BX 4917 .G4 1864a v. 2 Gillett, Ezra Hall, 1823- 1875. 1 Life and times of John Huss^ or . Thp Rnhemi ?in v.;i THE LIFE AND TIMES JOHN HUSS; OR, THE lol^tmian ^rformatbtt THE FIFTEENTH CENTURT. E. H. GILLETT. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. SECOND EDITION, REVISED. BOSTON: GOULD AND LINCOLN 59 Washinoton St r Van der Hardt, iv. 329. cliurch was to be done away, the cel- « Becker says, I know not on what ibacy of the clergy must be given up authority, that Zabarella held that — p. 105. if one of the greatest scandals of the 8 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. I. who were kiudly disposed to him, or at least sought to save his life, there were some of no little influence. The presiding cardinal, John de Viviers of Ostia, treated him with humanity and kindness. There were strong inducements, not only in the hope of saving his life, but in the entreaties and persuasions of his friends, to lead Huss to adopt the form of re- cantation that had been draw^n up. But it was here, and in these very circumstances, that his character shone forth most brightly. He had no ambition to found a sect, or attain notoriety by putting forth new and sti-ange dogmas. His constant appeal — and this was his real crime in the eyes of the coun- cil that had judged the pope, and allowed no other being, human oi- divine, to share its tribunal — was to the word of God. Nobly did he exhibit, and he- roically did he adhere to that principle which was the stronghold, a century later, of the great German reformer. Huss could not accept the form of recantation drawn up for him, grateful as he expressed himself for the kindness by which it had been modified, if not dictated. He felt that to adopt it would be a compromise of principle. Calmly and clearly he stated his reasons for rejecting it: "My father," said he, in reply to the cardinal, "may the Almighty Father, most wise and holy, count you worthy the reward of eternal glory, through Jesus Christ. Most reverend father, I am truly grateful for your kind and fatherly favor. But I dare not submit, ac- cording to the tenor of this proposition made by me to the council. For in such a case I must needs con- Cn. I.] EEASONS FOE NOT ABJURING. 9 demn many truths, an act wliicli (as I have heard from their own lips) they call scandalous. Besides, through such an abjuration I must perjure myself by the confession that I have held errors. By these things should I give scandal to the people of God, \xho heard from me in my preaching that with which this would be inconsistent. If therefore Ele- azar, under the Old Testament, of whom we read in Maccabees, would not falsely confess that he had eaten meat by the law forbidden, lest he should sin against God, and leave an evil example to those that should come after him, — how shall I, a priest of the New Testament, although unworthy, for fear of a punishment which will soon be passed, consent, by a grievous sin, to transgress the law of God, — first, by departing from the truth ; secondly, by commit- ting perjury ? In truth, it is better for me to die, than, by flying from a momentary pain, fall into the hands of God, and perhaps have fire and everlasting con- tempt for my portion. And, inasmuch as I have appealed to Jesus Christ, the most powerful and righteous Judge, committing his own cause into his hands, I do tlierefore abide by his most holy de- cree and sentence, knowing that he will judge each man, not according to false testimony, nor according to fallible councils, but according to truth and indi- vidual desert." Such an answer, from one whose words meant wliat they expressed, was worthy of, and could have pro- ceeded only from a spirit lifted above the world, and made heroic by faith in God. Many, no doul)t, of the friends of Huss regretted the decision which he 10 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. I, had made. Under tlie pressure of the immediate danger of his life, they would at least have counselled him to temporize. One of these/ a member of the council, whose kindness Huss had before experienced, sought to overcome by gentle persuasions the scru- ples which he felt in regard to recanting. "As to your first objection," said he, " let not this, my most loving and beloved brother, have weight with you, that you thus condemn the truth. For it is not we, but they, who condemn it — they who now are your and my superiors. Consider the saying, ' Lean not to thine own understanding.' There ai-e many learned and conscientious men in the council. ' My son, hear the law of thy mother.' This much to your first objection. " As to the second, in regard to peijury : This per- jury, if it he perjury, would recoil not upon you, but upon those who require it. Your views on these subjects are not heresies unless you persist obstinately in maintaining them.^ Augustine, Origen, the Mas- ter of Sentences, and others have fallen into erroi", but they cheerfully forsook it. I have many times be- lieved myself to be acquainted with matters in which I was ill-informed. When set right, I joyfully re- turned to correct views. "I write, moreover, briefly, for I write to a man of understanding. You will not recede from the truth, but will approximate to the truth. You will not peijure yourself, but will better yourself You will not give scandal, but you will edify. Eleazar * Some imagine this friend to have others, less probably, that it was Car- been John Cardinal, a Polish doctor ; dinal de Viviers himself. '■^ Ejiis. xxxi; Ch. I.] HUSS URGED TO ABJURE. 1 1 was a noble Jew. Judas, with his seven sons and the eiglit martyrs, was nobler. St. Paul was let down from the wall secretly in a basket, that he might work out better things. May Jesus Clirist, the judge of your appeal, grant you apostles,^ and these are they. Conflicts yet await you for the faith of Christ." By others, also, Huss was urgently pressed to re- cant. Again and again, both in private and public, he was beset by the importunities of those who felt foi" him a strong attachment, or who, highly respect- ing his character and talents, wished to snatch him from the flames. The council, moreover, with all the eagerness of some of its members for the severest measures, could not be altogether blind to the wiser policy of forcing Huss to acknowledge publicly the supi"emacy and infallibility of their judgment. The question, in fact, was reduced to this : The council, or private judgn^ent — which must yield ? The council would allow no rival. They had deposed a pope, and the acknowledgment of their supremacy was with them a vital point. Huss could not blindly submit to place them in the seat of Christ — to en- throne them above the word of God. This was his crime. In the eyes of the council it was an aggra- vated one, and it ensured his doom. The prisoner remained steadfast in his purpose. His conscience forbade him to sacrifice the truth. To ' These worJs, " Jesus Christ grant were sometimes obtained in cases of you apostles," etc., are quite obscure appeal from the judge who had con- in tlieir meaning. It is plain that demned. These were called " apos- they have some reference to the np- ties." If these were not obtained peal of Huss. Letters di^misFory witliin a certain time, tlie appeal was from the jurisdiction of the cmirt null and void. — L' Enfant, i. 343. 12 LIFE AND TOIES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. I. all the solicitations of friendsliip, to all the authori- tative advice of members of the council, to public and private persuasions, he remained equally un- moved. " I would sooner," said he, " have a mill- stone bound about my neck, and be cast into the sea, than give occasion of scandal to my neighbor ; and, having preached to others constancy and endurance, T will set them an example, looking for help to the grace of God." -^ There was never in the prisoner a moment's wavering. Among others that visited him was Paletz, his former friend. He evidently had not counted on the constancy of Huss. Resolved to humble him as a I'ival, he could scarce have sought his life. All the persuasions of Paletz were em- ployed to shake the prisoner's firmness. " Put your- self," said Huss, " in my place. What would you do if you were thoroughly assured that you had never held the errors which they wish you to retract ? " " I confess," said Paletz, " it is hard,'.' and for once the tears filled his eyes.^ The persecutor paid his victim the tribute of sympathy, wrung out by respect for truthful constancy, and perhaps the memory of former friendship. It is not impossible that remorse for his conduct, which was leading to a strangely fatal result, had something to do with his tears. In one of his letters ^ Huss gives the substance of the argument of one of the doctors who was urging him to a blind submission to the council. "Even though the council," said he, "should tell you that you have but one eye, and you have two, you would be bound to assent to their statement." " And I," ' Ep. xxxiii. '■^ ll'. XXX. ' lb. xxxiii. Ch. I.] THE GUILT OF ABJURING. 13 replied Huss, " wliile God spares my reason, would never allow such a thing, though the whole world were agreed upon it, because I could not say it with- out wounding my conscience." No wonder the doc- tor was confused by the reply. The illustration he had selected was too ridiculous for ridicule. It only set the conscientiousness of Huss, as well as the ab- surdity of the demands made upon him, in a too ob- vious light. Nothing now remained for Huss but to prepare himself and his friends for the fatal result which his own constancy rendered inevitable. Carefully and clearly does he lay down the principles upon which his conduct was based. He does not trifle with his fate. His words are calm and serious, as were be- fitting his circumstances. " Often," says he, " have the demands of the council upon me been urged. But, inasmuch as they imply that I recant, abjure, and submit to penance, in matters of truth which I must give up — requiring me to aT)jure, and perjure myself by confessing errors falsely imputed to me — demanding that I should give offence to many of God's people to whom I have preached, — for which I should deserve that a mill-stone should be tied about my neck, and I be cast into the midst of the sea — and because, if I should submit, in order to escape a temporary trouble and penalty, I should plunge my- self into far greater, unless I should repent, — for these reasons I cannot yield. And -for my consola- tion, I think of the seven martyrs of the Maccabees, who chose rather to be cut in pieces than disobey God by eating flesh. I think, moreover, of Eleazar, 14 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. I. wlio would not even say that lie had eaten flesh con- trary to the law, lest he should set an evil example to those that should come after him, choosing rather to endure martyrdom. Wherefore, having these be- fore my eyes, as well as many holy men and women of the New Testament who gave themselves up to martyrdom because they would not consent to sin ; and, moreover, having preached so many years on the duty of constancy and endurance, I cannot but say of a course by which I must utter many false- hoods, and commit perjury, giving offence to many of God's children — ^far be it, far be it from me ! For my Master, Christ, shall be hereafter my reward, while even now he gives me the aid of his pres- ence." * Such were the reasons which Huss repeatedly and on different occasions urged in defence of his course. They were neither fanciful nor fanatical, but such as would be appreciated by his friends and followers at Praorue. To these he wrote from time to time as occasion offered, and his letters were publicly read in the Bethlehem chapel, where his voice had once been so often heard. "My dear brethren, (so he writes back to Bohemia,) I have thought that it might be well to admonish you how my books written in the Bohemian language have been condemned in the council of Constance — though itself full of pride, av- arice, ambition, and almost every vice — as being heretical. They have hardly been seen or read, or, if read, not understood. ... If ye had been present liere at Constance, ye would have seen this council, ' Epis. XX. Ca. I.] TREATMENT OF HIS BOOKS. 15 called lioly, and therefore claimed to be infallible, as though it could not err, to be shameful and scanda- lous ; for the very citizens of this country say, as I have heard, that this city will not recover in thirty years from the sins and scandals of this council." He bids his fi'iends not to be frightened at the decision against his books. " They have attempted to frighten me from the truth of Christ, but the strength of God in me they have been unable to overcome. . . . They would not venture to discuss with me, though I professed my willingness to be instructed, on the authority of the Sacred Scriptures. . . . Not by these, but by terrors and threats have they tried to overcome me. But the God of mercy, to whose word I bow, is with me, and still will be, as I am confident, and in his grace will keep me even until death." In another letter Huss reminds his friends of the treatment of the books of Jeremiah — full as harsh as that which his own had experienced, and yet they were not suppressed. In later times the sacred writings were burned, as well as the works of sev- eral of the fathers, but they could not be suppressed. He bids them not to neglect his books, or give them to his enemies to be burned. As to themselves, they need not be terrified. The forces of Antichrist would perhaps leave them at peace. The council of Constance would scarcely come to Prague, and some of his followers, he believed, would sooner die than give up his books. Even in the danger in which Huss found himself of his life, he did not fear to give free expression to 16 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHK HUSS. [Ch. T. the severe judgment he had formed of his judges. He speaks of their having condemned their head, while many of themselves were guilty of the same crimes. " Would to God," says he, " that in this council it had been said by divine authority. Let him that is without sin among you first pass sen- tence. Undoubtedly they would have gone forth, one after the other. Why, then, have they hereto- fore bowed to him, kissed his feet, called him Most Holy, when they have known and seen that he was a heretic, a murderer, a reprobate wretch, as they have publicly charged him with being ? Yea, why did the cardinals speak of him as holy, when they knew that he murdered his predecessor ? Why did they allow him, while he was yet pope, to drive such a traffic as he did in holy things ? They are his counsellors for the very purpose of giving him the best advice, and if they failed to do it are they not equally guilty ? . . . I think we may plainly see Antichrist revealed in the pope, and others present at the council." Such were the views which Huss had held at Prague — now confirmed by his experience at Con- stance— and in the conviction of the truth of which he was willing to die. In full anticipation of the final result, he wrote, on the tenth of June, a letter to his friends in Prague, in which he gives them for the last time — as he feared — his counsel and en- couragement. In this parting address, that might be almost dated from the martyr's stake, he speaks with an apostolic earnestness and unction. He for- gets no class, neither rich nor poor, male nor female, Cn. I.] FAKEWELL LETTER TO PRAGUE, 17 but adapts liis words to the circumstances of each.^ "I, Master John Huss, in the hope that I am God's servant, wish, on behalf of all the faithful of Bohemia who love God, that they may live and die in the grace of God, and at last be saved. Amen. Ye princes, high and low, I pray for and Jidmonish you, that ye obey God, reverence his word, and live according to it. I beseech you to abide in the truth of God, which I have preached and written to you from his word and from the holy prophets. I be- seech you, if any one among you has heard from me, by public speech or otherwise, or has read in my books, anything contrary to the truths of God, that you reject it, although I am not conscious of having written or taught any such error. " I beseech, moreover, if any one has observed any levity in my speech or conduct, that he copy not my example, but intercede with God in my behalf that such levity may be forgiven me. I beseech you to love and hold in high esteem those priests who dis- charge well the duties of their office, especially those who labor in the w^ord of God. But beware of the wicked, especially those Godless pastors that go about, as the Master says, in sheep's clothing, but in- wardly they are ravening wolves. Ye nobles, I beseech you, deal fairly with your subjects, and maintain just government. Ye burghers, I beseech you that ye each live in his estate in such a manner as to keep a clear conscience. Ye artisans, labor faithfully, and earn your bread in the fear of God. ' Epi8. xii. VOL. n. 2 18 LIFE AKD TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. I. Ye servants, serve your masters in truth. Ye school- masters, instruct the youth to purity of life, and teach them with diligence and fidelity. First of all, that they fear God, and keep him before their eyes. Then, that they study with all diligence, not for gain or the honor of the world, but for God's glory, the good of men, and their own salvation. Students in the university, and all other pupils, I pray you be obedient to your masters in all that is honorable and praiseworthy, following their good example, and dili- gently studying, that by your means God's glory may be promoted, and yourselves with others advance in all that is good. " Finally, I pray you all gratefully to regard the excellent lords Wenzel de Duba, John de Chlum, Henry Plumlow, William Zagetz, and other nobles from Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland, and treat them with studious respect. For many a time have they set themselves against the whole council, and man- fully defended the truth, exerting themselves to the utmost to save my life, expecially Duba and Chlum, to whom you may give full ci-edit in the entire ac- count which they will render you of what has taken place. For they have been often by, when I have answered before the council, and they know who those Bohemians are who have treated me with severity and harshness, and how the whole council cried out against me when I merely answered the questions which they asked. " I beseech you, moreover, to pray to God for the emperor, and for your king and queen, that the God of mercy may be with and among you forever. Ch. I.] BETHLEHEM CHURCH. 19 " This letter have I written to you in prison and in chains, and this morning I have heard of the deci- sion of the council that I must be burned. But I have full confidence in God that he will not forsake me, nor permit me to deny his truth, or with perjury confess as mine the errors falsely imputed to me by lying witnesses. But how gently God my Master deals with me, and supports me through surprising conflicts, ye shall learn when, amid the joys of the life to come, we shall, through the grace of Christ, behold one another again. " Of my dear friend, Master Jerome, I hear noth- ing, except that he is kept close in prison, where, like me, he awaits death for the faith which he has manifested in Bohemia. But our bitterest enemies, the Bohemians who have ill-treated us, go from bad to worse. I beseech you, pray God in their behalf. But this one thing I do especially beseech of you, that ye cherish the Bethlehem church, and faithfully attend to it as long as God shall give you grace, that God's word be preached therein ; for of such a church is the devil the sworn enemy, and he raises up against it the priests and their tools, for he sees that by its means his kingdom is in danger of being broken up. But I hope in God that he will sustain the church in his good pleasure, and cause his word to be imparted there through others more largely than it has been by my poor efforts. " I beseech you, love one another — swerve not from the truth. Meditate upon it — how the righteous may not be crushed. Given on Monday night before the day of St. Vitus, by a faithful messenger." 20 LIFE A WD TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. I. Such was the calm and manly tone of this letter of Huss, written under the impression that it would be his last ! It manifests throughout a noble and Christian spirit. There is no railing at his ene- mies. There is no wild fanatic enthusiasm. There is no despondency. In a more than human strength he prej)ared himself to meet his fate. But events of which Huss was not aware led to a postponing of the time of his execution. While the council had I'esolved that if he should refuse to re- cant he should be burned, and this fact had been communicated to him to awe and frighten him into submission, they had also secretly resolved, in the confident expectation that he would consent to the form of recantation, that, after having given this con- sent, he should for the remainder of his life be doomed to close imprisonment. The tenor of this proposed decree, giving hope of the issue which the council most desired, shows that among its members there were those who entertained no doubt of being able to persuade Huss to recant, and save his life. This proposed decree is worthy of being given entire, as it shows what the tender mercies of the council would have been even in case Huss had submitted. It is as follows '} — " But, inasmuch as from some manifest signs it is conjectured that the said John Huss experiences con- trition for his former sins, and, influenced by sound advice, is desirous of returning to the truth of the church of God, with a pure heart, and with faith un- feigned,— therefore this holy council cheerfully allows • Van der Hardt. iv. 432. Ch. I.] THE PROPOSED DECREE. 2"* him to present himself voluntarily, for the purpose of abjuring and revoking all heretical pravity and error, specially the errors of John Wickliffe, receiv- ing him, upon confessing of his own accord, with the prodigal son, the sins he has committed, and mani- festing penitence, and absolving him, humbly seeking absolution from the sentence of excommunication which rests upon him. But, inasmuch as from the doctrines of the said John Huss, unsound, inconsis- tent with the faith, and full of error, innumerable scandals and seditions have sprung up in the church of God, and among the people, and through him grievous sins have been committed against God and the holy church in the matter of perverse doctrine, and contempt for the keys and censures of the church, to the imminent danger of the Catholic faith, — there- fore this present most holy council decrees and de- clares that the said John Huss, as a man scandalous, seditious, pernicious to the holy church of God, shall be deposed and degraded from the sacerdotal rank, 01' whatever rank in the church he may hold ; com- mitting, nevertheless, to the most reverend fathers in Christ, the archbishop of Milan, the bishops of Feltri, Asti, Alexandria, Bakora,^ to execute in a becoming manner, as the order of the law requires, the degra- dation of John Huss in the presence of this most holy council ; and the council pronounces and decrees that John Huss, as a man dangerous to the Christian faith, for the aforesaid reasons, shall be immured and imprisoned, and ought to be immured and impris- oned, and thus pei-petually to remain, and shall be * Baehorcnsi (Bangor?) 22 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHJS" HUSS. [Ch. L proceeded against in other respects according to canonical sanctions." ^ This sentence was to have been read in case Huss should consent to abjure, when his degradation from the priesthood was immediately to follow. The im- pression, thus shared by the council, that Huss would yet be induced to recant, was due in part undoubt- edly to the hopes of the prisoner's friends, rather than to any words or actions of his own. From first to last, the idea of escaping by a feigned retraction seems never to have entered his mind. On the morn- ing of the tenth of June, such an announcement of the action of the council was made to him — ^with the inten- tion, no doubt, to induce him to recant — as led him to believe that he was to be executed the following day. Under this impression he wrote his farewell letter to the Bohemians. But the next day came, and the next, and the execution of the sentence was still de- feri-ed. It is not surprising that in the mind of the prisoner there should have sprung up a faint hope that he might yet be delivered from the power of his enemies. In his letters, which he still continued to write to his friends in Prague during this interval, we see traces enough of this latent and feeble hope to show us that Huss did not regard death with the indifference of a stoic, or prolonged life with the re- pugnance of a misanthrope. He felt, in the sense in which Paul did, that it was Christ for him to live, but if truth demanded a victim, he was ready to be offered up. In the doubtful hope that he might yet be by some means rescued, he writes : " Our Saviour ^ See Mansi. Van der Hardt, iv. 432. L'Enfant, 234. Gu. I.] HOPE OF DELIVERAlSrCE. 23 recalled Lazarus to life after lie liad lain in tlie grave four days, and liad upon him the smell of corruption. He preserved Jonah three days in the belly of the fish, and sent him back to preach again ; he called forth Daniel from the den of lions, to record the prophecies ; kept the three young men in the furnace from the power of the flames, and liberated Susan- nah when already condemned to death. Therefore, easily might he deliver me too, poor mortal ! — if it served to promote His own glory, the progress of believers, and my own best good — for this time, from prison and from death. For His hand is not short- ened, who by his angel led Peter, while the chains of his hands fell off, from the dungeon, when already condemned to die at Jerusalem. But ever let the will of the Lord be done, which I desire may be ful- filled in me, to his glory and to my own purification from sin." Huss did not fail to write again to his friends at Prague as soon as the opportunity was afforded. " God be with you," he says, " my most beloved in the Lord. I had strong reasons to believe that my previous let- ter to you would be my last, so near then was the prospect of the goal of death. But now, when I learn that I am spared, my joy is that I may write to you yet once again, and testify my gratitude. As it concerns my death, God knows why I and my dear brother. Master Jerome, are not executed. He, as I hope, will die innocent and blameless, and he gives evidence that he will suffer and die more cour- ageously than I, poor sinner ! But God has kept us so long in prison, that we may thiuk so much the 24 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. 1 more humbly on our past sins, and so mucli more deeply repent of them ; and he has given us time and space for the severe conflict which blots out great sins, and that our conversation may be so much the more abundant. Yea! he has given us time enough, in order that we might so much the more fully reflect upon the shameful ignominy and cruel death of our loved King, the Lord Christ, and be so much the more patient to suffer. Thus may you learn that eternal joys are not to be reached through the joys of this world, but the saints, through much tribulation and anguish, have pressed into the kingdom. For some of them Avere hewn asunder ; some were spit upon ; some sodden ; some flayed alive, . or buried alive, stoned, crucified, crushed between mill-stones, and dragged hither and thither until they died. Some were drowned, burned, hung, torn in pieces, and, be- fore they died, shamefully and cruelly treated in prison. But who could undertake to recount all the forms of pain and martyrdom which were endured under the Old Testament, and have been repeated since, to the shame and disgrace of those who in- flicted them — the ecclesiastics! Why should any one then be surprised that now, with all their base deeds and the injuries they inflict, they remain un- punished? Indeed, I rejoice that they have been forced to read my books, in which their baseness is plainly set forth ; and I know that they have read them far more diligently than they read the holy gospel, only that they may discover something with which they may be able to find fault." The anxiety of the council, and especially of the em- Ch. I.] THE EMPEKOE's DILEMMA. 