Hus is considered to be the first Church reformer, even though some designate the theorist John Wycliffe. After being ordained as a Catholic priest , Hus began to preach in Prague. He opposed many aspects of the Catholic Church in Bohemia, such as its views on ecclesiology , simony , the Eucharist , and other theological topics.
Hus was a master, dean and rector at the Charles University in Prague between and Alexander V issued a Papal bull that excommunicated Hus; however, it was not enforced, and Hus continued to preach. Hus' excommunication was then enforced, and he spent the next two years living in exile. When the Council of Constance assembled, Hus was asked to be there and present his views on the dissension within the Church. When he arrived, with a promise of safe-conduct , [ 6 ] he was arrested and put in prison.
He was eventually taken in front of the council and asked to recant his views. He refused. On 6 July , he was burned at the stake for heresy against the teachings of the Catholic Church. After Hus was executed, the followers of his religious teachings known as Hussites refused to elect another Catholic monarch and defeated five consecutive papal crusades between and in what became known as the Hussite Wars. Both the Bohemian and the Moravian populations remained majority Hussite until the s, when a Protestant defeat in the Battle of the White Mountain resulted in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown coming under Habsburg dominion for the next years and being subject to immediate and forced conversion in an intense campaign of return to Catholicism.
The exact date of Hus's birth is disputed. Some claim he was born around , [ 7 ] while others claim he was born between and The reason behind him taking his name from his village rather than from his father is up to speculation; some believe that it was because Hus did not know of his father, while others say it was simply a custom at that time.
Nearly all other information known about Hus's very early life is unsubstantiated. His father's name was Michael; his mother's name is unknown. It is known that Hus had a brother due to him expressing concerns for his nephew while awaiting execution at Constance. Whether or not Hus had any other family is unknown. At the age of roughly 10, Hus was sent away to a monastery. The exact reason is not known; some claim that his father had died, [ 15 ] others say he went there due to his devotion to God.
