The author makes a comparative research of the activity of Jan Hus and Martin Luther. In the first part of the book he describes the life of both reformers. The second part gives analysis of their ideas; the author shows in what measure the reformers were adequate to their time, and what was the scale of their support. For the deeper understanding of those aspects, N. tells about the religious moods before the dissemination of the ideas of Hus and Luther.

He starts from the early Middle Ages, when the system of bishops had been organized on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire – the author makes a survey not only from ecclesiastic, but also from social and political point of view. His analysis of the premises is going up to the fifteenth century. He put a special attention of the Council of Constance; he also studies a discussion on the translation of the imperial title from ‘Greeks’ to ‘Germans’ with the Papal support. That idea was criticized by Luther.

In the second part of the book, N. Turns to the topic of views of Hus and Luther at the people. He saw the difference between the reformers in their approach to the ‘national’ matters, in spite of big similarity in many other points. Besides, he mentions the influence of the ideas of Wycliffe at Hus. The author, however, was not inclined to overestimate that influence, also mentioning some Orthodox influence as well.

He argues, that the ideas of Hus and his followers were known in the Holy Roman Empire as early as in the fifteenth century – not only in the university milieu, but in the Rhine Region, where large communities of Taborites existed. He describes a complicated view of Luther at Hus: from one hand, he tried to keep some distance from Hus not to be accused in heresy (for instance, at the disputation against Eck in 1519); from the other hand, their attitude to the papal See was quite close.