SUPERINTENDENT MICHAEL BLAŽEK
AND THE PROTESTANT SEALS
AROUND THE YEAR 1800
Sixtus Bolom-Kotari
The renewed legal existence of Protestant churches within Czech Lands
begins with the issue of the Tolerance decree by Emperor and King Joseph
II, which was published in the Margraviate of Moravia on October 27,
1781. The Patent gave hitherto secret Protestants the possibility to subscribe to one of two authorised religions: Lutheran and Reformed (also called
Helvetic or Calvinist). However, the activities of Protestant churches remained a long time linked by a high number of restrictive rules. Indeed, in the
introduction to the already mentioned Tolerance decree it was clearly stated
that only the Roman Catholic Church belongs as the favoured Church
especially in the public area. Despite numerous obstacles, the activities of
both Protestant churches and the wider society connected with them were
not joined only with a simple “private religion performance”. Protestant
society should have had, among others, also some cultural aspirations.
The key words for the Protestant culture of tolerance itself are
the Word and the Book. The Book, meaning the Bible, is the centre of
evangelical faith. Only the Word and the Book could subsequently affect
the distinctive elements of social anthropology, art or architecture. This
contribution deals with seals as one of the manifestations of the protestant art. Protestant art was to serve for education, delight and expostulating by its nature. 283
We will focus our attention on the personality of Michael Blažek,
the most important representative of the Reformed Church in Moravia in
the period around 1800. Seals created in his close surroundings will be
placed in the context of seals of the Moravian Reformed Church at the
end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century. Some characteristics
will also be extended to the second Toleration Church, the Lutheran
Within the description of seals and theirs comparison we can’t miss out
viewpoints of Auxiliary Historical Sciences, especially those of Sphragistics. In
spite of that fact, culture-historical viewpoints are crucial here. Comprehensive
elaboration of the problems has been still missing. For further information see
William A. DYRNESS, Reformed Theology and Visual Culture. The Protestant Imagination from Calvin to Edwards, Cambridge 2004.
283
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Church, and the Bohemian territory, because these categories show a
number of identical features.
As an example we can look at one page from the Memorial
Book of the toleration reformed congregation of Libiš. We can read a
part of the text:
Explanation of this Church Seal, which depicts the symbols of the Christian Church
in Libiš:
1. The chalice on the Church Seal depicts the return of the Lord’s chalice at the Eucharist, which we were deprived of before we got back the freedom of our conscience…
2. The book standing under the Chalice represents the Law of the Lord, which we may
now freely use; the Law of the Lord containing the pure God's word is to be the sole Rule
of Belief and Religion; our life and dealings…
3. This Book is enclosed in thorn or placed among thorn, which means that we enjoy the
freedom of our conscience and God's Word despite many obstacles and difficulties... 284
The description of the church seal accompanying its graceful illustration
in the introduction of the Memorial Book of the Toleration Reformed
Congregation of Libiš in Bohemia is a typical illustration of the attitude
to seals and protestant art in general. The decoration is not purposeless,
but each part has its place and meaning. That’s why the same image as
on the seal was carved in wood at the pulpit of the toleration chapel in
Libiš. The author of the description and illustration, the Hungarian pastor
Jan Végh (1755–1830) who came to Bohemia in 1783, was not only a
preacher. He became the actual founder of the Toleration Church and
patron of arts who actively entered the creative process. Apart from material heritage, he left also literary works, to the contents of which he paid
the same attention as to its proper form. The rich personality of Jan Végh
is often compared to that of Michael Blažek since what Végh meant for
284 The text in the Czech original hears: “Vysvětlení této Církevní Pečeti, kteráž všecken
stav zdejší Církve Kristové Libišské vyobrazuje: 1. Kalich na Pečeti Církevní vyobrazuje
navrácení nám při Svatosti Večeře Páně Kalicha Páně, kteréhož sme byli před svobodou
svědomí našeho zbaveni…2. Kniha pod Kalichem stojící představuje Zákon Páně, jehož nyní
svobodně užívati můžem; kterýžto Zákon Páně čisté slovo Boží v sobě obsahující má býti jedině
Pravidlem Víry i Náboženství; života i obcování našeho… 3. Kniha tato jest trním obklíčena
aneb mezi trním postavena, což vyznamenává, že my té svobody svědomí a Slova Božího mezi
mnohými odpory a těžkostmi požíváme…” See in: Neučiníš sobě rytiny. Evangelické
umění toleranční doby 1781–1861 [Exhibition Catalogue: Brno, kostel J. A. Komenského 15/5 – 30/6 2010 written by Sixtus BOLOM and Martina KOTLÍKOVÁ], Brno 2010.
