Huss, John

Huss, John or Hus, Jan (1369-1415), Bohemian religious reformer, whose efforts to reform the Church anticipated the Protestant Reformation.

Huss was born in Husinec, in southern Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), and was educated at the University of Prague, receiving his MA degree in 1396. Two years later, he became a lecturer in theology at the university and in 1401 was made dean of its philosophical faculty. Ordained a priest in 1400, two years later he took up additional duties as preacher at the Bethlehem Chapel, where the sermons were given in Czech instead of the traditional Latin.

The Czech nationalist and reformist movement that had been initiated by the popular 15th-century Bohemian preacher Jan Milíc was prevalent at both the university and Bethlehem Chapel, and Huss quickly became involved in it. Less radical than the English Church reformer John Wycliffe, Huss nonetheless agreed with him on many points. On a practical level, both men vigorously condemned Church abuses and attempted, through preaching, to bring the Church to the people. On the doctrinal level, both believed in predestination, regarded the Bible as the ultimate religious authority, and held that Christ, rather than any inevitably corrupt ecclesiastical official, is the true head of the Church.

In 1408 the subject matter of some of Huss's sermons was made grounds of complaint to the archbishop, and Huss was forbidden to exercise his priestly functions in the diocese. The following year, Alexander V, one of the three rival popes then contending for authority in the Church, issued a bull condemning the teachings of Wycliffe and ordering his books burned. Huss, who was teaching Wycliffe's doctrines, was excommunicated in 1410, but he had already gained great popular support, and riots broke out in Prague. Backed by popular demonstrations, Huss continued to preach, even after the city was laid under interdict in 1412. By the next year, however, many of his influential supporters had fallen from power, and Huss fled Prague, finding refuge in the castles of several friendly noblemen. During this time he wrote his principal work, De Ecclesia (trans. 1915).

In 1414 Huss was summoned to appear at the Council of Constance, which had been convened to resolve the schism in the Church and to suppress heresy. Having received a safe conduct from Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, Huss thought he might manage successfully to defend his beliefs. On his arrival, however, his enemies had him imprisoned and tried for heresy. The charges against him falsely stated the doctrines he had preached. Called upon to recant (and to promise not to teach) his doctrines, Huss refused categorically. He was condemned by the council and was burned at the stake, dying heroically. His execution gave rise to the Hussite Wars in Bohemia.