The Unexpected Jan Hus of Bohemia

Who was Jan Hus?

We’re not Protestant scholars, so we didn’t know.

Our pastor mentioned him in passing when he heard we were traveling to Prague.

“His statue is in the main square. Look for it.”

How could we miss it?

That’s an enormous 1915 sculpture of the man being burned at the stake.

He’s looking at what became the Hussite’s Tyn Church,

But we didn’t know all that until later.

First, my husband had to purchase a book that explained why Jan Hus was so important.

And he is!

Born 100 years before Martin Luther.

Born in southern Bohemia (what is now the Czech Republic) circa 1370, Hus grew up in a poor family.

Like many over the years, he decided to become a Catholic priest to get an education and possibly become wealthy.

He attended the Charles University of Prague for both a bachelor’s and master’s degree.

Ordained a priest in 1400, Hus became a professor of theology and then rector of the University two years later.

It was a period of turbulence and division in the Roman Catholic Church–two popes sat on two thrones, one in Rome and the other in Avignon, France.

Wycliffe

Once Hus read the works of John Wycliffe (1320-1384) and listened to his congregation, his attitude toward the Catholic Church changed.

An English priest, Wycliffe was declared a heretic because he dared publish the Bible in English, rather than Latin.

Powerful British royalty protected Wycliffe, but that did not stop Pope Gregory XI from issuing five edicts against him.

Wycliffe died of a stroke in 1384. But in 1401 the British Parliament decreed burning at the stake for anyone convicted of such heresy as Wycliffe’s ideas.

In 1407, they banned Bibles printed in English.

Two years later, the new Pope Alexander V issued a papal edict calling scripture not written in Latin a threat to Church authority.

As few laity could read Latin, that meant only priests could interpret God’s word for their parishioners.

Authorities in England burned the works of Wycliffe. Several years later, they disinterred Wycliffe’s body and burned it as well.

Charged by the Church

Meanwhile, in Bohemia, Hus reached the same conclusions as Wycliffe.

His parishioners decried the immorality of their priests and resented the fact most were German.

Hus appreciated Wycliffe’s suggested reforms for the Catholic clergy, who owned one-third of the land in Bohemia. Catholic authorities taxed the peasants a crippling amount while flaunting their wealth.

Most of Bohemia’s priests were German, and Czech resentment against Germans accompanied their dislike for clergy privileges. They also demanded Scripture be translated into the Czech language so they could read it.

Hus read the Bible and argued against indulgences–much as Martin Luther would one hundred years later.

In so doing, he lost the support of King Wenceslaus.

Death at the Stake

King Sigismund of Hungary (King Wenceslaus’ brother. He went on to become the Holy Roman Emperor) attempted to bring the split in the Catholic Church together at the 1414 Council of Constance and to confront heresies.

He invited Hus to attend and explain himself, even offering safe passage.

Once there, authorities arrested and tried Hus as a Wycliffe heretic.

Hus declined to recant.

“He protested that even at this hour he did not wish anything, but to be convinced from Scripture. He fell upon his knees and asked God to forgive all his enemies.”

The Council revoked their promise of safe passage and sentenced him to burn at the stake.

“God is my witness that the things charged against me I never preached,” Hus said. “In the same truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached, drawing upon the sayings and positions of the holy doctors, I am ready to die today.”

Hus predicted that if authorities killed him, they could expect another to come within 100 years and completely reform the church.

Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg Church door 102 years later.

Authorities burned Hus to death on July 6, 1415. They threw his ashes into the Rhine River.

Hussites in Bohemia

Called “Hussites,” Czech followers rebelled against the King of Hungary and the Holy Roman Emperor.

They fought a significant series of battles during “The Hussite War” between 1420-1434, with the Hussites mostly coming out on top despite enormous odds.

“In 1436, Roman Emperor Sigismund chose to accept Czech independence. Heresy had won. The Hussites secured a treaty that confirmed their expropriations of Church property and their new Hussite church – which was to last into the 1600s.”

Pope John Paul II

In 1999, Pope John Paul II expressed “deep regret for the cruel death inflicted” on Hus.

We’re sorry it took us this long to learn about Jan Hus.

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