25 peror, to induce Huss to retract, led them to continue efforts of exhortation and persuasion. The emperor at least could not contemplate the prospect of the execution of Huss without apprehension as to the results that might follow. It would undoubtedly exasperate the whole Bohemian nation, and their execration would fall, not without reason, upon his own head. The cry of an indignant people, and per- haps the secret reproaches of his own conscience, arose before him and made him hesitate. He had gone too far with the council already to attempt to shield Huss from the sentence of death, unless some retraction on his part could be secured. The attempt to do it would only exasperate the council and lead it to counteract his schemes, or perhaps regard him as implicated in heresy. The abjuration of Huss alone could relieve the emperor from his perplexity ; and to obtain it he spared neither prayers, persua- sion, nor threats. From first to last, all these efforts were vain. "I have refused to abjure," — so Huss writes to the University of Prague, — " at least till the articles 1 hold are proved to be erroneous on the authority of Sacred Scripture." -^ He disavowed any wish to cling to anything incorrect which could be found in his writings. " I exhort you," he says, " to hold in detestation whatever you shall find to be false in my articles." ^ The efforts of the emperor to induce Huss to ab- jure, only filled the prisoner with a sad and melan- choly pity for his oppressor. He would not have exchanged places with him for the world. " Place * Epis. xviii. "^ Epis. xi. 26 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. I. not your confidence in princes of the earth," ^ wrote he to his Bohemian friends. Sorely had he been de- ceived in his estimate of the character of Sigismund. He now acknowledged the more correct apprehen- sions of his friends. " Truly did they say that Sigis- mund would himself deliver me up to my adversaries ; he has done more, — he has condemned me before them." 2 Thus by his firmness Huss forced the emperor to incur the disgrace of his own conduct, and, had he sought revenge for the violation of the imperial faith, he had it in denying him the power to rescue him from the funeral pile. The most sanguine friends of Huss must by this time have become fully convinced that his doom was sealed. The firmness of his purpose was proof against all persuasions. His mind was fully made up to meet the result which appeared inevitable. His main anxiety now was to secure such an audience before the council as had been promised him by the emperor.^ It only remained for him to take a final leave of his earthly friends and interests. In letters of touch- ing pathos he utters his farewell to those to whom he was bound by a mutual attachment. He wrote to Hawlik,* his successor in Bethlehem chapel, urging him not to oppose the doctrine of the cup. He ex- horted Christiann of Prachatitz to diligence in pas- toral duty, and requested him to .greet, in his name, Jacobel and the friends of truth.^ He aduionished the members of the university to mutual love and ^ Epis, XXXV. ^ lb. ' lb. xxxv. " lb. xvi. ' lb. xvii. Ch. I.] LETTEES TO INDIVIDUALS. 2*7 sobriety of conduct, stating to them also the reasons which forbade him to recant, while he prayed for his enemies that God would forgive them. He begged them to stand by Bethlehem chapel, and to appoint Gallus as his successor. To their love and confidence he recommended his faithful friend, Peter the Notary.^ To his benefactors^ he returns his hearty thanks, ad- monishing them to stand fast in their fidelity, and expressing his confidence that God would repay them for what they had done in his behalf. He expresses his apprehension that a severe persecution of the true servants of God in Bohemia would follow his death, unless God should make use of the civil power to prevent it.^ To his friends generally, whom he does not ven- ture to name lest the unavoidable omission of some should give oifence, he extends his salutations, de- claring it his unshaken purpose not to recant, yet protesting his desire to be instructed that he might disavow any article which could be shown to be false. He expresses his sense of obligation to the king and queen, the barons and nobles of Bohemia and Mo- ravia, and especially to the Bohemians in Constance, for their friendly offices, and their efforts to secure his liberation.* From his own experience, he admon- ishes his friends not to put their trust in an arm of flesh.^ To Chlum (June 29) he addresses cheering words of the future glory with Christ, of those who suffer for him now.® Of his different friends, includ- ing Martin, Peter the Notary, Duba, the family of Liderius, and others, he takes leave, in tender and • Epit=. xviii. * lb. xxiv. ' lb. xix. * lb. xx. * lb. xxi. ^ lb. xx. xxii. 28 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. i. affecting words. He urges that care sliould be taken of his letters, and that they sliould be carried back to Bohemia, lest his friends should be implicated or brought into danger by means of them^ The lines which he received from time to time from his friends, he immediately destroyed.^ In the letter in which he narrates his sad interview with Paletz, he expresses his joyful assurance of the heavenly glory that shall crown his martyrdom, and his confidence in the strength which Christ alone can impart, praying for " a fearless spirit, a true faith, a firm hope, and perfect charity." ^ He does not forget his nephews, (sons of his brother,) but directs that they should be placed in some secular calling, since he feared that if they were educated for the j^riest- hood, they would not discharge its duties as they ought.* He dissuades his friends generally from coming to him at Constance, for fear of the conse- quences ; and the sight of Christiann, who had come in the vain hope of serving him, completely un- manned him, and melted him to tears. All the pro- vision which he could make for the payment of his debts at Prague, was made, and in case it proved in- sufficient, he begged his creditors to forgive him for the sake of their common Master, Christ. Disburdened of other cares, Huss was now anxious only for a final hearing before the council. He beg- ged that the emperor might be present, and that he might himself have a place assigned him near the imperial presence. He requested also that the noble knights, Chlum, Duba, and Latzembock, would take ' Epis. xxvii. " lb. xxxiv. ' lb. xxx. ■* lb. xxviii. Cn. I.] HUSS ASKS A CONFESSOR. 29 good care to be present, to witness to his words, and prevent any false repoi'ts in regard to his statements from going abroad.-^ In the prospect of the doom before him, Huss sought a confessor. Whom would he select ? Scarcely could he wish for such a one as the council would appoint. He could value but lightly the absolution conferred by hands stained with simony and cor- ruption. His conscience was void of offence, and at peace with God, and no superstitious reverence for the priesthood induced him to believe that his sal- vation was dependent on sacerdotal absolution. It was undoubtedly more with the desire of a full and free conference with his former friend, than from any other motive, that he sought the privilege of having a confessor granted him, and asked that Paletz might be appointed.^ Nothing could more fully testify the humility and the forgiving spirit of Huss than this request. He felt that he had been wronged by those Bohemians who, before the council, had pursued him with unre- lenting hostility. Among these Paletz had held the foremost rank, and he it was whom Huss, with a magnanimity unsurpassed, selected to hear his dying confession. Of him he had most to complain, and to him he had the most to forgive. " Alas ! " said he, " the wounds which we receive from those persons in whom our soul has placed its hope, are the most cruel ; for to the sufferings of the body are joined the pangs of betrayed friendship. In my case it is from Paletz that my most profound affliction pro- ' EpiH. y.lix. ' lb. xxxi. 30 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. 1 ceeds." Again lie says, " Paletz is my greatest ad- versary ; it is to him tliat I wish to confess myself." This request of Huss was refused him, and in his place the bishops sent a monk, whom he speaks well of, and who, after having given him absolution, re- commended to him to submit, but without absolutely commanding it.^ Paletz, moreover, who had previously been applied to, had refused. • He recoiled from the painful task which the humility and magnanimity of Huss had imposed. He was, however, vanquished by the noble- ness and generosity of the prisoner's conduct, and he determined to visit him in his cell. When Huss saw him enter, he addressed him not in the language of reproach or passion, but in a mild and melanclioly tone. " Paletz," said he, " I uttered some expressions before the council that were cal- culated to offend you. Pardon me." This was un- doubtedly the confession which he most desired to make. And now he had made it, and Paletz was his confessor. His persecutor was deeply affected, and entreated Huss to abjure, undoubtedly with the deepest sincerity ; for he never seems to have appre- hended that his prosecution would cost him the life of one that was once his friend, and whom he could never have ceased really to respect. " I conjure you," said he, " do not look to the shame of retracting, but only to the good that must result, from it." " Is not the opprobrium," replied Huss, " of the condemnation and the punishment greater in the eyes of the world than that of the abjuration? How, then," asked ' Epis. xxxi. Ch. I.] INTERVIEW WITH PALETZ. 31 Hnss, as if in gentle reproacli for the 'imputation of STicli a motive — " How, then, can yon suppose that it is a false shame which prevents me ? " It was on this occasion, probably, that Huss asked the question be- fore referred to, of Paletz, what he would do if the case were his own, and he were required to retract errors that he never held. With tears Paletz con- fessed that the case would be hard indeed. " Is it possible," rejoined Huss, " that you, who are now in this state before me, could have said in full council, when pointing to me, ' that man does not believe in God ? ' " Paletz denied having said it. " You said so, however," repeated Huss ; " and, in addition, you declared that since the birth of Jesus Christ there never was seen a more dangerous heretic. Ah ! Paletz, Paletz, why have you wrought me so much evil ? " Paletz replied by again exhorting him to sub- mit, and then withdrew, weeping bitterly.^ It is no wonder that, in the excited state of the prisoner's mind, and in the solitude of his cell, his dreams should have partaken of the character of his waking thoughts, or that they should have as- sumed a prophetic aspect. He believed that in this manner he had received intimations of future events. " Know," he writes to his friends, " that I have had great conflicts in my dreams. I dreamed beforehand of the flight of the pope, and after relating it, Chlum said to me in my dream, ' The pope will also return.' Then I dreamt of the imprisonment of Jerome, though not literally according to the fact. All the different prisons to which I have been conveyed have been ' Epia. XXX. and xxxi. 32 LIFE AOT) TIMES OF JOHN IIUSS. [Cii. I. represented to me beforehand in my dreams. There have also appeared to me serpents, with heads also on their tails, but they have never been able to bite me. I do not write this because I believe my- self a prophet, or wish to exalt myself, but to let you know that I have had great temptations, both of body and soul, and the greatest fear lest I might transgress the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 What must have been the strength of the consola- tion by which Huss was sustained amid all the gloomy scenes and trials of his tedious and cruel imprison- ment, and especially with no prospect of relief except by death ! In the noble letter which he wrote on the eve before the festival of St. John the Baptist, he displays the grounds of his comfort, peace, and confidence. " Much consoles me," he says,^ " that word of our Saviour, 'Blessed be ye when men shall hate you. Kejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy, for, behold, great is your reward in heaven.' A good consolation ; nay, the best consolation ; difficult, how- ever, if not to understand, yet perfectly to fulfil, to rejoice amid those sufferings. This rule James ob- serves, who says, ' My beloved brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations ; knowing this, that the trying of your faith, if it is good, work- eth patience.' Assuredly it is a hard thing to rejoice without perturbation, and in all these manifold temp- tations to find nothing but pure joy. Easy it is to say this, and to expound it, but hard to fulfil it in very deed. For even the most steadfast and patient ' Epis, xxiii. ' Epis. xxx. Ch. I.] CHEEillXG EXAAIiM.E OF CUEIST. 33 warrior, who knew that he should rise on the third day ; who, by his death, conquered his enemies, and redeemed his chosen from perdition, was, after the last supper, troubled in spirit, and said, ' My soul is troubled even unto death ; ' as also the gospel relates, 'that he began to tremble, and was troubled;' nay, in his conflict he had to be supported by an angel, and he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground ; but he who was in such trouble said to his disciples, ' Let not your heart be troubled, and fear not the cruelty of those that rage against you, because ye shall ever have me with you to enable you to overcome the cruelty of your tormentors. Hence his soldiers, looking to him as their king and leader, endured great conflicts, went through fire and water, and were delivered. And they received from the Lord the crown of which James speaks, i. 12. That crown will God bestow on me and you, as I confi- dently hope, ye zealous combatants for the truth, with all who truly and perseveringly love our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for us, leaving behind an example that we should follow in his steps. It was necessary that he should suffer, as he tells us himself; and we must suffer, that so the members may suffer with the head ; for so he says, ' whoever would fol- low me, let him take up his cross and follow me.' O most faithful Christ, draw us weak ones after thee, for we cannot follow thee if thou dost not draw us. Give us a strong mind, that it may be prepared and ready. And if the flesh is weak, succor us be- forehand by thy grace, and accompany us, foi- with- out thee we can do nothing ; and least of all, VOL. II. 3 34 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN IIUSS. [Ch. I. can we face a cruel death. Give ns a ready and will- ing spirit, an undaunted heart, the right faith, a firm hope, and perfect love, that patiently and with jo)'^ we may for thy sake give up our life." Such was the letter of Huss — worthy of the noblest of the mar- tyrs. Only in its subscription does it show any trace of. the errors or peculiarities of the Romish church. It closes thus : " written in chains, on the vigils of St. John, who because he rebuked wricked ness was beheaded in prison : may he pray for us to the Lord Jesus Christ." Huss had written what he supposed was his fare- well letter to his countrymen. During the season of his reprieve — if such it may be called — he writes to various friends. Some of these have already been referred to. But one of the last was addressed to Chlum, who seemed to him dearer than a brother. Many a time had his cheering words, or the warm grasp of his hand, or his genial sympathy, brought comfort to the lonely and neglected prisoner. Huss now expresses to this noble knight his joy at hear- ing that he meant to renounce the vanities and toil- some services of the world, and, retiring to his estates, devote himself wholly to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose service was perfect free- dom. In like manner, he expresses his joy at learn- ing that the knight Duba had resolved to retire from the world and marry. "It is even time for him," he writes, "to take a new course, for he has ah-eady made journeys enough through this kingdom and that, jousting in tournaments, wearing out his body, squandering his money, and doing injury to Ch. I.] SECOND FAREWELL LETTER. 35 his soul. It only remains for him therefore to re- nounce all these things, and, remaining quietly at home with his wife, serv^e God, with his own domes- tics around him. Far better will it be, thus to serve God, without cares, without participation in the sins of the world, in good peace, and with a tranquil heart, than to be distracted with cares in the service of others, and that, too, at the imminent risk of his own salvation." ^ To his friend Christiann, the rector of the university, he writes : " My friend and special benefactor, stand fast in the truth of Christ, and em- brace the cause of the faithful. Fear not, because the Lord will shortly bestow his protection and in- crease the number of his faithful. Be gentle to the poor, as thou ever hast been. Chastity I hope thou hast preserved ; covetousness thou hast avoided, and continue to avoid it ; and for thy own sake, do not hold several benefices at once ; ever retain tliy own church, that the faithful may resort for help to thee as an affectionate father." Jacobel, moreover, with " all the friends of the truth," are saluted. The let- ter is subscribed — "written in prison, awaiting my execution at the stake." ^ Last of all, Huss wrote his second farewell letter to his friends at Prague. He besought them that for his sake who would be already dead as to the body, they would do all that lay in their power to prevent the knight of Chlum from coming into any danger. " I entreat you," he writes, " that you will live by the word of God ; that you obey God and his commandments, as I have taught you. Express to the king my thanks for all ' Epis. xxiii. * Epis. xviii. 36 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN IIUSS. [Cn. I. the kindnesses he has shown me. Greet in my name your families and yom' friends, each and all of whom I cannot enumerate. I pray to God for you : do you pray for me ? To him shall we all come, since he gives us help." This letter of Huss, so full of Christian kindli- ness of feeling, was written probably on the fourth day of July, in the immediate expectation of his martyrdom. In the addition which he made to it on the foll6wing day, was a sort of postscript to in- form them of his approaching execution. "Already I am confident I shall suffer for the sake of the word of God." He begged his friends, for God's sake, not to allow any cruelty whatever to be prac- tised acrainst the servants and the saints of God. He makes the bequest of his fur cloak with a small sum of money, to the friendly notary, Peter ; to others, small legacies, or some of his books : it was nearly, if not quite all that he had to give. Instead of being rich, as was charged in prison, he had to re- quest his friends to discharge for him a few small debts, that his creditors might not suffer. One of the last requests that Huss had to make of his friends was addressed to the faithful Chlum. He wished this brave man whom he loved so ten- derly, to remain with him to the last. " O thou, the kindest and most faithful friend," said he, "may God grant thee a fitting recompense ! I conjure thee to grant me still this — not to depart until thou hast seen everything consummated. Would to God that I could be at once led to the stake before thy f^ice, rather than be torn away in prison, as I am by Ch. I.] ADVICE TO MARTIN. 37 perfidious manoeuvres ! I still have liope — I still have confidence — that Almighty God will previous- ly snatch me from their hands to himself, through the merits of his saints. Salute all our friends for me ; and let them pray to the Loi'd that I may await ray death with humility and without mur- muring." It was in this spirit that Huss prepared himself for the final scene. Many were the letters written and messages sent, which spoke in the calm and touching eloquence of a mart}^-, to the persons to whom they were addressed.^ His first and last anxiety was, that they should be faithful to the truth — not of his own teachings, for they might be in some respects erro- neous— but of the word of Grod. To some who might be called to follow him to the stake, he addressed such exhortations as were enforced by his own exam- ple. " Fear not to die," said he to priest Martin, one of his disciples, "if thou desirest to live with Christ, for he has himself said, ' Fear not them that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.' " And yet Huss gave his friend this rare counsel, as remarkable for prudence as modesty : " Should they seek after thee on account of thy adhesion to my doctrines, make them this reply : I believe that my master was a good Christian ; but, in regard to his writings and instructions, I have neither read all, nor comprehend- ed all." ^ In his adieus, Huss showed no respect of persons. ' Thf letters of Huss are not chro- their date. In most cases, liowever, nologieally arranged, and it is some- it may be ascertained from internal times, therefore, diffieultto determine evidence. " Ejiis, xxviii. 38 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch L He remembered the poor as well as the rich. He speaks of the cordwainers in the same breath with the doctors and the magistrates. Several of the families of his church iu Prague are mentioned in one of his letters as specially to be saluted. His words to them " recommend them to be zealous for the love of Christ, to advance in humility with wisdom, and not to indulge in comments of their own making, but to recur to those of the saints." Among the enemies of Huss none had shown a more inveterate and unrelenting malice than Causis. Unlike Paletz, his heart was moved neither to sym- pathy and compassion, nor to remorse. Sevei'al times the hardened wretch had gone to the prison where Huss was confined, and exclaimed, exulting in the savage cruelty of his nature over his destined victim, '■'■ By the grace of God, we shall soon burn this heretic, whose condemnation has cost me much money." ^ But even this failed to excite in Huss any revengful feelings. " I leave him to God, and pray for this man most affectionately," was the language in which he spoke of the virulent persecutor. A noble object does Huss thus present for our study and admiration. Sometimes depressed by the fears and weakness of the flesh, but never declining the crown of martyrdom — loving his own life in the hope of future usefulness, but far more anxious for tht^ truth he had preached — surrounded by the ex- treme of human terrors, yet still exclaiming, " The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear ? the Ljid is the strength of my life ; of whom shall I ' Epis. XXX. Ch. I.] LAST COUNSELS. 8 'J be afraid ?" Kiudly does he remember his friends while he forgives his enemies. His last hours and his last earthly counsels are given to the cause he loved, and to his frienia — some perhaps soon to follow him in the thorny path of suffering for the cause of truth. CHAPTER II. FINAL AUDIENCE AND EXECUTION OF HUSS. Persuasions to Induce Huss to Recant. — Michael de Causis. — The Empe- ror's Absence from Constance. — The Refusal op Hdss to Abjure. — Dep- utation FROM the Emperor. — Advice of Chlum. — Reply of Huss. — The Deputation Fails of its Object. — Fifteenth Session of the Council. — Sermon of the Bishop of Lodi. — The Sabbath Council's Decree, Enjoining Silence.— Sixty Articles of Wicklipfe Condemned. — Statement in Regard to Huss. — Thirty Articles of His Condemned. — He Attempts to Reply to Each. — Is Silenced. — Again Silenced. — Entreats to be Heard. — Denies Some of the Charges. — Charge of Claiming to be the Fourth Person in the Godhead. — He Indignantly Denies it. — Charge Against Him for His Appeal. — Calls on Christ to Witness the Council's Scoff at Appeal to Him.— TJon- tempt of Papal Excommunication.— Reply of Huss. — The Emperor's Blussi at the Mention of the Safe-Conduct. — Sentence Pronounced Against the Books op Huss.- His Reply. — Sentence Against Huss.— His Comments Upon it as Read. — His Prayer. — The Ceremony of Degradation. — The White Robe. — Address to the Assembly. — Murmurs. — Huss Stripped of His Sacerdotal Habits. — Tonsure. — Ludicrous Dispute. — The Paper Crown. — Remark of Hnss. — He is Given Over to the Secular Arm. — Is Led Out to Execution Under Charge of the Elector. — Indirect Route. — Burning of the Books op Huss in Front of the Episcopal Palace. — Crossing of the Bridge. — Ad- dress OF Huss, in German, to the Crowd. — Huss Prays on Reaching the Place OF Execution. — Favorable Impression. — A Confessor. — The Privi- lege OF Addressing the Crowd is Denied. — Huss Prays. — His Mitre Falls Off. — Speaks to His Keepers. — The Stake and Cords. — Is not Allowed to Face the East. — The Sooty Chain. — Huss Once More Asked to Recant. — His Refusal. — The Closing Scene. — Brutality op the Executioners. — Testimony op .(Eneas Sylvius. — Why Huss was Burned. — Not for His Hete- rodoxy. — Not His Reproof of Sin. — His Attack of Profitable Abuses. — The Odium Philosophicum of the Nominalists. — The Persecuting Zeal of the English. — The Prejudice of the Germans. — Paletz and Michael de Causis. — Bribery. — Huss Rejects the Supremacy of the Council ovee Scripture. — His Character. July 1, 1415 — July 6, 1415. Up almost to the last moment, urgent persuasions were addressed to Huss to induce him to recant. In (40) Ch. II.] HUSS STILL URGED TO RECANT. 41 meeting his objections, a casuistry was adopted wor- thy the acuteness of the Jesuit doctors, Sanchez and and Escobar. Many, whom Huss calls pedagogues, and a few of the fathers, almost overwhelmed him with their importunities. Among others, an English- man attempted to influence him by the example of those who, in England, had abjured the opinions of Wickliffe. " By my conscience," said he, " if I were in your case I would abjure." Causis, however, pur- sued a different policy. He, in all probability, had no wish to have Huss escape the flames. By his means the prisoner's situation had been rendered more harsh and grievous. None of his friends were permitted to see him ; the wives of his jailers, who were disposed to show him kindness, were henceforth denied the privilege. Sigismund, to whom he might have applied, and probably with success, for relief, had left Constance. Under the pretence of recrea- tion, he had withdrawn to a village some miles dis- tant, attended by uumbei's of his court. We can readily believe, without the hints of the annalist, that other than his avowed reasons had their influ- ence. Among these, his own conduct suggests that he might not have wished to be too near the victim he had himself betrayed. From the twenty-third to the twenty-eighth of June, he remained at Ueber- lingen, returning in season to hear the public refusal of Huss to retract. An assembly was held on the first of July in the Franciscan monastery, and Huss was brought be- fore it and publicly urged to abjure. He now pre- sented a paper, drawn up by his own hand, in which 42 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IL he once more stated the grounds of his refusal. " 1, John Huss, in hope, a priest of Jesus Christ, fear- ing to sin against God and fearing to commit per- jury, am not willing to abjure all and each of the articles which have been produced against me on false testimony. For, God being my witness, I have not preached, asserted, nor defended them as they have said that I have preached, defended, or assert- ed. Moreover, in regard to the extracted articles, if any of them implies anything false, I disavow and detest it. But through fear of sinning against the truth, and speaking against the views of holy men, I am unwilling to abjure any of them. And if it were possible for my voice now to reach the whole world — as every falsehood and every sin which I have committed will be brought to light in the day of judgment — I would most cheerfully recall everything fjilse or erroneous which I ever spoke or thought of speaking, and I would do it before the world. These things I say and write freely, and of my own accord." In this language we recognize, not the obstinate and bigoted partisan — not the terrified and yielding supplicant — but the sincere lover of truth, and the conscientious confessor. But such a position as Huss had taken did not pay that homage to the infalli- bility of the council which was considered essential. He was sent back to his prison. For four days the council were engaged in discussing other subjects. Gerson brought up the propositions of John Petit. Business in regard to the abdication of Pope Gregory was discussed. On the fifth of July came a deputation from the Ch. II.] DEPUTATION FEOM THE EMPEROR. 43 emperor, once more to inquire if Huss would not re- cant. The deputation consisted of tlie cardinals of Cambray and Florence, tlie patriarcli of A^ntioch, six bishops, and a doctor of laws. They were ac- companied by the two brave knights, Chlum and Duba.