Who was Jan Hus?

The story behind the answer

A preacher and university scholar in Prague, he attacked clerical corruption, indulgences, and the moral failings of the late medieval Church, urging a return to Scripture’s authority and preaching in the vernacular. His sermons at the Bethlehem Chapel galvanized urban audiences in the Czech lands and drew fierce opposition from church authorities.

Summoned to the Council of Constance (1414–1415) and promised safe conduct, he was condemned for heresy and burned at the stake. His martyrdom ignited the Hussite movement and a series of religious wars in Bohemia, securing concessions like communion in both kinds for laypeople. Decades later, Martin Luther cited him as a forerunner, linking his ideas to the broader currents that culminated in the Protestant Reformation.