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Bohemia, Blažek meant for Moravia, and probably even more due to his
high clerical function. 285
The most frequent motives of images on seals of individual protestant religious congregations are a book symbolising the Bible and the chalice. The chalice as the liturgical cup is the symbol of belief for Protestants.
One of the main differences of evangelical religions was using the chalice at
communion by all believers.
The symbology of the chalice is sometimes supplemented by motives of corn and bunches of grapes mutually intertwined in different ways,
which is to emphasise the integrity of the Eucharist according to the Gospel
during both taking the bread and wine during communion. The motif of a
wreath is a common symbol of communion, unification. The last of the
main motives is the manifestation of God’s presence on the Earth, either by
means of celestial symbols (most frequently a six-point star, less frequently
the Sun) or by means of the “God’s Eye”.
The image contents of the seal is always supplemented by a text
part, which contains the name of the institution using the seal and which
is usually written in the humanistic majuscule. A reference to a Biblical
Verse, which was selected by the ideological creator of a seal as characterising the seal or connected with the seal, is also frequent. Another usual
representation is the date. Roman numbers are mostly used, which corresponds to the fact that the language of the seals is predominantly Latin.
Less frequently we can encounter Arab numbers, and Czech or German.
The date is to mark the day of establishment of the relevant institution,
this is the religious community, or (usually written in Arab numbers) the
date of creation of the seal.
The shape of the seals is most often round, less frequently oval.
An intermediate stage between a seal and stamp occurs on some religious
documents from about the 1820s, which has all the elements of a seal and
the form of a stamp. 286
The comparison of personalities of Michael Blažek and Jan Végh is the part of
the missing manuscript written by Anna Marešová that is quoted in the book
Československá literatura toleranční I, Praha 1933, for instance, pp. 191 and 208,
written by Jan Blahoslav ČAPEK.
286 See, for example, a stamp of the Reformed Church in Vanovice, whose
impress is to be found on a document from July 20, 1838. The stamp is round;
the motif is composed by the text Pastorat H C: in Wanowitz, added with a simple
floral decoration. The structure of the stamp is similar to the stamps used by the
baronies at that time, which agrees to the Biedermeier esthetics. The size of the
285
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Can religious motives also be found on the personal seals of individuals? If pastors, evangelical teachers and other important members of
churches use personal seals, they usually follow the contemporary usage.
That is the reason why we find their initials in their personal seal most
frequently. 287 There are rather few particularities. At this place we may perhaps mention the cases of several Hungarian toleration pastors who held a
title. They would then naturally use their coat-of-arms on their seals. 288
Municipal seals also played a certain role in religious documentation, namely in the case of purely evangelical villages and in the first period
after the establishment of individual religious congregations, when these
congregations did not yet have their own church seal available. The municipal seal appears, for instance, during disputes of the pastor with members of
the church, when it represents the religious community. This is the case of
the seal of the reformed community of Veselí u Jimramova, which displayed
the image of St. Catherine. A seal with this motive of purely Catholic devotions was used by the reformed Protestants even after 1781. The opportunity to change the seal image at a time when they no longer had to hide their
religious belief was not used. The reasons for that could have been both
internal and external; namely reverence for the seal, tradition within the
community, but maybe also external obstacles on the part of contemporary
authorities. For Protestants themselves the seal was a valid and valuable
legal instrument, whose validity they probably did not want to risk. Authorities could have hindered a change and acknowledgment of a new seal by
pointing out the illegitimacy of such step, when the “ruling Roman Catholic
Church” was still preferred in the public life. It was not before 1850, i.e.
