Jan Hus

author

Jan Hus

d. 1415

A Czech preacher and university master whose call for a cleaner, more truthful church echoed far beyond his lifetime. Condemned and executed in 1415, he became one of the great early voices of reform in Europe.

1 Audiobook

Letters of John Huss, written during his exile and imprisonment : With Martin Luther's preface; and containing a general view of the works of Huss

Letters of John Huss, written during his exile and imprisonment : With Martin Luther's preface; and containing a general view of the works of Huss

by Jan Hus

About the author

Born in Bohemia around 1369, Jan Hus was a priest, theologian, and teacher who rose to prominence at the University of Prague. He became especially well known for preaching in Czech at Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, where he criticized corruption in the church and urged a return to moral seriousness and scriptural truth.

His ideas were influenced in part by the English thinker John Wycliffe, and his attacks on clerical abuses brought him into growing conflict with church authorities. Excommunicated and later summoned to the Council of Constance, he defended his views but was condemned for heresy and burned at the stake on July 6, 1415.

Hus did not live to see the wider Reformation, but historians regularly describe him as an important forerunner of it. His death helped inspire the Hussite movement in Bohemia, and his legacy has remained central to Czech religious and cultural history.