On this day 594 years ago, the Council of Constance condemned John Wycliffe and Jan Hus as heretics. Wycliffe had died some 30 years previously, so the condemnation only affected the fate of his bones which were dug up and burned, but Hus was alive and present at the Council, and he was summarily burned at the stake notwithstanding the fact that he had been summoned to Constance under a letter of indemnity.
Wycliffe’s crimes had included translating the Bible into vernacular English so that people who were not priests could understand it, thus undermining the authority of the church. He was of the view that the church should be poor, as in the days of the apostles, and that clergy should not be exercising political power. His views brought him into a series of sharp disagreements with papal authorities and monks, although he had sufficient powerful friends to keep him safe during his lifetime.
Hus’s crimes were mainly to do with opposing corruption in the church. He spoke out against indulgences, which were being used by church leaders to raise funds, especially for financing crusades. Many of his arguments were essentially repeating those which had been made by Wycliffe some years before. It is said that Hus prophesied: “In a hundred years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door some 102 years later.