Sigismund
King of the Romans and of Hungary, protector of the Council of Constance. He gave Jan Hus a safe-conduct to attend it and was presiding when Hus was condemned and led away to be burned.
Sigismund styles himself king of the Romans and king of Hungary in the safe-conduct he issued for Jan Hus at Speyer on 18 October 1414, which took Hus under his own and the empire’s protection (Peter of Mladoňovice, Relatio pp. 237–238). The Council of Constance calls him its defender and protector and looked to him to see its decisions carried out (Council of Constance, session 14).
Hus came to think that the king had abandoned him and wrote that his word was no more to be trusted than his safe-conduct (Hus, Letters letter 63, pp. 229–230). According to Peter of Mladoňovice, Sigismund presided, wearing his crown, at the session of 6 July 1415; Hus reminded the assembly that he had come with the safe-conduct of the king there present, and when the sentence had been passed it was Sigismund who told Duke Ludwig to take him (Peter of Mladoňovice, Relatio pp. 316–321). See the Council of Constance and the Burning of Jan Hus.
In the timeline
- 1414 to 1418, firm dateThe Council of Constance and the Burning of Jan Hus
A general council ends the papal schism, declares that even a pope must obey it, and orders councils to meet at fixed intervals. It also tries the Czech preacher Jan Hus, who had come under the king’s safe-conduct, and hands him over to be burned on 6 July 1415.
- 1419 to 1436, firm dateThe Hussites and the Compacts of Basel
After the burning of Jan Hus, Praguers and Taborites defend the lay chalice in arms. A crusade proclaimed by Martin V fails before Prague in 1420, the city states its demands in Four Articles, and in 1436 legates of the Council of Basel concede the chalice at Jihlava.