* They asked Huss whether he had deter- mined to abjure the articles which he acknowledged as his, and which had been proved by witnesses ; whether he was willing to asseverate that those which he did not acknowledge, but had been proved by witnesses, were not held by him, but that he chose rather to think with the church. He an- swered, that he still would abide by the decision which he had given in writing to the council, when he last appeared before them, on the first day of July. Upon this he was plied with new arguments aud persuasions. It was represented to him that he ought not to cling to his own opinion, but rather yield to the opinion of the whole church, and bow to the authority of the many learned men who com- posed the council. But all their arguments were vain. The purpose of Huss still remained unshaken in the near prospect of death. It was a trying mo- ment to his friends who had accompanied the depu- tation. What counsel should they give ? Knowing well the attachment to Huss of his noble friend, and the strong influence which his words would have upon his mind, the emperor had besought Chlum,^ along with his associate Duba, to accompany the deputation. He thought it probable that Huss might be induced to listen to their united representa- ' Fleury, xxyi. 86. " Mon. Hus., ii. 345. 44 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. II. tions; but for once lie was mistaken. Had they attempted to persuade Huss to recant, they would probably have failed. But they did not. Chlum was the first to address him. " Dear master," said he, " I am not a learned man, and I deem myself unable to aid you by my counsels ; you must there- fore yourself decide on the course which you are to adopt, and determine whether you are guilty or not of those crimes of which the council accuses you. If you are convinced of your error, have no hesitation — be not ashamed to yield. But if, in your conscience, you feel yourself to be innocent, beware, by calum- niating yourself, of committing perjury in the sight of God, and of leaving the path of duty through any apprehension of death." ^ Such language — so different from the unqualified exhortations to recant which were addressed to him by the council, and of the sincerity and affection of which he could not doubt — almost overpowered the prisoner, and he replied with a flood of tears. " Indeed," said he, " as I have done before, so now I call the Almighty God to witness, that if I were aware of having taught or written anything contrary to the law or orthodox doctrine of the church,'! would re- tract it with the utmost readiness; and even at the present time, I desire exceedingly to be better in- structed in sacred learning. If therefore any one will teach me a better doctrine than I have inculcated myself, let him do it. I am ready to hear him ; and, abandoning my own, I will fervently embrace the other, and confess that I have erred." ^ Mon. Hug., i. 25. See also ii. 345. ^ lb. L'Enfant, 267. Van der Hardt, iv. 386. Ch. II.] FINAL AUDIENCE OF IIUSS. 45 " Do yon, then," asked one of the bishops, " believe yourself to be wiser than the whole council ? " ''I conjure you," replied Huss, " in the name of Almighty God, to give me as my instructor in the divine word the least person in the council, and I will sub- scribe to what he says, and in such a manner as that the council will be satisfied." " See," said the bishops, " how obstinately he per- severes in his errors ! " It was enough. The depu- tation plainly perceived that further attempts to per- suade Huss blindly to abjure, and pay the homage of sacrificing his conscience and reason to their idol — the council's infallibility — would be utterly futile. Huss, who had been led forth from his prison to meet the deputation — little disposed, even for a single hour, to share its comforts — was ordered back under the care of his jailers, and the deputation re- turned to report to the emperor.^ Nothing now remained but the promised audience and the final sentence. It was on the following day, July 6, that Huss appeared for the last time before the council, now in its fifteenth general session. There was a full attendance. The Cardinal de Viv- iers presided. The emperor himself was present, seated upon his throne, surrounded by the princes and the insignia of the empire. An immense crowd had assembled from all quarters, interested to behold the scene, or to receive the earliest intelligence of what was to transpire. The celebration of mass had already commenced when Huss arrived, but he was kept outside the door till the religious services, in- ' Van der Hardt, iv. ZSQ-I. L'Enfant, 270. Mod. Tina., ii. 345. 46 LIFE AI-TD TI^^IES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cn. II. eluding the litanies, were over, under the pretence that the holy mysteries would be profaned by the presence of so great a heretic. At length Huss was brought in. A high platforLn had been erected in the midst of the assembly, and on it was placed a box containing the sacred vest- ments of the priesthood, with which Huss was to be robed previous to his degradation. He was required to take his stand in front of the platform, on a foot- stool, by which he was so raised as to be visible to the whole council. Here he fell upon his knees, and remained for some time engaged in prayer in a low tone. Meanwhile the Bishop of Lodi ascended the pul- pit from which the decrees of the council were usually announced. He had been selected to deliver the sermon which was to whet the appetite of the council for the blood of a heretic. His text was taken from Rom. vi. 6 — " That the body of sin might be destroyed." His object was, to expose the evils of heresy, and justify the measures necessary to its extirpation. He began his sermon by a quo- tation fi'om Aristotle, following it up by a citation from Jerome, in order to enforce his persecuting and bigoted doctrine. After venting his indig- nation upon Arius and Sabellius, the speaker pro- ceeds to discriminate the most dangerous kinds of sins. Among these he places schism in the first rank. To this he traces the aggravated iniquities and corruptions of the times — the discords and con- flicts which desolated the nations — the vices and „ simony which deformed the church. "How many Ch. II.] BISHOP OF LODI S SEEMON. 47 heresies," he exclaims, "have made their appear- ance ! How many heretics remain unpunished ! How many churches have been broken in and plun- dered ! How many cities oppressed ! How many religious rites fallen into neglect ! How many dis- cords among the clergy ! How many slaughters among Christian people ! Look, I pray you, at the church of God, the spouse of Christ, the mother of the faithful, how she is daily given up to contempt ! Who now venerates the keys of the church ? Who fears her censures ? Who defends her privileges ? nay, rather, who does not offend against them ? who does not invade them ? Who is there that does not dare to lay violent hands upon the patrimony of Jesus Christ ? The property of the clergy, bought by sacred blood, and of the poor, as well as the food of pilgrims, is plun- dered and wasted." In the prevalent disorders the speaker seems to see the abomination of desolation brought into the sacred temple. Tyranny is destroying the bodies, and schism the souls of men. Those guilty of the first, may sin in ignorance ; the last are with- out excuse. As the result, the speaker sees before him the church, like a boat upon the waves, endan- gered by pirates or thrown upon tlie rocks. Heresies have sprung up on all sides, and discord has entered among the flock of Peter and the fold of Christ. Many had toiled in vain to suppress these, — kings, princes, and prelates : " Wherefore," exclaims the bishop, turning to the emperor, "most Christian king, this glorious triumph has awaited thee, this unfading crown is due to thee, and a victory ever to be celebrated is thine, in order that by thee the 48 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. II. wounded church may be bound up, the inveterate schism removed, simony restrained, and heretics rooted out. Do you not see how great will be this last- ing fame, how celebrated this glory ? What could be more just, what more holy, what more fitting, what, in fine, moi-e acceptable to God, than to extir- pate this nefarious schism, restore the church to its former liberty, put an end to simony, and destroy and condemn errors and hei-esies from among the flock of believers ? Surely nothing could be better, holier, more desirable for the world, or acceptable to God. "To execute this, so pious and holy a work, thou hast been elected by God, — deputed in heaven, be- fore chosen on earth. Heavenly principalities made thee emperor before the suffrage of the imperial electors was cast. And especially was this, in order that thou mightest destroy and condemn, by imperial ordinance, the heresies and errors which we have here before us, in our hands, already condemned. To the performance of so holy a work, God has con- ferred upon thee the wisdom of divine truth, the power of royal majesty, and the justice of right equity. As the Most High has said, Jer. i., 'Lo, I have put my words into thy mouth by imparting wisdom, and I have placed thee over the nations and kingdoms by conferring power, that thou mightest root up and destroy by executing justice.' So mayest thou destroy heresy and error ; and especially this obstinate heretic, by whose malign influence many re gions have been infected with the pest of heresy, and by reason of whom many things have gone to ruin. "This sacred laboi-, O glorious prince, is left to Ch. II.] DECREE ENJOINING SILENCE. 49 thee. On thee is it the more incumbent, to whom has been given the supremacy of justice. And as the result, from the mouth of babes and sucklings shall thy praises be long celebrated, as the destroyer of its enemies and the avenger of the Catholic faith. The which, that it may prosperously and happily be- come thy lot, may he who is blessed for ever more, Jesus Christ, grant. Amen." ^ Such was the discourse, delivered in full council, and upon the Sabbath — the session was held on that day — by which the minds of men were to be brought into a frame devout enough to give over an innocent man to the flames. It seems as if the black deed would not have been perfect in its horror, without this dark feature of Sabbath profanation. Immediately after the sermon, the decree was read, by which the council enjoined silence. Its language betrays the self-sufficient and arrogant tone of authority which the council had assumed. " The holy council of Constance, lawfully assembled by the influence of the Holy Spirit, decrees and orders every one, with whatever dignity he may be invested, whether impei'ial, royal, or episcopal, to abstain, dur- ing the present session, from all language, murmur, and noise which may disturb this assembly, convoked with the inspiration of God ; and this under pain of incurring excommunication, and imprisonment of two months, and of being declared an abettor of heresy." The procurator of the council then demanded a vigorous prosecution of the process which they had in hand, insisting that there should be no pause or ' Van der ITavdt, torn, iii., gives tho discourse in full. VOL. n. 4 50 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cn. II. cessation in the proceedings till Huss was finally condemned and sentence pronounced. The council now directed that sixty articles of Wickliffe, extracted from the two hundred and sixty which had been brought before them by the English deputation, should be read. After sentence against these was pronounced, the council proceeded to the works of Huss. Thirty articles were presented, some of which had not before been j^ublicly read, but most of which were in substance those upon which he had been interrogated in the presence of the council. Some with which he had first been charged were found to be but duplicates of others, or implied in them, and were consequently left out, reducing them to the number mentioned above.^ A statement was then made of the character and scope of the several articles, together with the testimony by which they were severally supported. Instead, however, of giving the names of the witnesses, only their office or ecclesiastical rank was stated. This was the course that had been pursued on the trial of John XXIII. In that case there could have been little or no objection to it, for the pope, when summoned to confront the witnesses against him, had declined the privilege, and had confessed to the justice of his sen- tence by a voluntary submission. But in the case of Huss, this course was one of manifest injustice. He w:as not permitted to confront his witnesses. In few instances could he even know who they were. His enemies were permitted to testify, without scrutiny or question, whatever they pleased. ' Van der Hardt, it. 408. Ch. II.] HUSS FOEBIDDEN TO EEPLY. 51 In these circumstances, it was but natural that Huss should seek to meet each article, as it was read, by a final statement.^ This he wished and attempted to do, but the privilege was denied. As the first article was read, " that there is one Catholic church, which is composed of the body of believers predes- tined to salvation," Huss added in a distinct and clear voice, " Indeed, I have no doubt that there is one holy Catholic church, which is the congrega- tion of all the elect, not only in this world, but in the world of spirits, embracing those who belong to the invisible body of Jesus Christ, of whom he is the head." To the succeeding articles Huss also at- tempted to reply, but was interrupted by the Bishop of Cambray, who ordered him to be silent, and when he answered, to reply to all at once. " But," said Huss, " you forbid me to answer to each, while it is out of my power to remember the whole list of ac- cusations." As another article was read, Huss asasan attempted to reply. Upon this, the Cardinal of Flor- ence arose and exclaimed, "You deafen us," — a strange complaint after the previous scenes of uproar and confusion of which the council had had experi- ence. The ushers of the council were ordered to seize him and force him to be silent. So gross a wrong Huss could have borne for himself, but he was unwilling that the immense crowd assembled upon the occasion should receive the articles of the council as a reliable statement of his real views. With a loud voice, and with his hands lifted to heaven, he exclaimed, "In the name of Almighty ' L'Enfant, 271. 52 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOIIISr IIUSS. [On. II. God, I beseeclL you, deign to afford me an equitnl)lo hearing, that I may clear myself at least before those who surround me, and remove from their minds the suspicion of errors. Grant me this favor, and then do with me what you will." Here he was again interrupted and required to he silent.-^ Finding that he was not to be permitted the privilege of speaking and vindicating himself from such a multitude of accusations, he kneeled down, and raising his hands and eyes to heaven, commended his cause in prayer to God, the most righteous judge. At length the old accusation which had before been abandoned, was brought forward. It was charged that Huss had written and taught, that in the consecration of the eucharist the material and substantial bread (the matter and substance of bread) remained. To this was added the article "that a priest in mortal sin cannot baptize," etc., with other articles of a similar tenor, or that had before been fully answered. When Huss wished to reply to these, the Cardinal of Florence again enjoined si- lence. But again Huss urgently entreated that he might be heard kindly, at least on account of those around him, whom he would not have misled by the imagination that he defended such errors as were now adduced. " For," said he, " I utterly deny that I ever believed or taught that after the consecration in the sacrament of the altar, the material bread re- mains. Moreover, I assert that baptism and conse- cration, and the administration of other sacred rites, performed by a priest guilty of mortal sin, is infamous ' Mon. Hus., 346. Ch. II.] an AESUED CIIAIiGE. 53 aud hateful in the sight of God. Whenever he is full of impurity, he is least of all a worthy minister of sacred and divine offices." To other accusations upon the list he replied briefly in much the same manner as he had done before in writing, either briefly refuting some, or candidly confessing others. Huss was now accused of giving out that he was the fourth person — now added — of the Holy Trin- ity.* This was established by the testimony of a single doctor, whose name was not mentioned. " Give me the name," said Huss, " of that doctor who testi- fies thus against me." But the bishop who read the accusation refused this request. He merely replied, " There is no need of it." Huss, mastering his indig- nation, solemnly declared, " God forbid that such an imagination as that I should call myself a fourth person of the Trinity should have been thought of by me, nor, by the love of Christ, has it ever entered my mind." He then repeated the article from the Athanasian creed upon the Trinity, declaring in it his firm and abiding belief. At length the words of his appeal to God, as supreme Judge, were read, and this solemn appeal was pronounced an impious error. To the council Huss had no reply to make in his de- fence. Mastering his emotions, he looked up to heaven, and said, in a tone that should have thrilled the assembly, " Most blessed Jesus, behold how this council holds as error, and reprobates thine own deed and the law which thou didst prescribe, when thou thyself, overwhelmed by enemies, didst commend thy cause to thy Father, God, the most holy Judge, leav- ' Mon. Hus., ii. 346. 54 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cn. II. ing US an example in our woe and weakness, that, with prayer for aid, we should suppliantly flee in our wrongs to the most righteous Judge." Here he paused a moment, and then added, " But I — I say confidently, that the surest and safest of all appeals is to the Master, Christ. For he it is whom no one can sway from the right by any bribes, nor deceive by false testimony, nor snare in any sophistry, — since to each he gives back his own reward." He was next charged with having treated the papal excommunication with contempt,* still unwar- rantably continuing in the exercise of his office, even to the celebration of mass. " I did not," said Huss, " despise the excommunication, but publicly in my sermons I appealed to him who is the Judge. And thus it was that I continued to discharge the sacred offices. Meanwhile, I thrice sent to the chief pontiif those who should act as my procurators, to give sat- isfaction in my behalf For, for good and satisfactory reasons I could not appear in my own behalf, as has been stated. Yet I was never able to obtain a hear- ing. My representatives, moreover, were cruelly treated. Some were imprisoned, some were insult- ingly rejected, or subjected to torturing hardships. The records will readily certify you of this, in which my case, and the injustice done, are written out. For this reason I came hither freely to this council, rely- ing upon the public faith of the emperor, who is here present, assuring me that I should be safe from all violence, so that I might attest my innocence, and give a reason of my faith to all who compose it." 1 Mon Hus., iV 346. Ch. II.] SIGISMUJVd's liLUSIl. 55 As Huss spoke of the public faith — the safe-con- duct which he had received — he fixed his eyes steadily upon the emperor. A deep blush at once mounted to the imperial brow.^ Sigismund felt the shame and meanness of which he had been guilty, and his own previous declarations befoi-e the council deprived him of any chance to vindicate his integrity or honor. This circumstance was not soon forgotten in Germany. To it, perhaps, the safety of Luther and the success of the German reformation a century later were in part due. When Charles V., at the celebrated diet of Worms, was pressed to consent to the seizure of Luther in contempt of his safe-con- duct, his Spanish honor revolted at the proposal. "No!" said he, "I should not like to blush like Sigismund." At length, when the several articles of accusation had been read, one of the judges of the court arose, and made a statement of the manner in which Huss had been repeatedly asked whether he would main- tain or disavow them. In his prison at Gottlieben he had promised to submit himself to the decision of the council. He had afterward repeated this before the commission sent to him upon his remov^al to Constance. A third time he had made a similar declaration, and had given it in writing under his own hand. This, as already j^resented, was then read, and it was added, that on the day preceding, (July 5,) Huss had been once more asked by the prelates dep- utized to visit him by the council, whether he would abjure the articles which he acknowledged to be his, ' Mod. Hua, ii. 346. L'Enfant, 272. 56 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. II. promising no longer to hold them, and no more to teach those which he did not acknowledge ; but he chose still to abide by his previous declaration, un- moved from his purpose by all the means of persua- sion which could be employed. The Bishop of Concordia, Italian by birth, whose bald head and advanced years gave him a venerable aspect, had been selected to read the two sentences of the council, one condemning the books of Huss to be burned, and the other requiring his degradation from the priesthood, in order that he might be given over to the secular arm. Upon the requisition of Henry de Piro, the prosecutor of the council, these sentences were then read. The first, against the books of Huss, was as follows : ^ " This most holy general coun- cil of Constance, representing the Catholic church, etc., etc. : — Because, as the truth itself testifies, an evil tree brings forth evil fruit, hence it is that John Wickliffe, a man of damnable memory, by his de- structive doctrine, — not like those holy fathers of old, who in Jesus Christ, through the gospel, begot believ- ing children, — but against the saving faith of Christ, like a root of poison, — has begotten sons of per- dition, M'liom he has left behind him as successors in the inheritance of his perverse doctrine, against whom this holy council of Constance is compelled to rise up as against bastard and illegitimate sons, and cut off their errors as noxious tares from the garden of the Lord, by watchful care, and the knife of eccle- siastical authority, lest, like a canker, they spread abroad to others' destruction ; and since, moreover, ' See Mansi. Also, Mon. Hus., ii. 346. Van der flardt, iv. 429-432. Ch. II.] SENTENCE AGAINST HIS BOOKS. 5T in the sacred general council lately hield at Kome, it was decreed that the doctrine of John Wickliffe, of damnable memory, ought to be condemned, and his books which contain this said doctrine should be burned as heretical, and this decree was carried into effect, — therefore should this said decree be approved by the authority of this present sacred council. And yet, nevertheless, a certain John Huss, in this sacred council, here present in person, a disciple, not of Christ, but rather of the heresiarch John Wickliffe, after and against this condemnation and decree afore- said, with venturous audacity, has dogmatized, as- serted, and preached many of his errors and heresies, which have been long condemned by the most rev- erend fathers in Christ, their lordships the archbish- ops, the bishops of different kingdoms, and masters of theology in many universities, — especially in his resisting, along with his confederates in the schools, and in his sermons in public, the scholastic condem- nation of the articles themselves of Wickliffe several times pronounced in the University of Prague ; and in favor of his doctrine he has declared, in the presence of a multitude of the clergy and the people, that John Wickliffe was a Catholic man, and an evangeli- cal doctor. He has, moreover, published certain articles hereinafter written, and many others deserv- ing of condemnation, asserting them to be Catholic, which articles are contained, as is notorious, in the books of this very John Huss. Wherefore, full and sufficient information being had in the premises, as well as careful deliberation on the part of the most reverend fathers, their lordships the cardinals of the 58 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cu. II. holy Roman church, the patriarchs, the archbishops, the bishops, and other prelates, and doctors of scrip- ture and of laws — composing a large assembly — this most holy council of Constance declares and decrees, that the articles hereinafter written, which have been found on collation, by many masters of the sacred page, to be contained in his books and treatises writ- ten by his own hand, and which, moreover, this same John Huss, in the presence of the fathers and pre- lates of this sacred council, has confessed to be con- tained in his books and treatises, are not Catholic, nor to be taught as such ; but some of them are erro- neous, some scandalous, others offensive to pious ears, many of them rash and seditious, and some notori- ously heretical, and long since by the holy fathers and general councils repi'obated and condemned ; and to preach, teach, or in any way approve them, is pro- hibited. But since the hereinafter written articles are expressly contained in his books or treatises, viz., in the ])ook which he has entitled " De Ecdesia^'' and in his other works, therefore, the aforesaid books, and their doctrine, and each of his other treatises and works, edited by him in Latin, or in the vulgar Bohemian, or by him or others, one or more, trans- lated into some foreign idiom, this most holy council reprobates and condemns ; and doth decree and ap- point that they shall be burned, solemnly and pub- licly, in the presence of the clergy and people, in the city of Constance, and elsewhere, adding, moreover, for the reason aforesaid, that his whole doctrine is and ought to be suspected as to faith, and should be avoided by all the faithful of Christ. And that this Cu. II.] KEPLY OF HUSS. 59 pernicious doctrine may be rooted out from the midst of the church, this holy synod orders, that, by the ordinaries of different localities, treatises and works of this nature, by means of ecclesiastical censure, and even, if need be, under penalty of favoring heresy, shall be carefully sought out, and, when found, shall be committed publicly to the flames. And if any one be found to violate or despise this sentence and decree, this same holy synod ordains that such per- sons shall be 2:)roceeded against, as suspected of heresy, by the ordinaries of different localities, and the inquisitors of heretical pravity." ^ As this sentence was read, Huss replied, " Who are ye, that ye can justly condemn my writings ? For I always desired that they should be corrected by a better application and understanding of Christian truth, and this is still my wish. And yet, hitherto ye have not presented any solid arguments against them, nor have ye convicted of error a single word of my wiitings. Why, then, have ye been impelled to destroy my books, whether rendered in the Bohe- mian, or other language — those, moreover, which doubtless ye have never seen ? And if ye were to see them, your ignorance of the Bohemian language would prevent your understanding them." But after complaining of other injustice in the accusation, he knelt down, and with his eyes to heaven uttered fer- vent prayer. The sentence against Huss himself was then read. "The things done and to be done in the cause of in- quisition of, and concerning the heresy of, John Huss ' MansL 60 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. II. being considered, and a faithful and full report of the commission deputed to act in this case having been had, as well as of other masters in theology and doctors of law, in, of, and concerning the acts and words of witnesses worthy of credit, and in great number — which testimony has been openly and publicly read to John Huss himself before the fa- thers and prelates of this sacred council, by which testimony it is made most clearl}^ manifest that this same John Huss has taught many things evil, scan- dalous, seditious, and dangerously heretical, and has preached the same through a long course of years ; this most holy council of Constance — the name of Christ being invoked — having only God before their eyes, doth by this definitive sentence, in these writ- ings, pronounce, decree, and declare, that the said John Huss was and is a true and manifest heretic, and that he lias taught errors and heresies long time condemned by the church of God, and many things, moreover, scandalous, offensive to pious ears, rash, and seditious ; and that he has publicly preached them, to the grievous offence of the divine majesty, the scandal of the Catholic church, and the prejudice of the Catholic faith ; that he has, moreover, treated witli contempt ecclesiastical censures and the keys of the cliurch, persisting obstinately in this spirit for many years, scandalizing Christian belie vei's by his extreme stubbornness, while neglecting ecclesiastical rules ; that he has interposed his appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ as supreme Judge, in which appeal he has laid down many positions, false and unjust, scan- dalous in regard to the Apostolic See itself, contemn- Cii. II.] SENTENCE AGAINST IIUSS. 