for his own discernment—“then he is a true Christian, if he does not act the way that Christ had ordered he is false.”63 This invitation illustrates Hus’s conviction about the importance of the Scriptures in the life of the laity. However, it is a deeply unsettling proposition. In effect, Hus gave the laity the license to judge the clergy’s spiritual mandate and to decide for themselves whether they would recognize (and obey) it or not.
Hus’s status as a reformer is unassailable. His preaching marks him (and others in his generation) as a pro-reform cleric. But laity existed as a kind of afterthought in this pro-reform world. What kind of action or behavior marked them as being in favor of reform? Hus was the first to stir the laity into (what he considered) reform action by giving them a discernible identity: attendance at Bethlehem, willingness to ditch clerics seen as corrupt or immoral, disobedience of commands seen as unjust, and loyalty to himself. This was a way of being and of doing that distinguished them from those who were less committed to the goals of reform. The following sections will explore the ways in which Hus used different vernacular media to persuade the laity to take his side over that of the authorities.
The Speaking Walls of Bethlehem: Exhorting the Laity to Dissent
The pulpit in Bethlehem Chapel was crucial to Hus’s work as a preacher.64 But the chapel’s physical space had another function: its decoration and configuration underscored the message contained in the daily sermons, first of compliance and later of dissent.65 Probably the most surprising feature of the chapel’s interior design is that three texts, rather than images, served as the main focus of the chapel’s decorative program.66 It is possible that images also adorned Bethlehem’s walls but this is not entirely clear.67 All three of the texts now appear on the walls of the reconstructed chapel. What is important for our analysis, and what is not immediately clear from the modern appearance of the chapel, is the order in which each of these texts was put up. From contemporary letters and chance remarks in other documents, it appears that the three texts were not all introduced at the same time. The vernacular confession of faith and the Ten Commandments came first, sometime in 1411 and were followed by Hus’s own treatise On the Six Errors (De sex erroribus), dealing with errors that Hus perceived as rampant in the church, a little over a year later.68
The timing and selection of the particular texts that would be inscribed on the walls of Bethlehem Chapel illustrate the increasing radicalization of John Hus’s reform initiative. The gradual rollout of these texts suggests that the chapel space reflected and responded to the unfolding historical events: whenever external developments forced the Hussites further into opposition, a new treatise was added to one of the walls inside the chapel. Furthermore, each successive message that was put up was more radical than the previous one, confirming the evidence gleaned elsewhere. As the ecclesiastical sanctions against him tightened, Hus responded by posting more polemical texts.
The shift in tone and message between the first set of texts, inscribed sometime in 1411, and the polemical treatise, inscribed contemporaneously or shortly after Hus’s exile in October 1412, bespeaks a massive change in strategy. The Ten Commandments and the confession of faith were inscribed in the vernacular and do not depart from the contemporary standard of orthodoxy. Their display served as a reminder of the essentials of the faith, fully in keeping with the chapel’s mission to advance the goals of lay catechesis, serve the spiritual needs of the Czech speakers in Prague, and promote interior conversion to Christ. The Ten Commandments, especially, were being increasingly displayed on tablets or walls in churches around Europe.
The confession of faith (credo) was not in any way controversial. It was said during the Latin celebration of the mass, but Hus wrote it out in the vernacular, to remind his followers what they held as most important. For an added effect, Hus changed the grammar in the credo, from the usual first person singular to a singular imperative, to convey the impression that he was addressing each of the individuals directly. Thus, the walls admonished those present to “believe,” as a command, “in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, and the communion of saints,” instead of the usual “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, and the communion of saints.” The entire confession of faith was retold in this way, commanding faith according to the belief of the church. Along with the Ten Commandments, also in the grammatical form of a singular imperative, the walls featured an unimpeachably orthodox exhortation to faith and set the rules of observance for the community of Czech faithful at Bethlehem. The writings on the walls served not as much as a reminder but rather as a command.
The remarkable thing about the writings that Hus commissioned to be put on the walls of his chapel, in addition to the fact that he selected textual ornamentation, is the fact that both texts appeared in the vernacular. This decision was a conscious, premeditated move, in keeping with the chapel’s mission, which was to serve the spiritual needs of the Czech-speaking population of Prague. This use of the vernacular would send a powerful message to all who came to hear Jan Hus preach. But the fact that the two texts were displayed in the Czech vernacular was important for other reasons as well. It signaled a tacit exclusion of those for whom the preaching space was not intended: the Germans. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, Prague had a sizable German community. Many Germans were associated with the royal court, others came by way of ecclesiastical and other appointments. Still others were descendants of German colonists, who had settled there back in the thirteenth century. The two linguistic groups generally coexisted peacefully, but resentment was at times felt toward the Germans, who despite being relative newcomers occupied many of the highest positions of authority in the state and the city. Many if not most citizens of Prague were probably functionally bilingual—business was conducted in both Czech and German—but even if the Germans were able to read the texts on the Bethlehem walls, the language would have signaled exclusion to them.
Although by 1411 Jan Hus was already calling for the reform of clerical life, the space where he preached did not contain any physical displays of his reform agenda. It was not until his excommunication and exile in October of 1412, which followed the pope’s ban on preaching in Bethlehem Chapel, that Hus added a polemical treatise, written in Latin, to the wall decorations. In comparison with the earlier inscriptions, this later one, made in Latin, was highly polemical. It is this move from the uncontroversial to the polemical that signaled a shift in Hus’s view of his reforming mission to the laity.
And indeed, much had changed since 1411. One of the most important domestic developments had been the king’s decision to support Pope John XXIII’s policy of selling indulgences in order to finance a crusading expedition against a political adversary. King Wenceslas, who for reasons of his own needed to maintain his alliance with John XXIII, allowed the collection of indulgences to begin in his territory. In response, Jan Hus and his followers spoke up sharply and repeatedly against this decision. Ultimately, Hus’s opposition to the king would amount to political suicide, but that would not become clear until a few years later when Hus’s falling out with the king deprived him of a patron who could have protected him from condemnation at the Council of Constance in 1415. However, back in the year 1412, Jan Hus was not to be deterred by the loss of his most powerful ally. In fact, he attempted to compensate for it by recruiting an entirely new constituency, the people of Prague.
After October 1412, Hus began deliberately to mobilize the laity in support of his interpretation of what was wrong with the church and commissioned his treatise On the Six Errors to be inscribed on the walls of Bethlehem Chapel. The new inscription was a declaration of war on corrupt clerics and the church that shielded them, but also a veiled declaration of his own innocence in the curia’s continuing lawsuit against him. The treatise, written and displayed in Latin (though a vernacular version did circulate), was entirely composed of quotations from patristic authors addressing six errant practices that Hus saw plaguing the contemporary church.69 In the treatise, Hus refuted the claims that priests could create God (that is, in the sacrament of the Eucharist) and forgive sins against others. He also warned against holding belief in the Virgin Mary, the saints, and the popes in the same sense as in God. Here he drew on Augustine’s distinction
