Hussite

views updated May 23 2018

Hussite a member or follower of the religious movement begun by the Bohemian religious reformer John Huss (c.1372–1415). A rector of Prague University, he supported the views of Wyclif, attacked ecclesiastical abuses, and was excommunicated in 1411. He was later tried and burnt at the stake.

After Huss's execution the Hussites took up arms against the Holy Roman Empire and demanded a set of reforms that anticipated the Reformation. Most of the demands were granted (1436), and a Church was established that remained independent of the Roman Catholic Church until 1620. An early Protestant group that arose among the Hussites, the Bohemian Brethren, is thought to have formed the basis of the Moravian Church.

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