Jan Milic

Jan Milic

A pre-Hussite reform preacher and religious enthusiast, born at Kremsier in Moravia, died 29 June, 1374, at Avignon. From 1358-60 he was registrar and from 1360-2 corrector at the imperial chancery of Charles IV. In 1363 he was priest and canon, probably also archdeacon, at Prague; but towards the end of the same year he renounced all his dignities, began a life of extreme austerity and fearlessly denounced the vices of the clergy and the laity. At least once each day he preached at St. Nicholas's, later at St. Egid's in Prague, in Latin for ecclesiastics and in the Czech language for the laity. After the death of Conrad of Waldhausen in 1369 he preached daily at the cathedral in German. In the spring of 1367 he went to Rome where he was imprisoned by the Inquisition because he had declared to the people that Antichrist had arrived. During his imprisonment he wrote "Libellus de Antichristo", which he submitted to Pope Urban V, who upon his return from Avignon to Rome on 16 Oct., 1367, released him. In 1372 he founded at Prague a home for fallen women, which he called "Jerusalem". In 1373 the mendicants and the city clergy of Prague lodged twelve accusations against him with Pope Gregory XI at Avignon, whereupon he went to Avignon, was completely justified by the pope, and was even permitted to preach before the cardinals. There are extant in manuscript two collections of his Latin sermons, entitled "Gratia Dei" and "Abortivus". His "Libellus de Antichristo" was edited by Mencik in "Sitzungsberichte der böhmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften" (Prague, 1890), 328-336.

Vita venerabilis presbyteri Milicii prœlati ecclesiœ Pragensis, ed. EMLER, in Fontes rerum Bohem., I (1871), 401-36; PALACKY, Vorlãufer des Husitismus (Prague, 1869), 18-46; TOMEK, Dejepis Prahy, III, 2nd ed. (Prague, 1897), 178 sq.

MICHAEL OTT.