A sketch of the inner life of Czech heretics before the Edict of Toleration and during the first decade of the existence of Toleration Churches.

The three studies contained in this dissertation attempt to sketch out the praxis pietatis haereticorum, i.e. to reassemble the faith, thinking, piety, and inner life of documented groups of Czech and Moravian secret Protestants of the 18th century in the villages of Horní Vilémovice, Velká Lhota u Dačic, and Soběhrdy. The work describes the modus operandi of their communities, including the family and local continuation of "heretical life". It attempts to reassemble the means of bearing (and passing on the) witness to a "different" dimension (way) of Christian faith compared to that of the Roman Catholic Church, which the secret Protestants were members of. It confirms that - beside personal witness - books played an important role in the process of catechesis and maintaining of the "heretical" faith. Furthermore, the work presents diaconal expressions of the crypto-Protestant community, it characterizes several types of congregation gatherings that served to strengthen the (faith and life of) individual secret Protestants, and finally systematizes their testimonies of the content of faith. In addition, the possibility of designating the society of secret Protestants as a church is explored, thus contributing to the Diaspora theology. Secret Protestantism is part of the Czech Protestants' identity,..