ČESKÁ FRANTIŠKÁNSKÁ PROVINCIE SV. VÁCLAVA (1570–1790)
Bohemian Franciskan Province of St. Wenceslas (1570–1790)

Summary/Abstract: The Bohemian Franciscan Province was established after the missions of John of Capistrano in the middle of the fifteenth century. The spread of Lutheranism stopped the evolution of the province and started a deep crisis. The first signs of recovery are observed at the turn of the sixteen century. It is also the beginning of a new, early modern period of the province. The article deals with the continual renewal of the province and its circumstances. The end of the Thirty Years’ War marked the beginning of the bloom. In the first half of the eighteenth century there were more than thirty overcrowded religious houses in the province. That is why it was decorated with a honorary title Alma & Magna Provincia. At that time, however the first signs of the decline appeared. After the Habsburg defeat and the separation of Silesia, the Silesian monasteries were forced to establish an independent province of St. Jadwiga (dissolved 1810). During the religious reforms of Josef II. a part of the remaining monasteries was dissolved. Moreover, the reforms destroyed the traditional character of religious life and thus finished the early modern period of the Bohemian Province.

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