Madam, – Frank McNally (Irishman’s Diary, November 11th) suggests that Martin Luther (1483-1546) was the founder of Protestantism, when that title properly belongs to Jan Hus (1372-1415), whose campaign against Papal abuses and various false doctrines led to his execution by those who wished to maintain the status quo. Hus and his followers were deeply influenced by the English biblical scholar, John Wycliffe. They formed formal Christian communities outside the Roman Catholic church, in their homeland of Bohemia, in the Czech Republic.
The word Protestant emerges from the Latin pro-testari, which means positive public declaration of a position and seems to have no particular association with Luther. There can be no doubt that Luther did not “found” Protestantism. – Yours, etc,