after the legal position of Protestant Churches improved, that a seal of the
extant exemplar is 32 mm. See Moravian Provincial Archives in Brno (next
MZA), coll. C 9, sign. 13 D 15.
287 Compare, for example, the impresses of personal seals of important members
of the Reformed Church in Jimramov (teacher František Ženatý and burgher
Jan Karafiát) as the witnesses in the last will of Michael Blažek. See MZA, coll.
C 9, sign. 13 D 9, fol. 1. As an example of a personal pastor seal that is a little
bit different than a standard monogram type we can see the impress of the
personal seal of Matěj Hikl, impressed on the debt obligation, dated June 27,
1832. The seal is a lying oval, with two lines of cursive text M Hikl. The free
space under the word Hikl fills a wavy line. Seal size is 23x20 mm. See MZA,
coll. C 9, sign. 13 D 19.
288 Compare, for example, the impress of the personal seal of Jan Lány, pastor in
Ratiboř, that was used by his widow next to her subscription on the document
within the proband process. Dated May 10, 1824. Seal size, which is gently oval, is
15x14 mm. See MZA, coll. C 9, sign. 13 D 7, fol. 24.
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community in Veselí emphasised the evangelical nature of the community
by the seal depicting the local toleration chapel. 289
The newly established evangelical toleration religions from Czech and
Austrian lands had a consistory as their supreme administration authority
seated in Vienna. The consistory had a joint chairman and two independent departments for both permitted evangelical religions. The administrative bodies of the evangelical religions on the level of individual lands
were superintendences. Since 1784 they were headed by Superintendents
appointed by the Emperor. Superintendences of both the evangelical religions were further territorially divided into seniorates administered by
Seniors. They were proposed for the office by Superintendents and the
consistory presented them for approval to respective provincial governments. Seniors and Superintendents were usually appointed from the clergy operating on the respective territory. That is why neither the seniorates
nor the superintendences had a permanent seat. The seat used to be at the
pastor’s station, who was appointed to one of the functions and who concurrently continued to work as a priest of his congregation. The evangelical congregation represented the lowest, basic unit of the church administration. Church congregations had considerable autonomy, but their
members had to cover all the financial cost. 290
Who were the leading representatives of toleration religions, pastors, seniors, superintendents? The period of creation of toleration congregations in the Czech lands at the end of the 18th century can be called a
period of two dialogues. Apart from the dialogue of Protestantism with
the Enlightenment, there was also a dialogue (and conflict) between the
“local” and “foreign” tradition within the toleration religions, which was
represented namely by the newly arriving priests, pastors chiefly from
Hungary. Generally, these priests perceived their work as a mission, thus
they were trying to build new Czech congregations according to the Hungarian pattern.
The first Superintendent of the Reformed Church in Moravia,
Michael Blažek (1753–1827), wanted to become the builder of bridges both
between Protestantism and the Enlightenment, and between the Czech
reformation tradition and the tradition of Hungarian congregations. He had
several remarkable prerequisites to become one. Similarly as most pastors of
Sixtus BOLOM, Tomáš Juren – toleranční doba na Vysočině a hudba srdce, [Tišnov]
2008, pp. 110–111.
290 See Malý obrazový průvodce dějinami Českobratrské církve evangelické. Settled and
commented by Eva FIALOVÁ, Praha 2008, p. 24.
