Person1415

Jan Hus

Also called: John Hus, John Huss

Theologian of the University of Prague in Bohemia who, influenced by Wycliffe, criticised the Church and was burned as a heretic at the Council of Constance

Born to a poor family at Husinec in southern Bohemia, he studied at the University of Prague. Preaching in Czech rather than Latin at Prague’s Bethlehem Chapel, he drew great crowds. In 1409, after the power of the German masters at the university was curbed and the Czechs took control, he became rector. Excommunicated for attacking the sale of indulgences, he left Prague and wrote in the countryside. The day of his death, 6 July, is a national holiday in the Czech Republic today.

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1415Execution of Jan Husleader
On 6 July 1415 the Bohemian theologian Jan Hus, a critic of the Church, was condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constance and burned, leading to the Hussite Wars.

People who appear alongside

John Wycliffe1384
Oxford theologian who attacked the wealth of the Church and papal authority and had the Bible translated into English — a forerunner of the Reformation

Themes this person appears in

Late Medieval Europe and the Renaissance1077 – 1517
From Canossa to the eve of the Reformation — papal power at its height and in decline, towns and parliaments, royal power growing through the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, and the Renaissance and printing