The Czech priest and early church reformer Jan Hus was burned at the
stake on July 6, 1415. Influenced by the radical views of John Wycliffe,
Hus had openly suspected the papacy represented the power of
Antichrist.
After Hus' execution, his growing number of followers in Bohemia were strengthened in their views. The Hussite Nicholas of Dresden, to take one example, specifically linked the papacy with Antichrist in his popular book "The Old Color and the New".
Between 1420 and 1431 the Church would launch a
series of largely failed crusades against the Hussites. (Actually, the Hussites were defeated in the field - but the counterrevolutionary reaction against them "failed" in the sense that most Czechs remained divorced from the Church up until the larger Protestant reform movement swept Europe a century later. For more on the
Hussite Wars, and the Hussite splinter group known as the Taborites, see May 30).
