The Philosopher
Jan Hus
The face
The background
- Nationality:
- Czech
- Schools:
- Hussite
- Branchs:
- Theology
- Period:
- Renaissance philosophy
The synopsis
Jan Hus (c. 1369 – 6 July 1415), also anglicized as John Goose or John Huss, was a Czech theologian, philosopher, church reformer, and martyr. He was a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation and a key predecessor to Protestantism. Ordained as a Catholic priest, Hus began preaching in Prague, opposing many aspects of the Catholic Church, including its views on ecclesiology, simony, and the Eucharist. He served as master, dean, and rector at Charles University. After being excommunicated by Pope Alexander V and later Pope John XXIII, Hus was invited to the Council of Constance with a promise of safe conduct. Upon arrival, he was arrested, imprisoned, and tried for heresy. Refusing to recant his views, he was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415. His execution led to the Hussite Wars and solidified his influence on subsequent reform movements.
The works
Iohannes Hus. Postilla adumbrata
De Ecclesia. The Church
Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment
The letters of John Hus
The quotes
It is better to die well than to live badly.
I, Master John Hus, in chains and in prison, now standing on the shore of this present life and expecting on the morrow a dreadful death, which will, I hope, purge away my sins, find no heresy in myself, and accept with all my heart any truth whatsoever that is worthy of belief.
Behold how Christ is the foundation of the church and the apostles are the foundations! Christ is by a figure of speech - antonomastice - the foundation because the edifice of the church begins from him and is finished in him and through him. But the prophets and apostles are the foundations because their authority bears up our weakness.
For God is my witness that I neither preached, affirmed, nor defended them, though they say that I did.
Indeed, no one does more injury in the church than he who acts perversely and yet has the name and order of sanctity.
By the fruits which it bears is the tree known.
I have often had apparitions of hosts of serpents with heads at their tails, but not one was able to bite me; and many other visions.
A precept or command is a general teaching of God, obligating every man under pain of mortal sin - namely, in cases in which he has fallen away from the command. Hence, the saints who for a period of their life lived hypocritically sinned mortally for that period. So also the damned, by persistent false living, sin persistently in Hell.
For whoso dies for Christ, he is conqueror and is delivered from all misery and attains the eternal joy to which may it please our Saviour to bring us all.
As for antichrist occupying the papal chair, it is evident that a pope living contrary to Christ, like any other perverted person, is called, by common consent, antichrist.
He that fears death loses the joys of life.
O God and Lord, now the council condemns even Your own act and Your own law as heresy, since You Yourself did lay Your cause before Your Father as the just judge, as an example for us, whenever we are sorely oppressed.
Open is the way of Satan; many walk therein.
In life eternal, there is perfect joy and light, without pain or torture, and there is communion with God Himself and His angels.
I entreat masters to live a good life and faithfully to instruct their scholars, especially that they may love God and learn to give themselves to knowledge, in order to promote His honour, the welfare of the state, and their own salvation, but not for the sake of avarice or the praise of man.
I entreat students of letters and other scholars to obey their masters in things good, to imitate them, and diligently apply themselves to letters for the sake of God's honour and their own salvation and that of other men.
I entreat all artisans faithfully to follow their craft and take delight in it. I entreat all servants to be faithful servants of their masters and mistresses.