Whose Hus? Confronting the Challenges of Interpreting Jan Hus after 600 Years

Abstract

"If you repeat a lie a thousand times it becomes truth." From almost the moment he perished in the flames of the pyre, Jan Hus became an icon. He would become the most famous Czech. To the medieval church, he was a man of damnable memory, an icon of opprobrium. To his admirers and followers, he was a holy man, a martyr of truth, an icon who transcended the kingdoms of the dead and was soon established as a religious, social, cultural, and national icon. It would not take long for the icon to be transformed into a legend. Icons by nature are sacrosanct, whether they are religious images, contemporary entertainers, sports figures, or heroes of the past. Once iconic status is achieved, the icons are generally not open to criticism and even probing investigation of them is strictly circumscribed by the keepers and protectors of the icon. Those who tamper with the icon often come under suspicion. With that caveat in mind, institutionalized, fossilized, thinking about Jan Hus and Hussite history should be challenged. It is long overdue for scholars to abandon the pleasant and familiar poetry of the legend of Jan Hus and begin anew to engage in perverse readings and perverse reconsiderations of Jan Hus.