John Hus

The name John Hus is not well known to many modern day non-Reformed Protestants but perhaps we can think of Hus as the proto-type Martin Luther.  Indeed, much of the situation was the same with Hus as it would be with Luther except the catalyst for Hus seemed to be the turmoil being caused by men who were competing to claim the office of Pope.  Hus, the master of Charles University in Prague Czechoslovakia at first attempted to remain neutral in the fight but as time went on it was looking more & more like the entire papal system & perhaps Roman Catholicism itself was a wrong representation of Christianity.

Hus drew heavily from the English Reformer, John Wycliffe, sometimes preaching Wycliffe's writings verbatim.  Hus continued to become more bold with his admonishment of the Church, bringing up the same objections uttered by Wycliffe & that would be uttered by Luther over 100 years later.