Chelcicky, Peter

(c. 1390–1460)

   Theologian.

   Chelcicky was influenced by the theology of John wycliffe and he started preaching in Prague, Bohemia in about 1420. He rejected the materialism of the Church and believed that society should be modelled on the basis of the doctrine of the body of Christ. He was the author of several books and his followers were known as the Chelcic Brethren. This group, together with the disciples of Archbishop Rokycana, became the core of the Bohemian brethren, later to be called the Unitas Fratrum or Moravians.

   P. Brock, The Political and Social Doctrines of the Unity of Czech Brethren in the 15th and Early 16th Centuries (1957);

   M. Spinka, ‘Peter Chelcicky, the spiritual father of the unitas fratrum’, Church History, xii (1943).