FASCINATING PEOPLE, Part 17.

Religious thinker, philosopher and reformer, Jan Hus was burned at the steak in 1415, in the German city of Konstanzi. The Catholic church pronounced Hus a heretic, and excommunicated him in 1411. After five centuries, Pope John Paul II voiced “a deep regret for his cruel death”, and proposed an investigation to see if Hus can be freed from the charge of being a heretic.
Hus played a key role in the Protestant movement, and his teachings strongly effected European countries, and especially Martin Luther. He is responsible for many written works of Czech literature. He implemented diacritic symbols into the Czech language, according to which one symbol is added to one letter in the aim of easier reading. Despite the secular trend in the Czech republic, Jan Hus is considered to be a national hero today.