It has been shown that in the Dictionary the notion of fright (bázně) was considered as the opposite of love (milost) while Klaret did perceive the semantic-etymological connection between the notions of fear (strach) and passion (strast). In the second part of the paper a comparison between Klaret’s usage and the Old Czech translation practice of the Vulgate has been undertaken. The comparison makes evident that the original Latin terms (timor, i.e. timidity; pavor, i.e. fear; terror, i.e. nightmare) were transferred as “strach” by the translators on their own sake in case when the Latin terms expressed the feeling of a believer; in turn, the Old Czech terms of fright (bázně) and terror (hróza) mostly expressed the feelings of the unbelievers who were intimidated by God. The third part of the article deals with the usage of the theologians Thomas of Štítný and John Hus in the end of the 14th and at the threshold of the 15th century, as well as the usage of the Hussites in the 1420-ies. The term “fright of God” (bázně boží) was used by them to express the feeling of a believer while the term “fear” (strach) significated either the feeling of Non-Christians and false Christians, or the psychological obstacle that every just man is vocated to overcome. Thus, a direct controversion existed between the Old-Czech translation practice of the Vulgate and the living language of the Late Medieval Czech people.

Received: 10.11.2023.
Revised: 26.11.2023.
Accepted: 13.03.2024.

Citation
Naumov N. N. “The Fear of God” in Late Medieval Bohemia // Slavic Almanac. 2024. No 3–4. P. 312–333. (in Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2073- 5731.2024.3-4.17