Regarding saints, medieval and early modern historical treatises used the older legends and Saint Ludmila was no exception. The authors of the earliest legends about Bohemian saints complemented their stories with historical context that actually brings the first domestic information about Bohemian history. The previously mentioned Christianus, the author of Legenda Christiani, equipped the part about Saint Ludmila with a fully-fledged historical introduction. He writes about Great Moravia, the baptism journey of Prince Bořivoj, and about the difficulties that accompanied his promotion of Christianity in Bohemia. Christianus in fact was the first Bohemian historian.
The chronicler Cosmas – albeit also writing in a religious context – is the author of the first domestic work, The Chronicle of the Czechs, which was primarily motivated by capturing historical stories. Nevertheless, it does not say much about Ludmila. The author assumes that the reader knows her story from the legends, and so he chooses not to bore him by repeating what is known. But he described his personal experience with the miracle confirming Ludmila’s sainthood in 1100 when her veil resisted the fire test. The texts of Cosmas’s followers include another miracle of 1142 when the female saint’s remains withstood the fire of the Convent of Saint George and later prevented their transfer. The Chronicle of Dalimil, the first Czech-written chronicle, concludes the early medieval historical writings; however, it does not bring much new information about Ludmila’s story except for attributing Czech names to her murderers.
As to Saint Ludmila’s texts, 15th century historiography primarily focused on the Passional. Its collection of Cyril and Methodius, Ludmila, and Wenceslas’s texts formed a solid basis of information to which the authors returned repeatedly. Only exceptionally would one run across a direct response to the earlier Ludmila’s legends at the end of the Middle Ages; the chronicles of Cosmas and Dalimil were more likely to be mentioned. Only the work by Řehoř (Gregory) Hrubý marked a certain turnabout, as it reminds one of the older times when Utraquism was ascertained with the patron saints of Bohemia. The author mainly presents the information about the chalice of Saint Ludmila from which she received communion prior to her murder and that is kept at Mělník. Hrubý’s reader, the priest Bohuslav Bílejovský, confirms the same information. In his Bohemian Chronicle, Ludmila appeared again as the Utraquist, one of the prominent figures of Bohemian Christianity, and an undisputed patron saint of the Bohemian nation. Finally, Martin Kuthen’s Chronicle about the Foundation of Bohemia is the last work of that period. Yet, he could not conceal the sources that mostly drew inspiration from the Passional. More interestingly, in addition to Bohemian rulers, Kuthen mentions Ludmila, John Huss, Jerome of Prague, and John Žižka of Trocnov who cannot be included among secular rulers but among the spiritual ones based on Utraquist tradition.
Images
- The interpretation of the Dispute of Václav Písecký with a Monk in Vlachy over the Communion under Both Kinds
Řehoř Hrubý from Jelení: Great Collection, 1513, Bohemia
NKP XVII D 38, fol. 109r - Title Page of Kuthen’s Chronicle
Martin Kuthen of Šprinsberk: Chronicle about the Foundation of Bohemia,
Prague: [Pavel Severýn of Kapí Hora], 1539
NKP I 68.833 - Title Page of Bílejovský’s Chronicle
Bohuslav Bílejovský: Bohemian Chronicle, Nuremberg: Linhart Milichthaler; Václav Oustský; Jan of Choceň, 1537
NKP 54 D 165 - Ludmila makes confession and prepares for death.
Tunna and Gomon smash open the door and strangle Saint Ludmila
Latin Fragment of the Chronicle of so-called Dalimil, 1330s or 1340s, North Italy
NKP XII E 17, fol. 2v