61 ing ecclesiastical censures and the keys : — wherefore, for the aforesaid reasons, as well as many others, this holy synod pronounces John Huss to have been heretical, and concludes that he ought to be judged and condemned as a heretic, and by these presents doth condemn him, reproving his appeal as unjust, scandalous, and derisive of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and himself as having seduced Christian people from the faith, especially in the kingdom of Bohemia, by his preaching and by his writings, and as having been not a true preacher of the gospel of Christ according to the exposition of the holy doctors, but rather a misleader of the people. " But because, by those things which it has seen and heard, this holy synod knows this same John Huss to be pertinacious, incorrigible, and, moreover, of such a disposition as not to desire to return to the bosom of holy mother church, nor abjure the heresies and errors which he has publicly defended and preached, — therefore this holy s^^nod of Constance declares and decrees that the same John Huss be deposed and degraded from the order of the priesthood, or other dignity with which he is invested, giving in charge to the ever reverend fathers in Christ, the archbishop of Milan, the bishops of Feltri, Asti, Alexandria, Bangor, and Lavaur, the due execution, in the presence of this most holy synod, of the said degradation, as the canonical rule of order requires." As the charges of the sentence were read, Huss in- terposed brief comments. It was in vain that they for bade him to speak. His indignant sense of the wrong done him would not permit him to be silent. When 62 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cu. II. the accusation of obstinacy was read, he promptly denied it. " This," said he, " I do utterly deny. T have ever desired and I still desire to be better in- structed from scripture ; and I solemnly declare that such is my zeal for the truth, that if by a single word I might confound the errors of all heretics, there is no daus^er that I would not face in order to do it." Who could doubt the sincerity and conscientiousness of the spcciker? When the reading of the sentence was concluded, Huss again fell upon his knees, and in earnest and distinct tones prayed for his enemies. " O Lord God, through thy mercy I pray thee deign to pardon all my enemies, for thou knowest that I have been unjustly accused by them, overcome by false witnesses, oppressed by fictitious accusations, and unrighteously condemned. For thy mercy's sake, therefore, remit their sins." The scene, in its circumstances, had a deep and solemn significance that might have re- minded the judges of the praj^^er once offered on the cross of Calvary. But the history of persecution was to carry out the parallel of the tragedy in a still more striking manner. Scorn and derision were traced in the features of the members of the council, and were uttered in their sneers. They saw in Huss a victim, of whom they felt they might safely make an example. The ceremony of degradation — the first step in the execution of the sentence — was now commenced.^ By the direction of the bishops he was clothed in priestly robes, and, as if he had been about to cele- ' Mon Hu3., i, 28, and ii. 346. Ch. II.] CEEEMONY OF DEGEADATION, . 63 brate mass, the chalice was placed in his hand. As they put the white robe upon him, Huss could not forbear to say — " My Master, Jesus Christ, when he was sent away by Herod to Pilate, was clothed in a white robe." At length, being clad, the prelates admonished him to retract while he yet might, and abjure the errors with which he stood charged. But he replied aloud, as he stood upon the platform to which he had been raised — turning as he spoke toward the people, with tears in his eyes and his voice trembling with emo- tion— "Behold, these bishops persuade and exhort me to retract. But I fear to do it, lest hereafter I be charged with falsehood before God, in case I should confess myself to be guilty of errors of which I was never conscious, which I have never taught, and thus sin against my conscience and divine truth at once. Xever have I asserted those articles, but they are unjustly imputed to me on false testimony, — while I have written and taught the exact opposite. Above all, I fear lest the minds of so great a multitude as that to which I have preached so long, as well as of others who are faithful ministers of the divine word, should, through the offence thus given, be torn away from truth." ^ ' The language, aa given by another them as certainties, should become historian, though to the same purport, matters of doubt ; if, by my example, is more spirited. " How could I," I caused confusion and trouble in so asked lluss, " after such a hypocriti- many souls, so many consciences, cal abjuration, lift my face to heaven ? which I have filled with the pure doc- With what eye could I support the trine of Christ's gospel, and which I looks of that crowd of men whom I have strengthened against the snares have instructed, should it come to of the devil ? No ! no ! it shall never pass, through my fault,that those same be snid, I preferred my life to their tilings which are now regarded by salvation." — Bonnechose 64 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN IIDSS. [Cn. II. Such language, while it might have moved some to pity and respect, only provoked the bishops. " See," said they — and the murmur went round the assembly — " how perverse he is in his wickedness, and how tenacious of his heresy ! " The bishops now directed Huss to descend from the platform. They then began to strip him of the sacer- dotal habit in which he had been clothed. They took from him first the chalice, accompanying the act with .the words — " O thou accursed Judas, who, breaking away from the counsels of peace, hast con- sulted with the Jews ! Behold ! we take from thee this chalice, in which the blood of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the world is offered." Unmoved by the united cm'se and outrage, Huss exclaimed, in a clear, loud voice, to be heard by all, '' But I have all hope and confidence fixed in my God and Saviour, that he will never take from me the cup of salvation ; and I abide firm in my belief that, aided by his grace, I shall this day drink thereof in his kingdom." The bishops proceeded to strip him of the remain- ing symbols of the priestly office, accompanying the removal of each with a correspondent curse. " All these insults," said Huss, " I can endui-e, undisturbed and calm, for the name and truth of Jesus Christ." When this work of removing the sacerdotal habits was accomplished, it still remained to efiace the marks of the tonsure, and thus take away the last symbol of the priestly office. Here a singular and ludicrous controversy arose.* In order to crop the hair, some were for using a razor, and some insisted ' Mon. ITiis.. ii., 847. Cn. II.] THE PAPER CROWN". 65 that the shears were the proper instrument. Some would be satisfied if the tonsure were but disfio^ured ; others would have the hair entirely removed. The scene was one that Huss, even in his circum- stances, felt to be ridiculous. " Ah ! " said he, turning to the emperor where he sat upon his throne, edified doubtless by the pious heresy of some on the ques- tion under discussion — " Ah ! these bishops cannot easily agree among themselves, even in regard to the method by which to insult me." At last the shears-party was triumphant. His hair was cut in four directions, so as to leave bare the form of a cross. This was then washed, as if to remove the oil of his anointing by which he was consecrated to the priesthood. It was then declared that " This holy council of Constance doth now re- move John Huss from the order of the priesthood and the offices of honor which he has discharged, thus declaring that the church of God disowns this man, and gives him up, no longer shielded by her protection, to the secular arm." As they were about to place upon his head the paper crown which he was to wear to the place of execution, and which in derision was covered with pictured fiends, they said, " We devote thy soul to the devils of hell." " But I," said Huss, lifting his eyes to heaven and rever- ently folding his hands — " I commend it to my most merciful Master, Jesus Christ." The crown was now set upon his head. It was- a sort of pyramidal mitre, rising to a considerable height. On each of its three sides the frightful figure of a demon was painted, while on each was written, so as to be visible to all 66 LIFE AISTD TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cn. II. and from every direction, tlie crime for which he was condemned — Heresiarcli. Huss looked at it and cahnly said, " My Lord Jesus Christ, though innocent, deigned to bear to an infamous death, for wretched me, a far rougher and weightier crown of thorns." ^ The ceremony of the degradation of Huss was now complete. He was disowned by the church, and no longer as a priest was subject to its exclusive jurisdiction. Given over to the secular arm, it be- longed to the emperor — such was the orthodox theory of persecution — to do with the prisoner as Pilate with Jesus — what the priests could not — exe- cute capital sentence. Sigismund committed Huss to the charge of Louis, the Elector Palatine, direct- ing him to go and see that he was delivered into the hands of the proper officers. Huss was given over by the elector to the mayor of Constance, and by the latter was placed in the hands of those to whom it belonged to see the sentence executed. They were commanded to burn him, with his clothes, and all indiscriminately that belonged to him, even to his knife and to his purse, from which they were not to take so much as a single penny. He was led to the place of execution, Vv^alking be- tween two officers of the Elector Palatine, and with- out being chained; two of the police of the city preceded and two followed him. The princes, with an escort of eight hundred armed men, and followed by an immense multitude, drawn by curiosity, in- terest, or anxiety, accompanied them to the place of execution. ' Mod. Hus. ii. 347 ; also i. 28. Cn. II.] BUENING OF HIS BOOKS. 67 The procession, instead of taking the direct route thither, moved first in a nearly opposite direction, in order to pass upon the way the episcopal palace, in front of which a pile of the prisoner's writings had been heaped up for the flames. The fire was kindled and the books were burned as the procession passed. They had been first condemned, and were first to be consumed. But to Huss the scene appeared simply ridiculous, as indeed it was. Nor did it nee^l a prophet's sagacity to discern that the course pur- sued was like to defeat its own object. It was al- together out of the power of the council to obtain and thus destroy all the writings of the reformer. They were too widely scattered and too deeply cherished, and this act of impotent vengeance would only make them the more prized — would attach to them a new importance, and excite a more eager curiosity foi* their perusal. The scene, even in the solemn circum- stances in which Huss was placed, did not ^lil to draw from him a smile at the senile malice which it displayed. As the procession passed on, they reached a bridge at which it was necessary to pause. It was not considered safe for the whole multitude to pass over it at once. The armed escort first proceeded, one by one, and then the crowd of citizens followed. Huss improved the occasion to say a few words to the throngs that pressed around to catch a sight of him. He told them, in the German language, that it was not for any heresy that he had been condemned, but through the injustice of his enemies ; that they had not been able to convict him of any error, al- ' 68 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Oh. II. though he had challenged them to do it so often and St) urgently. As he approached the place where he was to be burned, which was a meadow adjoining the garden on the north side of the city, outside the Gottliebeu gate, the procession paused, that every- thing might be made ready for the execution. Here Huss kneeled down, and lifting his eyes toward heaven, prayed — using the language of some of the penitential psalms, especially the thirty-first and fiftieth.^ Repeatedly he used the petitions, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me," and " O God, into thy hands I commit my spirit." The crowd around him were surprised at such an exhibition of devotion in one whom they had been taught to regard as a heretic. " What this man may have done before," said they, " we know not, but now, certainly, we hear him speak and pray in a godly and devout manner." ^ Huss was then asked by some who stood by — probably in the hope that the fear of death might lead him to recant — if he would have a confessor. A priest near by on horseback, clothed in a green, gown drawn together with a sash of red silk, heard the question asked, and, more anxious for the execu- tion than for a recantation which might even yet snatch the victim from the flames, declared that a confessor ought not to be allowed him because he was a heretic. Huss, however, replied that he would be glad to have one. Ulric Keichenthal — one of the historians of the council — as he himself relates, call- ed for a priest then present to come and receive the ' More probaV>ly the fifty-first. " ^Ton. Has., ii. 3-i1. Ch. II.] HUSS DECLINES TO CONFESS. 69 prisoner's confession. The name of this priest was Uhic Schorand, a man of repute for learning and integrity, and highly esteemed by the council. He asked Huss whether he was willing to renounce the errors for which he had been condemned to the punishment which he now saw awaiting him. If so, he was ready to confess him ; but if not, he must be aware that a heretic, according to the canon law, could neither administer or receive the sacraments. Huss having heard the conditions on which he might be confessed, declined to accept them. He replied, that he did not deem it necessary for him to confess, inasmuch as he did not feel himself to be guilty of any mortal sin. He desired, however, the privilege of improving the occasion to address the people in the German language. But the brutal elector, true to the instincts of his cruel nature and in perfect con- sistency with his previous course, instead of allowing permission, gave orders that he should immediately be committed to the flames. Huss at once lifted up his voice in prayer. " O Lord Jesus, I would endure with humility, for thy gospel, this cruel death ; and I beseech thee, pardon all my enemies." Such were some of the expressions of his prayer. While he was thus engaged in his devotions, with his eyes toward heaven, the paper mitre, which had been placed upon his head in the council, fell off. As Huss turned to behold it, a smile played over his features. Perhaps he saw in the frail thing an em- blem of that impotent malice which in vain attempt- ed to affix calumny to his name. The soldiers, how- ever, more inclined to sympathize with tlieir harsh 70 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHlSr HUSS. [Ch. II. leader, replaced the mitre upon his head, and, refer- ring to the images painted upon it, declared he ought to be burned with the devils he had served. Having asked and obtained permission to speak to his keepers, Huss thanked them for the kind treat- ment which he had received at their hands.^ " Ye have shown yourselves," said he, " not merely my keepers, but brethren most beloved. And be assured that I rest with firm faith upon my Saviour, in whose name I am content calmly to endure 'this sort of death, that I this day may go to reign with him." These* woi'ds were spoken in German. We have other testimony, also, to show that even among his jailers, Huss must already have seen the fruits of his fidelity. He now wished, with his dying breath, to seal the impression that had been made by his life. He was now stripped of his garments and bound fast to a large stake, through which holes had been bored to secure the cords. Of these there were six or seven, which had been wet in order longer to re- sist the heat of the fiames. One was bound about his ankles, one below and another above the knees, while others were distributed over the upper part of his body as far as the armpits. His hands had previously been bound behind his back, and he was now made fast in this position. The stake was driven downward and made to stand erect in the earth, so as to support the victim while the flames consumed him. By some accident it had happened that Huss, as bound to the stake, stood facing the east.^ This was » Mod. Hus., ii. 347. "^ lb 848. Ch. II.] THE FUNERAL PILE. '71 observed hj some of the bystanders, and the order was given that he should be turned so as to face the west. As a heretic, he might not die with his eyes directed toward the Holy Land. The order was im- mediately obeyed. The neck of the prisoner was now bound to the stake by a black and sooty iron chain, which had been used by a poor man, its former owner, for suspending his kettle over the fire. Huss bent his head somewhat so as to obtain a sight of it, but instead of turning pale with affright, he be- held it with a cheerful smile. "The Lord Jesus Christ," said he, " my beloved Kedeemer and Saviour, was, for my sake, bound with a harsher and more cruel chain. Why, therefore, should wretched I blush, for his most holy name, to be bound with this sooty one ? " Two piles of fagots were placed about the feet of Huss, which had been stripped of their covering. Bundles of straw were placed erect around the stake, reaching as far upward as the neck of the victim. Every thing was now ready for the kindling of the flames. Before the torch was applied, how- ever, one more effort was made to induce Huss to re- cant. It was the wish of the emperor even yet, un- doubtedly, to save if possible his honor with the prisoner's life ; and it was probably by his direction — • given beforehand, for he did not choose to witness the scene — that the marshal of the empire with the elector approached the funeral pile, and exhorted Huss yet to save his life by retracting and abjuring his doctrines. It was the last opportunity. Would Huss now hesitate ? In a loud, clear voice, he re- Y2 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOIIIST HUSS. [Ch. 11. plied, with a firmness whicli the immediate prospect of death could not shake, " I call God to witness, that I have never taught nor written those things which on false testimony they impute to me ; but my declarations, teachings, writings, in fine, all my works, have been intended and shaped toward the object of rescuing dying men from the tyranny of sin. Wherefore I will this day gladly seal that truth which I have taught, written, and proclaimed — estab- lished by the divine law, and by holy teachers — by the pledge of my death." ^ On hearing this final decision of Huss — unshaken in his purpose to the last — the marshal and the elector left him. The executioners kindled the flames. Amid the smoke and blaze, Huss could be heard engaged in prayer. " O Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy on me." The prayer was repeated, and again he was heard uttering the words of the creed, when the wind, rising with the flames, kindled, the pile to a fiercer heat, and he was suffocated by the smoke that prevented his saying more. Still was he observed for one or two minutes obviously engaged in dev^otion. He bowed his head, and his lips were seen to move as if in utterance of prayer. At last all was silent. The charred carcass was motionless, and the spirit had fled.^ As the fagots burned away, they left the body visible, still hanging to the stake .by the iron chain. The executioners with poles pushed the fragments of the burning brands back around the stake, and heaped up new fuel about the half-consumed skele- ' Mon. Hus., ii. 348. « lb. Ch. II.] THE mSTAL SCENE. 73 ton. They struck at the bones and linihs, to break them in pieces, that they might the sooner be con- sumed. His head rolled down. It was beaten into pieces with a club and thrown back into the flames. His heart, found among his intestines, was pierced by a sliai'p stick of wood, and roasted at a fire apart until it was reduced to ashes. One of the execu- tioners was seen still having in his possession some of the garments of Huss. The elector, on observing it, commanded that these and all that belonged to Huss should be cast together into the flames, promis- ing the executioner compensation for the loss. " The Bohemians," said he, " would keep and cherish such a thing as a sacred relic." When every thing had been consumed, the ashes, and every fragment or memorial of the scene of martyrdom, were shov- elled up and carted away, to be emptied into the Khine. Thus perished, upon his forty-second birthday, in the full vigor of his powers, and in the strength and promise of manhood, one of those men whom the world has been constrained to acknowledge well worthy of the martyr's crown. Even his enemies could not but eulogize his noble beaiing, and i-espect his manly and heroic spirit. " They went," said yEneas Sylvius, who afterward filled the papal chair, and who knew all the circumstances of the execu- tion of Huss and Jerome — " They went to their pun- ishment as to a feast. Not a word escaped them which gave indication of the least weakness. In the midst of the flames they sang hymns uninterruptedly to their last breath. No philosopher ever suffered 74 LIFE AND TOIES OF JOnN HUSS. [Ch. II. death with such constancy as they endured the flames." ^ The question here rises — What were the real causes which led to the condemnation of Huss ? He him- self would never allow, even to the last, that he had departed from the orthodox standards of the church — the scriptures and the fathers. In fact, with the exception of his late approval of the views of Jaco- bel in regard to the communion of the cup, there was scarce a doctrine which he held, upon which he could not have found many members of the council to agree with him., When questioned upon transub- stantiation and the Trinity, he replied by a full and frank confession of the Catholic formula. In regard to confession, he did not reject it, though like many of his contemporaries whose orthodoxy passed unsus- pected, he did not attach to it that supreme and superstitious importance which belonged to it in the eyes of many. On other points of belief, — as inter- cession of the saints, the adoration of images, works, purgatory, and tradition, his rej^lies before the coun- cil show that his views differed but slightly from those of the French theologians, and the more intel- ligent and liberal members of the Koman Catholic church. As to the doctrine of the absence of the spiiitual character in bad priests — a doctrine so long obscure in his mind, and which at first he seems to have adopted from Wicklifi^e — he finishes by giving it an orthodox explanation, declaring that in the ministry of an unworthy priest, God works worthily and eftectually by unworthy hands. Even with re- * ^neas Sylv., xxxvi. Ch. II.] GENERAL ORTHODOXY OF HUSS. 75 garcl to indulgences, he declares himself indisposed to withhold any prerogative which God may have given to the Roman pontiff, but merely denies that they were of any value when given for unworthy purposes. Many of the propositions attributed to him by the council he publicly disavowed, and oth- ers he explained in such a manner that they could uot properly be regarded as heretical. Huss attacked, not so much the doctrines of the Romish church, as their abuse, and in this respect might have found sufficient precedent for his justification, had he sought it, among the writings of members of the council. Nor can we ascribe the condemnation of Huss to the severe language which he used in regard to the corruption and degeneracy of the church. No Ian guage to be found in his writings can exceed, if even equal, in severity, that which was employed upon this subject by Gerson, Clemengis, and D^Ailly. Many a sermon was preached before the council, in which plain and terrible expositions of the prevalent depravity were presented, startling enough to fill the mind of every hearer with astonishment and horror. No one ever attempted to deny the truth of what Huss asserted on this subject. The Cardinal of Cam- bray merely complained that it was said inoppor- tunely. One prominent feature of the criminality of Huss may perhaps be found in some lines written in an old manuscript copy of his works. " As long as John Huss merely declaimed against the vices of the seculars, every one said that he was in- 76 LIFE ATSTD TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. II. spired by the Spirit of God ; but as soon as lie pro- ceeded against ecclesiastics, lie became an object of odium, for he then really laid his finger upon the sore." Huss traced, like Wickliffe, a large part of the ex- cesses of the clergy to the riches which, by the vio- lation of ecclesiastical order, they had been enabled to accumulate. He saw them becoming lords and princes, entangled in worldly business,. and inspired by worldly ambitions. He believed that it was the right and duty of the secular power to secure the proper employment of the property of the church, and when it had been perverted from its uses, it might be taken away altogether. This doctrine was a heinous one in the eyes of the clergy. It gave a mortal blow to their worldly rank and temporal authority. Undoubtedly its avowal made Huss many enemies, and these of a most unrelenting and vindictive character. Various parties in the council stood arrayed against Huss upon distinct grounds. The theologians of the University of Paris saw in him an adherent of the philosophy of the Realists, and the odium jpliilosqpli- icum^ full as mu'ch as the odium theologicum^ brought them as Nominalists into bitter conflict with him. The English deputation, indifferent, or perhaps hos- tile to the philosophical views of the Parisians, tak- ing but little delight in the verbal quibbles with which the dialectic skill of the Cardinal of Cambray sought to entrap Huss into self-contradiction, regarded him yet as a disciple of Wickliffe, and when they heard him defending his memory, resolved to give hira up Cii. II.] GERMAN PREJUDICE. ^7 as another victim to their hatred of their own coun- tryman. The deputation of the German nation, moreover, had come to Constance, many of them bitterly envenomed by prejudice against Huss. They regarded him — some of them, at least — almost in the light of a per- sonal enemy. They charged him with being the principal agent in the measures which led to the vir- tual expulsion of the German nation from the Univer- sity of Prague. Among those who are mentioned as especially eager to secure his conviction and condem- nation, we find many who in all probability had studied in that university, and carried back with them from Bohemia the inveterate hostility and prejudice which had there been excited.^ The most pertinacious antagonist of Huss — according to the historian, the only one who could vanquish him in argument — was John Zachariae, professor of theol- ogy, who represented the University of Erfurth in the council of Constance, and who is spoken of as a man of extensive learning and consummate ability. To him the same historian ascribes the prevailing influence which secured the sentence of Huss. How- ever this may be, there can be no doubt that the German nation in the council, to which Huss should have looked for defenders, was envenomed against him by the reports that had gone forth from the Univer- sity of Prague. To bring the various interests, antipathies, and prejudices of the several parties to bear against the prisoner, there were' only needed the skill and malice ' Vail der Ilardt, Iv. 395. 