289
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the toleration period he came from Hungary. However, unlike many of his
fellow countrymen he was a descendant of Czech exiles from the period
after the battle at Bílá Hora (1620), they spoke Czech in his family and also
his relationship with the Old Unity of the Brethren could be considered as a
family heritage. Another crucial aspect uniting him with the Czech “secret
Non-Catholics” was certain theological neutrality. The Evangelical religion
in his version was not based only on exact dogmas, but rather on the value
of spiritual freedom. He says about the Czech Protestants: They are those,
who according to religions in Bohemia and Moravia have craved for spiritual freedom
since long ago. 291
A native from Senica in Upper Hungary, he was conscientiously
studying for the profession of a preacher at renowned European universities. Blažek obtained important experience and contacts also as a preceptor
in the families of Hungarian aristocrats. After five years of studies at the
College in Debrecen his desire for further education led him to Basel and
Lausanne, Utrecht, Goettingen, Marburg, and Halle. After his studies he
accepted an invitation to come to the Czech lands in 1782 as the very first
toleration reformed preacher. At first he worked in Nosislav and from 1784
in Jimramov. For more than forty years he worked here also as a writer,
translator and Superintendent heading the Moravian Protestant Society of
Late Enlightenment. The opinion of brethren in Moravia on him is that he was a wise
preacher as he taught people art and to ponder and have communion with themselves, and
who wrote many excellent books serving for the salvation of people.
Having not liked religious radicalism, he became a member of secret
societies, where he met with brethren from a wide range of social layers, who,
of course, had different attitudes to religion. Blažek became the head of the
Moravian reformed Protestants (1784–1827), which meant that he could have
built his church with understanding for the believers, pastors of their own
church, but also the pastors of the second tolerated evangelical confession,
which is, for instance, evidenced by his correspondence with the Lutheran
pastor in Brno and the Senior Victor Heinrich Riecke. He could rely on the
support of some aristocrats, as well as on his contacts abroad. 292
See Archive of Farní sbor Českobratrské církve evangelické (next FS ČCE) v
Jimramově, Kronika jimramovského sboru. Report written by Superintendent
Michal Blažek could be dated around the year 1800.
292 Sixtus BOLOM: Předcházející – spojení? Písmák proti pastorovi v počátcích
tolerančních sborů na Vysočině, in: Ondřej Macek (ed.), Po vzoru Berojských:
život i víra českých a moravských evangelíků v předtoleranční a toleranční
době, Praha 2008, pp. 363–364.
291
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The multi-layer personality of Michael Blažek is reflected also in his
seals. Considering the close ties with the Lutherans, the likeness of the seals
of both the toleration churches comes as no surprise. The motives of the
seals ordered by Blažek must be described not only in the context of the
Christian iconography (less so in the narrowly Evangelical iconography), but
also in the context of the elaborated symbology of secret societies (notably
the Illuminati), a member of which he was.293 Superintendent Blažek knew
the conception of seals in the Hungarian reformed church as well as the
situation in other European countries from his studies. He could use his
experience of this.
Seal of the Superintendence of the Helvetian Confession in Moravia
Round, size 26 mm. The seal depicts an open book representing the Bible,
with the following text in italics: Actor: XX: 28. It is a reference to a verse
in the New Testament, Book of Acts, which according to the Bible of
Kralice has the following wording: Work hard and take care of your flock, the
bishops of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you to tend God’s church, which he
acquired by his own blood. This verse was to represent Blazek’s work in an
office, which was similar to the bishop’s office. It characterised also his
personal morals and requirements he placed on the members of his
church. The book is enclosed in two different branches; laurel in the right
part and palm in the left part; they are tied without a ribbon at the bottom, untied at the top. Under the joined branches the date
MDCCLXXXIV (1784) is placed, which marks the date of the superintendency establishment. The seal transcript bears the text:
SIGILL(UM):SVPERINTENDENTALE·ECCLES(IAE):HELV(ETIAE):
CONF(ESIONIS):MORAVIAE.
