Knowra Jan Hus Jan Hus Jan Hus was a Czech theologian and preacher who criticized church abuses and disputed teachings, was condemned for heresy, and became a martyr whose ideas helped inspire the Hussite movement.
John Wycliffe : An English theologian who criticized church wealth and authority and argued that Scripture was the highest religious authority. Hus adopted and developed Wycliffe’s reform arguments, though their teachings were not identical.
Ecclesiology : Theological study of the nature, authority, and organization of the Christian church. Hus’s account of the true church shaped his challenges to corrupt clergy and contested popes.
Council of Constance : A church council held from 1414 to 1418 that ended the Western Schism and addressed reform and heresy. Hus was summoned there, tried for heresy, and condemned despite assurances of safe conduct.
Four Articles of Prague : A 1420 statement of Hussite demands concerning communion, preaching, clerical poverty, and punishment of public sins. These demands gave political form to reforms associated with Hus’s legacy.
Charles University : A university founded in Prague in 1348, central to intellectual and political life in medieval Bohemia. Hus taught and debated there, becoming a leading voice in Prague’s reform movement.
Papal schism : A division in the Western Church from 1378 to 1417, during which rival claimants held the papacy. Competing popes sharpened Hus’s claim that a pope’s authority depended on faithful conduct.
Burning of Jan Hus : The execution of Jan Hus by burning at the Council of Constance on July 6, 1415. His refusal to recant turned the council’s judgment into a rallying point in Bohemia.
Utraquism : A Hussite tradition that insisted on communion for the laity under both bread and wine. Its central demand became a defining feature of moderate Hussite reform.
Bohemia : A historical region in Central Europe, now forming the western part of the Czech Republic. Hus’s preaching and later political legacy took shape in this kingdom.
Indulgence : In Catholic theology, a remission of temporal punishment for sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. Hus opposed the sale of indulgences authorized by a rival pope to fund a campaign.
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