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Master Jan Hus

A theologian, preacher and Rector of Prague University. Six hundred years ago, on the 6th of July 1415, Jan Hus was burned at the stake at the Council of Constance, for his views and criticism of the Catholic Church – this man’s name came to symbolize principled defiance.

  • Jan Hus Monument at Old Town Square | Photo: Prague City Tourism

Hus, together with the English theologian John Wycliffe, has been called the father of the European Reformation. The death of Hus, anathema to the majority of Czechs in 1415, has become an act of great symbolism, much commemorated over the centuries.

About Jan Hus

• Jan Hus was born and raised in Prachatice in Southern Bohemia.
• At the end of 14th century the University of Prague was one among the major European universities. It was right here, at the Arts faculty, that Jan Hus studied and became first a Bachelor, and then in 1396 a Master of the Liberal Arts.
• He went on to study theology, and after his ordination to the priesthood, preached initially at the Church of St. Michael's in the Old Town, then from 1402 on in the Bethlehem Chapel, which had been built for the purpose of giving sermons in the Czech language.
• He was made Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and later Rector of Prague University.
• At a time fraught with disunity in the Church, during the Papal Schism (having two Popes) he sought to bring the straying Church back to the righteous path. He rejected ecclesiastical wealth and the way the Church strove to hoard assets and charge for religious acts.
• He studied the teaching of the English theologian John Wycliffe and spread his words, although these had been decreed by the Papal Curia as heretical. For this, he got into a major altercation with the Prague Archbishop. Jan Hus was censured, and Prague was banned from holding religious services – with an Interdict.
• Jan Hus had initially enjoyed the strong support of the Czech King Wenceslas IV, definitely withdrawn in the year 1412, when Hus opposed the sale of indulgences in Prague’s townships. An even stronger interdict was levied on Hus and at the King’s behest Hus left Prague in 1412.
• Upon the convocation of the Church Council in Constance, Jan Hus decided to personally defend his case before the Council. Armed with the necessary Safe Conduct deeds and enjoying the ostensible support of Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, Hus set off in October 1414 to Constance. Here, however, he was given no opportunity to defend his case.
• Almost at once upon his arrival in Constance he was labelled a heretic, arrested and thrown in prison. He was repeatedly called to disavow his views, his works were demonstratively destroyed and he was put to death by burning at the stake, outside the city walls.
• His ashes were thrown into the river Rhine, so that this man, who had sought to put the Church to rights, should perish without trace.
• Paradoxically, it was precisely the death of Hus that most helped spread his views in society, underpinning Czech Reformation and starting the Hussite movement.