Utraquism
15th-century Protestant doctrine held by the Hussites, maintaining that the Eucharist should be administered to the people in both kinds, both bread and wine
Utraquism (from the Latin sub utraque specie, meaning "under both kinds"), also called Calixtinism (from chalice; Latin: calix, borrowed from Greek kalyx, "shell, husk"; Czech: kališníci), was a belief amongst Hussites, a pre-Protestant reformist Christian movement in fifteenth century Bohemia that communion under both kinds (both the consecrated host and the precious blood, as opposed to the consecrated host alone) should be administered to the laity during the celebration of the Eucharist. Communion in both kinds was a principal dogma of the Hussites and one of the Four Articles of Prague.
After the Hussite movement split into various factions early in the Hussite Wars, Hussites that emphasized the laity's right to communion under both kinds became known as Moderate Hussites, Utraquist Hussites, or simply Utraquists. The Utraquists were the largest Hussite faction.
History
Utraquism was a Christian dogma first proposed by Jacob of Mies, professor of philosophy at the University of Prague, in 1414. It maintained that the Eucharist should be administered "under both kinds" – as both sacred host and precious blood – to all the congregation, including the laity. The practice among Roman Catholics at the time was for only the priests to partake of the consecrated wine, the Precious Blood.
Jacob taught that communion should be provided and taken under both kinds, which as a precept of Christ could not be changed by the church. Only those who received the utraquist (both kinds) communion belong to the church of Christ. There is disagreement in sources about whether he, or early Utraquists, taught this was necessary for salvation (as claimed by Catholic detractors such as Andrew of Brod), or necessary to receive the salvific effect of the eucharist or an obligation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Utraquism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.