Hus and Luther
By Rick Steves
Traveling through Europe you realize that most of your sights deal with an age when a sin was a crime and a crime was a sin, when princes were bishops, and when there was only one acceptable church — the Catholic (literally universal) one. Part of the humanism that came with the Renaissance was people taking possession of the word of God from the Church. And eventually the concept of a separation of church and state was embraced. But these changes did not come easily. In your travels you'll encounter lots of political movers and religious shakers like Luther in Germany and Hus in the Czech Republic.
The Roman Catholic church — in many ways the administrative ghost of the Roman Empire — is the only organization to survive from ancient times. For over a thousand years it enforced its notion that the Vatican was the sole interpreter of God's word on earth and heaven was open only to Roman Catholics.
Jan Hus lived and preached one hundred years before Martin Luther. Both were college professors as well as priests. Both drew huge public crowds as they preached in their university chapels. Both promoted a local religious autonomy. Luther and Hus each helped establish their national languages. (Hus gave the Czechs their unique accents to enable the letters to fit the sounds.) And both got in big trouble. While Luther just got in hot water, Hus was actually burned. Being German, Luther had powerful friends — so killing him was complicated politically. And living after Gutenburg, Luther was able to spread his message more cheaply and effectively thanks to the new printing press.
While Hus may have softened Rome's grip on Christianity, Luther managed to orchestrate the Reformation. Today, both are revered as national heroes as well as religious reformers.
For lots more information, check out our best-selling Rick Steves' Guidebooks — or join us on one of our free-spirited tours in Europe.