The Roman Catholic churched played a political role that lead to a religious schism in Bohemia. There were two rivaling popes at the time that lead to disputes regarding piousness and political opinion. Another reason for the political upheaval and unrest in Bohemia was the political dispute between the Germans and the Czechs. Their rivalry was described as being comparable too the Jews and the Samaritans. Charles would not live to see the formation of his church in Bohemia, which became the first Roman Catholic University and one of the biggest at that. Within the university the was a ratio of 3 to 1 of Czech students and this caused the local citizens to Bohemia to feel uneasy. The classes were split up due to the languages that students spoke. The King encouraged people to think critically when it came to matters of religious disputes. France became and influential factor that effected the civil unrest in Bohemia. Due to this relationship it open the doors for influence from a wide array of different papal groups. Many citizens at the time desired this papal influence from France. The university was seen as the main steeple in political and intellectual debate. Many different students would debate theologically. This may have lead to a religious upheaval along with heresies sprouting up. Poor leadership from King Wenceslaus IV only fueled all of these political and local problems, after the death of his father King Charles IV the schism in Bohemia the same year the crown was surrendered to Wenceslaus. Wenceslaus displayed such poor leadership qualities that his brother nearly took over Bohemia, his own subjects imprisoned him for a period of time, and finally he was mocked over his rivalry with Count Rupert of Palestine. The main difference between the two royal rivals was that Rupert understood what it meant to persecute heresy, and the local people of Bohemia back him. The stood behind him because he healed their religion to a high enough esteem to seek out heretics and persecute them. The unfortunate cause of the spread of heresy in Bohemia and local unrest was due to money. If you had too little wealth in Bohemia then you sought help from the church and its clergymen. This put them in an awkward spot because they wanted to help you but they also needed to pay for them to survive as well. If you had too much money then you would see much fighting among other families for political power and positions in the church. It seems that no one could be happy with the amount of money that they had.

Hus criticisms of the church mainly involved a pious lifestyle along with his emphasis on scripture being the authority of the church. Hus didn’t approve of the Church’s powerful stance when it came to forgiving sins so he offered up an alternative view. He tried to get the church to understand that he believed that God was the only person that could forgive sins. He said that in God alone sins could be forgiven and people could go to heaven. This posed a problem for the church due to the fact that the church wanted more power. Having God be the only forgiver of sins negated the Church’s quest for political strength and lead to the demonization of Hus. Hus was ridiculed, humiliated, and excommunicated from the church eventually being burned at the stake. Hus was bold enough to make claims against the clergy men of the church simply stating that the church and clergymen were wrong and that there should be no reason to follow someone who taught a false doctrine and an incorrect view of Christianity. To demonize Hus further during his rigorous trials they brought out teachers, priests, and clergymen to demonize him further. They all stated that he went against the faith and that he was an outstanding heretic against the Church. Medieval heresy was a site where opponents engaged in conflict over power and authority. The church wanted more power and more influence throughout the medieval era. Anyone who saw the flaw in the church was deemed a heretic, ultimately this lead to many heretics being named and prosecuted under the name of righteousness. Any type of teacher that went against the Roman Catholic church was thought to mainly be seeking power, in the case of Hus I believe that he only sought what he felt was right. He sought the worship of the correct scriptures along with pointing out the flaw in the Church.