One hundred years before Luther, Hus, from his position as a priest and master at Charles’ University, set about influencing the Bohemian church in the direction of reform. His teachings provoked the opposition of Rome, but Hus enjoyed royal favor for a time as well as public support. He preached at the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, and his influence with the people grew.
Hus publicly opposed a crusade proclaimed in 1411, by Pope John XXIII against the King of Naples, protector of rival Pope Gregory XII, and the “indulgences” that were instituted to finance the crusade. Hus followed Wycliffe’s arguments against indulgences very closely, and declared that popes and bishops had no right to call the church to take up arms. The faculty of Charles’ University condemned the views of Hus, but the people were more and more influenced by his teachings against the obvious corruptions of the church. Hus challenged his opponents to demonstrate from Scripture that his teachings were wrong.
Instead, Hus was excommunicated in 1411, and eventually pressured to leave Prague. The king made several serious attempts to reconcile the parties in the dispute, but unsuccessfully. The papal party insisted that Hus and his followers be forced to acknowledge that the pope was the head of the church. Hus insisted that Christ alone is head of his church. Hus’ treatise on the church, published in 1413, again followed Wycliffe very closely (in places, exactly).
In November 1414, a general ecclesiastical council was called at Constance to deal with the papal schism and address the much needed reform of the church. Hus was invited, with the promise of safe-conduct, to come to the council by Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg. He agreed, and came prepared not only to defend his views, but, if possible, to persuade the council to agree with him. Soon after the council began, Hus was taken into custody and imprisoned in the dungeon of the Dominican monastery. Though Sigismund was angered by Hus’ treatment, given his promise of protection, he was pressured by Hus’ opponents into acceding to his imprisonment. Witnesses against Hus were heard by the council, but Hus was not allowed to defend himself.
In part, Hus was caught in the grinder of papal politics. There were actually three rival claimants for the title at the time — John XXIII, Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII. (Eventually, all three were deposed by the council, and Martin V was elected in their place.) John XXIII, who had initially been cordial to Hus, decided to use the prosecution of Hus to strengthen his claim to papal legitimacy, But in short order John XXIII was pressured to leave the council and resign, and Hus fell into the hands of the Archbishop of Constance.
The trial began on 5 June, 1415. He was confronted with his support of the teachings of Wycliffe (which were also condemned during the council), and called to repudiate thirty-nine sentences extracted from his writings. Hus (like Luther after him) declared himself willing to retract any errors demonstrated on the basis of Holy Scripture.
Hus was condemned on 6 July. After a high mass, Hus was led into the cathedral where he heard his sentence pronounced. He was then formally “degraded” from the priesthood, and delivered to the secular power. A tall paper hat was placed on his head upon which was written “Hæresiarcha” (leader of an heretical movement). He was then led away.
At the place of execution Hus knelt in prayer, but was refused a confessor. He was chained to the stake and wood and straw were piled around him neck-high. When asked on last time to recant, he declared, “God is my witness that I have never taught that of which I have by false witnesses been accused. In the truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached, I will die today with gladness.”
Sadly, Hus is celebrated today by Czechs not for the atoning work of Christ and his supreme Lordship — the pravda (truth) for which Hus stood to the death— the Truth that alone can “make men free” (John 8:32,36) — but rather for a more generic “truth” that can mean all things to all men, and has.
Given the history of the Czech lands since the time of Hus — the essential crushing of the Reformation movement (following 1621) under the power of empire with its Romanist instruments, and their occupation in the twentieth century first by Hitler’s Nazis and later by Soviet-backed Marxism, and now, since the “Velvet Revolution,” the “free” society of the second Czech Republic dominated by secular materialism — it is clear that these people have never really heard Hus’ gospel-pravda, or seen its transforming power in the lives of individuals and society.
And so the Farniks and others labor on to make Christ known here in this place. May God grant that the light of biblical truth — for which Hus lived and died — yet dawn in all its glory and power upon the Czech people who today celebrate (however ignorantly) his martyrdom.
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