A simple six-pointed star is placed between the first and last letter of the
transcript. The seal is framed in a meticulously executed astragal. 294
293 Jiří KROUPA, Alchymie štěstí. Pozdní osvícenství a moravská společnost 1770–1810,
Brno 2006, pp. 111–115.
294 See Archiv FS ČCE Jimramov, Inv. No. R-III-D-3, November 6, 1827.
During the seeking for connections and inspirations we must mention that it was
Jan Karafiát (1846–1929), born in Jimramov, reformed pastor and writer, who
attended in his book Paměti spisovatele Broučků, Část první, Doba Imramovská (Praha,
1919), pp. 85–86, on the similar “Masonic seal” with a similar motif of the book
in the laurel wreath. In the opened book were, according to his description, four
letters – S, M, E and A. On the book sat an owl and under the book was put an
oval plate with a roped monogram. In the Jan Karafiát family the typarium of the
already mentioned “gently oval smaller seal” survived, which weight he declared
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Seal of the Jimramov Church of Helvetian Confession
Round, size 26 mm. 295 The seal was created according to the design of Michael Blazek at the same time and by the same author as the Superintendent’s seal. The seal image displays a relief of a rock or mountain massif
grouped into three main units. Apart from other hidden symbology, it is an
allusion to the emblem of the town of Jimramov with three mountains
representing the three hills in the Czech-Moravian Highlands, which
surround the town. Above the rocks depicted in the seal appears the sign of
God’s presence in the form of the “God’s Eye” with a halo. The composition of the rock with the peak above the God’s Eye creates the imaginary
unfinished, almost equilateral triangle. The inscription in the field above the
rock represents the date of establishment of the Jimramov congregation
after the arrival of the first pastor; first the year: MDCCLXXXII, and on
the second line, there are the day and month: XXII · NOV(EMBRIS)·
The seal transcript reads:
SIGILLUM:ECCL(ESIAE):INGOVICENSIS:HELV(ETIAE):CONF
(ESIONIS):.
A simple six-pointed star is inserted between the first and last letter of the
transcript similarly as with the Superintendent’s seal. The seal is also framed
in a meticulously executed astragal. 296
Personal Seal of Michael Blažek
Round, size 22 mm. At first sight the seal resembles the personal seals of
aristocrats. The members of Michael Blažek family were burghers and tradesmen. According to the birth registry we are not aware of them holding a
coat-of-arms. For that matter, not even the image of the coat-of-arms on
the seal suggests it being an ancestral coat-of-arms. It does not contain the
typical heraldic figures and characteristics, its concept is seemingly unusual.
However, in the context of personal seals emerging in the 19th century it
does not have to be so surprising. 297 The seal depicts a French coat-ofas 175 grams. Next to such a typarium he mentioned another one typarium yet:
“bigger masonic seal” with a motif of the stone pyramid and inscription: “Vis
unita fortior”. That bigger typarium was weighing about 548 grams.
295 The size of the seal is the same as in the case of seal of the superintendece of
the Helvetian confession in Moravia.
296 See Archive of FS ČCE Jimramov, Inv. No. R-III-D-3, 1807.
297 The decadence of sphragistics. For further information about heraldry and
connected sfragistics ant its development during 19th Century see for example
Ladislav VRTEL, Osem storočí slovenskej heraldiky, Martin 1999, pp. 205–211 and
218–19.