78 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cn. II. of men like Paletz and Causis. Paletz, a former com- panion and associate, soon a rival in influence, at length in a moment of terror yielding up his better convictions to secure his own safety, and virtually sold over to the enemies of the man whom he now pursued, not so much for the purpose of taking his life, as for the privilege of triumph over a prostrate foe ; — Michael de Causis, a villain from the start, and schooled by all the practised arts of fraud to do the meanest things which the tool of other men's malice needs to do, while he gratifies his own : — these were the leaders in a plot of which bribery was an ac- kowledged element, and which combined and wove into its web of intrigue the basest passions, and the most unhallowed and even conflicting interests. And yet it is probable that all those arts by which they poisoned the minds of the council, and all the false testimony which they heaped together in order to convict Huss, would have proved vain, but for that which was in reality, after all, the- chief crime that rested upon his head. He would not admit the infallibility of the council. He had too much good sense, not to say piety, to allow the word of any man, or any body of men, to silence or overthrow the clear authority of the word of God. He had appealed from the pope to Christ, the supreme Judge, in vain, if any council was to sit in judgment on Christ himself, wrest his words from their true meaning, or replace them by human decisions from any source. He demanded, and again and again did he repeat the demand, that he should be set right and instructed by the authority of the Sacred Scrip- Ch. II.] APPEAL OF nUSS TO SCEIPTUKE, 79 tures. To these alone, and not to the dlda of any body of men, was he willing to snbmit. Here was the root of the difficulty. Huss was a Protestant before the name was known. He protested against superseding the plain word of Christ by any inven- tions or decisions of fallible men. This constituted his crime. To this position he remained steadfast to the last. Sigismund, like a second Nebuchadnezzar, required that Huss should bow down and woi'ship the great image of synodical infallibility which he had set up in place of the pope. The council itself repeated the demand. Obedience and submission were the only terms on which his life would be spared. These conditions Huss rejected with disdain ; and his doom was sealed. He went to the stake with a clear conscience, forcing the very flames which his enemies had kindled, to emblazon before the world in fiery letters his reverence for the word of God. Had his life been spared, we can readily be- lieve that new light would have dawned upon him, and that Luther would have been preceded in his career by a man who combined some of the noblest qualities of the martyr spirit with a firmness and decision fully equal to his own. The character of Huss is one that the most viru- lent calumny has scarce dared to touch. The purity of his life, the simplicity of his manners, his love of truth, his deep conscientiousness, his aversion to all assumption or display, his strong sympathy for the poor and ignorant, his chivalrous readiness to obey each prompting of duty, though it might cany him to the prison or the stake, are plainly legible in the 80 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN IIUSS. [Cu. IF. whole story of his life. He has no false pride that forbids him to retract an error, or reject a truth. He only asks to be convinced, and he is willing to con- fess his mistake. We can see at times the impetuons- ness of his nature breakinof out under the indio'nant sense of wrong or injustice. He utters his feelings in sharp and even burning words. Fearing not the face of man, he dares avow his doctrines before the world ; and, if the occasion demands, can lash the vices of men in power with unsparing invective and reproof. And yet, so thoroughly is he master of him- self, so perfectly has he schooled his passions to self- control, that rarely a word escapes his lips, or a step is taken^ which he needs to recall. In all the prominent men of his age we look in vain for that combination of qualities by which he was eminently fitted for the task committed to his hands. He showed throughout his trial a presence of mind, and a power and quickness of apprehension, which are perfectly surprising, when we consider the hardships of his severe and protracted imprisonment — for the most part deprived of books — and the tumultuous scenes in the council, which at times made it more like a mob than a body of men assembled to delib- erate and judge. In other reformers we can in almost every instance detect some weakness or ex- cess that led them into blunders, and which we sadly regret. Luther might have been too defiant, Me- lanchthon too compliant. Jerome, the associate of Huss, was impetuous, perhaps to an extreme ; but Huss himself pursued a course in which his' decision and moderation, his conscientiousness and docility, his Ch. II.] CHAEACTEE OF HTJSS. 81 loyiilty to ti'utli, and liis respect foj" the rights and judgment of others, are happily blended. We could scarcely wish him to have been other than he was. Even without the crown of martyrdom, we should have been constrained to pronounce him brave and true, — the possessor of a manly, noble nature. I have not thought it necessary to sum up at length the character of Huss; for its leading fea- tures are quite distinctly brought out in the course of the narrative. Frank, genial, and confiding, he scorned all disguise of his views or feelings. His motives are transparent and avowed, and he is never ashamed to confess them. The man stands forth before us, delineated in his own words and deeds. That he valued and desired the love of all good men is obvious ; but he seems never to have been carried away by the mere love of applause. Severe- ly, and perhaps at times morbidly, conscientious, his moral character is above the reach of calumny. The malice of his enemies could not detect in it a flaw or stain. In his ftimiliar letters, he censures himself for ftiults which most would have scarcely esteemed foibles. He reproaches himself for playing chess, and for an attention to dress which was unbecoming. But his gentleness and charity, his purity and integ- rity, are above question. They were eloquently attested, as we shall see hereafter, by the document in which the university vindicated his memory from the charges of the council. In his controversies he never descends to personal abuse. He expresses, in strong language, his disap- VOL« II. 6 82 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. II. proval of the course of some of his party in the use of reproachful epithets. Yet it is evident that he lacked neither the occasion or ability, had he been so disposed, to cover his opponents with ridicule, and convert his success into a personal triumph. But this his loyalty to truth as well as the kindliness of his nature forbade. His social affections were warm and tender. His letters in exile and from prison unfold his heart to us. We have, indeed, in Huss a man whose facul- ties were admirably balanced, — true and devoted as a friend', powerful yet courteous as an antagonist, eloquent in the pulpit, faithful as a witness to the truth before the council, a hero in the prison, and a martyr at the stake. CHAPTER III. JACOBEL, GERSON, AND VOLADAMIR. The Use of the Cdp. — Decree of the Council. — Reasons on which it was Based. — History of the Use of the Cdp. — Jacobel's Treatise. — His Argu- ment Characterized — Sharp Sentences. — Persecution Rebuked. — The Bold Tone of Jacobel's Treatise. — Gregory's Abdication. — Benedict XIII. Sum- moned.— Affair of John Petit. — His Character. — His Propositions Con- demned AT Paris. — The Duke op Burgundy Appeals to the Pope. — The Question Before the Council. — The Aspect of the Cask Changed. — Eng- land Allied wth the Duke of Burgundy. — Timidity of the Council. — Disap- pointment of Gerson. — The King of Poland and the Teutonic Knights. — Sketch of the Order. — Question Before the Council. — Paul Voladamir and His Propositions. — Their Liberal Tone. — Von Falkenburg. — Apologizes for the Order. — His Book Escapes Condemnation. — Gerson's Motives. — Personal Danger. — Attacked by Falkenburg. — Futile Hopes. May, 1415 — August, 1415. During the period which intervened between the first appearance of Huss before the council and his final sentence, there were other subjects of discussion, of grave importance, which claimed the attention of the members of that body. The Bishop of Lito- mischel, as we have already seen, entered his com- plaint against the innovation introduced by Jacobel at Prague. The matter had been given in charge to the theologians of the council, who were directed to examine and report. The result of their labors was a small treatise, in reproof of the innovation.^ This treatise was submitted to the council, and furnislied ' Van der Hardt, torn, iii., pt. xvii., p. 686. (83) 84 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. the grounds upon wliicli their subsequent decree (June loth, 1415) was based. It pronounces the authority and long practice of the church a sufficient warrant for the withholding of the cup, and declares heretical any who should maintain the contrary opin- ion ; and such persons, as heretical, are to be pro- ceeded against, wherever they may be found, by the diocesans, their vicars, or the inquisitors of heretical pravity, even to the infliction upon them of severe penalties.^ The conclusions of the doctors and the penal decree of the council were not calculated to set the question at rest. As to the first, by their admissions they stultified themselves. As to the latter, Jacobel was not a man to be intimidated by its terrors. The doctors had admitted — as they could not well deny — that as the sacrament was instituted by Christ, and observed by the early church, the communion of the cup had been allowed. Their argument for with- holding it from the laity was based upon the practice and authority of the church. A custom long ob- served, had, they remarked, the force of law, and the church had the right to make or adopt such changes in the sacraments as she deemed fitting. On these grounds, which would allow age to sanctify error, and permit the institutions of Christ to be mutilated or abrogated by human caprice, they justified the practice of the church in the withholding of the cup. But the plea in its favor, drawn from custom and precedent, was by no means a strong one. Scarce two centuries had passed since the cup had been first ' Van der Hardt, iv. 332. Fleury, xxvi- 103. Ch. III.] THE DOCTRINE OF THE CUP. 85 witbhelcl. In England the practice seems first to have prevailed, and yet, from tlie writings of Anselm we infer that he knew nothing of it. The celebrated Thomas Aquinas is the fii'st of any eminence who tauo;bt that the communion of both kinds was unne- cessary, inasmuch as the body and blood of our Lord are found in each. Bonaventura goes further, and advises the withholding of the cup from the laity. These two men, whose names supplied the place of authority with the Dominicans and Franciscans re- spectively, first gave an impulse to the innovation. The mendicant monks, swarming all over Europe, carried the practice with them. By degrees the com- munion of the cup fell into disuse. In order that laymen might communicate in both kinds, a dispen- sation was at length required by the popes. This gainful prerogative, once secured, was not likely to be given up. It was a new jewel in the tiara of papal prerogative.^ The fii'st ecclesiastical statute dis- coverable on the subject, dates from the year 1261. It was enacted at a general chapter of the Cistercian order, and is grounded on the pretence that evils arise from making the communion of the cup gen- eral. In the middle of the fourteenth century, yet less than fifty years before the birth of Huss, the denial of the cup to the laity had become common. But in Bohemia, on the confines of the Greek church, the innovation made slower progress. Matthias, who died at Prague in 1389, and who is said to have maintained the same doctrine on the subject with Jacobel, must have seen and conversed with those * Spittler's History of the Cup. 86 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cn. III. to whom the cup had been allowed. Many of the citizens of Prague, who had as yet scarce passed middle life, must have remembered how Charles IV., and Blanca his wife, at their coronation in 1347, had been allowed to partake of the communion in both kinds. In Bohemia, therefore, at least, the argu- ments of the council, futile and inane as they were in themselves, would lose all their force. So far as the inhabitants of that kingdom were concerned, the communion of the cup had in its favor the practice of twelve centuries. One, or even two hundred years of innovation was a poor offset — even on the grounds upon which the council argued — against a precedent of such, long and continuous standing. But Jacobel did not rest the weight of his arguments even upon this ground. He had already learned, like Huss, to go back to the original records of Chris- tianity itself; and to the authority of these — sustained as it was by the unanimous voice of the Christian fathers — he was willing to leave the question. His controversy witli Broda already referred to, shows that he had informed himself in regard to the whole subject, with care and diligence. He could scarcely have been taken by surprise at the announcement of tbe conclusions and tke decree of the council. These were published on the fifteenth of June, and must have been known at Prague before the death of Huss. But at nearly the same time the report of the views which Huss entertained upon the subject must have been received. His words would carry especial weight with them, as the dying testimony of one Ch. III.] WEIGHT OF IIUSS' OPINION. 87 whom tens of thousands revered and loved. In his case, it was to be presumed, there was no blinding motive of self-interest to lead him to a wrong con- clusion. In the circumstances of the case his author- ity would, with the mass of the citizens of Prague, more than counterbalance that of the council. The latter had exposed itself to contempt, not only by its treatment of Huss, which excited the dee2;)est in- dignation, but by its notorious intrigues and corrup- tions, unblushingly proclaimed by members of its own body. Huss, on the other hand, had been al- most canonized in the affections of his countrymen, by the injustice which the council had inflicted upon him. Contrary to their design, they had crowned their victim with a dignity and power with which their own could not compete. The preacher was to be elevated into the confessor, the hero into the martyr. Powerful as the words of Huss might be from his pulpit in Bethlehem chapel, they were more eloquent as traced by his manacled hand in the cell of his Gottlieben prison. The decree of the council stood little chance of securing favor or recognition when the views of Huss were once known. Jacobel was encouraged and strengthened by the approval of his countryman at Constance. His own convictions had been deliberately formed, and, confi- dent of the rectitude of his course, he did not quail before the storm. But although the decree of the council doomed him as a heretic to inquisitorial ven- geance, it failed to frighten him from the stand which he had made. He took it up, along with the con- clusions on which it had been based, and hurled it 88 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. back in the face of the council, riddled through and through by the arrows of scripture logic.^ He brought the array of the Christian fathers in un- broken phalanx against an innovation of less than three hundred years' standing at the utmost. Nor did he fail to improve so fair an occasion of speaking some plain truths upon kindred topics. The argument of Jacobel displays throughout an uncompromising love of truth, a thorough detestation of all hypocrisy and injustice, a devoted fidelity to the authority of scripture, as well as a most vigor- ous intellect and a glowing eloquence. As he takes up the conclusions of the doctors, adopting the first, and exposing the more fully thereby the fallacy and absurdity of the last, and then proceeds to at- tack the decree of the council, which, in its cruel severity, bore its condemnation on its face, all his powers and feelings are aroused, and his argument grows fierce and terrible as it clothes itself in the mantle of injured and insulted truth. His irony, contempt, sarcasm, and grave reproof, not unmingled with a sadder tone that breathes a dirge-like music over the bleeding wounds of persecuted truth, carry us along on the tide of argument, and we feel that resistance is vain. The man's words come from the deepest fountains of feeling and conviction. His heart is a volcano, pouring forth a lava tide of fiery logic that scathes and burns all it touches. He does not fisrht as one that beateth the air. He feels that he is dealing with real antagonists. Each paragraph is sharp and pointed as a dagger. * The entire discussion on both sides is to be found in Van der Hardt, torn. iii. Ch. III.] jacobel's aegument. 89 Every sentence stings. " If we are Christ's priests," he says, " I know not whom we shonld follow rather than Christ himself" " If Christ is the fonnda- tion — as we have heard from their own mouth in re- gard to this doctrine — not only the doctors of the council of Constance, but the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." " Whoever loves the truth, let him dismiss these doctors, even though thei'e were a legion of them, and hear him who is the Truth — Christ, that great Prophet, the well-beloved of the Father." "Into such senselessness do they foil, who, when anything obscure prevents them from discern- ing the truth, have recourse, not to the words of the prophets, the writings of the apostles, or the author- ity of the gospel — and so become masters of error because they never were disciples of the truth." Jacobel takes occasion to show how the discij^les of Chiist, who truly followed in his steps, have been persecuted and charged with heresy. Abel was killed, Joseph sold as a slave, Isaiah sawn in sunder, Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, crucified. Paul, after the manner that men called heresy, worshipped the God of his fathers. " Such men the council takes on false testimony, con- victs and condemns them of heresy, and then delivers them over to the secular arm to be punished. O Jesus Christ, the author of this truth ! do they not, as far as in them is, make thee an heresiarch ? They give up thee and thy holy primitive church to the secular arm, and still wish to be called guiltless of murdei", and charitable ! As of old the Pharisees and the priests, so holy that they would not enter the 90 LIFE AKD TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. prsetorium, or the house of a Gentile, gave up the In- nocent One to be crucified, while they said ' It is not lawful for us to put any one to death,' so now is their example copied by those, who first defame, then cite to trial, excommunicate and hastily arrest, and de- grade, cursing body and soul as far as in them lies, and handinff their victims over to the secular court. And as the Jews then said, ' If thou lettest this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend,' so now these men say — 'Powerful master, this man is under your juris- diction ; the church has no more to do with him, and so he must be restrained by the civil power.' . . . O King of kings and Lord of lords, tribulations are on every side, thou Eternal Father ! For if, according to thine own command, I am to hear thy well-beloved Son, and listen to the gospel, as that well-beloved Son himself gave commandment, and so live after the example of the primitive church, I shall be excom- municated, accounted a heretic, condemned, l)urued, or in some other way put to death by this lioman church, which savors not the nature or practice of the primitive one. But if I do not obey the gospel, eternal death and everlasting fire will be my portion when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his angels, to take vengeance upon those that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. What choice then shall I make ? But I know that if I should please men, I should be no more the servant of Jesus Christ Fear not those, therefore, who can only kill the body. Not a hair of your head shall perish without our Father; in patience possess ye your souls. Cu. in.] JACOBEL ON PERSECUTION. 91 " Since, then, all power is given to Christ, in heaven and on earth, who would dare to bring him into subjection to his own rules, shaping His gospel law accoi'ding to his own caprice — who, but the son of perdition, who is exalted above all that is called God?" Jacobel does not spare the persecuting doctrines of the council embodied in their decree. " Ye know not what spirit ye are of. Christ came, not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Mahomet taught his followers to persecute and kill ; Christ did not. . . . By their fruits ye shall know them, — yea, those who invoke the secular arm against such as practice gos- pel truth. . . . Antichrist, as Thomas says, forces, by threats and torture, those whom he cannot otherwise subdue." Jacobel seems to see fulfilled before his eyes the prophecies in regard to the last days. He quotes the language employed in previous centuries by those whom the church still honored, and shows bow severely it bore against those who chose to obey, and force others to obey, men rather than God. Their final doom he holds up as a feai'ful warning. The whole treatise is written in a bold, manly, and uncompromising spirit. It was the gauntlet of defi- ance thrown down at the feet of the council. From first to last, it breathes not a note of fear or sub- mission. While perfectly decorous in language, it tears away the last thread of apology with which the council would veil its tyranny and iniquity. The occasion upon which it was written lent it a new force. The whole Bohemian nation were indiirnant at the outrage offered to their countryman. Jacobel'8 92 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOIUST IIUSS. [Ch. III. words gave expression to the convictions of thousands. They sank deep into the hearts of the people, and animated them to a noble resistance of ecclesiastical tyranny.^ The council, meanwhile, did not neglect the sub- ject of the schism of the church. By deposition they had disposed of John XXIII., but Gregory and Bene- dict still maintained their rival claims to the pontifi- cate. The former, however, worn out with years and care, was unequal to the task of long defying the au- thority of the council. At the opportune moment he had intimated his willingness, on certain conditions, to resign his office, and thus remove another obstacle to the union of the church. Negotiations upon the subject had been commenced, and the matter was so far matured that in the fourteenth session, two days before the death of Huss, the act of abdication was solemnly executed. Charles Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, was authorized by Gregory to act as pleni- potentiary in his behalf. The two conditions of ab- dication which his master insisted upon were, that the council should consent to be convoked anew by him so that he might regard it as legitimate, and that a cardinal of his obedience should preside over the council. The first of these conditions was admit- ted without much difficulty, the council readily per- ceiving that although its previous sessions would thus ' The various treatises of Jacobel dared him a most formidable oppo- and his antagonists are given by Van nent. The closing treatise of the der Tlardt, in his third volume. Ja- series is remarkable as controverting cobel left none of their arguments the doctrine of Wickliffe on transub- unanswered. His familiarity with stantiation — presenting those views scripture and the fathers, and his which the Calixtines, of whom Jaco- remarkable logic and eloquence, ren- bel was the leader, subsequently held. Cn. III.] ABDICATION OF GREGOKY XII. 93 bear the imputation of being unautborized, even Gregory himself would admit the justice of the pro- cess l)y which his rival, John XXIIL, had been de- posed. The other condition the council refused to grant, but compromised the matter by directing the empei'or to preside while the abdication of Gregory took place.-^ Tlie council forbade any steps to be taken for a new election without its permission.^ There might have been reason for apprehension lest the united cardinals, weary of the council's delay, might assume their prerogative, and give the church a new head from among their own number. The usages, rights, and privileges, allowed in previous elections, were therefore suspended. The council reserved to itself the authority of regulating the time, place, and form of this election. It was, moreover, decreed that the council should not be dissolved until such an election had taken place, and the emperor .was invoked to maintain and de- fend its rights. To this request Sigismund acceded. He published an edict, threatening severe penalties against any who should conspire, or attempt anything to the prejudice of the liberty of the assembly. Upon his abdication Gregory was allowed by the grateful council to retain the dignity of cardinal, and to hold the highest rank in the college of which he was a member. His six cardinals were confirmed in their offices, and the two obediences were united. The council terminated its fourteenth session by the reading of a decree^ summoning Benedict XHL, * Fleury xxvi. 112, 118. ' L'Enfiint, 265. ' Fleury, xxvi. 121. 94 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. the last recusant pope, to keep his promise, and abdi- cate the pontificate within ten days, under pain of being proceeded against as schismatic, incorrigible, devoid of faith, and perjured. In case of contumacy, the emperor was authorized to act in the matter ac- cording to his discretion. Another subject, which in the minds of some of the members of the council was of scarcely less im- portance than the unity of the church, had already been brought to the notice of the council. This was the afikir of John Petit.^ We have hei'etofore no- ticed the part which he took on the questions that arose out of the murder of the Duke of Orleans by the Duke of Burgundy. The last — bold, perfidious, and desperate in his daring — had awed the coui't of France by the terror and power of his name. He boldly avowed the wicked deed by which he removed an odious rival, and demanded and received fi-om the weak kinof of France, the brother of the murdered man, the pardon of his crime. But no sooner did he return to his hereditary states than the scale turned against him. His deed ceased to be regarded in the light of a patriotic act, and his enemies represented it as being — what it really was — a heinous, inexcus- able, and deliberate murder. The Duke of Bui-gun- dy needed the aid of logical casuistry to justify what he had done in the eyes of those who did not fear the glitter of his sword. He found it in the person of John Petit, a member of the university, who, grateful for the patronage of the duke, by whom he had been educated and supported, ofi'ered his bene- ' Monstrelet. Gers. op. v. 391. Van der Hardt, iv. 345. Ch. III.] CHARACTER OF PETIT. 95 factor the aid of an unscrupulous conscience, a strong intellect, and the ability of a thorough master of scholastic arts. This Franciscan friar was just the man for the oc- casion. A blind and violent logician, scrupling not to reason against reason, and justify mui'der by scripture and all the principles that should condemn it, he entered upon his task. Prompt where all others hesitated, taking by storm what others would patiently besiege, almost raving in his furious advo- cacy or invective, yet always master of himself, and calculating with cool reason the effect of his very paradox, he was the person to carry along with him, by the logical energy of his nature, the mass of minds whose weakness or timidity demanded a leader. He preached before the university a discourse as re- markable almost for its scholastic logic as for its daring doctrine. In. this curious but masterly pro- duction he hews his way to his conclusion with a direct and sti'aightforward energy,— leaving each granite step by which he mounts, visible and defiant to every eye.^ His enemies must have admired the art and boldness of the man they denounced, and few there were who could safely venture to encoun- ter such a disputant. But the thing must be done, and upon Gerson, as the ablest man in France, the task was devolved. Nor did he shrink fi-om it. Although, like Petit, he was a debtor to the charities of the house of Bur- gundy, his mind and heart were both ari'nyed on tlie side of justice. He hated the logic that defended ' Monstrelet, i. 61-81. 96 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. the crime, as he detested and boldly denounced the deed itself. With a chivalrous devotion to his cause, Gerson threw himself into the midst of the discus- sion. For a long time he struggled in vain. The Duke of Burgundy carried the university with him, and triumphed temporarily in the person of Petit. But his violence made him odious. The relations of parties were in a state of constant change. At last, in 1412, Gerson secured fi'om the university the con- demnation of seven articles from Petit's writings, in which he had maintained that a subject may justly put a tyrant to death on his own responsibility, and even deserves to be recompensed therefor. The king of France, in consequence of these proceedings, di- rected the Bishop of Paris and the Inquisitor of the Faith to join to themselves such a number of the doctors of the university as they should see fit, and give judgment upon the disputed propositions ! Thus originated the celebrated assembly called the Council of the Faith. By this body thirty-seven propositions,^ drawn from the writings of Petit, who had mean- while deceased, were condemned to be publicly burned. The sentence was duly executed, and was inscribed, by the king's order, in the register of each parliament of the kingdom. The Duke of Burgundy felt that this blow was aimed at him. In stamping the argument of his apologist with infamy, the council had left him with- out an apology for his crime, and he stood chai-ged before the woi-ld with the murder of his relative. He appealed to the Apostolic See. John XXIII. was ' L'Enfant (242) gives only the seven first condemned. Ch. III.] GERSON, A-NB PETIt's DOCTRINE. 