John Hus-also spelled Huss (1369?-1415), was a Bohemian religious reformer. Hus's teachings resembled some of those of the Protestant Reformation. He was burned at the stake on a charge of heresy. Soon after he was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1400, he began preaching fiery sermons in Prague. He attracted many followers, especially Czech nationalists. Hus attacked the morals of the clergy and called for reform in the church. He was influenced by John Wycliffe, an English religious reformer of the 1300's. Unlike Wycliffe, Hus did not attack the sacrament of the Mass. In 1409, the king of Bohemia turned the University of Prague over to the Czechs, and Hus became rector. This action angered the German teachers and students at the university. They left and established the University of Leipzig. The Germans spread the story that Hus was a notorious heretic. Because of this story, and his attack on the church practice of selling indulgences to finance crusades, Hus was excommunicated in 1412. In 1413, he completed On the Church, a highly spiritualized view of the church that borrowed heavily from Wycliffe's writings. In 1414, Hus was called before the Council of Constance, a meeting of church leaders at Constance, Germany. There he was condemned, largely for the ideas expressed in On the Church and for supporting Wycliffe. He was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415, even though he had been promised safety if he attended the council to defend himself. Hus's reform movement was carried on for several years after his death by followers known as Hussites. A more detailed account can be found here: http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/Huss-Joh_EarlyLife.asp

Sadly, the religious history of the world shows Christians killing Jews, and Moslems, Moslesm killing Jews and Christians, and different branches of the Church killing each other, burning their houses of worship, exiling them and imprisoning them, boycotting their election as with JFK in the USA in 1960, and denying them reliigous liberty, as in the burning of convents in NY in the 1850s! The Shia-Sunni mutual killings in Iraq today are paralled throughout history by all Faiths. We can also be so selective: Moslems crying about the Crusades when they slaughtered all before them in North Africa, Turkey etc. Some Protstants and others focus on the Spanish Inquisition which actually killed fewer "heretics" in Spain than Catholics were in England by the Reformers! AND fewer than were killed by other Inquisitors in other parts of Catholic Europe!

He was a priest who was burned at the stake for what he believed. He disputed authority and died for what he believed. I believe Martin Luther was after him and kind of took off from what John Huss was trying to say. Luther was known as a spirit of John Huss so to speak.

He was one of the first leaders of Reformation. One of the reasons why J. Huss was burned at the stake was that he denied the doctrine of Trinity.

Jan Hus (John Huss), 1372-1415), was rector of the University of Prague. Hus questioned the legitimacy of the papacy and denied that the church had been founded on Peter. Following a controversy over the selling of indulgences, Hus was tried for heresy and burned at the stake in 1415. According to Catholic teaching, indulgences are a provision whereby punishment for sins can be partially or fully remitted, thereby shortening or eliminating the period of time during which a person suffers temporary punishment and purification in purgatory before entering heaven. Although himself a Catholic priest, he brought the ire of the hierarchy down on himself for daring to expose the corrupt morals of the clergy and for attacking the sale of indulgences. Even though he was promised safe-conduct if he attended the Council of Constance to explain his views, Hus was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake. In the center of the square in Prague today is a massive monument to John Hus.