Utraquism

Almost from the first, the Hussites were divided into two sections, though many minor divisions also arose among them.

Shortly before his death, Huss had accepted a doctrine preached during his absence by his adherents at Prague, namely that of Utraquism, that is, the obligation of the faithful to receive communion in both kinds, sub utraque specie.

This doctrine became the watchword of the moderate Hussites, who were known as the Utraquists or Calixtines, from Calix, the chalice, in Bohemian Podoboži, while the more advanced Hussites were soon known as the Taborites, from the city of Tabor that became their centre.

Under the influence of his brother Sigismund, king of the Romans, King Wenceslaus endeavoured to stem the Hussite movement.

A certain number of Hussites, led by Nicholas of Huss, no relation of John Huss, left Prague.

Unable to maintain himself there, he marched to southern Bohemia, and after defeating the Romanists at Sudoměř, the first pitched battle of the Hussite wars, he arrived at Usti, one of the earliest meeting places of the Hussites.

Not considering its situation sufficiently strong, he moved to the neighbouring new settlement of the Hussites, to which the biblical name of Tabor was given.

Tabor soon became the centre of the advanced Hussites, who differed from the Utraquists by recognising only two sacraments, baptism and communion, and by rejecting most of the ceremonial of the Roman church.