He protested against the ecclesiastical system, he preached in favour of reform in the Church and advocated a return to the poverty recommended by the Scriptures. Indeed, the Scriptures were the only rule and every manhad the right to study them. In Questio de indulgentis (1412) he denounced the indulgences.
He admired Wyclif’s writings and defended him when he was condemned as a heretic. He was excommunicated. An interdict was pronounced over Prague and he had to leave it and go to southern Bohemia, where he preached and wrote theological treatises, notably the Tractatus de ecclesia (1413), known as « The Church ».
Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, the retired archbishop of Prague, as his special envoy for the commemoration of the 600th anniversary of the death of Jan Hus.
The Bohemian priest was burned at the stake for heresy, and in 1999 Pope St . John Paul II expressed regret for his death.
“On the eve of the Great Jubilee, I feel obliged to express deep regret for the cruel death inflicted on Jan Hus and the resulting wound, a source of conflict and division which was thus opened in the minds and hearts of the Bohemian people,†he said.
The commemoration will take place in Prague on July 5 and 6.