A Poor Student from Husinec
Jan Hus was born between about 1369 and 1372 in Husinec, a small market town in southern Bohemia, from which he took his name. His family was poor. He made his way to the university of Prague, founded in 1348, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1393 and his master's in 1396. He later admitted that as a young man he had wanted the priesthood for a comfortable living, fine clothes, and the respect it brought.
He was ordained a priest around 1400 and soon became dean of the arts faculty. In 1402 he was appointed preacher at the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, a large hall built in 1391 for preaching in the Czech language. There he preached to crowds of townspeople, scholars, and nobles, the queen among them, and there his own convictions deepened.
Loading the rest of this biography