The Renaissance

dulgences (remissions of sin). The indul-
gences were meant to finance a military
crusade by Pope John XXIII against the
king of Naples, who supported Gregory
XII as pope. Hus’s sermons against the in-
dulgences lost him the support of King
Wenceslaus. In 1414 the Holy Roman Em-
peror Sigismund promised him safe pas-
sage to the Council of Constance, where
he was to debate his views with church of-
ficials. Instead of hearing him out, how-
ever, the council ordered his arrest and
had him burned at the stake on July 6,

1415. The career of Jan Hus greatly influ-
      enced the German reformer Martin Luther,
      who also brought about the rise of a na-
      tional independent church that broke away
      from the control of the pope. The modern
      Czech Republic still celebrates the anniver-
      sary of Hus’s execution as a national holi-
      day.

SEEALSO: Luther, Martin; Reformation,
Protestant

Hutten, Ulrich von ..........................

(1488–1523)

German author, humanist, and militant
defender of Martin Luther’s Protestant
Reformation. Born near Fulda, Hutten was
sent as a boy to a Benedictine monastery,
where he was prepared to join the order.
Unwilling to submit to monastic disci-
pline, however, he escaped and wandered
from town to town, eventually arriving in
Italy,wherehebecameastudentatthe

universities of Pavia and Bologna. On his

return to Germany in 1512, he joined the

armies of the Habsburg emperor Maximil-

ian I. His essays and poetry gained him

acclaim from the emperor, who named

him poet laureate of the realm in 1517.

In 1519, he was converted by Protes-

tant Reformation leader Martin Luther’s

doctrine of “justification by faith” and his

stand against the corrupt and tyrannical

practices of the Catholic hierarchy. Hutten

wroteVadiscus, a bitter denunciation of

the Papacy, in 1520, and in the same year

published a work in German,Arouser of

the German Nation, which called on his

countrymen to rally to Martin Luther’s

side. Hutten took the Reformation one

step further by organizing an anti-Catholic

militia with Franz von Sickingen. The two

men led the Knight’s Revolt, mounting an

attack on the estates of the Archbishop of

Trier. They were defeated, however, and

Hutten was forced to flee Germany. Arriv-

ing in Basel, he failed to enlist the widely

respected humanist Desiderius Erasmus to

his side. By this time he had made an en-

emy of the emperor Charles V, and the

knights he had enlisted had degenerated

into a rabble of highwaymen and thieves.

Still a rallying figure for Protestants, Hut-

ten was given shelter by Huldrych Zwingli

on an island in Lake Zurich. There he died

of an illness in 1523.

SEEALSO: Luther, Martin; Reformation,

Protestant; Zwingli, Huldrych

Hutten, Ulrich von