John Huss of Prague was martyred on July 6, 1415 in Constance. He was there on trial at the Council of Constance.

He was promised safe conduct, and that was revoked. He was imprisoned for many months before his emaciated body was ordered to march to the spot where he was burned at the stake.

He was not Prague's only martyr. Another martyr from Prague was Jerome of Prague. Jerome was born in 1379 in Prague. He was a student at Charles University.

He later traveled all the way to Oxford to study, and there he encountered the teachings of Wycliffe.

He was quite the parapetetic student, and so after Oxford he went on to Europe's leading universities. He studied at Paris, then at Cologne, then at Heidelberg.

He seemed to be one who liked to collect master's degrees, and he was collecting master's degrees from all of these universities.

He even traveled all the way to Jerusalem in 1403.

In 1410 the Pope issued a papal bull outlawing Wycliffe's writings. This would be used against Jerome of Prague. At the time in 1410 he was in Vienna, and he was arrested.

He escaped, and he made his way back to Prague. At the heart of Jerome's teaching was the question of authority.

This of course prefigured the Reformation's emphasis on Soloscriptura. That is the idea of scripture alone as the church's authority versus scripture and tradition.

Jerome, like the reformers who had come a full century after him, believed that the teachings of the Bible could be directly read, directly studied, and should be directly obeyed by every Christian.

He did not see the need for the councils and church authority to work its way in between the Christian and the Bible.

So a full century before the reformers were emphasizing and boldly declaring Soloscriptura Jerome of Prague was doing exactly that, and for that he was condemned.

Now when Hus left Prague for the Council of Constance, this was in October of 1414. Jerome vowed that should things go awry for Hus, that Jerome even risking harm to his own body would join him.

Hus pleaded with Jerome not to do so, but Jerome made the vow nevertheless.

Well, things did go awry for Hus, he was imprisoned, and by the spring of 1415 it looked like he would be destined to be martyred.

And so out of loyalty to the truth, then out of loyalty to his brother and arms, John Hus, Jerome voluntarily went to Constance.

He arrived in April of 1415. He was imprisoned for many, many months. He was cruelly tortured and he was subjected to numerous mock trials.

As mentioned, it was in 1415 that Hus was martyred. During that time Jerome of Prague was imprisoned in Constance.

He would go on to suffer even more months long after Hus's trial. At one point Jerome did recant.

He had been tortured, he had been hung by his heels for a significant amount of time, and after that time Jerome did recant his views.

But he later repented of his recantation, and he once again affirmed what would be considered heretical views by his church.

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