Laughing, Crying and Killing: Emotions at Stake in Medieval Bohemia

Laughter, tears, and killing were responses to Hussite heresy. Heresy was a fearful phenomenon in the Middle Ages. Its various manifestations brought fear to the church and the heretics themselves were often fearful of retribution, and the violence of prison, sword, and the fires of the stake. But what do these expressions of emotion tell us? The article examines a sermon reflecting vivid fear of aggressive heretics, a chronicle wherein a principle response to the Hussites is laughter, and the outpouring of extravagant emotion in the wake of the murder of a popular priest in Prague. Using heresy as context, the article seeks to understand how emotion shapes both historical narrative and communicative memory.