Hus is known not only for his efforts to reform the church and society, but also as the author of the treatise “On Czech Orthography,” which introduced diacritical marks and removed conjunctions from Czech. The sixth of July has been a public holiday since 1990.
Jan Hus was a Catholic priest, but he criticized the church for the deviation from its original ideals, institutionalization, the sinful behavior of priests and the sale of indulgences. The Church labeled him a heretic, and on July 6, 1415, he was burned at the Council of Constance.
His death sparked the Hussite revolution in the Czech lands, during which the Hussites repelled several crusades between 1420 and 1431 and their faith took firm root. Hus’s legacy remained alive even later, when following 1620 there was an often violent re-Catholicization.
During the Renaissance, Hus was a symbol for Protestants, during the national revival he was highlighted as a patriot and a fighter for freedom and truth.
Hus’s views were influential even five hundred years following his death in the creation of an independent Czechoslovak state. Communists saw him as a social revolutionary, evangelicals saw him as the roots of the Czech Reformation, but for Catholics he was a heretic for a long time.
Pope John Paul II changed the Vatican’s perception of Jan Hus. in 1999, when he regretted his cruel death and recognized him as a reformer of the Church.
