Famous scholar, forthright and fearless preacher, excommunicated and persecuted by a corrupt Roman Catholic Church and eventually burned at the stake after a contrived and farcical trial, John Hus of Bohemia is no minor historical character. Like Wyclif, his influential English counterpart, Hus can fairly be described as a vital forerunner of the Reformation. Even today his influence is widely felt in the modern-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, where, despite Russian domincance since 1948, he is still thought of as one of the founding-fathers of the present language and nation.