Hus began teaching at the University of Prague in 1398, and in 1399, he first publicly defended propositions of Wycliffe. He was ordained as a
Catholic priest in 1400. In 1401, his students and faculty promoted him to dean of the philosophy department, and a year later, he became a
rector of the University of Prague. He was appointed a preacher at the
Bethlehem Chapel in 1402. Hus was a strong advocate for the Czechs and the
Realists, and he was influenced by the writings of
John Wycliffe. Although Church authorities banned many of Wycliffe's works in 1403, Hus translated
Trialogus into
Czech and helped to distribute it. Hus denounced the moral failings of clergy, bishops, and even the papacy from his pulpit. Archbishop
Zbyněk Zajíc tolerated this, and even appointed Hus a preacher at the clergy's biennial synod. On 24 June 1405,
Pope Innocent VII directed the Archbishop to counter Wycliffe's teachings, especially the idea of
impanation in the
Eucharist. The archbishop complied by issuing a
synod decree against Wycliffe, as well as forbidding any further attacks on the clergy. In 1406, two Bohemian students brought to Prague a document bearing the seal of the
University of Oxford and praising Wycliffe. Hus proudly read the document from his pulpit. Then, in 1408,
Pope Gregory XII warned Archbishop Zajic that the Church in Rome had been informed of Wycliffe's heresies and of the sympathies of King
Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia for nonconformists. In response, the king and university ordered all of Wycliffe's writings surrendered to the archdiocesan chancery for correction. Hus obeyed, declaring that he condemned the errors in those writings.
Papal Schism In 1408, the
Charles University in Prague was divided by the
Western Schism, in which Gregory XII in Rome and
Benedict XIII in
Avignon both claimed the papacy. Wenceslaus felt Gregory XII might interfere with his plans to be crowned
Holy Roman Emperor. He denounced Gregory, ordered the clergy in Bohemia to observe a strict neutrality in the schism, and said that he expected the same of the university. Archbishop Zajíc remained faithful to Gregory. At the University, only the scholars of the Bohemian "nation" (one of the four governing sections), with Hus as their leader, vowed neutrality.
Kutná Hora Decree In January 1409,
Wenceslaus summoned representatives of the four nations comprising the university to the Czech city of
Kutná Hora to demand statements of allegiance. The Czech nation agreed, but the other three nations declined. The king then decreed that the Czech nation would have three votes in university affairs, while the "German nation" (composed of the former
Bavarian,
Saxon, and
Polish nations) would have one vote in total. Due to the change in voting structure by May 1409, the German dean and rector were deposed and replaced by Czechs. The
Palatine Elector called the Germans to his own University of Heidelberg, while the
Margrave of Meissen started a new
university in Leipzig. It is estimated that over one thousand students and masters left Prague. The emigrants also spread accusations of Bohemian heresy.
Antipope Alexander V In 1409, the
Council of Pisa tried to end the schism by electing
Alexander V as Pope, but Gregory and Benedict did not submit (Alexander was declared an "
antipope" by the
Council of Constance in 1418). Hus, his followers, and Wenceslaus IV transferred their allegiance to Alexander V. Under pressure from King Wenceslaus IV, Archbishop Zajíc did the same. Zajíc then lodged an accusation of "ecclesiastical disturbances" against Wycliffites in Prague with Alexander V. On 20 December 1409, Alexander V issued a
papal bull that empowered the Archbishop to proceed against Wycliffism in Prague. All copies of Wycliffe's writings were to be surrendered and his views repudiated, and free preaching discontinued. After the publication of the bull in 1410, Hus appealed to Alexander V, but in vain. The Wycliffe books and valuable manuscripts were burned, and Hus and his adherents were
excommunicated by Alexander V.
Crusade against Naples Alexander V died in 1410 and was succeeded by
John XXIII (also later declared an antipope). In 1411, John XXIII proclaimed a
crusade against King
Ladislaus of Naples, the protector of rival
Pope Gregory XII. This crusade was preached in Prague as well. John XXIII also authorized indulgences to raise money for the war. Priests urged the people on, and they crowded into churches to give their offerings. This traffic in indulgences was a sign of the corruption of the Church needing remediation.
Condemnation of indulgences and Crusade Archbishop Zajíc died in 1411, and with his death, the
religious movement in Bohemia entered a new phase during which the disputes concerning
indulgences assumed great importance. Hus spoke out against indulgences, but he could not carry with him the men of the university. In 1412, a dispute took place, on which occasion Hus delivered his address
Quaestio magistri Johannis Hus de indulgentiis. It was taken literally from the last chapter of Wycliffe's book,
De ecclesia, and his treatise,
De absolutione a pena et culpa. Hus asserted that no pope or bishop had the right to take up the sword in the name of the Church; he should pray for his enemies and bless those who curse him; man obtains forgiveness of sins by true repentance, not money. The doctors of the theological faculty replied, but without success. A few days afterward, some of Hus' followers, led by Vok Voksa z Valdštejna, burned the
Papal bulls. Hus, they said, should be obeyed rather than the Church, which they considered a fraudulent mob of adulterers and
Simonists. In response, three men from the lower classes who openly called the indulgences a fraud were beheaded. They were later considered the first martyrs of the
Hussite Church. In the meantime, the faculty had condemned the forty-five articles of Wycliffe and added several other theses, deemed heretical, which had originated with Hus. The king forbade the teaching of these articles, but neither Hus nor the university complied with the ruling. They requested that the articles should first be proven to be unscriptural. The tumults at Prague had stirred up a sensation. Papal legates and Archbishop Albik tried to persuade Hus to give up his opposition to the papal bulls, and the king made an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the two parties.
