Search

Born into poverty in Husinec in southern Bohemia, Jan Hus (ca. 1372–1415) became a significant leader in what has been called the First Reformation. Upon receiving his master of arts degree in 1396, he became professor at Charles University in Prague. In 1402 he began a ten-year pastorate at Bethlehem Chapel, center of the growing reform movement within Bohemia and the symbol of expanding nationalism against the Roman Catholic Church and the Germans, who exerted the major control at Charles University. T…

1. Background Like the Waldenses, the Hussites were a medieval movement summoning the church back to its original Christian form. The condemnation and burning of Jan Hus (ca. 1372–1415) at the Council of Constance (Reform Councils) on July 6, 1415, provoked a national protest in Bohemia that led to the adoption of reforming ideas and the rise of the Hussites. In 1414 Jacob of Mies, with the approval of Hus, had given the cup to the laity in Prague (Eucharist), a departure from custom that became a symbol of the Hussites. The moderate Hussites of Prague thus came to be known as Utraquists (from La…