Hus, Jan (ca. 1369 – 1415)
“Truth prevails over all.” (letter, 1413)
Jan Hus
In 1413, John Hus is in exile at Husinec, Bohemia, unable to return to Prague, where he has taught and preached between 1398 and 1411. He remains in exile, not from personal fear, but because the pope has placed an interdict on any city which harbors him. Rather than give Rome any reason to deny the people of Prague baptism and communion, he chooses exile under the protection of his feudal lord.
Awakened by the writings of England’s John Wycliffe, Hus has antagonized the church by likening the pope to anti-Christ, denying the validity of absolution from a wicked priest, repudiating indulgences, denouncing image worship, rejecting masses for the dead, questioning purgatory, negating auricular confession, saying priests should not charge fees for many duties which they are obligated to perform, declaring the Bible the sole standard by which the church should judge religious truth, and urging that lay people be allowed both the bread and wine at Eucharist. He does not accept Wycliffe’s rejection of transubstantiation, however, but continues to teach that the bread and wine truly become Christ’s body.
In exile, Hus has written several books, including On the Six Errors, and On the Church. From Husinec he also writes to his friends.
Two Bohemian radicals, men who held views which went far beyond those that Hus teaches, fell into Rome’s clutches and abjectly renounced all the reforms they taught. To save their own skins, they have aligned themselves with Rome against Hus, charging him with beliefs he never held.
Now, in June 1413, Hus writes to Christian of Prachatice absolutely rejecting a compromise put forward by some theologians. He says he would have ignored the slanders of wicked men if they did not strengthen the antichrist in his wrath. Anticipating the end which actually comes to him two years later, he writes, “I hope, however, with God’s grace, if needs be, to oppose them until I am consumed by fire.”
He recognizes that he cannot by himself liberate all truth, but vows at least not to be truth’s enemy. The world may run on in its usual way, but as for himself, he had rather die than betray truth. “He who speaks the truth, will have his head broken. He who fears death, loses the joy of life. Truth conquers all things. He conquers who dies, for no adversity will harm him—if he is not dominated by iniquity.” He quotes several verses which support his position: 1 Peter 3:13, Matthew 5:11, James 1:2, and James 1:12.
The idea that “Truth conquers all things” is not completely original with Hus. A few years earlier, Wycliffe had written, “I believe that in the end the truth will conquer.” The lineage of the idea is millennia older, for Solomon wrote, “The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the faithless.” (Prov. 22.12)
Hus himself has written in a similar vein earlier in a letter to Prague in November, 1412, in which he declared that the Jews, by suppressing truth (at Christ’s trial), lost everything they had hoped to preserve, “for it [truth] conquers eternally.” He will echo this thought a month before his death, writing again to the members of the University of Prague: “Moreover, dearly beloved in Christ Jesus, stand in the truth you have learned, for it conquers all and is mighty to eternity.”
The Roman Church itself will eventually invite Hus to a council, violate Emperor Sigismund’s safe-conduct to him, and try, condemn and burn him. Bohemia will rise in outrage and repudiate Rome.
In 1920, centuries after Hus wrote his memorable words, the Czech National Assembly will incorporate into the national flag and emblems the motto: Veritas omnia vincit, “Truth conquers all things,” or more simply, “Truth prevails.”
In 1999, Pope John Paul II will issue an apology in which he says, “Today, on the eve of the Great Jubilee, I feel the need to express deep regret for the cruel death inflicted on Jan Hus and for the consequent wound of conflict and division which was thus imposed on the minds and hearts of the Bohemian people.”
— Dan Graves
Dig a Little Deeper
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- ——— John Hus and the Czech Reform. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1966.