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arms, which bears the coat-of-arms of modern shape as a sign, the contour
of which is most likely composed of the letters M and B rotated by 90 degrees. The coat-of-arms displays a sign reminding of a shot heading down,
the significance of which is still unclear. A turner helmet is placed on the
coat-of-arms with three feathers in the jewel. The seal is silent, without a
transcript or inscription. 298
Seal of the Strachujov Community
The seal of Strachujov, a small village near Jimramov, is also ascribed to the
Superintendent Michael Blažek. Strachujov as a completely evangelical parish belonged to the Jimramov church congregation. The seal is oval, of
unknown dimensions. 299 The seal displays a segmented oval cartouche. It
bears the image of an isosceles triangle turned down with the peak. Six sixpointed stars stylised in trihedrons placed one on top of another are placed
on the cartouche. The cartouche appears to be divided into two parts,
which may also be interpreted using the symbology of secret societies as a
reversed triangle with a plummet. We can see a schematically depicted human figure on the cartouche; the figure stands on the Earth and holds a
snake in his hands raised above its head. The symbology is difficult to understand and interpret. It is outside the contemporary depicting schemas
used in the creation of community/parish seals. As we could have seen in
this and preceding cases, the heraldic rules of blazon cannot be applied to
the presented seals. The seal transcript is executed in artless humanistic
majuscule and reads: PECET OBCE STRAHUGAUSKE (seal of the
Strachujov community). The origin of this seal may be, according to formal elements, dated to the end of the 18th century, i.e. about the same
time of origin of the preceding seals connected with the personality of
Michael Blažek. 300
See Archive of FS ČCE Jimramov, Inv. No. R-III-D-3, 12 March 1814.
The only specimen available to the author at the time of writing this paper is
known only from a photograph. See the websites: http://www.strachujov.cz/
gallery.php?akce=obrazek_ukaz&media_id=58 [November 5, 2012].
300 Before the Tolerance Decree issue the Strachujov village was used to use the
seal of Dalečín village as its own seal. According to the notes in literature a new
seal, created probably by Superintendent Blažek, was not widely accepted and was
not used for a long time. Compare Jan TENORA, Vlastivěda moravská, Bystřický
okres, Brno 1907, p. 214.
298
299
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The seals of Superintendent Blažek also determined or inspired, to a certain
extent, the design of seals of individual church congregations, which were
created gradually considering the tumultuous first period of establishment
of these congregations. The material situation of most of the church congregations was not good enough for them to be able to build the basic
ecclesiastical buildings (chapel, rectory and church school) or to rebuild
them from buildings serving for other purposes and so they had to get into
debt. The creation of a seal, which was perceived more as serving for representation purposes, was not a priority and depended largely on the personal
initiative of a member of the congregation or the Superintendent. Considering Blažek’s activities as the head of the Moravian reformation evangelical
congregations it is possible that he carried out a certain activity consisting in
the evaluation of importance of acquiring church seals during his visitations
to the congregations. However, many of the congregations managed without their own seals for the first years, sometimes even ten and more
years. 301 The first seal types dating from the end of the 18th century were
replaced by new ones during the first half of the 19th century, which was
connected with bigger or smaller changes of the seal image. It is notable
that the author of the new seal image did not feel to be bound by the previous symbology and replaced it by a completely new symbology. 302 The first
changes occurred in the 1830s followed up by further changes in the middle
of the 19th century. We might characterise the trend of the changes as simplification and unification.
In some cases we can follow the origin of certain church seals in the
contemporary memory books of particular evangelical churches. As an example
we can take memorials of the church in Horní Vilémovice, where we can read: In
the year 1791 was made a special church seal with which are since then all documents sealed.
See Pamětihodné události církve evangelické v Horních Vilémovicích, s. l., 2000, p. 62.
302 As an example we can mention the seal of reformed church in Jimramov,
where was the seal created by Michael Blažek, replaced with the seal with
absolutely new motif. Typarium: wooden handle, size 65 mm, metal and brass,
total size 90 mm, round, 32 mm. See Archive of Archiv FS ČCE Jimramov,
without closer qualification.
301
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Fig. 1 – Seal of the Superintendence
of the Helvetian Confession in Moravia
Fig. 2 – Seal of the Jimramov
Church of Helvetian Confession
Fig. 3 – Personal Seal of Michael Blažek
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Fig. 4 – Seal of the Strachujov
Community