Biography of John Huss

John Huss was one of the principle Christian leaders responsible for helping to ignite the reformation, as he was a proponent of John Wycliffe, who is largely credited with kindling the flame which let to the sweeping changes in Christendom.

As a Catholic priest he attempted to reform the Medieval church, attempting to engender a discourse over the writings and assertions of Wycliffe, even though he didn't necessarily agree with everything Wycliffe wrote. He was adamant that they weren't to be cast off as casually as they had been by Catholic leaders.

Those believing in the teachings of Huss were called Hussites in that day, and later on those that were called the Moravian Church by outsiders considered themselves spiritual heirs of Huss.

Among other things, Huss battled against the assertion by Catholic clergy that they were the only ones making up the church. Huss and Wycliffe both blasted this as a falsehood. That easily can be seen as a precursor to one of the main themes of the reformation: the priesthood of all believers.

The priesthood of all believers refers to more than that of course, but to be even considered a priesthood, ordinary believers first had to be recognized as officially part of the church.

Huss also spoke against the immorality of Catholic leaders and their love for money by charging for the services offered by priests, such as "confession, for mass, for the sacrament, for indulgences, for churching a woman, for a blessing, for burials, for funeral services and prayers," said Huss, according to Macek, 16.

Below is a film biography of Huss and his battle against the excesses and immorality of the Catholic church leaders of his day.

Huss, who is also called Jan Huss outside the West, was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415.

Huss and Wycliffe are two of the major influences on Martin Luther who is largely credited with sparking the reformation.

Biography of John Huss

Moravians

The Moravians, because of their having a well-documented history, are a little more complex to write about.  

They, like Jan Hus, centered on the reality that Christ lived within you and started and centered His work there.  

These, like those before them, had the strong desire to return to the simple ways of the early church. They had grown weary of the excesses of the institutional church and clergy.  

One of the unique features and developments of the Moravians was their living together. In a number of different times and places throughout their history they had started Christian communities from scratch.
 
Like many people today that are hearing the call to move into neighborhoods together, they, 100s of years ago, saw and responded to the same things.  
Many times when you read of their history you read about houses for brothers, sisters and families. There was this wonderful, spontaneous way of living and life in Christ that is recorded for us.  

While they are not the only ones to do this, they probably have more records of it than any other group of people from that time and before. Their writings and history survived the attempt at destroying it that had obliterated the history of other groups from earlier times.  

Another unique aspect of their lives that was recorded later on was that of starting to bring the gospel to others in a way that hadn’t been attempted before. They eventually reached out to the world in ways that were amazing for the small numbers that they existed in.  

Many of those who went to share the gospel died from disease. This didn’t deter these tremendous believers. With continuous union with Christ that is reputed to not have stopped for over a hundred years, day and night, they did what nobody before them had done.  

One of the amazing testimonies that they had was that many of those involved with the protestant reformation made the comment that they wished that those they had the experience which could even come close to their depth and devotion to Christ.
 
Those of the reformation, in many areas, would have done much better to follow the example of the lives of these simple believers, than the example of those that followed.