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A radical group of hussites, emerging c. 1415 from a rural movement in Bohemia. They were infected by chiliasm and insisted on the reception of Holy Communion under both species. In order to defend their faith they formed the first brotherhood, or theocratic community, in Ústí. It was later transferred to Hradiště, which assumed the Biblical name of Tabor. John ŽiŽka transformed it into a military unit. Under Nicholas of Pelhřimov, their first elected bishop, they became an autonomous ecclesiastical body, dissociated from the Church, in contrast to the moderate utraquists. The Bible was the sole source of faith for the Taborites; the veneration of saints was abolished; and all holy days and sacramentals were eliminated. They destroyed churches, had a married clergy, and replaced Latin with Czech in the liturgy. Of the Sacraments only Baptism and Holy Eucharist were retained. They split into Moderates (called Orphans or Orebites after Žižka's death) and Radicals, led by Prokop the Bald, who opposed any reconciliation with the Church. The Radicals were defeated at the Battle of Lipany (1434) by the combined forces of Catholic and Utraquist lords, and were forced to comply with the Compact. They were condemned at the Diet of Prague (1444); their center was occupied by George of Poděbrad (1452)

Bibliography: h. kaminsky, "Chiliasm and the Hussite Revolution," Church History (Philadelphia 1957) 26, 43–71; "Hussite Radicalism and the Origins of Tabor," Medievalia et humanistica 10 (Boulder, CO 1956) 102–130. f. g. heymann, "The Hussite-Utraquist Church in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries," Archiv für Reformationgeschichte 52 (Gütersloh 1961) 1–16. p. de vooght, "L'heresie des taborites sur l'Eucharistie, 1418–21," Irenikon 35 (1962) 340–350.

[l. nemec]