Jan Hus, who died while singing a hymn as he was burned at the stake on this day in 1415, was, along with his mentor John Wycliffe, a key forerunner to the Reformation a century later.
He was the most important 15th century Czech religious reformer, who helped to act as a bridge between the medieval and Reformation periods. For his entire career, Hus was embroiled in the bitter Western Schism (1378-1417) before being convicted of heresy at the Council of Constance, leading to his death in Konstanz, now in Germany.
Born to poor parents in around 1370 in Husinec (from which he took his name) in southern Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic), Hus graduated from the University of Prague before receiving a master's degree and beginning teaching there, becoming dean of the philosophical faculty there in 1401.
Around this time Hus became impressed by Wycliffe's proposals for reform of the Roman Catholic clergy. Against the backdrop of discredited authority of the papacy, there was envy and resentment among the poor priests, as the clerical estate owned about one-half of all the land in Bohemia. Hus preached against the corruption of the Church and against Catholic doctrines of the Eucharist.
From 1402 Hus was in charge of the Bethlehem Chapel, which had become the centre of the growing national reform movement in Bohemia, becoming increasingly absorbed in public preaching and eventually emerging as the popular leader of the movement.
Since 1378 the Roman Catholic Church had been split by the Western Schism, during which the papal jurisdiction was divided between two popes. As the leader of reform, Hus was pitted against Archbishop Zbyněk of Hazmburk when the latter opposed the 1409 Council of Pisa , which was called to dethrone the rival popes and to reform the church.
The Council precipitated the final break between Hus and Archbishop Zbyněk when it deposed both Pope Gregory XII, whose authority was recognised in Bohemia, and the Antipope Benedict XIII, and in their place elected Alexander V.
The archbishop, through a large bribe, induced Alexander to prohibit preaching in private chapels, including the Bethlehem Chapel. Hus refused to obey the Pope's order, and Zbyněk excommunicated him.
In 1412, the case of Hus's heresy, which had been tacitly dropped, was revived because of a new dispute over the sale of indulgences that had been issued by Alexander's successor, the Antipope John XXIII, to finance his campaign against Gregory XII. Hus publicly denounced these indulgences before the university, which proved fatal for him.
Shortly after forcibly arriving at the Council of Constance – under a guarantee of safe-conduct – Hus was arrested and placed in close confinement, from which he never emerged. Hus's enemies succeeded in having him tried as a Wycliffite heretic. He was given three public hearings, at which he was allowed to defend himself and succeeded in refuting some of the charges against him. When he refused to recant, he was solemnly sentenced on July 6, 1415, and burned at the stake as a martyr.
There is an anecdote about the youthful Hus sitting beside a fire one winter evening reading about the martyrdom of St Lawrence. Suddenly, he thrust his hand into the flames. When a fellow pupil pulled him away from the fire and questioned his intentions, Hus replied: 'I was only trying what part of the tortures of this holy man I might be capable of enduring.'
Whether that is true or not cannot be determined for sure. But what is recorded is that as he died, though the Council had consigned his soul to the devil, Hus – singing loudly as the flames consumed him – consigned his soul to God: 'Jesus Christ! The Son of the living God! Have mercy upon me.'
Here are five top quotes from Jan Hus:
'For whoso dies for Christ, he is conqueror and is delivered from all misery and attains the eternal joy to which may it please our Saviour to bring us all.'
'Open is the way of Satan; many walk therein.'
'Therefore, faithful Christian, seek the truth, listen to the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, tell the truth, learn the truth, defend the truth even to death.'
'As for antichrist occupying the papal chair, it is evident that a pope living contrary to Christ, like any other perverted person, is called, by common consent, antichrist.'
'What I have taught with my lips I now seal with my blood.'
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