We commemorate today the anniversary of John Hus death at the Council of Constance in 1415.

John Hus (Jan Hus) was Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the inspiration of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation.

Here are two pictures of the Bethlehem Church in Prague, where he preached in the Czech language.

And here is the final declaration of faith by Hus, just 5 days before his death. It is a powerful testimony of faith, and his dying words.

I, Jan Hus [John Hus], in hope a priest of Jesus Christ, fearing to offend God, and fearing to fall into perjury, do hereby profess my unwillingness to abjure all or any of the articles produced against me by false witnesses. For God is my witness that I neither preached, affirmed, nor defended them, though they say that I did. Moreover, concerning the articles that they have extracted from my books, I say that I detest any false interpretation which any of them bears. But inasmuch as I fear to offend against the truth, or to gainsay the opinion of the doctors of the Church, I cannot abjure any one of them. And if it were possible that my voice could now reach the whole world, as at the Day of Judgment every lie and every sin that I have committed will be made manifest, then would I gladly abjure before all the world every falsehood and error which I either had thought of saying or actually said!

I say I write this of my own free will and choice.

Written with my own hand, on the first day of July.