CHAPTER II
HUSS AND THE BETHLEHEM CHAPEL
John Huss was born in Husinecz, a village in Southern Bohemia, near the: Bavarian frontier, about the year 1373, and died at the stake in Constance, July 6, 1415. The year 1369, which has sometimes been given as the year of Huss’s birth, seems to be too early, for it would necessitate Huss’s being thirty-two years old at the time of his ordination to the priesthood, the canonical age being twenty-five.[2] The exact day of Huss’s birth we have no means of determining, and the sixth of July, observed by the Catholic population in parts of Bohemia, seems to have been suggested by the day on which his death occurred. Usually he signed his name John Hus. In official documents it was given as Magister or even Doctor Johannes of Husinecz. The custom of associating the place of birth with the Christian name was common, as in the cases of John Wyclif, John Gerson and John Rokyzan. The Czech word hus means goose and it was made the occasion of many a pun by Huss himself as well as by his friends. A friend writing about him from Constance said that the Goose was not yet cooked and not afraid of being cooked, and
- ↑ The comparative, mundioris seems to indicate an advance upon Huss’s force of speech. A distinguished professor of Latin suggests the trsl. “a singularly pure life,” citing Cicero, Cato Major, who speaks of old age as loquacior, particularly talkative.
- ↑ Palacky and Tomek accept 1369, but Loserth, Wiclif and Hus, p. 67, Gillett and Lützow, 1373. Flajshans, p. 12, inclines to 1373, although he says the date may have been as late as 1376. Huss was baccalaureus, 1393, the required age being sixteen, Flajshans, p. 42, giving the different old spellings of Huss's name says he is called J. Huss de Hussinecz in a court document, June 2, 1402.
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