Czechast about Jan Hus and Constance
A visit to Jan Hus Museum in Constance with a very knowledgeble guide to how and why the Czech theologian, thinker and reformer ended his life in this German city.
If you read about Czech history, you may know that this October marks the 600th anniversary of the death of Jan Žižka, the great military leader and radical Hussite who spread this early attempt at Church reform by sword and fire. As a matter of fact he died very close to my hometown of Žďár nad Sázavou on the Bohemian Moravian border. He passed away near the town of Přibyslav most likely from a quite horrid skin disease called carbuncle.
With all due respect, however, Jan Žižka, though highly significant, was a follower of the teachings of Jan Hus, the Czech theologian, philosopher, and Charles University professor.
Jan Hus was undoubtedly one of the most prominent figures the Czech nation gave to the world. Born around 1370, probably in South Bohemia, he studied and later taught at Charles University in Prague. His call for reform of the Catholic Church anticipated the Lutheran Reformation by a whole century, leading first to his excommunication and then, in 1415, to his imprisonment and sentencing to death by burning at the stake at the Council of Constance in Germany.
It was in this great historical city on the shores of Lake Constance—known to the Germans as Bodensee—that I recently visited the house where Jan Hus allegedly spent some time before his imprisonment. The house is now a museum dedicated to his life, teachings, and the significance he still holds not just for Czech history, but for the Western world's way of thinking. As I walked through the museum, I had a very knowledgeable guide—the director of the Hus-Haus Alexander Pöschl.
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Czechast, Radio Prague International
Czechast is a regular RPI podcast about Czech and Moravian culture, history, and economy.
