Hominis Aevum

Diebold Schilling the Elder, Spiezer Chronik (1485): Burning of Jan Hus at the stake

… but prior to that they placed on his head a paper crown for vilification, saying to him among other things: “We commit your soul to the devil!” And he, joining his hands and lifting his eyes to heavens, said: “And I commit it to the most merciful Lord Jesus Christ on account of me, a miserable wretch, bore a much heavier and harsher crown of thorns. Being innocent, he was deemed deserving of the most shameful death. Therefore I, a miserable wretch and sinner, will humbly bear this much lighter, even though vilifying crown for His name and truth.”

The paper crown was round almost eighteen inches high, and on it were shown three horrible devils about to seize a soul and to tear it among themselves with claws. The inscription on that crown describing his guilt read: “This is a heresiarch.”

Jan Hus was a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague. He is considered the first Church reformer (living prior to Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli).

He is famed for having been burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church, including those on ecclesiology, the Eucharist, and other theological topics. Hus was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century, and his teachings had a strong influence on the states of Europe, most immediately in the approval for the existence of a reformist Bohemian religious denomination, and, more than a century later, on Martin Luther himself.

quote source:

Eyewitness report from the event site : How was executed Jan Hus

Peter from Mladonovic: Passion-play of Master Jan Hus

Source: columbia.edu