97 not indisposed to listen favorably to the cause of a powerful ruler, who hated his rival, Benedict XIII., with a venomous malice equal to his own. Three car- dinals, appointed to examine into the affair, reported in ftxvor of the Duke of Burgundy. They quashed the sentence of the Bishop of Paris. The question was thus brought to the notice of the world, and the issue joined in the face of Christendom. It remained for each party to present his cause at the council of Constance, and strive to secure its judgment in bis favor. The Duke of Burgundy had now, however, the manifest advantage. He merely needed to have the council reject the appeal of the opposite party. Silence — a passing over of the whole object — was all that he demanded. Each party nerved itself for the struggle, and each was strongly supported in the council. Among the representatives of the Duke of Burgundy were Peter Cauchon, who afterward sat in judgment on the celebrated Joan of Arc, and Martin Porree, bishop of Arras, who had purchased his mitre by tbe advocacy of the doctrines of Petit. Among the bishops and doctors of the other party, representing Charles VI., the king of Fi'ance, stood forth illustrious above all others John Gerson, a host in himself. Scarcely had be reached Constance before he took measures to bring the question that liad agitated France before the council. He wished to have it committed to those members who were known as the commission of the faith, and the re- formatory college. It was the business of this body to examine into all causes concerning faith, doctrine, VOL. II. 7 98 LIFE Al^D TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. anJ reformation. They were, after investigation, to pronounce judgment, subject to the definitive sen- tence of the council. To this step Martin Porree, as well as the other representatives of the Duke of Burgundy, objected. They sought to keep the cause of their patron entirely disconnected with questions that concerned the faith. "It was nothing more," the}^ said, " than a simple question of morality, and religion had no connection with it." But the council on this point did not at first agree with them. Foiled here, the Bishop of Arras, who showed himself an adroit tactitian and an able advocate, studied the composition of the commission to whom the question was to be submitted. He found upon it, perhaps in part secured the appointment to it, of the three cardinals of John XXIII., who had already reported in favor of the Duke of Burgundy. But along with these, also, was found D'Ailly, cardinal of Cambray, whose views upon the question of Petit's doctrines varied little, if any, from those of Gerson himself. From such a man, bold, able, and influen- tial, a leading mind among any with whom he might come in contact, the Bishop of Arras had everything to fear. He resolved, if possible, that he should not be suffered to sit and act as judge.^ He entered be- fore the council a solemn protest against his serving on the commission, at least in the cause at issue be- tween the Duke of Burgundy and the king of Fi-ance.^ By this time Gerson must have begun to grow ' Van der Hardt, iv. 337. ' The Bishop of Arras proposed to he might have made as good a case bring charges of heresy against D'Ail- against him, perhaps, as the cardinal ly. Had he carried out his purpose, hnd against Huss. — L' Enfant, 326. Ci!. in.] GERSON CIRCUMVENTED. 99 somewhat anxious as to the result. He found him- self circumvented by management and intrigue. Although he had secured one object — to have the doctrines of Petit regarded as matters pertaining to the jurisdiction of the commission on faith — yet the commission itself was so composed that his confidence must have been not a little shaken in the result at which they would arrive. Other events occurred that might well have in- creased the despondency of Gerson. The weak and vacillating monarch of France withdrew from him the authority previously granted, to act in his name in bringing the affiiir of Petit before the council.^ Gerson could hence act in his own name only, as a private member of the body. The Duke of Bur- gundy had agreed to adopt the same policy with the French monarch, and direct the Bishop of Arras and his colleague to proceed no longer on the authority of his name. But he did not keep his promise. It was not to have been expected that he would do so against his own interest. Guilty already of perfidy and murder, this violation of his word was but an- other grain thrown into the scale of his enormous crimes. Gerson had therefore to act in his own name ao-ainst o the avowed representatives of one of the most power- ful princes of his time. Nor was the duke himself idle. Deeply anxious to secure from the council the silence that would be for him virtually a verdict of acquittal, he had approached near the confines of the city where the council was assembled.^ This con- ' L'Enfant, 248. » Michelet, ii. '79. 100 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [On. Hi fidence of security made liis power more terrible. His pretence was, lie wished to bear by night the belling of the stags. But with his tent pitched in the great forest of Argilly, we can see the proof of the eager and anxious feelings with which he watch- ed the proceedings of the council. The earliest in- telligence was conveyed to him. We seem to see the princely criminal walking amid the twilight glooms of the deep woods, visited by the spectres of ancient crime, and hourly haunted by memories that drove him almost to desperation, in his efforts to cir- cumvent the great chancellor. Nor did he labor in vain. The terror of his name was felt. The power of his intrigues and the skill of his agents were pro- ducing their impression. His lavished gold was an argument which Gerson could not refute. Meanwhile new obstacles rose into view with more threatening front. England and France were on the brink of a war, in a few months to be made forever memorable, to the dishonor of France, by the terrible battle of Agincourt. On the sixteenth of iVpril, 141 5, Henry of England had announced to parliament his intention of making a descent upon France. On the twenty-ninth, he ordered all his barons to hold themselves in readiness.^ The English church shared in the feeling of the English nation, which demanded war. Henry's claim to the crown of France found men to justify it who wore the robes of the ecclesiastical order. The Archbishop of Canterbury was directed to summon his vassals. In such circumstances it was obvious that the two enemies of France, the English ' Rapin's England, i. 511. I Cu. III.] petit's pkoposition condemned. 101 mouarch and the Duke of Burgundy, would be in- clined to yield each other a mutual support. The last derived a new accession of strength from the virtual alliance of the former. Intelliirence of these thino*s would reach Constance while the commission on the faith was holding its sessions, and discussing this very question. Its in- fluence could not fail to be felt, not only on the English members of the body, but upon others in- clined to the prudent measure of not offending a powerful ruler. Still, with all these things against him, Gerson did not despair. Undoubtedly he had hoped to humble the powerful duke. He had meant that in his person the council should manifest its power to rebuke sin even in high places, and make the criminal tremble. But in this hope he was doomed to disappointment. The council refused to implicate, in the matter brought before them, the powerful Duke of Burgundy, or any of his partisans. It did not even venture to pronounce the name of his apologist, John Petit. In the .most general terms it condemned the principal proposition of the apology as erroneous in faith and subversive of civil order.^ This proposition was expressed in such a way, that the condemnation could scarcely have found an opponent. It was as follows: "That any tyrant may lawfully and ought meritoriously to be put to death, by any subject or vassal, whether by ambush, lure, or treachery, notwithstanding any oath or treaty, and without waiting for the sentence or authority of any judge." Such a principle one would ' L'Enfant,, 275. 102 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. scarce suppose admitted even of debate. In later years it became, however, a dangerous weapon in the very city where it was first forged by the bold scho- lastic skill of Petit. Its import has become forever memorable in connection with the dagger of Ravail- lac, and the murder of the heroic Henry IV. Its condemnation was secured in the council in great measure by the urgency of the emperor, who de- nounced it in no measured terms. This condemna- tion, general as it was, cost Gerson the most stren- uous efforts. D'Ailly, who in this matter had been rejected as a judge, appeared by his side. These two men ex- hausted the stores of their eloquence in describing the necessary results of such a dangerous principle.^ They took up the several arguments urged by the advocates of the Duke of Burgundy, for leaving the matter at least in doubt, and not regarding it as a question of the faith, and demolished them one after another with a merciless logic. D'Ailly did not hesitate to declare that the doctrine of Petit merited condemnation infinitely more than the proposition of Wicklifife, which asserts that if princes fall into error, their subjects may reprehend and correct them. The condemnation of Petit's doctrine was pro- nounced while Huss was on his way to the scene of his martyrdom.^ To Gerson, the moment must have one of the deepest anxiety. The council had just sent Huss to the stake, and now, in a condemnation so general as to leave the real offenders unmolested, * See vol. V. of Gerson's works. ^ Fleury, xxri. 129. cn. III.] gekson's disappointment. 103 denouuccd a principle which would overthrow all the foundations of social and civil order. Something had been obtained, but far from what he had hoped. Was it all that he could expect ? Gloomy thoughts must have filled his mind, as he reverted from the victim who had just been sentenced to the flames, to the character of those judges who had been tampered wdth by the agents and the bribes of the Duke of Burgundy. We may well believe that at such a moment bitter words may have escaped his lips ; that in the soreness of disappointment, he gave ut- terance to statements which his convictions declared true, but which others might account rash. Did he begin to doubt whether after all it might not have been that in the case of Huss the council had com- mitted a judicial murder ? Did the image of the holy man, on bended knee before the assembled council, a2:)pealing to the sentence of the great Judge, haunt him with the presentiment that he too must answer at another bar to the charge of injured, of murdered innocence? We cannot tell. We only know that he boldly avowed that if Huss had been properly defended, he would never have been sen- tenced to the stake. We know" that his deliberate opinion of the council, years afterward, was such that he could speak of it with a severity equal to that of Huss' prison letters, and declare, "I would rather have Jews and pagans for judges in matters of ftiith, than the deputies of the council." It is but a little while after Huss has been burned as a heretic, that Gerson himself, one of his judges, is arraigned on charges, some of which were not 104 LIFE AND TIJIES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cn. III. altogetlier dissimilar.^ His enemies were resolved to break down Ms influence in the council, and no effort was spared to make him odious.^ It is true he tri- umphed in the conflict. His position, standing, and acknowledged abilities, carried him safe through the ordeal ; but had his circumstances been only like those of Huss, who could have foreseen the result ? Another affair in which Gerson took a deep inter- est was that of the complaint of the king of Poland against the Teutonic knights.^ This order had arisen during the crusades, at the siege of Acre. Some German merchants from Bremen and Lubeck had witnessed the sufferings of the Christian ai-my, and, under the promptings of humanity and charity, had formed themselves into an organization to afford re- lief. They applied to the pope for the charter of an order, whose rule was to be similar in many respects to that of the Templars. The original object of the association was to defend the Christian religion against infidels, and to take care of the sick in the Holy Land. Driven out from Palestine, the order was first removed to Venice, and afterward was called in by the Poles to aid them a^inst their in- fidel neighbors, the Prussians. They accepted the invitation, and with the arguments of sword and battle, at last succeeded, in the space of fifty-three years, in accomplishing the task. ' One of the articles for which Ger- noted above, — " Malo in causis fidei, son was charged with heresy, was his Judseoa vel Gentiles judices habere, declaration " that if John Huss, whom quam deputatos concihi." — Fleury, the council condemned and pro- xxvi. IGl. nounced a heretic, had had an advo- " Ger. op. v. 439. cate, he would never have been con- ° L'Eufant, 160, 268, ct aeq. Van victed." Another was his language, der Hardt, iv. 546. Ch. III.] SKETCH OF THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS. 105 Meanwhile the order increased in strength and numbers, and enlarged its territories in such a man- ner as to become a formidable power. At the com- mencement of the fifteenth century they had reached the highest point of their prosperity. Grown inso- lent with success, and utterly regardless of the object of their institution, they were ready at the first op- portunity to arm against the king of Poland. If we are to believe the statements of the latter, pre- sented in a letter to the Emperor Robert, in which he implores his aid, they dealt out an indiscriminate and impartial vengeance alike to Christian and infi- del. Mutual recriminations were followed by fre- quent and bloody battles. The knights extended their ravages beyond the regions to which they could fairly lay claim, attacking the allies of Poland, already Christianized, without sparing the territory of those whom they should have regarded as their benefactors, the Polish nation itself. The kniMits were defeated in numerous battles, but soon con- trived to recover from the loss. They complained that the king of Poland was become indifferent to the conversion of infidels, as was indeed the case if his zeal was to be measured by their violence and ambition. His humanity is attested by the teais he shed when battle was successively forced upon him. At last he had recourse to the council of Constance. His ambassadors were charged to bring the matter to its notice. It was committed for investigation to Cardinal Zabarella, assisted by two deputies from each of the nations composing the council. It was on the eleventh of May that the commission was a^^pointed. 106 LIFE AKD TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IU Tlie question brought before them was, " Is it right, under the pretext of propagating religion, to inva'de foreign territory and wage war upon it ? " It was a question in regard to which humanity and justice de- manded to be heard. The old doctrine of the church had been, not merely in theory, but in prac- tice, that as all the kingdoms of the world belonged to Christ, an infidel king had no right to reign, and might justly be deposed. The bloody record of the Albigenses had attested the faithful application of this principle, when Simon de Montfort had signal- ized his infamy by the slaughter of thousands, and turned the fertile fields of Southern France into an uninhabited desert. The career of the Teutonic knights could be justified on the strength of this principle alone. Strictly considered, it was the prin- ciple of the religious bigot everywhere. It built up the inquisition, and invented its toi'tures. It tri- umphed in the crusades, and was vindicated in the execution of Huss. But men of that day did not see it in the whole extent of its application. Gerson could allow Huss to be sent to the flames, Ijut was nobly inconsistent with himself when the same prin- ciple was to be applied on a more extended scale. His sympathies were strongly enlisted on the side of the Polish king, and his ambassador, Paul Voladimir. The latter, on the day previous to the burning of Huss, (July 5,) presented to the German nation, by them to be considered and communicated to the other nations, a treatise, entitled " A Demonstration," in which he undertook to prove against the Teutonic knights, " that Christians are not permitted to employ Ch. III.] LIBERAL VIEWS OF VOLADIMIE. 107 violent means for the conversion of infidels, nor under this pretext to plunder them of their goods." After statins: the excesses and ferocious cruelties of the order which — invoked by Poland as a shield — had become a lash, and giving a brief history of the peaceful ])rogress of Christianity among those who were now molested by them, he proceeds to show, in fifty-two consecutive propositions,^ that such conduct, and the doctrine by which it is sustained, are equally opposed to natural equity and the law of God. Some of his positions would scarcely be allowed at the present day, but others are characterized by sound sense and true humanity. Infidels, he maintains, if not of the fold of the church, are yet of the fold of Christ; as he said, " I have other sheep not of this fold." From this he infers that Christ's successor should protect them and defend them in their right, while they live as good citizens, instead of maltreating them, or suffering them to be maltreated. Even he, though he may send preachers among them whom he may sustain, must not constrain them by force to embrace the gospel. They must be left to the free- dom of their own will, inasmuch as conversion is God's work, and faith is not to be forced by blows. He condemns the cruelty which had been too com- mon in Europe in the treatment of the Jews and other unbelievers, contending that Christian princes ought not to plunder them, or expel them from their lands. He enforces the teachings of natural reason in regard to the rights of individuals, by the com- mand of the proverb not to trespass on a neighbor's ' Van der Hardt, iii. 10, et seq. 108 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. landmarks. Infidels possess their authority as rulers from God, and by no guilt of their owu. Voladamir, while he inconsistently excepts heretics from the privileges allowed to infidels, declares that they are not to be dealt harshly with,uutried and uncondemned. He maintains that even letters of the Roman pontiff, conferring privileges upon any man or order, are to be interpreted in accordance with law and the rights of individuals — a doctrine that would have spared the world the sight of many a horror, now to be charged to the claims of papal infallibility. He condemns the principle of doing evil that good may come. We are not to injure our neighbor, and thus transgress the commandment in order to convert him. The decision of the council of Toledo is referred to, as condemning the use of violent and harsh methods, and recommending only the arts of persuasion and gentle means. Voladimir goes even beyond the spirit, not of his own, but, we may even say, of the present age, in maintaining that the individual soldier must be convinced of the justice of the cause in which he is engaged. If a subject, and the matter is in doubt, it may be ]30ssible that his sovereign's command may be paramount. But no fear of temporal losses should induce him to take part in a war which he knows to be unjustly waged. In these views, the Polish am- bassador unconsciously passes the limit of that servile rule which proscribes the right of private judgment. He is unconsciously arguing against the infallible authority, whether of pope or council. It shows, moreover, the liberal spirit by which he was anima- ted, that he dares to throw off the bigoted scruples 1 Ca. III.] VOLADIJVIIR AND GEESON". 109 of the age, and assert tliat a Christian prince might, in case of danger, justly seek the alliance of an infi- del. He closes his treatise by picturing the horrid results that would follow the adoption of the princi- ple of his adversaries. If all unbelievers were ipso facto disqualified from ruling ; if they might be as- saulted with force of aj^ms to bring them to the adoption of the Christian faith, the door is opened to all manner of violence. The command, " Thou shalt not kill," stands in the way, and forbids all these forms of cruelty and injustice.^ Erroneous as some of the positions of Voladimir were, the humane and sensible character of others shows the ability and Christian feeling of the man. As rector of the University of Cracow, and represen- tative of the king of Poland, he honored the office and position which he occupied in the council. In many respects he and Gerson found themselves drawn together by strong sympathies. And as if the more to unite them in feeling, they had much the same experience of the character of the council. It was for a long time in vain that Voladimir sought to obtain from the council some judgment in favor of his proposition. But he too had Ms Duke of Bur- gundy. The Teutonic order was powerful, and not lightly to be offended. Sigismund, earnest as he was for peace, was unwilling to do anything which should tend to alienate their sympathies from the great cause he had at heart, — the union of Christen- dom against the Turk. And might not some of the principles of Voladimir's demonstration rise up to ' Van der Ilardt, iii. p. 2. 110 LIFE. AND TIMES OF JOIUST IIUSS. [Ch. III. protest even against his cherished project? In vain did Gerson lend all the weight of his influence to enforce the representations of his Polish brother. Weightier motives than those of simple justice, he must once more have felt, in the bitterness of his soul, controlled the action of the council. But Voladimir had not. only his Duke of Bur- gundy in the Teutonic order, but the order itself had its John Petit in the person of a Dominican monk, John Von Falkenberg.* The latter became, at the instance of the order, their apologist against the king and kingdom of Poland, and he showed himself not unworthy in some respects of his Parisian prototype. The apology itself, as a whole, has per- ished, but fragments of it have been preserved, enough to show the venomous sj)irit that pervades it. It is directed to all kings, princes, prelates, and to Christendom generallj^, and the author promises eternal life to all that will league together to exter- minate the Poles and Jagellon their king. He was accused of maintaining that the king was an idol, and his subjects idolaters ; that both should be hated, as they deserved to be ; that they were heretics and shameless dogs, turning back to their vomit by fall- ing into heathenism ; that to kill the Poles and their king is more meritorious than to slay pagans ; that secular princes who shall do it at the risk of earthly dignity will merit eternal glory, while those who tolerate them or aid them will be damned ; and that all Poland, with Jagellon its king, is to be ac- ''ounted criminal as committed to schism and heresy. ' L'Enfant, 678-9. Cii. III.] PARTIALITY OF THE COUNCIL. Ill This treatise, which the emperor met with in Paris a few months after the subject had been brought be- fore the council, was subsequently condemned to be burned, as erroneous in faith and morals, seditious, cruel, scandalous, injuiious, impious, offensive to pi- ous ears, and heretical. But no sentence was passed upon it in public session. The order exerted their influence with Martin V., just then elected pope, (1418,) and he dared not offend so powerful a body. In vain did the French and Polish deputations, who felt that their cause was one and the same, urge the matter. Neither Falkenberg's book, nor Petit's apology, odious as they both were, could be brought to share the fate to which the works of Huss had been doom- ed. Falkenberg himself was imprisoned, but to leave the matter there seemed to Gerson a mockery of all justice. His deliberate view of the matter, as he saw it in retrospect, is expressed in his works.^ The course of the council, so he remarks, "gives the Bohemians just occasion to accuse it of a most criminal partiality, in treating with indiffei'ence a matter so vital to Christian morals and civil society, while other heresies less fatal are dealt with so harshly. It opens the gate to robbery, perjury, mas- sacre, and assassination. It takes from bishops the power of repressing heretics, or correcting those who err within their diocese ; for if they see that the coun- cil had no such authority, they will not dare to undertake its exercise. Secular princes will find themselves under the necessity of using temporal * ' Gcr. Op. torn. v. 1014. 112 . LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IIJ weapons against sucli as teacli pestilent doctrine in their states. Thus the authority of the council is made cheap ; its deeds are null and void ; it becomes a laughing-stock for infidels, schismatics, especially for Peter de Luna (Benedict XIII.) and his adherents, who will not fail to exult at the result of a measure so exciting in expectations, so futile in its issue." It is more than possible that motives of a more personal and worldly nature than Gerson was aware of, found a place in his heart. His zeal was quick- ened, perhaps, by a sense of what he considered in- dignities offered to himself. He had boldly stemmed the tide of popular opinion, when the power of the Duke of Burgundy was at its height in Paris. His name had been mingled with the curses of the popu- lace. His house had been sacked, and his life en- dangered by a lawless mob.-^ He doubtless felt him- self to have been a persecuted man. Nor had his treatment in the council been such as he might deem justly due to his position and his ability. He found, to his sorrow and disappointment, that human nature was much the same at Constance and at the French capital. The scenes of the council were such, that to take a part in them must at times have wounded his own self-respect. They were anything but models of decorum and order. Shouting, stamping, recrim- ination, and almost every form of confusion, were not infrequent. In Von Falkenberg he found another John Petit, and the cause each defended was much the same. I^ay, the former had even volunteered, incited, doubtless, by the bribes of the Duke of Bur- ' Stetch of Gerson's Life in Van der Harctt, Ch. III.] TREATMENT OF GEKSON. 113 gandy, and to secure his alliance, to become the avowed champion of Petit. In this character he assaulted D'Ailly and Gerson in no measured terms. His pamphlets teem with insults, full of abuse and contemptuous insolence. He speaks of Gerson as so unversed in logic that he should be sent to school to learn its rules. Not the glory of the University of Paris, but the disgrace of its ignorance, is manifest in the stupidity of its chancellor. No wonder, he says, if such a man as he, unacquainted with the rudiments of logic, occupied that post, the Bishop of Paris, with the doctors of his council of faith, should have blundered into the error of condemning the propositions of Petit. It is not strange that Gerson's zeal was inflamed by some sense of the personal outrage to which he was subjected. The consciousness of his own integ- rity perhaps needed this new spur to rouse him to the most strenuous effort. And that effort was put forth. The great man, with his noble heart and gigantic intellect, toiled on, hoping against hope, and trustino: with the fondness of affection to the action of a council that was forever humbling his idolatrous respect for it by showing itself but a prostrate Da- gon. Efforts that would have crushed others in weeks, were by him continued without intermission for years. It was with feelings that none can envy, that he at last withdrew from a scene that, at once, had witnessed his glory and humiliation. The dreams of early years were dashed to the earth. His enemy, the Duke of Burgundy, was triumphant. The coun- cil, which he had at first idolized, dared not touch 114 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. III. the powerful criminal. The University of Paris was no longer his home. The murderer of the Duke of Orleans ruled there still ; and the broken-hearted exile found the only repose — the only real peace he was again to enjoy on earth — in the humble monas- tery of a distant city. There, at Lyons, we see that intellect, which found not its peer in the assembled representatives of the Christian world, engaged in the instruction of little children, and teaching them — in a humility which had been taught by adversity — as they should pass the spot where his ashes would soon rest, to " pray for poor John Gerson ! " CHAPTER IV. THE COUNCIL AND THE BOHEMIANS.