
              JOHN HUSS: Czech Martyr to Freedom 

                   ELVIO SCIUBBA, 33, GC 
               Past Sovereign Grand Commander 
               of The Supreme Council of Italy 
            Via XX Settembre 44, 00187 Rome, Italy 


    ON NOVEMBER 17, 1990, in a solemn yet joyous ceremony, 
the Grand Lodge of Czechoslovakia was reactivated. At the 
same moment in the same place, Hradcany Castle in Prague, 
President George Bush was meeting with the newly elected 
Czech president, Vaclav Havel, to cement ties of 
international friendship and to promote the advance of 
liberty following Czechoslovakia's revolutionary break with 
Communism and the Soviet Union. 

   Nearly one year later to the day, on November 23, 1991, 
The Supreme Councils of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were 
restored in a stirring ceremony conducted by Sov Gr Cmdr 
C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33, at the historic Convent of St. 
Agnes in Prague. See related features "Sound No Uncertain 
Trumpet", and "Masonic Dawn in Eastern Europe". 

   These three great events - one political, two Masonic - 
are not unique in the history of Czechoslovakia. Freedom is a 
centuries-old tradition of which these incidents are only the 
most recent. 

   This fact was brought home to the members of the American 
delegation by the reopening of the Czechoslovakian Grand 
Lodge during their visit in 1990 to Prague. It was my 
privilege to accompany the delegation from Zurich, 
Switzerland, to Prague and to tour that lovely capital, often 
called the "Golden City," with Sov Gr Cmdr C. Fred 
Kleinknecht, 33, The Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite of 
Freemasonry, 33, S.J.; H. Douglas Lemons, 33, SGIG in 
California, Grand Master of Ceremonies of The Supreme 
Council, S.J., and Past Grand Master of Masons of California; 
and Bro Arnold Hermann, 32, KCCH, of the Long Beach, 
California, Scottish Rite Bodies. 

   During our walking tour of Prague's historic old city 
section, we came upon an epic monument dedicated to John 
Huss, a religious reformer whose eventful life and final 
martyrdom changed the course of Czech history. To me there 
seemed a direct link across the centuries from this national 
hero's tragic death by burning at the stake on July 6, 1415, 
to the events of November 17, l990, and November 23, 1991. 

   Each event is a landmark in the history of human progress. 
Each should remind us during this month and especially on 
July 4th, the birth of American freedom, that the elemental 
urge toward liberty is a force of massive energy. However 
brutally suppressed, it will break free and bring us back, as 
individuals and nations, to one great truth: man is born and 
must ever live free. 

   In recognition of this fact and of the role John Huss 
played in the pageant of world liberation, I offer this brief 
sketch of his life and accomplishment. 

   Born of peasant stock in 1369 in Husinec, Bohemia (hence 
his name), John Huss used his keen mind to overcome early 
hardships and enter the University of Prague at the age of 
17. At first prone to the typical frivolities of student 
life, Huss was soon drawn to the study of theology, 
experienced a religious commitment, was ordained a priest in 
the Roman Catholic Church in l400, and was dean of Prague 
University's philosophical faculty by l401. 

   Two influences then changed his life forever. Attracted by 
the reformist teaching of John Wycliffe in England, Huss 
began to assert the supreme authority of the Bible and its 
role as a path to personal salvation, especially when made 
available to the people in their native language rather than 
Latin. Huss, in fact, preached and wrote in Czech, always 
stressing the role of faith in salvation while also 
questioning burdensome church land taxes and the sale of 
indulgences. 

   Secondly, due to his love of the land and people, Huss 
became in volved in politics and supported Emperor Wenceslas 
IV, who represented Czech national aspirations, against 
German elements in Bohemia. 

   The situation was made even more volatile when the 
archbishop of Prague, Huss' superior, opposed Wenceslas. Add 
to this a rivalry between Pope Gregory XII and anti-pope 
Benedict XIII, as well as the subsequent rise of an anti-
pope, John XXIII. Denying the infallibility of an immoral 
pope, Huss was excommunicated and the city of Prague 
threatened by a papal interdiction. To rescue his beloved 
city from disaster, Huss retired to the country in a castle 
near Tabor, supposedly to live the rest of his life in peace 
and obscuriy. There, however, Huss gained even more adherents 
and prominence through the power of his writings which were 
in both Latin and Czech and thus available to the people. 

   Summoned to the church Council of Constanze "to justify 
himself before all men," Huss was promised a safe conduct. 
The opportunity to defend himself was, however, a trap. He 
was arrested, confined, tried, and convicted of heresy.  
Though offered the option of life imprisonment, he would not 
recant. On July 6, 1415, praying with a loud voice until 
choked by flames, John Huss was burned at the stake. 

   Moments before his death, upon seeing an old peasant 
bringing a faggot to throw on the pile, Huss exclaimed "O 
holy simplicity!" How ironic that a fellow countryman blinded 
by a church-taught faith should contribute to the death of 
John Huss, a man who fought for freedom of faith for all! 

   Though not successful in his lifetime, just 43 years after 
Huss' death, the Hussite ruler Giorgio Podebray ascended the 
throne of Bohemia. As a result, many of the social, 
political, and religious reforms advocated by Huss were 
implemented, and today both the Czech nation and church rank 
Huss among their founders and greatest leaders. 

   Not, of course, a Mason, John Huss was, nevertheless, a 
forerunner of intellectual enlightenment in Europe. 
Historically, the great tide of reform flowed from Wycliffe, 
through Huss, to Luther. And it is in part from this 
unshackling of the mind and soul of man that Masonry finds 
its wellspring and inspiration. In John Huss we see a man as 
dedicated as Freemasonry to the liberation of humankind from 
intolerance and tyranny. 

   Today, with the burgeoning of freedom throughout Eastern 
Europe and, in particular, the restoration of The Supreme 
Councils of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, we witness a 
result John Huss undoubtedly would have approved and blessed!     

