Censorship Measures in Bohemia in the Period 1547–1621

Abstract

The article tries to record all important censorship measures issued in Bohemia before the battle at the White Mountain and to trace up the principles of current functioning of the censorhip in practice. The censorship measures were mainly used as a tool in the struggle between the king and the Estates and rather responded to the immediate situation. Despite a large number of individual commands, the effect of them was more shortterm and unproductive. The king’s constant attempt of full control of the situation via the representative bodies represents the main line of the state censorship policy, which was at the end of the period supported by the Catholic Church. The conditions in the country were even more complicated by the fact of two legaly existing reliongs and by the quickly spreading reformation.