Attempts at reconciliation King Wenceslaus IV made efforts to harmonize the opposing parties. In 1412, he convoked the heads of his kingdom for a consultation and, at their suggestion, ordered a
synod to be held at
Český Brod on 2 February 1412. The synod was instead held in the palace of the archbishops at Prague to exclude Hus from participation. Propositions were made to restore peace in the Church. Hus declared that Bohemia should have the same freedom regarding ecclesiastical affairs as other countries and that approbation and condemnation should therefore be announced only with the permission of the state power. This was the view of Wycliffe (
Sermones, iii. 519, etc.). There followed treatises from both parties, but no harmony was obtained. "Even if I should stand before the stake which has been prepared for me," Hus wrote at the time, "I would never accept the recommendation of the theological faculty." The synod did not produce any results, but the king ordered a commission to continue the work of reconciliation. The doctors of the university demanded that Hus and his followers approve the university's conception of the Church. According to this conception, the pope is the head of the Church and the
Cardinals are the body of the Church. Hus protested vigorously. The Hussite party seems to have made a great effort toward reconciliation. To the article that the Roman Church must be obeyed, they added only "so far as every pious Christian is bound". Stanislav ze Znojma and Štěpán Páleč protested against this addition and left the convention; they were exiled by the king, with two others.
Hus leaves Prague and appeals to Jesus Christ By this time, Hus's ideas had become widely accepted in Bohemia, and there was broad resentment against the Church hierarchy. The attack on Hus by the pope and archbishop caused riots in parts of Bohemia. King Wenceslaus IV and his government took the side of Hus, and the power of his adherents increased from day to day. Hus continued to preach in the
Bethlehem Chapel. The churches of the city were put under the ban, and an
interdict was pronounced against
Prague. To protect the city, Hus left and went into the countryside, where he continued to preach and write. Before Hus left Prague, he decided to take a step that gave a new dimension to his endeavors. He wanted to become a preacher and then taught at the university he studied at before. He no longer put his trust in an indecisive king, a hostile pope, or an ineffective council. On 18 October 1412, he appealed to Jesus Christ as the supreme judge. By appealing directly to the highest authority, Christ himself, he bypassed the laws and structures of the medieval Church. For the
Bohemian Reformation, this step was as significant as the
Ninety-five Theses posted in
Wittenberg by Martin Luther in 1517. After Hus left Prague for the country, he realized what a gulf there was between university education and theological speculation and the life of uneducated country priests and the laymen entrusted to their care. Therefore, he started to write many texts in Czech, such as the basics of the Christian faith or preachings, intended mainly for the priests whose knowledge of Latin was poor.
Writings of Hus and Wycliffe Of the writings occasioned by these controversies, those of Hus on the Church, entitled
De Ecclesia, were written in 1413 and have been most frequently quoted and admired or criticized, yet their first ten chapters are an epitome of Wycliffe's work of the same title and the following chapters are an abstract of another of Wycliffe's works (
De potentate papae) on the power of the pope. Wycliffe had written his book to oppose the common position that the Church consisted primarily of the clergy, and Hus now found himself making the same point. He wrote his work at the castle of one of his protectors in Kozí Hrádek and sent it to Prague, where it was publicly read in the Bethlehem Chapel. It was answered by Stanislav ze Znojma and Štěpán z Pálče (also Štěpán Páleč) with treatises of the same title. After the most vehement opponents of Hus had left Prague, his adherents occupied the whole ground. Hus wrote his treatises and preached in the neighborhood of Kozí Hrádek. Bohemian Wycliffism was carried into Poland, Hungary,
Croatia, and Austria. But in January 1413, a general council in Rome condemned the writings of Wycliffe and ordered them to be burned. Hus was also a musical composer. Many of his writings were adapted into musical pieces by other composers.
Council of Constance King Wenceslaus's brother
Sigismund of Hungary, who was "
King of the Romans" (that is, head of the Holy Roman Empire though not then Emperor) and heir to the Bohemian crown, was anxious to put an end to religious dissension within the Church. To put an end to the papal schism and to take up the long-desired reform of the Church, he arranged for a general council to convene on 1 November 1414, at
Konstanz (Constance). The
Council of Constance (1414–1418) became the 16th ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church. Hus, willing to make an end to all dissensions, agreed to go to Constance, under Sigismund's promise of
safe-conduct.
