GIROLAMO da PRAGA. - Bohemian religious agitator, b. in Prague around 1380, d. in Constance on 30 May 1416. He pursued his studies at the University of Prague, where among his teachers CHUS (v.), of whom he later became a faithful follower and collaborator. From England, where he had gone to study in 1399, he brought back the most notable WYCLIF, JOHN (v.), such as the *Dialogus* and the *Trialogus*, which he then widely propagated in his homeland and abroad. In 1405 he taught in Paris and subsequently in Heidelberg and Cologne, everywhere arousing bitter resentment from ecclesiastical authorities because of the boldness of his doctrines.
Returning to Prague, he taught again in 1407 at that university, widely disseminating Wyclifite and Hussite doctrines there. Together with Hus he took an active part in the struggle against the foreign element in the university, which ended with the departure of the latter following the so-called decree of Kutná Hora in 1409. Forced, however, to leave Bohemia because he was excommunicated, he took refuge in Hungary at the court of Sigismund (1410), from where he moved on to Vienna, where he incurred a further excommunication; there he was summoned to defend himself against the suspicion of heresy, but since he did not appear he was tried in absentia. After a brief return to Prague in 1412, he then went to Cracow to the Grand Duke Witold, whom he followed on his expeditions into Russia and Lithuania.
When he learned of Hus’s arrest, he went (1415) to Constance to defend his master, despite Hus’s prohibition against anyone following him; he was about to return to Bohemia when he was arrested on the Swiss border at Hirschau and brought back to Constance.
Brought before the Council, he was charged with heresy and invited to recant. He did recant, in fact, on 11 and 23 September, and abjured the doctrines of Wyclif and Hus, rejecting the 45 articles of the former and the 30 of the latter and declaring himself subject to the authority of the Church and the Council. Nevertheless, he later reaffirmed his previous opinions, maintaining that he was in full agreement with Wyclif, from whom he differed only regarding the Sacrament of the Altar, and with his master Hus, thus confessing that his recantation had been made *incendi metu et non conscientia*, though convinced that in this way he was sealing his own doom. The Council therefore condemned him as a relapsed heretic to be burned, handing him over for execution to the secular arm.
G. da P. left no writings concerning his religious theories, since his activity was entirely devoted to the simple propagation of Hussite doctrines without any personal additions; however, two philosophical dissertations of his remain, of rather minor importance: *Positio de universalibus* and *Quaestio de universalibus*.
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GIROLAMO da PRAGA. - Apostle of Lithuania and Camaldolese theologian, b. in Prague in the second half of the 14th century, d. at S. Matteo di Murano (Venice) on 17 July 1440.
Eager to escape the disturbances in his homeland, he went to Poland, where he was well received by King Ladislaus, who recommended him to Duke Witold of Lithuania; there, with spectacular deeds recounted by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (*De statu Europae sub Friderico III imperatore*), he succeeded in converting numerous pagans.
Dismissed, perhaps for political reasons, by Witold, he returned to Poland (1405), where he remained for five years, preaching at court and preparing his unpublished trilogy: *L'idea salutis aeternae* (exposition of the Gospel); *Quadragesima salutis aeternae* (Lenten cycle); *Exempla salutis aeternae* (panegyrics). In 1408 he left Poland and after long wandering became a hermit at Camaldoli together with his companion, the Pole Nicolo di Michele. This occurred before 1413, for in that year he was elected superior of the sacred hermitage. In 1430 he visited the Holy Land and at Nicosia (Island of Cyprus) engaged in a disputation with dissident Greeks, refuting their errors. In 1431 he went, as definitor, to the abbey of S. Maria in Urano (Bertinoro) for the Chapter, TRAVERSARI, AMBROGIO (v.) was elected general, with whom he frequently clashed, also because G. welcomed with pleasure the invitation of the Fathers of Basel to go to the Council, being honorably hosted by the prior of the Charterhouse.
Of his numerous works, only 14 have been published by Mitterelli; the principal ones are: *Sermo de corpore Christi contra Hustias* (*Annales Camaldulenses*, IX, Venice 1773, cols. 744-55); *Tractatus contra haereticos Bohemos* (ibid., cols. 755-802); *De Graecorum erroribus* (ibid., cols. 916-19); *Sermo de vera et falsa paenitentiae* (ibid., cols. 919-40). G. is not a profound theologian, but he provides interesting information on the errors he combats.