— JEROME RECANTS. Impressions Made bt the Execution op Huss. — Pasquinade. — Sermon op the Monk op Matence. — Its Severity. — Similar Sermons. — Inperencb. — The Council Condemns Itself. — Death op Huss Known at Prague. — Consterna- tion.— Veneration for the Memory op Huss.- — Unanimity op Feeling. — Voice op the University. — Jerome Visited by a Deputation op the Council. Other Matters. — Sigismund Zealous for the Condemnation op Petit's Prop- ositions. — His Mission to Spain. — Obstinacy of Benedict. — Sigismund Pre- pares for His Joqrney. — ^ Decree op the Council. — Sigismund's Departure. — Conference with Benedict. — The Council in Sigismund's Absence. — Slow Progress. — Disputes, Games, and Violence. — Many Leave Constance. — Gekson's Sermon. — The Council's Letter to Bohemia.- — Its Threats. — Provocation. — Excitement at Prague. — Jerome's Severe Imprisonment. — Presumption op His Heroism. — His Recantation Explained. — Qualified Sub- mission TO THE Council. — Unsatisfactory. — Nineteenth Session. — -Jerome's Second Form of Submission. — His Speech, Explanatory and Introductory. — How Far Sincere. Aug. 1, 1415 — Sept. 23, 1415. The execution of Huss, as the intelligence of it went abroad, wels variously received. To some it afforded occasion for exultation; in the minds of others it excited only grief and indignation. The enemies of the reformer gained nothing by it. The council had only aggravated its own infamy by the cruel deed. Sigismund had forever alienated from himself the sympathies of the Bohemians, by the complacency with which he had tolerated the viola- tion of his safe-conduct. The instigators of the pros- ecution had covered their own memory with an odi- um which would follow them to their graves. (115) 116 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHIf HUSS. [Ch. IV. There were some, undoubtedly, wlio exulted iu tlie fate of a man charged with heresy, — one whose name had been so long coupled with that of Wick- lijQfe, or who had been recognized by them only as a dangerous innovator. But there were not want- ing those, even at Constance, who regarded the pro- ceedings of the council, in the case of Huss, with in- dignation and abhorrence. The doctrines for which he was willing to die assumed a new importance. The persecuting bigotry of the council, in their method of dealing with him, — the outrage committed, in his imprisonment, trial, and execution, upon all the forms of justice, — combined, with the notorious corruption of the council itself, to tear fi'om the eyes of men the veil of its false assumptions. Any public mani- festations of the feelings which had thus been excited would have been hazardous in the extreme, and yet theii* expression could not be entirely suppressed. It would have been difficult to conceive anything more bitterly severe than the method which was taken to set forth the contempt which the council had invited upon itself. On the day after the execution of Huss, the following writing was found affixed to the doors of all the churches in the city. "The Holy Ghost, to the believers in Constance, greeting : — Pay atten- tion to your own business. As to us, being occupied elsewhere, we cannot remain any longer in the midst of you. Adieu."-' None would dare to avow the authorship, and few perhaps would approve the spirit of this pasquinade. Yet many were dissatisfied and disgusted with the * L'Enfant. Van der Hardt. Cn. lY.] SERMONS BEFORE THE COUNCIL. 117 proceedings of the council. It was not many months after the death of Huss, that an Augustinian monk, of Mayence, preached before it a sermon, the severe rebukes of which were terrible truths or atrocious libels. " It is related," said he, " of Socrates, that he once laughed at seeing great robbers drag little ones to the gibbet ; more reason would he have to laus^h if he were here now at this council of Con- stance, where w^e see great rogues, that is, Simonists, suspend little ones." ^ In truth, one only needs to note the measures of the council in connection with the sermons preached before it, to be convinced that, so far as morality and religion were concerned, the whole business of the assembly was a pompous farce. But for the bloo.d and crime accumulated upon the hands of the actors, the council would have seemed but a theatre, on which, before the eyes of Europe and to the scandal of Christendom, was j)layed out, in the name of religion, a grand " comedy of errors." Scarce a sermon was preached, for months after the execution of Huss, which was not its virtual con- demnation. The most frightful pictures of the prev- alent immorality and corruption of the clergy were successively presented to view, and presented by men who were eye-witnesses of what they described, and looked the council in the face while they exhibited the memorials of its disgrace. A Carmelite doctor from Montpelier preached, a few weeks after the martyrdom of Huss, a discourse on the necessity of a reformation of the church. He demanded that most prompt and effectual measures should be ' L' Enfant. 118 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IV. adopted by the council to correct the prevalent abuses, — " the insatiable avarice, the indomitable am- bition, the gross ignorance, the shameful indolence, and execrable impurity of the ecclesiastics.-' Still, a few weeks later, another preacher before the coun- cil expatiates on the same theme. After depicting the wretched condition of the church, he traces it to its causes, — " in the avarice and cupidity of the eccle- siastics, their haughtiness and pride." "Who," he asks, " are those that most oppose reform ? Secular princes ? No ! far from it. They are the eccle- siastics, who tear the robe of Christ in pieces, and whom we may compare to famished wolves, who come into the fold in sheep's clothing, and who, un- der the habits of religion, conceal hearts impious and heinous with enormity."* Still later (October 25) the Bishop of Lodi, who had urged the council to severity against Huss at the session in which his sentence was pronounced, preached a funeral sermon on the death of Landolph Maramour, Cardinal de Bari. He says not a word of the dead, but takes for his subject of discourse the vices of the ecclesiastics, and the necessity of reform. The council might well blush at such re- proof, if any sense of shame was left it. " Instead of being," says the bishop, " an example to the people, it is they, (the people,) perhaps, that will need to teach us how to live. Do we not see in the laity more gravity, decorum, exemplariness in morals and conduct, more respect and devotion in church, than in the ecclesiastics themselves ? Are we to be sur- » L'Enfaut. ^ lb., 330. Ch. IV.] SHAEP REPEOOF. 119 prised that secular princes despoil, persecute, and scorn us, making of us a public mockery ? This is a just judgment of God, who will not allow this perse- cution to cease until we remove its cause by a change in our lives." He represents the clergy as so plunged into excess of luxury and brutal indulgence, that, in his opinion, Diogenes, seeking a man among them, would only find beasts and swine.^ As if the subject was too large to be exhausted, we find an English preacher, the following week, proceeding in the same strain in a sermon before the council. With his English aversion to the mendi- cants, he empties out upon them the vials of his wrath, and then proceeds to administer his rebuke to the bishops and doctors, who neglect scripture, theology, and morals, for the contentious and lucra- tive study of the canon law. He depicts the ig- norant and sensual ecclesiastics, who leave their charges and churches, and go to the great cities to live in wantonness and splendor. He applies to them, on the part of the church, the language of scripture : " ' My husband is not at home ; he has gone a long journey : he has taken with him a bag of silver, and will not return until the full moon ' — that is," says the preacher, " until autumn, when he shall find the granaries and cellars full, and with his full purse may return to buy many rich benefices." ^ It would be tedious even to sketch the successive discourses, which turned almost uniformly upon this theme. Nothing could have justified them, nothing could have secured them a hearing in the council, • L'Enfant, 339. " lb. 340. 120 LIFE AIS^D TIJIES OF JOK^T HUSS. [Ch. IV. but the notorious and undeniable truth which they contained. The facts upon which they were based were too patent to be denied. The deliberations of the council in its assemblies, moreover, were often characterized by a confusion approaching to mob violence. Etepeatedly the at- tempt to read a statement or a protest would be clam- ored down. Crimination and recrimination were rife, and Gerson had reason for saying that he would sooner have Jews and pagans for his judges, than the deputies of the council. Thus all the language which Huss had used at Prague, in reference to the cor- ruption of the church, was more than justified in the eyes of his countrymen. The council itself had ex- hibited the proof that the charges brought against it were true. It had refuted, beforehand, those who would have been its apologists. It had deposed the pontiff by whom Huss had been excommunicated. The mutual recriminations of its members had ex- ceeded in severity the calmer and more moderate statements of Huss. It was inevitable that, as the intelligence of the executioj||i of their countryman reached the citizens of Prague, it should at once be coupled in their minds with the confessed character of a large portion of his judges. The known purity of Huss, the noto- rious corruption of the council — the constant appeal of one to the authority of scripture, the tyrannic de- mand of the other for a blind submission in which perjury was implied — presented contrasts too obvious to allow hesitation as to which party should receive their sympathies. The whole city was in commotion. Ch. IV.] INDIGNATION OF THE BOHEMIANS. 121 Grief, indignation, and resentment pervaded the com- munity. The exasperated multitude flocked, as by one common impulse, to the Bethlehem chapel. It was the place hallowed to them now by every mem- ory of him whose words still seemed to echo along its walls. All classes alike felt the enthusiastic im- pulse to demand revenge. The dictates of prudence could scai'ce restrain them from an instantaneous ris- ing. The torch of the executioner at Constance had set the nation on fire. The ashes of Huss had been carefully gathered up and thrown into the Rhine. The council had rightly suspected that his disciples might seize upon them, if the occasion was offered, to bear them off as treas- ured relics. But the ingenuity of their malice went further. As a last insult to the memory of the mar- tyr, a dead mule was buried on the spot where he was burned. "It was," says a Protestant author, " that the stench proceeding from the body might lead the people to imagine that it came from the heretic." But all this was of no avail. The earth itself, about the funeral pile, — in place of the martyr's ashes, — was taken up, and carried into Bohemia.^ Huss was honored as the apostle and the martyr of the nation. The cruelty and faithlessness of the council were denounced in no measured terms. 'Nov was it merely a blind and misjudging crowd that paid this homage. The barons and nobles of the kingdom met together, and, with hand on sword, swore to avenge what they regarded at once as an • JEneas Syl-vius' His. Boh., cxxxvi 122 LIFE AISTD TIMES OF JOHIST HUSS. [Cu. lY. outrage upon innocence, and a national insult. The University of Prague sympathized strongly in the popular feeling. The presence at Constance of those members of it who were hostile to Huss, relieved it of the opposition which might, perhaps, have sought to silence its voice, or stay or modify its decision. Prague was no place for them now. Their partici- pation in the measures that led to the fatal deed, would have concentrated upon them the national ven- geance. The doctors of the university indignantly apj)ealed, and with a unanimity that awed all dis- sent,— even if there was any, — to the whole of Europe, against the sentence of the council, and the reproaches that had been directed against them- selves. " In the midst of our innumerable and poign- ant subjects of grief," said they, " we consider it an imperious necessity to defend the insulted reputation of our university, hitherto always esteemed so pure, against the attacks of blasphemers. To all the other motives which induce us to adopt this course, is added the remembrance of the honor and the virtue of that man who is now lost to us forever. . . . We desire to do this, that the great renown of one of our own children, John of Hussinitz, surnamed Huss, should not fade away, but shine forth more and more in the eyes of the universe. . . . We desire the more ardently that our words may be heard by all believers, because the presence of so great a man among us has produced so much good, before (lod and before man. . . . For his life glided on before our eyes, from his very infancy, and was so holy and pure, that no man could show him to be guilty of a Cii. IV.] TESTIMONY OF THE UNIVERSITY. 123 single fault. O man, truly jdIous, truly humble ! thou who wast conspicuous with the lustre of such great virtue — who wast accustomed to despise riches, and to succor the poor, even to experiencing want thyself — whose place was by the bedside of the un- fortunate— who invitedst, by thy tears, the most hardened hearts to repentance, and soothedst rebel- lious spirits by the inexhaustible mildness of the w^ord ! thine it was to root out from every heart, and particularly from that of a clergy, rich, covetous, and haughty, their manifold vices, by applying to them the ancient remedy of the scriptures, which appeared as new doctrines in thy mouth ; — thou, in fine, following in the footsteps of the apostles, re- storedst the morals of the primitive church, in the clergy and the people ! . . . Ah ! beyond a doubt, nature had loaded this man with all her gifts, and the divine grace was so abundantly shed around him, that not only was he virtuous, but it may even be permitted to assert, that he was virtue itself! But why employ words when acts speak ? A fright- ful death, inflicted by his enemies, and supported with such wonderful patience, proves that he placed his trust on a heavenly foundation. ... It is, in fact, a divine thing — it is the effect of a courage inspired by God alone, to endure so many outrages, so many tortures, and so much infamy for the divine truth, to receive all these insults, with a visage calm and se- rene, to shine forth by the greatest piety, in the face of tyrants, and thus to terminate an irreproachable life by the most bitter death." ^ Mon, Hus., i. 82. 124 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN IIUSS. [On. TY. Language like this from tlie university of- which Huss had once been rector, and whose members could claim with him an intimate acquaintanceship of years, is significant. Its testimony to his ability, purity, and worth is above impeachment. The council seem to have imagined that, with the terrible example of Huss before him, his friend and associate, Jerome, could be more easily brought to retract. It was on the nineteenth of July,^ nearly two weeks after the execution of Huss, and two months after his own examination at the time of his capture, that he was again — after having been vis- ited in his prison by the commission — brought before the council These two months had been to him a period of suffering and hardship. The severity of his imprisonment had affected his health, and he fell dangerously ill.^ To his bodily sufferings was added, also, a more oppressive mental anxiety. The fate of Huss must have been felt as a terrible blow. We have scant record of the prison examination, or of his appearance before the council.^ A manuscript history states, that among the questions put him were those on the real presence, and on the Realist docti-ine of universals. On these points his views agreed with those of Huss. After this public ex- amination, Jerome was left to the sadness of his prison meditations. The council hoped that the execution of Huss would have a salutary and molli- fying influence upon the mind of his disciple. They had, moreover, other matters of importance upon their hands, and could well afford their prisoner 'Fleury, xxvi. 145. * L'Enfant, 18-1. » lb. 302. i Cii. IV.] CAUTION OF THE COUNCIL. 125 leisure for reflection. One victim at least sufficed for the present ; and the issue of their policy in the case of Huss — it was soon to be found — was not such as to invite them to repeat the experiment. The argument of fire had inflamed rather than terrified those to whom it had been addressed. Jacobel per- sisted in his reform, which the council had pronounc- ed an heretical innovation. The minds of the Bo- hemians were in no mood to relish further the logic of the stake, and the emperor also was now about to set out upon his expedition to Spain to confer with Peter de Luna, (Benedict XIII.,) and the king of Aragon, by whom he was supported, so that the council might well feel it necessary to proceed with extreme caution. With all the weight and authority of his influence, Sigismund had urged the condemnation of the prop- ositions of John Petit, and had even gone so for as to say that he would not set out upon his journey until that condemnation was pronounced. Perhaps he felt that his own life was in danger from the Duke of Austria. One of the ostensible reasons of his leaving Constance during the few days preceding the final hearing of Huss, was his dissatisfaction with the council in the slackness with which they prose- cuted the subject. He was reported to have said that he would not return to the city until steps had been taken toward the result which he desired. The council therefore saw fit to condemn a ^proposition represented as that of Petit, and in doing so — by this temporary and unwilling compromise of hostile par- ties— made the emperor its dupe. Sigismund seems 126 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IV. to have regarded the measure, as Gerson wished to have it considered, — the necessary initiative to further process against the defenders and promoters of Petit's views; and, contenting himself as well as he could with the progress already made, commenced prepara- tions for his journey. The proposed conference was to have taken place before the emperor actually set out, but he wrote for, and obtained, the privilege of a month's delay. Great anxiety was felt by the council in regard to the result of his enterprise. Another pope could not well be elected while Benedict XIIL, with the ad- herence of Spain and Scotland, stood in the way. It was especially important that the king of Aragon should be withdrawn from his allegiance ; and the presence and influence of the emperor, it was hoped, would most effectually promote this desired result. The greater portion of Spain — Aragon, Castile, and Navarre — the counties of Foix and Armagnac, and the kingdom of Scotland, still acknowledged the jurisdiction of Benedict. Everything that could possibly be done to withdraw these from his allegi- ance must be attempted. It was — so it seemed — the only course to be adopted. And yet by some it was fondly hoped that Benedict would consent to a vol- untary abdication. They little understood the spirit of the man. In his feeble and attenuated frame glowed a spirit that aspired to rival a Gregory VII. or an Innocent III. It was no Gregory XII. with whom the council had now to deal. Benedict saw himself the sole claimant of the tiara. He evidently hoped, to the last, that such he might be suffered to Ch. IV.] SIGISMUND SETS OUT FOR SPAIN. 127 remain. His old secretary, Cleraengis, had written ''■ — of his own accord, according his statement, — yet perhaps not without some urgency of Benedict — to the council, remonstrating with them against their decision that neither of the contestants for the tiara should be a candidate for their election. What might his influence be with his old friends, Gerson and D'Ailly ? To what terms might not the council be brought by the untiring perseverance of Benedict ? The last was at least resolved that his dignity should not be lost without a struggle. We shall see with what result he defied the council and the emperor. In the sixteenth session, Sigismund announced, in a formal manner, his intended departure.^ The council named to accompany him, and to assist him with their counsels, fourteen deputies, of whom four were bishops, and ten doctors, selected from the several nations. The cardinals bore it ill that none of their number were appointed. But the council was too suspicious and distrustful of them, to accept their nominations. The deputies were authorized to act as plenipotentiaries with the emperor for the transaction of everything that should be found necessary to secure tjie abdication of Benedict. The seventeenth session (July 15) was devoted to measures preparatory to the emperor's journey. After mass and sermon, Sigismund, laying off his im- perial robes and crown, knelt with bared head before the altar, to receive the benediction of the council. With a cardinal upon either side of him, he awaited the close of prayers adapted to the occasion, when ' See the letter in the works of Clemengis. ' L'Enfant, 299. 128 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IV. tlie presiding officer gave him tbe benediction, while the words were chanted — " Lord, preserve the king." ^ Among the decrees then read was one which the Jesuit, Maimbourg, does not regard as infallible. He considers it an arrogant assumption over the tem- poral power of kings and princes. But the council did not deem it unnecessary ; and rumors of previous attempts on the emperor's life, and his own sensitive- ness to Petit's doctrine, effectually preserved him from any remonstrance.^ The decree was to the effect that " The sacred council threatens with excommunication, and with the deprivation i2:>so facto of their digni- ties, whether secular or ecclesiastical, whomsoever — whether king or prince, bishop or cardinal — who shall in any manner, impede the journey of the em- peror or his suite." ^ These certainly, on the part of the council, were lofty pretensions. Had their object been other than the emperor's security, they would scarcely have passed unquestioned. Sigismund's anx- iety for his own life led him to pawn the prerogative of exclusive secular dominion for the hope of secu- rity found in the council's decree. To add new importance to the emperor's mission, a solemn mass and procession was decreed, every Sabbath during his absence, for the fortunate issue of his journey. A hundred days' indulgence was granted to all who should assist at these devotions, as well as to the officiating priests. A forty days' in- dulgence was extended to such as should substitute an Ave Maria^ or Pater Nostei\ instead.* The emperor hastened to the place of meeting. ' Fleury, xxvi. 142. = L'Enfant, 300. " lb. 144. * Fleury, xxvi. 144. Ch. IV.] CONFERENCE WITH BENEDICT. 129 Tliis had been changed from Nice, the city first des- ignated, to Narbonne, as nearer to Perpignan, the residence of Benedict. But neither the king of Ara- gon nor Benedict was there. The first was danger- ously ill, the last hesitated and delayed to come. At last he appeared, as if for armed conference, with soldiers and armed cavalry. But his real strength was in his own resolute and unbending will. The fire of ambition glowed like a volcano in the old man's heart, and he met the emperor in no cringing or fawning manner. He was resolved to fall — if fall h-e must — a pope to the last. He had kept the fii'st appointment of the conference for June, and when the emperor did not appear, had the insolent assur- ance to accuse him of contumacy, and issued a pro- clamation publishing the fact that he had not kept his appointment.* When Sigismund reached Perpig- nan, Benedict was absent at Valentia. To the em- peror's notification and request to meet him, he re- plied by demanding a safe-conduct which should be granted to him as supreme pontifi: The emperor escaped the dilemma which would force him to a fatal acknowledgment, by replying that on the territory of a foreign ruler it was not for him to grant a safe- conduct. Nor did he hesitate to say that he alto- gether ignored the claims of Benedict. He might come as cardinal, but could not be received or recog- nized as pope. Benedict scorned the offer as an insult. He replied by demanding, as the conditions of his renunciation of the papacy, the assembling of a coun- cil in the immediate neighborhood of his jurisdiction, ' L'Enfant, 329. VOL. n. 9 130 LIFE AKD TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IV. in which his claims should be confirmed ; after which, he should remain perpetual legate a latere^ with full temporal and spiritual power throughout his whole obedience — saving only the name of pope, which should be given up. The emperor refused the con- ditions, and summoned Benedict to appear at Per- pignan. He came at last, but not to surrender his claims.-^ The emperor was soon to find that he dealt with a wily foe. The council made but slow progress during Sigis- mund's absence. Some of its members were well content that this should be the case. Many showed a strong disposition to leave the city, either willing that the council should be broken up, or dissatisfied with the little progress made, and disgusted with its proceedings. Surely they might imagine that the Holy Ghost had taken his departure, if indeed he had ever been present. Never did any city present a more vivid picture of Vanity Fair than Constance had presented, up to the time of the emperor's depar- ture. It was Europe in miniatui-e. It was the com- pendium of its splendor and its vice. It was the focus of ecclesiastical and princely intrigue. Each nation, each ruler, had diplomatists there to look after their interests. A very small fraction of the council had any concern to secure more than -an individual and personal advantage. The knights and nobles had their sports and tourneys. Cardinals, bishops, and doctors tilted with the weapons of logic and sophistry, and, if more deeply in earnest, played a more hazardous game. • L'Enfant, 354. Cn. IV.] ACTS OF VIOLENCE. 131 Acts of violence in the streets and neighboi-lioods of the city were not infrequent. It was difficult to control the immense multitude, made up of all classes and characters, and impelled by so many diverse and conflicting interests, with which the city was filled. Pillage and assassination were of frequent occurrence, not only without, but even within the walls.* The princes did not hesitate to use their authority to the prejudice of the liberty of the council. Many were forced, by fear, to vote against their conscientious convictions. The council was under the necessity of passing a decree for the protection of its members, in coming to and going from it, in which they threat- ened with severest penalties all persons — emperor, pope, kings, princes, ecclesiastics, seculars — who should make any attempt on the life, person, or property of any connected with the body. The disposition to leave the city had become so manifest, and threat- ened such dangerous consequences, that, in the session held previous to the emperor's departure for Spain, the council appointed a commission to look after the absentees, and, under threat of the severest penalties, bring them back or keep them at their posts. Some, doubtless, were led to believe that the emperor's -de- parture would be the signal for a general dispersion. In fact, but little was expected of, and little accom plished by, the council in his absence. The time was mostly spent in fruitless and angry discussions. Gerson preached a sermon before the council, at or about the time of the emperor's departure,^ in which he endeavored to bring the action already taken by * L'Enfant, 299, ' lb. 303, Fleury, xxvi, 145, Gcr. op. ii, 2*73. 