The doctrines of Wycliffe found favor with Anne of
Bohemia, wife of King Richard II, and through her they reached that
country. Here they attracted the attention of John Huss, (or Hus) a
distinguished scholar in the university of Prague. Wycliffe's writings
confirmed Huss in his criticism of many doctrines of the Church. He attacked
the clergy in sermons and pamphlets and also objected to the supremacy of the
pope. The sentence of excommunication pronounced against him did not shake his
reforming zeal. Finally Huss was cited to appear before the Council of
Constance, then in session. Relying on the safe conduct given him by the German
emperor, Huss appeared before the council, only to be declared guilty of
teaching "many things evil, scandalous, seditious, and dangerously
heretical." The emperor then violated the safe conduct—no promise made to
a heretic was considered binding—and allowed Huss to be burnt outside the walls
of Constance. Thus perished the man who, more than all others, is regarded as
the forerunner of Luther and the Reformation.
THE HUSSITE WARS
The flames which burned Huss set all Bohemia afire. The
Bohemians, a Slavic people, regarded him as a national hero and made his
martyrdom an excuse for rebelling against the Holy Roman Empire. The Hussite
wars, which followed, thus formed a political rather than a religious struggle.
The Bohemians did not gain freedom, and their country still remains a Hapsburg
possession. But the sense of nationalism is not extinct there, and Bohemia may
some day become an independent state.
