HUS, JAN

born c. 1370, , Husinec, Bohemia [now in Czech Republic] died July 6, 1415, Konstanz Hus also spelled Huss the most important 15th-century Czech religious Reformer, whose work was transitional between the medieval and the Reformation periods and anticipated the Lutheran Reformation by a full century. He was embroiled in the bitter controversy of the Western Schism for his entire career, and he was convicted of heresy at the Council of Constance and burned at the stake. Additional reading Several works by Matthew Spinka are useful: John Hus and the Czech Reform (1941, reissued 1966), a brief treatment of his life, with emphasis of his trial at Constance; John Hus: A Biography (1968, reprinted 1979), a comprehensive account of his life and thought, with emphasis on the concept of the church; and John Hus' Concept of the Church (1966), a fairly comprehensive account of his theological system, stressing his differences from such scholars as John Wycliffe. Matthew Spinka (trans. and ed.), John Hus at the Council of Constance (1965), contains translations of both Petr of Mladonovice's account of the trial and Hus's letters from Constance.