132 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN IIUSS. [Ch. [V. the council to bear upon tlie case of John Petit. Assuming " that a general council holds its authority immediately from Jesus Christ, and that every man, even the pope, is bound to obey such a council in all matters of faith, extirpation of schism, and reform- ation of the church, in head and members," he pro- ceeds to lay down the rules of procedure by which it should be guided. He maintains that, the author- ity of the council being supreme, it should shrink from the examination of no error, by whomsoever held or defended. "The general council may, and should judge, in cases of heresy, all classes of persons, however high in position, without fear, favor, or ac- ceptance of person." " It must condemn all errone- ous or heretical propositions, even though it finds itself thereby necessitated to proceed against such as assert them." Gerson then lays down other rules, certainly not above criticism, — as that many propo- sitions with their authors may be condemned, al- though, by the rules of grammar or logic, or by some gloss, they admit of being understood in a good sense ; that propositions may and ought to be con- demned, which cannot be disproved by scripture, without calling in the exposition of the doctors and the usage of the church. These positions were in- deed implied in the action of the council, with re- spect to Wickliffe, Huss, and Jacobel, and it would have been difficult for any one to deny it. Gerson adroitly makes use of this fact, to take away every excuse for not proceeding further, even to the con- demnation of Pe tit's propositions, and to process against the Duke of Burgundy himself. But the Cb. IV.] THE council's LETTER TO PRAGUE. 133 emperor had left the council. The weakness of the king of France was despised, and, notwithstanding the frequent letters of the emperor enjoining action in the condemnation of Petit's propositions, little progress could be made. The Duke of Burgundy and his partisans were too powerful to be summarily dealt with. It was a few days after Gerson's sermon, when the council at last found leisure to give the Bohemians a tardy notice of what they had done with Huss."* Twenty days had already elapsed since his execution. The popular feeling in Prague was in a state of in- tense excitement, and the letter of the council was only* calculated to increase it. It was but attempting to quench the flame by covering it with new fuel, and it blazed the more fiercely. The letter is ad- dressed to the bishop, the chapter, the suffragans, and the whole of the clergy of Prague. It begins with a protestation, on the part of the council, of the evils that had sprung up from schism and heresy, to the grievous affliction of the church, and of the profound grief and anxiety with which the council were con- strained to reo^ard them. It sets forth their estimate of the perverse doctrines of Wickliffe, to whom it concedes the first rank among pestiferous heretics, and states the sentence which had been passed in the condemnation of his doctrines, the burning of his books, and the exhumation of his bones. It then proceeds to show how his heresy had spread, infect- ing the minds of Huss, Jerome, and others, to the manifest injury of the church, and the destruction of * Mon. Hus., i. 81. 134 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN- HUSS. [Ch. IV. the Catholic faith. Impelled by the earnest desire of restoring peace and delivering Bohemia from the desperate men who filled it with their pestilent doc- trines, the council had yielded to the urgency of persons of the Bohemian nation, and carefully de- liberated on the course to be pursued. The matter was not one of small moment. The evil was like to spread, not only among the ignorant, but the learned. The council, therefore, had proceeded to the examina- tion of Huss and his writings, and employed all the means in their power to induce him to recant his false doctrines. The letter then states briefly the measures that had been taken, his examination, his public au- dience, the testimony against him, and the cliai'ity with which he had been treated. But all efforts had proved vain. The benevolence of the council, which sought not the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn and live, was utterly defeated. Huss was convicted of the most manifest and intolerable heresy, and, after being condemned and degraded, had been given over to the secular arm. The letter then urges upon the Bohemian clergy the most strenuous efforts to perfect the work thus begun. It gives Wenzel, the king, credit for a deep anxiety to witness and aid such a desirable work. It praises the Bishop of Leitomischel for his diligence in defence of the honor of the king and kingdom, and the defence of the Catholic faith. It then be- seeches them, " by the bowels of Jesus Christ, to silence all those pestiferous men who teach or preach the doctrine of Wickliffe and his zealot Huss, so that this most dangerous corruption may be extirpated Cu. IVJ EXASPERATION AT PRAGUE. 135 from the very extremities of the kingdom." If any should offer opposition to this good work, they were hereby denounced beforehand, and threatened with process, according to canonical sanctions, so that their correction should serve as an example to others. The admonitions and directions of the letter were en- forced by the terrors of the greater excommunica- tion, the deprivation of benefices, and degradation from the priesthood.-^ But all these threats were of no avail. An indig- nant and outraged people treated them with con- tempt. Jacobel still preached without molestation. The offended nobles and princes of Bohemia were strengthened in their regard for the memory of Huss, and in their confidence of the soundness of his doc- trines, by the measures of the council, rendering itself continually more and more odious. Even the king, steeped as he was in the brutality of a sensual nature, showed some signs of resentment at the affront which had been offered him in the violation of the liberty, and in the execution, without his as- sent, of one of his own subjects. Daring thoughts and bold designs grew up in the minds of many dur- ing the few weeks that followed the death of Huss.^ He was gone from among them — and was no more present to repress and restrain the popular tumult by his saintly presence and calm counsels. The mul- titude were impelled by motives of a more worldly and personal character than he would have allowed. The importance attached to the communion in * Mansi. Council of Constance, xxvii. 781. " -.lEneas Sylvias, ch. 36. Cochleius. • 136 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cu. IV. both kinds — an outward visible symbol calculated to appeal to fanatic feeling — swelled tbe tide of indig- nation and vengeance. This, undoubtedly, Huss would have sought to restrain. He would never have allowed a mere rite to engross to itself the place of a fundamental truth, however much he might admit or even urge its propriety. The princes, knights, and nobles of the kingdom were many of them rude, bold men, who little appreciated orthodoxy of doctrine, but who did not lack the sensibility to wrong and outrage which urged them to resentment. They met at once, and drew up a letter of protest and remonstrance addressed to the council. We shall have occasion to notice it more fully hereafter. The attention of the council was now directed, in a somewhat different spirit than heretofore, to the case of Jerome. No efforts or persuasions were spared to induce him to recant.* He had already been twice examined, first at the time of his arrest, (May 24th, 1415,) and again briefly on the n«ine- teenth of July, when he had been brought before the council assembled in the church of St. Paul. For nearly two months more he was left in prison. His third examination took j^lace on the eleventh of September. Meanwhile, however, the most stren- uous exertions had been put forth to induce him so far to submit that the council might be spared the necessity of inflicting capital sentence. We can well believe that in his circumstances they would be not without effect. He had for four months been pining in chains. The greatest harshness and severity had * De Vrie, apud Van der Hardt, i. 170. Ch. IV.] FEAELESSNESS OF JEEOME. 137 been shown in his treatment. He had been pros- trated by sickness in his noisome dungeon, and his legs were already afflicted with incurable ulcers. Sufferings so protracted may have well depressed his spirit and exhausted his energy. In these cir- cumstances, he was taken out of prison and brought before the council. Under terror of being burned, he was called upon to abjure his errors and subscribe to the justice of the execution of Huss. Had one been asked beforehand in regard to the two men, Huss and Jerome, which was most like to meet the ordeal unmoved, his answer probably would have been — Jerome. Nature seems to have endowed him with an eminently fearless spirit, a resolute energy, a noble generosity of soul, and a chivalrous oblivion of self, which his religious views had nurtur- ed rather than repressed. He seemed born to be a hero. Had it been his destiny to have led armies to the field, he would have been found sharing every danger, nor shrinking from the hardshij^s of the meanest soldier. In days like those of English ship- money, he would have been seen breasting the storm, the foremost man of all to expose himself for others — a Hampden or a Cromwell, to bid tyranny concentrate its bolts upon his head. But there was wanting in Jerome what was found in Huss — that truly Christian self-distrust, which would lead him in prayerful humility to throw himself into the arms of Omnipotence. Jerome was self-reliant. Under the impulse of conscious strength, he rushed too reck- lessly to the hazardous encounter. By soi't^ trial he had to learn the lesson that taught him to be a bet- 138 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IV. ter man, and a nobler because a Christian bero. The harclshij^s of his imprisonment had unnerved him — had made the bold man fear and quail. The terrors of a cruel death awed him to a base submis- sion. Human weakness prevailed. The promises and threatenings of the council shook his purpose. He signed a paper by which he declared his submis- sion to the council, and approved the condemnation of the errors of Wickliffe and of Huss. Yet it was at no slight sacrifice of feeling that this compliance was wrung from him. He gave as an excuse for his course, that he was not aware that the errors imputed to Huss had been truly held by him. We can scarcely admit the sincerity of such a defence. If any one should have known what Huss taught, Jerome was the man. He must have heard him and read his books. As his intimate friend and associate, he must have frequently conferred with him, and may almost have been said to have read his heart. But a prison was an irksome place ; and death at the stake was no pleasing prospect, and in a weak hour the strong man fell.^ And yet there lingered so much of conscience and self-respect, that Jerome was forced to add conditions or explanations of his submis- sion, that could have been in nowise acceptable to the council. While he subscribed to the condem- nation of the articles of Wickliffe and Huss, he added that he was not to be considered as thereby doing any prejudice to the holy truths which these men had taught and preached. Explaining himself after- * Many fjwjts in regard to Jerome's two narratives contained in the last treatment are brought out upon his volume of Huss' Monumenta. trial. Others are to be found in the I Ch. IV.] Jerome's submission. 139 ward upon the subject, be said, of Huss particularly, that he still repeated that he did not mean to do anything tending to the prejudice of his person, and his excellent morals, any more than to the many truths which he had heard from his mouth. He con- fessed that he had been his intimate friend, and that he was disposed to defend him toward and against all, for the gentleness of his conversation and the holy truths which he had heard him explain to the people, but that now, on being better infoi'med by reading his works themselves, he was unwilling to be- friend his errors, though he had loved his person. Esto quod sint amici et Plato et Socrates^ sed rriagis arnica Veritas mihi est et esse debet. Let Plato and So- crates be my friends, yet I love and ought to love truth more. Such was his attempt at justification, by which he essayed — and perhaps for the time success- fully— to deceive himself. He added still other re- marks. He declared, that in condemning the errors of Huss he did not thereby intend to make a recant- ation, because, although he had often heard and read the condemned articles, he never had held them to be articles of faith, and had never preferred his own judgment to the authority of the church. The terms of , this submission were too vague and ambiguous to satisfy the council. It was not the unequiv^ocal condemnation of Huss which they de- manded. They saw the necessity of using farther influence to secure a more unqualified submission. The time between this present and the following session was employed to secure this object.^ » L'Enfant, 333. 140 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOH]Sr HUSS. [Ch. IV. The nineteenth general session was to have been held on the twentieth of September, but was defer- red until the twenty-third of the month — doubtless in order to bring Jerome to better terms. The greater part of it was taken up with the effort to induce him to retract unconditionally. The articles of Wickliffe and of Huss were again read, that he might publicly anathematize them. The Cardinal of Cambray announced the form of retraction drawn up by Jerome in his own hand-writing, conceived in the following terms.^ "I, Jerome of Prague, master of arts, acknowl- edging the true Catholic church and Apostolic faith, do anathematize every heresy, especially that in re- gard to which I have hitherto been defamed, and which in past times was taught and held by John Wickliffe and John Huss, in their works, books, or sermons to the clergy and the people, on which ac- count they were condemned with their dogmas and errors, as heretical, by this the said council of Con- stance, and their doctrine aforesaid was especially condemned in sentence passed by this sacred council, upon certain express articles. I assent, moreover, to the holy Eoman church, to the Apostolic See, and to this sacred council, and with heart and mouth pro- fess, in and in respect to all matters, specially the keys, sacraments, orders, offices, and censures of the church, indulgences, relics of the saints, ecclesiastical liberty, rites, and whatever pertains to the Christian religion, — as the Roman church itself, the Apostolic See, and this sacred council profess: and specially » L'Enfant, 334. Fleiiry, xxvi. HI. 1 Cu. IV.] KECANTATION OF JEROME. 141 that of the aforesaid articles many are notoriously heretical, and long since reprobated by the holy fa- thers, some are blasphemous, others erroneous, others scandalous, some offensive to pious ears, and some of them rash and seditious. As such, the aforesaid articles were by this sacred council recently con- demned, and Catholics were forbidden, each and all, under threat of anathema, venturing to preach, teach, or hold the said articles, or any of them. " Moreover, I, the aforesaid Jerome, inasmuch as in some scholastic exercises, in order to enforce my views on the tenet of Universalia a parte m, and to show that many qualities of the same species might be speci- fied by one essence, described, in order to present an illustration obvious to the senses, a triangular figure which I called the shield of faith ; therefore, to pre- vent any erroneous or scandalous understanding, which some might perhaps receive therefrom, I say, assert, and declare, that I did not draw the said figure, or name it the shield of faith, with any such intention of exalting the doctrine De Universalihus over its op- posite, as if it was in such a sense the shield of faith, that, without it, faith or catholic truth could not be protected or defended, since I would by no means stubl)ornly adhere to it. But the reason of my call- ing that figure by such a name was, because, in the figure of the triangle describing the three different pei'sons (supposita) of the divine essence, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I regarded this article of the Trinity as the principal shield of faith, and the foun- dation of Catholic truth. " Besides, that it may be plain to all what were 142 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Ch. IV. the reasons for wliicli I was reputed an adlierent and an approver of the said John Huss, I make it known by these presents, that when on many occasions I heard him in his sermons and scholastic lectures, I believed him to be a good man, and not in any way proceeding contrary to the traditions of holy mother church, and the holy doctors. Yea, even when of late certain articles laid down by him, and condemned by this sacred council, were shown to me, I did not believe them to be his, at least in that form. And when, from certain eminent doctors and masters in the sacred page, I had heard it affirmed that they were his, T asked fuller information, and that the books might be shown me in which the said articles were reported to be contained. These being presented to me in his own hand-writing, which I know as well as I do my own, I found that the said articles were written, each and all, in that very form in which they had been condemned. Whence I have apprehended, and do now apprehend, that he and his doctrine, with those that follow it, were not undeservedly con- demned by this sacred council as heretical and insane. And all these things aforesaid, I say sincerely and absolutely, as now having been fully and sufficiently informed of the aforesaid sentences pronounced by this holy council against the doctrines of the said Wickliffe and Huss, and against their persons, to which sentences, I, as a devoted Catholic, in all and regarding all, consent and adhere. " Also, I, the same aforesaid Jerome, who on an-* other occasion voluntarily, freely, and of my own accord explaining and declaring my views before the I Ch. IV.] PKOFESSION OF JEROME. 143 most reverend fathers, etc., in this same place, made a threefold distinction, which as I afterward perceived by some was understood as if I meant to say that there was faith in the church triumphant, while nev- ertheless I believe that with them, there is beatific vision excluding doubtful knowledge, — I do now say, assert, and declare, that it was never my intent to say that there was faith there asfaith^ but a knowledge' which, implying all that faith could apprehend, ex- ceeds it. And in general, whatever I there or before said, I refer and submit with all humility to the de- cision of this holy council of Constance. " I moreover swear, both by the holy Trinity and by these most holy Gospels, that I will abide undoubt- ingly in the truth of the Catholic church ; and I do pronounce all those that shall contravene this faith, with their dogmas, worthy of eternal anathema. And if I myself shall ever presume (far be it from me) to think or preach anything to the contrary, I will subject myself to the severity of the canons, and shall be found exposed to eternal punishment. This copy of my confession and profession, before this holy general council, I freely and voluntarily present, and the same and each of these have I subscribed with my own hand." ^ Such was the form of recantation which Jerome had been induced to subscribe. When his purpose to present it had been announced by the Cai'dinal of Cambray, Jerome came forward to read it before the council, prefacing it with a few remarks. Ad- dressing himself to each and all the members of the ' Mansi Concilia, xxvii. 791, 793. Van der Hardt. iv. 499, 506 144 LIFE AND TIMES OE JOHIf HUSS. [Ch. IV. council, whom he embraced in one " glorious assem- bly," he proceeded : " Sinee from the history of the Holy Bible it is evident, indeed and truly, that in the temple of God all may not present offerings of equal value, but each according to his ability, as some gold, some silver, some precious stones, etc., if I, with the meanest of the people, shall present in this temple of God, acceptably to God and to yon, but skins of goat's hair, I shall account that I have done enough ; since the poor woman in the temple, giving from her poverty, according to the words of our Saviour, is said to have bestowed more than kings, who furnished cedar, onyx-stones, gold, and silver for the structure of the temple. Nor is this to be wondered at, since it is not things presented, but the spirit of the one that bestows them, that is to be taken into ac- count. But by the temple of the Lord, I mean this present most holy general council. Nor as I imagine without reason, since the apostle Paul, writing to a particular church, says. The temple of the Lord is holy^ which temjyle ye are. As to you, therefore, most eminent men, and those who resemble you, like the men of the days of Solomon, here present in this sacred temple of God, long time have you pre- sented and offered the gold of shining wisdom ; and you that are less eminent, the silver of divine elo- quence ; and others still of a lower order, by your various virtues and efforts, the scarlet, purple, and hyacinth, for the larger vessels of the temple, for restoring the curtains and roof of the militant hie- rarchy. I, after you, so many, so great, so distin- guished men, who in comparison with you am but Cu. IV.] PREFATORY SPEECH. 145 nothing, having my head bowed down l)y almost every kind of faultiness — what shall I offer ? Lest, however, placed in this holy temple in the presence of God and of you, I may appear entirely destitute, T may offer at least the skins of my beast-like deeds, md the goat's hair of my unworthy conduct, with a free heart, beseeching you each and all with deep earnestness that I may not be wholly despised or condemned in this, nor be driven forth and ejected with obloquy from this temple of God, which ye are. For even these oftei'iugs of mine may be of service, in their own way and time, in the temple of God. Thus to show, with your approbation, that not only clusters of grapes, but leaves also, may con- tribute to render the vineyard of the! Lord of Hosts not only spacious, but specious, I have prefaced this much, like one who goes through steep and hidden ways, forewarning of their nature. After this en- trance upon them, follows this my offering, which I present voluntarily for the honor of God and of the holy faith." Jerome then read the paper which he had drawn up, and which seemed to meet the demands of the council. They had forced him by the terror of the flames to an act of hypocrisy, and of treason to his own convictions. How far at the time the sopliistry of his own fears led him to believe his course to be justifiable, it is diilicult to say. None could con- demn it more heartily than he afterward did him- self. For the present his declaration satisfied the council. He was led back to prison and ti-eated less harshly. VOL. IT. 10 CHAPTER V. VIOLENCE OF THE TIMES. LETTERS OF THE BOHEMLiNS. ZISCA. New Commission on Heeest. — Annates. — Ravages of the Turks. — Conference OF Be.\EDICT Xin. AND SiGISMUND. — CANONIZATION. — COMMISSION APPOINTED. — Geeson's Treatise. — Violence and Anarchy of the Times. — Narrative of Bernard Witt. — Frederic op Austria and the Bishop of Trent. — Measures OF the Council Against the Former. — Caroline Constitution. — Nason's Complaint. — Letter from Bohemia. — Mission of the Bishop of Leitomischel. — Reply of the Bohemian States. — Vindication op the Bohemians Presented to the Council. — The Principles Avowed by the Latter on Keeping Fais-h WITH Heretics. — They Fail to Convince the Bohemians. — Measures Adg<-v- ed at Prague. — Zisca. — Permission Granted Him by Wenzel. Sept. 23, 1415— Dec. 19, 1415. In the same session in which Jerome (ibjiired, a decree was read, which intimated the purpose of the council to follow up the task which it had begun, of extirpating heresy. The Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Senlis were appointed a commis- sion to examine such as adhered to Huss, and inquire into their doctrines, as spread throughout Bohemia and Moravia. Other heresies, that might call for notice, were also to be referred to them. They were to hear, decide, and judge them, with all things thereto appertaining. No state, grade, rank, order, or condition was allowed exemption from their juris- diction. They were empowered to cite before them, in person, all who were subject to suspicion, and to i Cu. v.] ANNATES. TUEKISII INVASION. 147 proceed in their case to a definitive sentence.^ Tliis commission was ap}3ointed over another to whi(;h the general subject of heresies had been committed. It was doubtless the intention of the council, by its appointment, not only to expedite business, but to place the matter in safe hands. Many matters of local as well as general interest occupied, from tim,e to time, the attention of the council. The subject of the papal abuse of annates had been strongly urged, especially by the German and some of the French nation, but the question what means should be provided for the support of the Roman court, if annates were dispensed with, fur- nished a problem for which a satisfactory solution was difficult. After long, tedious, and often angry discussions, the subject was for the time deferred. The absence of Sigismund in Spain had furnished an occasion for the Turks to renew their inroads up- on the provinces bordering on his kingdom of Hun- gary.^ Relieved of all apprehension by his distance from the scene, they extended their invasions so far that the council itself was not altogether free from anxiety upon its own account. Startling reports reached Constance of the terrible ravages by fire and sword which had been already committed. Sigis- mund's territories were singled out for vengeance. His purpose to unite Christendom in a grand crusade against the Turk was no secret. The council felt that in his absence it became them to repay the gen- erosity of his service by exerting themselves in his ' Van der Hardt, iv. 562, 573. ^ Niom, apud Van der Ilardt, ii. Fleury, xxvi. 176. 416. 148 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS. [Cii. V. behalf. They wrote to the king of Poland, urging him to interfere to restore peace. They sent one of the bishops present at the council to engage the nobles of Hungary to remain faithful to their mastei-. The influence of the king of Poland was at once ex- erted, and the negotiations for peace were like to be successful, when the violence of the Hungarians, in arresting the Polish ambassador |,s a spy, excited the resentment of the Turks, and hostilities were resumed. The Hungarian army was defeated, and many of its nobility were slain. Meanwhile the council, anxious that the nego- tiations with Benedict XIH. should be brouo^ht to a favorable conclusion, des]3atched the Archbishop Wallenrod of Riga to aid the emperor with his counsel. His influence with Sigismund was well known. His energy and decision were not checked by any conscientious scruples, or enfeebled by any feelings of sympathy or humanity. The treatment of Huss, who had been committed to his charge, could attest the harsh, unscrupulous spirit of the man. The council feared lest the attention of the emperor, whose plans looked toward the securing of such a peace among the nations as to favor his pro- ject of a crusade, might be somewhat withdrawn from the matter of the union of the church, or be misled by the artifice of Benedict. But they had no good reason to distrust his perseverance or fidelity in the task in which he was engaged. He had already gained over the king of Aragon, who resolved to withdraw obedience from Benedict if he would not abdicate his office. The latter too gave such signs Cn. v.] benedict's HYPOCRISY. 149 of readiness to consider the proposals of the empe- ror, in his first conference with him, that some were deceived with the hope that he would accept the terms offered.^ He received the emperor with all respect, in a castle which bore his own name. In a conference of two or three hours, he seemed to give such evidence of good intentions, that the report of it at the council was welcomed with joy. He wept freely during the interview, but his tears had the virtue of the crocodile's. The hypocrisy that belonged to the part he played called for tears, and they were shed as a matter of business. It was not long before their true value was discerned. It was at about this time that the subject of the canonization of new saints by the church was brought, in a special manner, before the council. The king of Sweden had written to John XXIII. soon after his arrival at Constance, urging him to grant the canonization of three of his subjects who had sustained a high reputation for sanctity ^ But John XXIIL, however facile he might have shown him- self in complying with the request, was too much * absorbed in the conduct of his own affairs to pay much attention to others, and St. Bridget alone se- cured his favorable regard. He was soon placed in such circumstances that any further action on his part would have been strongly opposed, or at least sharply controverted. The ambassadors of the Swe- dish king, therefore, laid their letter before the coun- cil. A commission was aj)pointed, to wliich the ' L'En%Sit, 354-358. Van der Hardt, iv, 1240, et seq. ' Van dcr Har