The chalice, originally flown by Hussite rebels in Bohemia during the Hussite Wars, became the symbol of Hussitism.
Hussitism (also called Lollardy in Anglia) is a branch of Christianity which emerged from rebellions against the Catholic Church in the late 14th century in England and Bohemia.
Hussites reject the authority of the Pope, support a lay priesthood and vernacular scripture, and contend that the Bible is the only legitimate source of religious doctrine (rejecting, for example, the notion of Purgatory). Heavily persecuted and largely extirpated in England under the regency of Henry V, Hussite ideas spread to Bohemia, where they took hold under the leadership of the theologian Jan Hus, who was burnt at the stake by the Pope in 1415. This incited the Hussite Wars between the Bohemians and the Holy Roman Empire. From Bohemia, Hussitism eventually spread to Poland, Switzerland, Germany and Scandinavia. Hussitism often took hold where local groups sought to define themselves in opposition to the Pope or to the Holy Roman Emperor (for example, the War of Polish Succession facilitated its spread in Poland). Due to its focus on individual interpretation (and the death of its leading theological influence before it became a defined faith), Hussitism lacks a strong central authority and has taken a wide variety of forms historically. Hussites themselves became divided in the 1500s, between the Nidarite and Karlovite branches (centred in Scandinavia and Germany, and Central Europe, respectively), over issues such as the veneration of saints. From the 1500s to 1600s, Hussite-Catholic rivalry replaced a united sense of Christendom's opposition to the infidel as the driving religious cause of conflicts in Europe.