A Companion to Jan Hus includes eleven substantial essays covering the central aspects of the life, thought and commemoration of Jan Hus († 1415), Czech theologian, reformer and martyr. Besides older experienced specialists in the Hussite studies, also younger researchers who enter the scientific discourse with new approaches participated in the volume. Experts and students alike will profit from this guide to Jan Hus, who was well known as follower of John Wyclif and forerunner of Martin Luther. Burning of Jan Hus at the stake at the Council of Constance gave rise in Bohemia to religious and social revolt that ushered the European reformations of the 16th century.

This volume offers an account of the life, work, thought and commeration of Jan Hus, an important Czech theologian, reformer and martyr.

Jan Hus was a late medieval Czech university master and popular preacher who was condemned at the Council of Constance and burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415. Thanks to his contemporary influence and his posthumous fame in the Hussite movement and beyond, Hus has become one of the best known figures of the Czech past and one of the most prominent reformers of medieval Europe as a whole. This definitive biography now available in English opposes the view of Hus that saw his importance primarily as a martyr, subsequently invoked by a variety of religious, national, and political groups eager to appropriate his legacy. Looking for Hus’s significance in his own time, this treatment tells a story of a late medieval intellectual who—through his dedicated pursuit of what he understood as his mission—generated conflict and eventually brought execution upon himself. By investigating the life and death of Jan Hus, one learns not only about the man, but about the church, state, and society in late medieval Europe. The story told in this book is original in structure and purpose. Each chapter takes a major event in Hus’s life as a starting point for a broader discussion of crucial problems connected to his career and the controversies he generated. How did these specific events contribute to Hus’s own convictions? By suggesting parallels to and departures from other late medieval figures and events in Europe, the book liberates Hus from a narrow and nationalist Czech historiography and places him squarely in a broader European context, showing a significance that transcended Czech borders. From a number of different vantage points, it raises a central question critical to understanding the later Middle Ages: why was a sincere ecclesiastical reformer condemned by a church council committed to reform itself?

This study is a reconsideration of Jan Hus, a late medieval Bohemian priest who was burned at the stake six hundred years ago. His death sparked a social revolution. This book considers his role as a priest and reformer in Prague, his martyrdom in Germany, and his legacy. It attempts to provide an evaluation of Hus in the context of the medieval world, especially by engaging in alternative perspectives of his life and work. The core themes and arguments are revisionist. These include seeing Hus properly as a heretic, exploring Hus as a medieval man interested in more than preaching, religious practice, and reform. The book sets out to challenge traditional assumptions and seeks less to contribute to monument-building than to challenge the prevailing views about Hus and the interpretation of his life and thought. A conscious effort has been undertaken to explore the historical relevancy of Hus and to assess his contemporary significance. The book also places Hus into a comparative context with the Reformation of the sixteenth century.

The European Reformation of the sixteenth century was one of the most formative periods in the history of Christian thought and remains one of the most fascinating events in Western history. The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology provides a comprehensive guide to the theology and theologians of the Reformation period. Each of the eighteen chapters is written by a leading authority in the field and provides an up-to-date account and analysis of the thought associated with a particular figure or movement. There are chapters focusing on lesser reformers such as Martin Bucer, and on the Catholic and Radical Reformations, as well as the major Protestant reformers. A detailed bibliography and comprehensive index allows comparison of the treatment of specific themes by different figures. This authoritative and accessible guide will appeal to students of history and literature as well as specialist theologians.

The Hussites, as the Bohemian reformists have come to be called, became one of the most vocal and influential reform movements of the late Middle Ages, with significance for the reformations of the sixteenth century and later. They represented an interchange between "town and gown" that was largely unprecedented in medieval Europe. Scholarship on the Hussites has a long and distinguished tradition, and current studies must continually contend with a historiography that is implicated in the nationalism, confessionalism, and politics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This volume gives students and scholars a clear sense of the historiography and current trends in Hussite studies, as well as concise statements on major emphases in Hussite theology, ecclesiology, philosophy, and religious practice. Contributors are: Eliska Baťová, Pavlína Cermanová, Dusan Coufal, Phillip Haberkern, Ota Halama, David Holeton, Stephen Lahey, Jindřich Marek, Pavel Kolář, Olivier Marin, Petra Mutlová, Pavlína Rychterová, Pavel Soukup, Michael Van Dussen, and Blanka Zilynská.

Joachim of Fiore (c.1135-1202) remains one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures of medieval Christianity. In his own time, he was an influential advisor to the mighty and powerful, widely respected for his prophetic exegesis and decoding of the apocalypse. In modern times, many thinkers, from Thomas Müntzer to Friedrich Engels, have hailed him as a prophet of progress and revolution. Even present-day theologians, philosophers and novelists were inspired by Joachim’s vision of a Third Age of the Holy Spirit. However, at no time was Joachim an uncontroversial figure. Soon after his death, the church authorities became suspicious about the explosive potential of his theology, while more recently historians held him accountable for the fateful progressivism of Western Civilization. Contributors are: Frances Andrews, Valeria De Fraja, Alfredo Gatto, Peter Gemeinhardt, Sven Grosse, Massimo Iiritano, Bernard McGinn, Matthias Riedl, and Brett Edward Whalen.

The Bohemian reformer Jan Hus made a substantial and critical contribution to the development of the medieval church, owing especially to his views and teachings on Scripture, the church, faith, conscience, and spirituality. This book offers a presentation of Hus’s theological commitment centered on his understanding of truth. Lášek and Franklin explore Hus's preaching ministry and his long-drawn-out legal struggle against charges of heresy as ethical outworkings of this approach to truth. Central to this exploration is a new annotated translation of Hus’s Appeal to Jesus Christ as the Supreme Judge against the pope and canon law. This document was not only a protest against papal power, but expressed a fundamentally new legal situation: in bypassing canon law, it essentially represented a personal claim to freedom of conscience. This unheard-of principle from within the medieval legal framework preceded other related ecclesiastical and legal developments by several centuries. The authors argue that Hus’s appeal thus represents a momentous event in church history and European history as a whole. Due to the historical significance of his martyrdom and commemoration by many churches throughout Europe, this book demonstrates that Hus remains an important figure not only for the study of European history, but also for understanding contemporary values of Western civilization.