Hus, Jan ..........................................
(1371–1415)
Religious reformer and scholar of Bohe-
mia who led one of the first movements
for independence from the established
Christian church. Hus was born in Husi-
nec, a town in southern Bohemia. He ex-
celled as a student and earned an appoint-
ment as dean of the University of Prague.
At the university he soon gathered support
for his outspoken views on the corruption
and imperialism of the Papacy. Hus be-
lieved in a personal faith, one based on
the original scriptures and not practiced
through the medium of a bureaucratic and
corrupt church hierarchy. These ideas
made up the foundation of the Protestant
Reformation that would take place in the
next century.
Husarrivedonthesceneatatimely
moment. In 1408 the university was em-
broiled in a debate over the papal schism,
in which two rival popes competed for fol-
lowers throughout Europe. Hus led a neu-
tral faction, the only one at the university
that favored neither Gregory XII nor Bene-
dict XIII. At the same time, he was inspir-
ing followers by preaching in the Czech
language, an important break from the tra-
ditional Latin of church ceremony and
university scholarship.
His writings and sermons came at a
time of rising Czech nationalism and op-
position to domination by German schol-
ars. Hus gained widespread support
throughout Bohemia and the support of
the Czech king Wenceslaus. In 1408, how-
ever, the synod of Prague placed a ban on
his preaching for his criticism of the
church.
In the next year, when the Council of
Pisa elected Alexander V as the new pope,
Hus gave his support to Alexander. At this
time, the writings and teachings of the En-
glish reformer John Wyclif were gaining
an audience in Bohemia. When Alexander
issued a papal bull against Wyclif, Hus di-
rectly appeared to the new pope, who re-
sponded by ordering Wyclif’s books
burned. Alexander also excommunicated
Hus and his followers—officially banning
them from the church and its sacraments.
This action touched off riots among fol-
lowers of Hus called Hussites in Bohemia.
When Hus continued his defiance, the
pope initiated a religious ban against the
entire city of Prague, the capital of Bohe-
mia, that did nothing but increase the bit-
terness and violence in the city.
In 1412, Hus defied church representa-
tives who had come to Prague to sell in-Jan Hus was branded a heretic and burned
at the stake for his attempts to reform the
Catholic Church. BETTMANN/CORBIS.
Hus, Jan