The Reformation in Bohemia, Part One
Dates	Events, People		Remarks
Pre-1400	Bohemia before Huss and Jerome		1. People baptized following Charlemagne’s armies, but Western Christianity was ignorant of their tongue and so little teaching was done 2. In 863 a plea was made to Constantinople for missionaries who could teach them. Methodius came and great numbers were converted and followed the Eastern rite. The Bible was translated. 3. The schism between East and West had not yet taken place, and Bohemia was under Rome’s jurisdiction. Rome did not like Bohemia’s Bible [from the Greek] nor the Greek forms. The Pope plotted to introduce the Latin rite. 4. 1079: Pope Gregory VII, Hildebrand, issued a decreed forbidding the Eastern rite or worship in the language of the people, because heresies and evils came when people heard the Bible in a language they could understand [Letter from the Pope to the King]. 5. 13^th Century: Christianity was saved in Bohemia by the immigration of large numbers of Waldenses and Albigenses [more of them later], who fled persecution in France and elsewhere and came to find refuge in Bohemia. Peter Waldo is reported to have preached in Bohemia. The headquarters of the Waldenses was in Prague and they spread through Poland and other Slavic populations.
1300’s	Forerunners of Huss and Jerome		1. John Milicius. Preached in the Cathedral Church in Prague in the common tongue. Preached against the corrupt clergy; advocated communion in “both kinds” [both bread and wine]. He went to Rome to fast and pray and found things worse there. He placed a placard over the door of one of the Cardinals: “Antichrist is come and sitteth in the Church,” and returned to Prague. The Pope ordered him arrested but the people prevented the execution of the order. He died in old age in 1374. 2. Conrad Stiekna: a contemporary of Milicius, of the same temper. His church was packed with those hungry for the teaching of the Bible so that there was no room; he finally went outside and preached to huge multitudes in the open air. 3. Matthew Javonius: He not only preached in church, but traveled throughout Bohemia preaching to all. Persecution from Rome broke out against those who partook of communion in both kinds or who spoke against the abuses of the clergy. Communion could be held only in private homes or in caves and clearings in the forest. Those discovered by Rome’s armed bands were put to the sword or thrown into the rivers. Finally, the decree was given to burn them at the stake. These persecutions continued until the time of Huss. When he was dying in 1394 he told his followers: “Salvation [is] only to be found by faith in the crucified Savior. The rage of the enemies of truth now prevails against us, but it will not be forever; there shall arise one from among the common people , without sword or authority, and against him they shall not be able to prevail.” Javonius was protected by Emperor Charles IV, and enlighten ruler who was influenced by Javonius and greatly advanced education and religious enlightenment in Bohemia.
1373		John Huss	Huss was born of very poor parents in Hussinetz, which he took for his name. After he finished the local school, his mother took him to Prague to the cathedral school, where he earned the B.A., Th.B., and M.A. degrees. His lectures made him famous and after finished his studies, entered the church. He came to the attention of the king, Wenceslaus. He was a dedicated papist. He believe firmly that grace came through the church. In 1393 he had gone to confession in Prague at the Church of St. Peter and had given his last money to his confessor and took part in processions to gain absolution for his sins. He afterwards bitterly repented of this superstition.
1400		Jerome of Prague	Jerome returned from England, bringing the writings of Wycliffe. Huss had read the philosophical writings of Wycliffe, but did not know theological writings. They transformed him and Bohemia.
1402		John Huss	1. Huss’s true career began with his appointment as preacher at the Chapel of Bethlehem in Prague. A citizen who provided that sermons must be preached in the language of the people had founded the church in 1392. 2. Prague was then in terrible spiritual condition from the highest nobles to the lowest of the commoners. Huss was like a pillar of strength, and gained much knowledge and experience in his study of the Scriptures. It was said that he restored the knowledge of the Scriptures to the people of Bohemia. 3. Huss became acquainted with the teachings of Wycliffe and admired them. He learned to place the authority of the Scriptures above the authority of the church, and so embraced the fundamental principle of Protestantism. All other dogmas of Rome he still believed at this time. 4. In 1382, Richard II of England had married Anne of Bohemia, the daughter of Charles IV. This brought correspondence between England and Bohemia. Anne died in 1394 and her ladies in waiting and other courtiers had to return to Bohemia. They also brought with them the writings of John Wycliffe. Wycliffe had died in England in 1324, but his testimony would live on in Bohemia and that nation would nurture these ideas until the coming of Luther.
The Ideas of Wycliffe that would bear fruit in Bohemia and the Reformation 1. The church was corrupted by wealth and power and must return to the simplicity and poverty of the early church. 2. The pope was antichrist. 3. The Bible, not the church, was the only rule of faith. The only bible was the Latin Vulgate which Jerome had translated from the Hebrew and Greek. 4. The Bible must be translated into the language of the people. Wycliffe did this, but he only translated the Latin into English. 5. Wycliffe’s followers were known as Lollards. They denounced the pope and clergy, practiced poverty, and acknowledged the Bible as the only standard of doctrine. 6. Rome and the English clergy and government persecuted the Lollards without mercy. From one end of England to the other they were burnt at the stake. The persecution continued well into the 14^th century. Wycliffe himself lived under the protection of the Black Prince and died in peace, although out of favor with the church, about 50 years before the birth of Huss. The persecution was successful and eventually Lollardism was snuffed out in England. But it lingered on in the attitudes and subconscious thoughts of the English people until the coming of the Reformation in the days of Henry VIII. It flourished in Bohemia in the century before the Reformation.

Main source is J. A. Wylie’s The History of the Reformation.

Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia together made up the nation of Czechoslovakia which broke apart after the end of the Cold War. Bohemia and Moravia now are known as the Czech Republic