July 6th marked the 601st
anniversary of the martyrdom of Jan Hus, the Czech reformer who was condemned
by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake as a heretic on July 6,
1415. One of the charges against Hus
involved his vehement condemnation of the sale of indulgences by emissaries of
the antipope John XXIII (who should not be confused with the 20th
century pope of the same name) as a means of fundraising to finance John’s
struggle against his rivals. Hus argued
that the Czech people were being exploited for John’s private benefit.
The complex theology supporting the
issuance of indulgences had been developed in the 11th and early 12th
centuries as the concept of Purgatory became more popular throughout Western
European Christianity. At first
indulgences were granted by the pope, or less often by archbishops and other
church leaders, to those who had expressed contrition for their sins and done
some act of penitence. The belief was
that the indulgence would lessen the time that a soul spent in Purgatory,
hastening the attainment of eternal salvation.
