Jan Hus was a late medieval Czech university master and popular preacher who was condemned at the Council of Constance and burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415. Thanks to his contemporary influence and his posthumous fame in the Hussite movement and beyond, Hus has become one of the best known figures of the Czech past and one of the most prominent reformers of medieval Europe as a whole. This definitive biography now available in English opposes the view of Hus that saw his importance primarily as a martyr, subsequently invoked by a variety of religious, national, and political groups eager to appropriate his legacy. Looking for Hus's significance in his own time, this treatment tells a story of a late medieval intellectual who-through his dedicated pursuit of what he understood as his mission-generated conflict and eventually brought execution upon himself. By investigating the life and death of Jan Hus, one learns not only about the man, but about the church, state, and society in late medieval Europe. The story told in this book is original in structure and purpose. Each chapter takes a major event in Hus's life as a starting point for a broader discussion of crucial problems connected to his career and the controversies he generated. How did these specific events contribute to Hus's own convictions? By suggesting parallels to and departures from other late medieval figures and events in Europe, the book liberates Hus from a narrow and nationalist Czech historiography and places him squarely in a broader European context, showing a significance that transcended Czech borders. From a number of different vantage points, it raises a central question critical to understanding the later Middle Ages: why was a sincere ecclesiastical reformer condemned by a church council committed to reform itself?
Pavel Soukup is a researcher at the Centre for Medieval Studies, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic. He holds an MA in history and a PhD in Czech history from Charles University in Prague. Soukup was a Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow from 2012-2014.
Preface to the English Edition Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction: The Defendant at Constance Chapter 2: Jan Hus in the Hands of Historians Chapter 3: Master Jan Hus: A Brief Biography Chapter 4: Hus the Preacher: The Appointment as Rector of the Bethlehem Chapel, 1402 Chapter 5: Prague Wycliffism and the "Learned Heresy": The First Condemnation of Wyclif's Articles, 1403 Chapter 6: Jan Hus and Church Reform: The Synodal Sermons, 1405 and 1407 Chapter 7: The University Career of Master Hus: The Rector's Speech of 1409, "Strengthen Your Hearts" Chapter 8: The Generation of the Decree of Kutna Hora: The University of Prague as a Central European CrossroadsChapter 9: The Hussites' Media Campaign: Appealing the Papal Prohibition of Preaching, 1410 Chapter 10: Public Engagement and Political Support: Royal Expropriation of Church Property, 1411 Chapter 11: Leader of the Protest Movement: The Prague Indulgence Disputes, 1412 Chapter 12: The Judicial Process: The Appeal to Christ, 1412 Chapter 13: The Invisible Church and Conditional Obedience: Hus's Book On the Church, 1413 Chapter 14: Writing in the Vernacular and Mission in the Countryside: The Czech Postil, 1413 Chapter 15: The Council of Constance: Conviction and Execution, 1414-15 Chapter 16: Epilogue: Hussitism and Reformation Notes Works of Jan Hus Further Primary Sources Bibliography Index of Personal Names
"Rarely in the medieval world was a man of humble origin, never advanced in material terms, so influential on theological, ecclesiological, and civil governance across the whole of Europe. Even more unusually, that same man came half a millennium later to be generally accepted as the most important founder of a central European nation. The man is Jan Hus, the subject of Pavel Soukup's magisterial biography. Soukup gives us the outline of his story at the start, and then can legitimately expect us to assess the qualities of the subject from the complex and tangled evidence of the numerous sources that are laid before us with consummate skill. This is a challenging study that will repay serious appraisal."
