Martin Luther (1483-1546) is commonly called the father of the Protestant reformation. But before Luther were others who contended for the primacy of the biblical Scriptures over the traditions and practices of the established church. Among them was the Englishman John Wycliffe (c. 1320s-December 31, 1384), often called “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” After him came the Czech Jan Hus (c. 1370-July 6, 1415), whom Wycliffe greatly influenced. A century later came Martin Luther, who greatly admired Jan Hus.
Jan Hus was born into peasantry in Husinec in southern Bohemia, near the border with Bavaria. His last name came from the town of his birth. Nothing is known about his father, except that his name was Michael. His mother was apparently a God-fearing woman.
Sometime around 1393 he entered the Prague University. Because of his humble background, he was not initially regarded a promising student. But whatever he lacked in upbringing, he made up by hard work. There he earned a bachelor of arts degree and then a master’s in 1396. Soon after he was ordained a priest.
His initial reason for entering the priesthood was “to secure a good livelihood and dress and be held in esteem by men.” A colleague of his named Matthew of Janov characterized priests at the time as “worldly, proud, mercenary, pleasure-loving, and hypocritical.” But somewhere during that time Jan Hus got serious about his calling.
“When the Lord gave me knowledge of the Scriptures, I discarded from my foolish mind that kind of stupid fun making.”
In 1402 he became the main preacher at the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, where he was known for his passionate sermons in support of reform within the church. The common people flocked to hear him because he spoke to them in their own language, rather than in Latin. He championed many of the ideas of John Wycliffe, whom the established church had declared a heretic and also spoke against the practice of indulgences, which attracted the ire of the hierarchy of the church.
Indulgences sprang from the idea that Jesus, Mary, and the saints performed so many good works that they left behind merit they did not need to be exalted in heaven. The excess merit became the possession of the Catholic Church. The church therefore had the authority to bestow that merit upon whomever they deemed worthy. The church could lessen earthly punishments and/or shorten one’s time in purgatory for chosen individuals. Though his sermons made him enemies of high people in the church, he was shielded from persecution for a time by Wenceslas IV, king of Bohemia and by Zybněk Zajic, the Archbishop of Prague.
But that protection began to unravel in 1412 when John XXIII, one of three rival popes at the time, proclaimed a crusade against King Ladislas of Naples, a supporter of one of the other popes, Gregory XII. To raise money for the crusade John XXIII turned to the sale of indulgences. In exchange for promoting the indulgences in Bohemia, King Wenceslas was rewarded with a portion of the proceeds from those sales. When Hus spoke out against the arrangement, he lost the support of the king and the archbishop. Three like-minded members of his reform party were arrested and beheaded. Hus then began preaching against the papacy, emphasizing instead the authority of the Bible.
In September of that same year, he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. The entire city of Prague was then placed under an interdict, which meant that all religious functions, including masses, marriages and burials with Christian rites were prohibited. The Bethlehem Chapel was closed.
The citizens of Prague felt like they were being cut off from God. To spare the people the trauma of being under the interdict, Hus withdrew from Prague and took refuge with various Bohemian nobles for two years.
Then came the fateful Council of Constance from 1414-1418, which was called to settle the issue of who was the rightful pope and to deal with people whom the church considered heretics. King Wenceslas offered Hus a safe conduct guarantee to attend the council and to explain his theological positions.
But once in Constance, Hus was placed under arrest and imprisoned in a dungeon. Months of interrogation and suffering followed. His safe conduct guarantee was withdrawn.
Finally, due to pressure by his Bohemian noblemen friends, he was given the semblance of a public hearing in early June, 1415. But at the hearing he was forbidden to respond to the charges made against him. Hus was presented with a list of thirty articles allegedly drawn from his writings, though most actually came from John Wycliffe. When ordered to renounce them, he refused, unless he could be instructed from Scripture as to where his teachings were in error.
On July 6, 1415 Hus was given one final opportunity to recant. Upon his refusal, he was declared a heretic. He was unceremoniously defrocked from the priesthood and his soul was condemned to hell by the archbishop. He was then turned over to the secular authorities. That same day, he was led to a meadow outside the city wall and chained to a stake surrounded by straw and wood.
As the flames came up, he cried out, “Lord Jesus, I endure this cruel death for you. I ask you to have mercy on my enemies.” He then sang a hymn. “Jesus Christ! The Son of the living God! Have mercy us.” Over and over came the words until he was consumed. His ashes were cast into the Rhine River.
