Page "John of Nepomuk" Paragraph 24

According to some Protestant sources the figure of St. John Nepomuk is a legend due to Jesuits and its historical kernel is really Jan Hus, who was metamorphosed from a Bohemian Reformer into a Roman Catholic saint: the Nepomuk story would be based on Wenceslaus Hajek's blending of the Jan who was drowned in 1393 and the Jan who was burned in 1415.

The resemblances are certainly striking, extending to the manner of celebrating their commemorations.

But when the Jesuits came to Prague, the Nepomuk veneration had long been widespread ; and the idea of canonization originated in opposition not to the Hussites, but to Protestantism, as a weapon of the Counter-Reformation.

In the image of the saint which gradually arose, the religious history of Bohemia is reflected.