Imprisonment and preparations for trial . 19th-century painting by
Karl Friedrich Lessing It is not known whether Hus knew what his fate would be; however, he made his
will before setting out. He started on his journey on 11 October 1414, arriving in Constance on 3 November 1414. The following day, the bulletins on the church doors announced that Michal z Německého Brodu (Michal de Causis) would be opposing Hus. In the beginning, Hus was at liberty under his safe-conduct from Sigismund and lived at the house of a widow. But he continued celebrating Mass and preaching to the people, in violation of restrictions decreed by the Church. After a few weeks, on 28 November 1414, his opponents succeeded in imprisoning him on the strength of a rumor that he intended to flee. He was first brought into the residence of a canon and then on 6 December 1414 into the prison of the
Dominican monastery. Sigismund, as the guarantor of Hus's safety, was greatly angered and threatened the prelates with dismissal. The prelates convinced him that he could not be bound by promises to a heretic. On 4 December 1414, John XXIII entrusted a committee of three bishops with a preliminary investigation against Hus. As was common practice, witnesses for the prosecution were heard, but Hus was not allowed an advocate for his defense. His situation became worse after the downfall of John XXIII, who had left Constance to avoid abdicating. Hus had been the captive of John XXIII and in constant communication with his friends, but now he was delivered to the bishop of Constance and brought to his castle,
Gottlieben on the Rhine. Here he remained for 73 days, separated from his friends, chained day and night, poorly fed, and ill.
Trial On 5 June 1415, he was tried for the first time and was transferred to a
Franciscan monastery, where he spent the last weeks of his life. Extracts from his works were read, and witnesses were heard. He refused all formulae of submission but declared himself willing to recant if his errors should be proven to him from the Bible. Hus conceded his veneration of Wycliffe and said that he could only wish his soul might some time attain unto that place where Wycliffe's was. On the other hand, he denied having defended Wycliffe's view of
The Lord's Supper or the forty-five articles; he had only opposed their summary condemnation. King Sigismund admonished him to deliver himself up to the mercy of the council, as he did not desire to protect a heretic. At the last trial, on 8 June 1415, thirty-nine sentences were read to him. Of these, twenty-six had been excerpted from his book on the Church (
De ecclesia), seven from his treatise against Páleč (Contra Palecz), and six from that against Stanislav ze Znojma (
Contra Stanislaum). The danger of some of these views to worldly power was explained to Sigismund to incite him against Hus. Hus again declared himself willing to submit if he could be convinced of errors. This declaration was considered an unconditional surrender, and he was asked to confess: 1. That he had erred in the theses which he had hitherto maintained; 2. That he renounced them for the future; 3. That he recanted them; and 4. That he declared the opposite of these sentences. He asked to be exempted from recanting teachings that he had never taught. Other views, which the assembly considered erroneous, he was not willing to revoke, and to act differently would be against his conscience. These words found no favorable reception. After the trial on 8 June, several other attempts were purportedly made to induce him to recant, which he resisted.
Condemnation , where reformer Jan Hus was executed (1862) The condemnation of Jan Hus took place on 6 July 1415 in the presence of the assembly of the council in the cathedral. After the
High Mass and Liturgy, Hus was led into the church. The
Bishop of Lodi (then
Giacomo Balardi Arrigoni) delivered an oration on the duty of eradicating heresy; various theses of Hus and Wycliffe and a report of his trial were then read. An Italian prelate pronounced the sentence of condemnation upon Hus and his writings. Hus protested, saying that even at this hour he did not wish anything but to be convinced from Scripture. He fell upon his knees and asked God with a soft voice to forgive all his enemies. Then followed his degradation from the priesthood. He was dressed in priestly vestments and again asked to recant, and again he refused. With curses, Hus's ornaments were taken from him, his priestly
tonsure was destroyed. The judgment of the Church was pronounced: A tall paper hat was allegedly put upon his head with the inscription "
Haeresiarcha" (
i.e., the leader of a heretical movement). Hus was led away to the stake under a strong guard of armed men. Before his execution, Hus is said to have declared, "You may kill a weak goose [
Hus is Czech for "goose"], but more powerful birds, eagles and falcons, will come after me."
Luther modified the statement and reported that Hus had said that they might have roasted a goose, but that in a hundred years a swan would sing to whom they be forced to listen. In 1546, in his
funeral sermon for Luther,
Johannes Bugenhagen gave a further twist to Hus's declaration: "You may burn a goose, but in a hundred years will come a swan you will not be able to burn." Twenty years later, in 1566,
Johannes Mathesius, Luther's first biographer, found Hus's prophecy to be evidence of Luther's divine inspiration.
Execution , Jena codex (c. 1500) At the place of execution, he knelt, spread out his hands, and prayed aloud. The executioner undressed Hus and tied his hands behind his back with ropes. His neck was bound with a chain to a stake around which wood and straw had been piled up so that it covered him to the neck. At the last moment, the imperial marshal, von Pappenheim, in the presence of the
Count Palatine, asked Hus to recant and thus save his own life. Hus declined, stating: ==Aftermath==