HUS, JAN. - Religious agitator, founder of the Czech national church and institution, born c. 1370 at Husinec in southern Bohemia to humble parents, and executed at Constance in Switzerland on 6 July 1415.
After his early studies, enrolled in the faculty of arts at Prague, H. obtained the bachelor’s degree in arts in 1393, the licentiate in theology in 1394, and the master’s degree in arts in 1396. In 1401–1402 he served as dean of the faculty of philosophy, and in the semester 1402–1403 as rector of the University of Prague. In 1400, the year in which he had been ordained priest, he began to preach in the church of St Michael, with growing success, so that in 1402, with the benefice of King Wenceslas, he obtained the pulpit of the great chapel, intended for sermons in the Czech language, known as the Bethlehem Chapel. Gifted with outstanding qualities, a vehement dialectician, with lively and effective speech, H. began to be one of the most influential representatives of the Czech nation.
The themes he treated were above all the reform of the clergy and the moral and religious elevation of the people, in which he enjoyed strong support from King Wenceslas IV and from the young and zealous archbishop of Prague, Zbynek of Hasenburg, who entrusted him, in the period 1403–1407, together with Stanislav of Znaim, with the office of delivering conferences to ecclesiastics at the periodic assemblies of the clergy. From 1404 he also began to hold courses in theology at the university.
In those years the heretical doctrines of Wyclif, brought to Bohemia from England by Jerome of Prague, began to spread. The rivalry between Germans and Czechs found expression on this occasion in the fact that, while the Czechs Stanislav of Znaim and Palec showed themselves to be supporters of Wyclif’s ideas, the German masters had 45 articles drawn from his works condemned. H. at first maintained a neutral and conciliatory attitude; but little by little he inclined toward Wyclif’s errors. Already from 1405, in his discourses and writings, one could note assertions more or less contrary to orthodox doctrine. In 1408 the archbishop began to take notice, and being strongly urged by Innocent VII (the true Pope) to uproot heresy, forbade him to preach against the clergy, a prohibition which H. did not observe, indeed maintaining in the treatise *De arguendo clero* (1408) that unworthy priests ought to be publicly rebuked. To the religious questions were added nationalistic ones. The discord between Germans and Czechs sharpened the situation; H., becoming the champion of Czech claims, with the study of the national language, which from 1405 he used alongside Latin in his works, acquired a prestige and influence of the first order. He also composed religious hymns and worked for the reform of Czech orthography (for every sound unknown to Latin he proposed a letter with the addition of a diacritical mark, and this reform passed into posterity: cf. *De orthographia bohemica*, ed. Sembera, Vienna 1857).
In 1408, following the persistence of the Western Schism, Wenceslas IV having opted for neutrality between Gregory XII and Benedict XIII (antipope), and with him the Czech masters, while the archbishop with the higher clergy and the Germans had adhered to Gregory XII (the true Pope), the university was seized of the question and decided it by 3 votes (of the Bavarian, Saxon and Polish nations) against 1 (of the Czechs) in favor of Gregory and thus aligning with the archbishop. The king then issued a decree (Kuttenberg, 18 January 1409) by which he reversed the proportions of votes at the university, reserving three for the Czech nation and one for the others, thereby securing a majority for the Czechs; but the Germans, in protest, left Prague and, withdrawing to Leipzig, founded a new university there. H., who in his preaching had supported the Czech point of view, was elected rector of the university again in October of that year (1409). From then on his relations with the archbishop became strained, and when the latter launched an interdict upon Prague, he sided with the king against the archbishop; so that the archbishop had recourse to Alexander V (antipope), elected at Pisa, who ordered that H. be forbidden to preach in churches other than public ones and that proceedings be taken against the errors of Wyclif. Indeed the works of the latter were condemned. But H. appealed in the name of the university to John XXIII (antipope), arguing that heretical books might conveniently be read (*De libris haereticorum legendis*). On 16 July 1410, however, the archbishop had about 200 Wyclifite manuscripts burned in the courtyard of his palace and condemned H. to exile; but he continued to preach, and, having failed to appear before the Roman inquisitor Cardinal Oddone Colonna (later Martin V), was excommunicated by the pope, by sentence of February 1411, read on 15 March in almost all the churches of Prague. Although the condemnation was pronounced against H. as a rebel and not as a heretic, he nevertheless then adhered more closely to Wyclif’s doctrines and, losing all restraint, together with the university he vehemently attacked the indulgences promulgated by John XXIII as though they were simony, provoking disturbances in the city and countryside in which some people lost their lives.
As the agitation and unrest spread, H. even incited the king of Poland to rebel against the pope, defending Wyclifite doctrines (*Defensio articulorum Wyclif*), until he was forced to leave Prague and retired to Kozí in southern Bohemia. There in 1413 appeared his *Tractatus de Ecclesia*, whose first ten chapters were taken almost entirely from the sentences of the English church, detaching many populations from Rome, exalted by his sermons, and enriching the movement with all that it subsequently aroused, almost disorders, and these divisions of minds induced the emperor Sigismund to intervene, proposing to H. that he present himself at the Council of Constance then convened, to clarify and settle his position. Before departing, H. wrote a work *Utrum expediat laicis fidelibus sumere sanguinem Christi sub specie vini*, in which he upheld the reception of both kinds in the Eucharist (utraquism); for this he was accused and summoned to give explanations regarding his doctrines, particularly the 45 propositions of Wyclif. Having failed to respond satisfactorily, quibbling and contradicting himself on various occasions, he was first held prisoner at Constance and then at Gottlieben. From June 1415 he finally appeared before the council for the discussion of his case. His subversive opinions, collected by the theologians into 39 articles, were read out to him. He denied some of them, while admitting others; and when attempts to persuade him to a retraction, even a general one, failed, he was, according to the law in force, condemned to the stake, while his books were publicly burned. After the execution, endured by H. with fortitude, his ashes were cast into the Rhine.
The main errors of H., condemned at the Council of Constance, are chiefly in the field of ecclesiology. According to H., the Church is the society of the predestined, and consequently it does not include the reprobate; St Peter was not head of the Church, while the papal dignity is a temporal thing derived from that of Caesar. According to H., ecclesiastical obedience is an invention of priests against the authority expressed in Scripture; ecclesiastical censures are a means used by the clergy to subject the laity and prepare the way for the Antichrist; the office of preacher is received as a mandate in the very ordination of the priesthood, so that it can and must be fulfilled despite the express prohibition of the pope or any other magistrate, nor can excommunication prevent II. Many are the errors of H. regarding the authority and rights of the pope and other prelates. He makes authority depend on personal moral state. Thus, if the pope becomes a usurer, he is the vicar of Judas Iscariot. Christ, without so many monstrous heads, would govern His Church much better through true disciples scattered throughout the world. No one has authority nor can be lord of a city, prelate or bishop, when in mortal sin (cf. Denz.-U., 627-56).