"Feel This!" Jan Hus and the Preaching of Reformation

Abstract

In his sermon for Palm Sunday 1406, in a moving display of oratory, the Prague priest Jan Hus enjoined his congregation neither simply to hear nor to know, but to feel the message. "He [Christ] puts death to flight, and restores us to life: Feel this! He was killed that he might make whole, he died that he might live: Feel this! He is spotted that he might cleanse: Feel this!" The repeated Czech equivalent of the Latin 'Hoc sentite' brought preacher, gospel and congregation together in a unique liturgical and spiritual relationship. Jan Hus has remained a contested figure of late medieval history. He is either heretic or saint, criminal or martyr, Czech hero or vilified outcast, profound thinker or plagiarizer. To this day he remains controversial. Whatever conclusions history may yet draw concerning this peasant from south Bohemia, Jan Hus was first and foremost a preacher.