Jan Hus was a Czech religious reformer who challenged abuses in the church and supported the
growing Czech nationalist movement in the early
15th century. Hus was accused of heresy because of
his criticism of the papacy and the church, and was
burned at the stake at the Council of Constance.
But Hus’s followers ultimately became the Moravian Church, and in his beliefs he was a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation.
Hus was born at Husinec in southern Bohemia
(now the Czech Republic) in about 1373. In 1390,
he enrolled in the faculty of arts at the University of
Prague (now Charles University), receiving his master’s degree in 1396 and subsequently lecturing
there on philosophy, becoming dean of the arts faculty in 1401. That same year, in addition to his university duties, he was ordained a priest and began
his ministry preaching fiery sermons (calling for
church reform) in the Czech language at Bethlehem
Chapel in Prague. His conducting services in Czech
rather than the customary Latin contributed significantly to the movement for Czech nationalism, and
he attracted a large number of followers.
Hus came to prominence during a period of severe disorganization in the church hierarchy. After
a disputed election in 1378, two rival popes vied
for power, one in Rome and the other in Avignon—a situation known as the Great Schism.
After an attempt to rectify the problem through
an election by an international church council at
Pisa in 1409, a third pope was named, but neither
of the other two would accept his claim to the papacy. In questioning papal authority, Hus was giving voice to the doubts and frustrations of much of
Europe. In condemning the practices of bishops,
Hus was striking a blow as well for Czech nationalism, since many Bohemian bishops were appointees from Germany, and had little regard for
their Czech parishioners.
Hus was also influenced to some extent by the
writings of the English reformer John WYCLIFFE,
who had died in 1384. Through the marriage of
ANNE OF BOHEMIA to the English king RICHARD II,
an alliance and easy correspondence had arisen between the two countries, and Hus’s closest disciple,
Jerome of Prague, had spent some time in London
in the 1390s and had brought back to Prague several manuscripts of Wycliffe’s writings. Hus was
less radical than Wycliffe, but agreed with the English reformer in his attacks on some of the worst
abuses of the church: Priests, Hus said, must be
held to a higher level of morality, and avoid drunkenness as well as sexual and financial abuses.
Preaching and Bible lessons should be conducted
in the language of the people, as Hus was doing at
Bethlehem Chapel. All Christians should receive
full communion in the Mass (at this time, only the
priests were allowed to receive the wine at communion). Hus objected strongly to the sale of indulgences (personal pardons blessed by the pope
and sold ostensibly for charitable purposes). Finally, Hus asserted that the authority of the Bible
must be seen as overriding decisions by popes or
church councils if those decisions were contrary
to Scripture—thus the new notion of “papal infallibility” was, for Hus, unsupportable.
In 1403, 45 of Wycliffe’s propositions were condemned by the German masters of the University
of Prague, who formed a majority of the university
faculty. Despite this official condemnation, Hus
translated Wycliffe’s Trialogus into Czech, and supported a number of Wycliffe’s views from the pulpit.
In 1405, on orders from Pope Innocent VII (the one
in Rome), Archbishop Zbyn˘ ek issued a decree condemning Wycliffe’s “errors” and forbidding any further attacks on the clergy. In 1408, upon the urging
of the new Roman pope Gregory XII, both the university and Bohemia’s King Wenceslas took measures to collect all Wycliffite writings in Prague, an
order with which Hus complied.
At the same time, the king was advancing the
Czech nationalist movement. The University of
Prague had been dominated by Germans since its
founding in 1348, but in 1409, they gave control
of the university over to the Czech masters, at
which the German students and faculty (at least
1,000 of them) left the university. Hus was chosen
rector of the university that same year. Later in
1409, the archbishop forbade any preaching in
Prague except at the cathedral and at collegiate,
parish, and cloister churches (thus in effect outlawing worship at Bethlehem Chapel), and in 1410
he ordered Wycliffe’s writings burned. When Hus
and his associates protested to John XXIII, the
pope elected from the Council of Pisa, the archbishop excommunicated Hus. The people of
Prague greeted this news with riots in protest. With
the support of the populace and of King Wenceslas, Hus continued his advocacy of church reform,
protesting in particular against a new program of
indulgences, and when he refused to appear before Pope John in 1411, his excommunication was
affirmed by the pope. Prague was placed under interdict, and the pope ordered the arrest of Hus and
the destruction of Bethlehem Chapel. Hus fled to
Austi in 1412, and here wrote his most important
works: De ecclesiâ (The Church), a Latin exposition of Wycliffite ideas; and On Simony, a Czech attack on clerical greed and monetary abuses. When
the king refused to obey the pope’s demands, Hus
returned to Prague in 1414 and continued to
preach.
Later in 1414, an international church council
was convened at Constance, mainly to settle the
question of papal succession. Hus was called to appear before the council to defend his teachings.
When Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor, guaranteed his safety, Hus answered the summons and
agreed to appear before the council. But when he
arrived in Constance, he was immediately arrested
and put on trial for heresy. He was tried, found
guilty, and was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415.
His chief lieutenant, Jerome of Prague, suffered the
same fate the following year.
Having turned Hus and Jerome into martyrs,
the church now had to deal with open rebellion in
Bohemia and Moravia. Hus’s followers formed
what was essentially a national church, the Hussites, and a period of “Hussite Wars” followed. Five
crusades were proclaimed against the Hussites, but
the Roman Church was never able to completely
subdue them. The “Unity of Brethren,” the last
Hussite denomination, was the first group to publish hymnals and the Bible in the vernacular, 60
years before Luther organized his Protestant
Church. Luther certainly admired Hus, and
adopted a number of his positions, though
Luther’s doctrine that salvation depended on “faith
alone” and “Scriptures alone” was more radical
than anything Hus had advocated.
Bibliography
Hus, Jan. The Church. Translated, with notes and introduction by David S. Schaff. 1915. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974.
———. The Letters of John Hus. Translated by
Matthew Spinka. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester
University Press, 1972.
Peter of Mladonovice. John Hus at the Council of Constance. Translated with notes and introduction by
Matthew Spinka. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1965.
Spinka, Matthew. John Hus: A Biography. Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968.
———. John Hus and the Czech Reform. 1941. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1966.