Jan Hus (John Huss) (1415)

Priest and Martyr. A real hero of the proto-Reformation, a critic of clerical abuses and a brave bloke of real principle. He died still demanding anyone prove him wrong from Scripture - having been betrayed by a protector on the dubious grounds that promises made to heretics didn't count.

Jan Hus was burned for, among other things, criticising ecclesiastical abuses. Ironically, given the Catholic Church of the time had a few problems. For instance, it had called the Council of Constance to deal with the thorny issue that it had three Popes Which is always a bit of an issue when you're only supposed to have the one. I mean, it's all very well having a spare, but two Popes too many? While two of them agreed to step down, one of them ended up being found guilty of heresy, simony, schism and immorality. He got away with just imprisonment - obviously technical infringements. Not so Jan H, who ended up burned at the stake for just the one out of four. Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, I reckon.

So today we're going to be celebrating Jan Hus and his successors. The Hussites had no less than 5 Crusades declared against them and fought the Catholic Church to a standstill. We may not know much about heresy but we do like an underdog.

(We'll also remember John Fisher and Thomas More today - we like to be even-handed in our dislike of anyone being put to death for their religious beliefs or lack of them. And we do loathe Henry VIII. Although More had a few Protestants burnt in his time, so he's not getting the same celebration as Johnny H. I mean - forgive and forget, but still...)

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"On the eve of the great Jubilee, I feel the need to express a profound regret for the cruel death inflicted on Jan Hus and the consequent wound, the source of conflicts and divisions, which were opened in the spirits and the hearts of the Bohemian people..." - Bl. Pope John Paul II, 1999