The Council of Constance and Jan Hus

When Secular Support is What Lies Between Life and Death

Nov 6, 2009

On 6 July 1415 Jan Hus was burned at the stake as a heretic. Using John Wyclif as a comparison, it becomes clear that Hus could have survived his trial.

Jan Hus was one of the most influential people in Bohemia at the time of the Council of Constance. He was popular with both with the lords in power and most of all the people of Bohemia. The reasons for such a public popularity stems from his use of the vernacular in his sermons and hymns that he wrote instead of the using the traditional Latin. While these activities gained Hus widespread popularity and support from the Bohemian nobles, he also gained the unwonted attention of the Catholic Church that would eventually lead to his death at the Council of Constance on 6 July 1415 for unorthodox teachings.

Jan Hus’ Connection to John Wyclif

Jan Hus was burned at the stake for preaching that secular leaders could withhold money from the Church in order to fund armies to defend its people. Hus believed that as churchmen they should hold no temporal goods or secular lordships, which was counter to the dominant stance of Pope John XXIII who believed that the Church held power over the spiritual and the secular. These teachings first became widespread in England with the churchman John Wyclif in the late 14th century and eventually found their way to Eastern Europe by way of the Lollard activist Peter Payne.

Unlike Hus, Wyclif was not found guilty of heresy while living. Wyclif had many run-ins with the Church during his life, but always survived the trials due to his secular support from the second most powerful man in England, John of Gaunt, the uncle of King Richard II. This secular support helped hold off the Church until Wyclif’s death, but at the Council of Constance Wyclif was posthumously excommunicated and his remains were ordered to be unearthed and burned as a heretic. This was only a month before Hus was to be put to death.

The Abandonment of Jan Hus

Jan Hus was ordered to attend the Council of Constance to be questioned about his unorthodox teachings. Hus was hesitant to go until Emperor Sigismund extended his own protection to Hus and that of three Bohemian lords while at Constance. Pope John XXIII also promised safe passage for Hus. Upon reaching the council on 28 November 1414 Hus was arrested along with his three accompanying lords. When one of the lords inquired to the pope on their promised safe passage, the pope claimed to have never made such a claim.

Emperor Sigismund denied Hus his support against the charges laid against him along with the other Bohemian lords. By July of 1415 Hus was put to death as a heretic with the excommunicated memory of John Wyclif. If we use John Wyclif as a comparison to Jan Hus than it is possible to say that if Hus had not been abandoned by his secular support, he would have escaped death at the hands of the council as Wyclif’s memory was. This however, was not to come to pass.

Dahmus, Joseph H. Prosecution of John Wyclyf. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952)

Molnar, Enrico C. S. “The Liturgical Reforms of John Hus.” Speculum 41, no. 2 (Apr., 1966)

Mundy, John Hine and Kennerly M. Woody. The Council of Constance: The Unification of the Church. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

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