Jan Hus

Jan Hus (c. 1370–1415) was a Czech theologian and the leading voice of the Bohemian Reformation. Born at Husinec (hus means ‘goose’ in Czech), in 1402 he became preacher at the Bethlehem Chapel, denouncing clerical and even papal failings. Influenced by John Wycliffe, he held that Scripture outranked the pope.

In 1409 he became rector of Charles University. Excommunicated in 1410, he attacked indulgences in 1412, then left Prague under interdict and spent two years preaching and writing in the countryside.

In 1414 he went to the Council of Constance under Sigismund's safe conduct, but was jailed. He refused to recant unless shown wrong from the Bible, and on 6 July 1415 he was burned at the stake, his ashes thrown into the Rhine. Bohemia's Hussites beat five papal crusades between 1420 and 1431; the Basel Compacts then allowed a reformed church in Bohemia, a century before Luther.