A plethora of medieval churchly events on this day.
1381 The beginning of the English Peasant Rebellion
A frequent target of the rebels will be the rich churches and monasteries that have profited from the devastation caused by the arrival of the Black Death. A Lollard hedge priest named John Ball will give the most revolutionary speech of the Middle Ages when he asks peasants: “When Adam delved/ And Eve span/ Who was then the gentleman?”, implying that God’s original creation did not include kings or aristocrats.
1416 The Council of Constance burns Jerome of Prague for heresy
The Council, called to settle the problem of three simultaneous popes and the Hussite heresy, condemns the Czech reformer to death. Jerome had come to Constance in support of his mentor Jan Hus, but like Hus, was arrested and burnt despite an imperial safe-conduct.
1431 Joan of Arc is executed
Joan, a 19-year old peasant girl inspired the forces of the Dauphin Charles in their battle to expel the English from France. Taken prisoner by the Burgundians, she is turned over to the English who put her on trial at Rouen for witchcraft and transvestism. The rigged trial and her burning at the stake aroused much controversy. Twenty years later the Church annulled her conviction and in 1920 she was named one of the patron saints of France.
1434 The Battle of Lipany extinguishes the Hussite Rebellion
In 1419 a rebellion of the proto-Protestant Hussite reformers breaks out in the Czech lands. Significant military successes are won by the Taborites, the radical millenialist wing of the movement, using the tactic of the war wagon, a mobile battlefield artillery platform and fortress. The moderate Utraquist faction, willing to compromise with the established Church in return for a few reforms, combines with Catholic forces to defeat the Taborites.