“Therefore, faithful Christian, seek the truth, listen to the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, tell the truth, defend the truth even to death.” (Jan Hus)

“The Christian life, then, is a battle so sharp and full of danger that effort can nowhere be relaxed without loss. I beseech Christ for this one thing only, that he will enable me to endure all things courageously, and that he break me as a potter's vessel or make me strong, as it pleases him.” (Ulrich Zwingli)

Theologian and reformer John Wycliffe never had the opportunity to take his doctrines outside of his native England, but he could never have imagined that his teachings would one day travel as far as 920 miles east to Bohemia.

One curious mind, however, was supposedly so inspired by Wycliffe that he was at once galvanized into action. Instead of simply parroting Wycliffe's seditious ideas, he launched an entire movement and remained fervidly true to his cause, even when his own life was at stake. This fearless firebrand was none other than Jan Hus, the father of the Bohemian Reformation and one of the most infamous heretics in all of Europe.

If Wycliffe was the morning star of the reformation, Hus was the guiding star of the movement. Hus started as a Czech priest, but he quickly became notorious for debating several church doctrines such as the Eucharist, church ecclesiology, and many more topics. Today, he is viewed as a predecessor of the Lutherans, but the church viewed him as a threat, and the Catholics eventually engaged the followers of Hus (known as Hussites) in several battles in the early 15th century. Hus himself was burned at the stake in 1415, but his followers fought on in a series of battles known as the Hussite Wars, and Czechoslovakia’s inhabitants, by and large, remained Hussite afterward. About 100 years later, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli would help spark the Reformation across the continent.

On March 9, 1522, the first Sunday of Lent, Catholics across Europe ushered in a 40-day period of solemn penitence, self-imposed moderation, and spiritual discipline by marking crosses on their foreheads with ash-coated fingers. They dutifully adhered to the Lenten laws, immersing themselves in prayer, modulating their consumption of alcohol, and avoiding meat in preparation for the death and resurrection of Christ. Zwingli and the Swiss reformers embarked on a campaign to rid Zurich of all objects and new-age creeds spawned by humanity. Zwingli’s life was packed with portentous events, alarming twists and turns, and an unexpected ending, and through it all, he would have a profound impact on Christianity.

Jan Hus and Ulrich Zwingli: The Lives and Deaths of the Reformation’s Most Famous Martyrs chronicles the reformers’ ideas and the influence they had during and after their lives.