Before Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany, before Gutenberg’s printing press, and even before the Protestant Reformation, opposition to the theology and hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church was rare. One of the more prominent opponents was the 15th century Czech priest Jan Hus.
Where Did Jan Hus Come From?
Jan Hus was from the small village of Husinec in Bohemia, born in the 1370s. He was educated in Prague and began teaching at the University of Prague in the late 1300s. Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1400, he began teaching views similar to that of John Wycliffe from England, even translating some of John Wycliffe’s works into Czech. Wycliffe was an English priest and theologian in the mid-1300s whose ideas about the authority of scripture and positions of the clergy were influential on Hus and later the Protestant Reformation.
What Did Jan Hus Teach?
Jan Hus was a critic of many of the moral problems which were damaging the Roman Catholic Church at the time, particularly priestly adultery and the practice of purchasing of church offices, called simony. He also opposed the issuance of indulgences – purchasing forgiveness of sins with money, particularly – and believed that scriptures held authority over Popes and councils.
In one of his major works, de Ecclesia, Hus writes:
“… a man is not bound to believe the sayings of the saints which are apart from Scripture, nor should he believe papal bulls, except in so far as they speak out of Scripture, or in so far as what they say is founded in Scripture simply.”
Hus echoed Wycliffe in many of his works, and even without the benefit of the printing press was able to disseminate his views throughout Bohemia.
What Did Jan Hus’ Teachings Lead to?
Hus had wide influence throughout Bohemia, and his views led to what became known as the Bohemian Reformation. Even after Jan Hus’ execution, his followers maintained control over the church in the area for around 200 years, and even went to war against the Holy Roman Emperor and the Roman Catholic Church, defeating them multiple times. While his followers, the Hussites, were eventually defeated and fractured into various factions by 1620, the movement never fully died out and was incorporated into the Protestant Reformation as it swept through Europe.
What Happened to Jan Hus?
The Council of Constance, called in 1414 primarily to deal with the Western Schism which led to simultaneous Popes being elected, also dealt with the prosecution of Jan Hus for heresy. Hus had been given a promise of safe conduct to the council, but would eventually be imprisoned before his trial. The Council of Constance declared:
“This holy synod of Constance, seeing that God’s church has nothing more that it can do, relinquishes Jan Hus to the judgment of the secular authority and decrees that he is to be relinquished to the secular court.”
Hus would be tried and confronted with several of the works he had written. He maintained that he would recant if proven from the Bible, but was never convinced he was wrong. He was condemned to death, and burned at the stake on July 6, 1415.
An apocryphal story arose that Hus prophesied, “Today you burn a goose, but in one hundred years a swan will arise which you will prove unable to boil or roast,” after he was condemned. “Hus” is Czech for “goose,” and Martin Luther adopted the moniker of “swan” for himself as the impetus behind the Protestant Reformation.
