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A^H. WRATISLAW, M.A,
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LATE HEAD MASTER OF THE GRAMMAR, SCHOOL, BURT ST. EDMUNDS ;
FORMERLY FELLOW AND TUTOR OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF SCIENCES IX BOHEMIA.

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PEEFACE.

No biography of the celebrated John Hus can
reasonably be considered complete without an out
line of the recent investigations and publications
in Bohemia, which have at length rendered it
possible to place this extraordinary man in the
full light of day before the British reader.
After the destruction of the liberty, both reli
gious and political, of Bohemia in the Thirty Years'
War, the chronicle of Hajek (1541) was univer
sally accepted as the basis of Bohemian history.
This chronicle has been incontrovertibly proved
by documentary evidence, and is now generally
acknowledged, to have been the work of one who
might more justly be regarded as the falsifier
than the recorder of the history of his country.
No uncorroborated statement of Hajek's is now
considered to be of the slightest historical value,
or to possess the slightest weight as historical
evidence. But in 1831, the estates of the king
dom of Bohemia were allowed to appoint a historio-

IV PREFACE .

grapher of their own. The choice fell upon one,
than whom none worthier could have been selected,
the late Dr. Francis Palacky. The result of his
labours has been a magnificent History of Bohemia
in five large octavo volumes, "mainly from docu
ments and manuscripts," fromthe earliest times
to the year 1526. The first volume was pub
lished in German in 1836, and in 1845 appeared
the first part of the third volume, which deals with
the "floruit " of Hus. This was both interpolated
and mutilated by the censorship of the press at
Vienna, which was not abolished till the year of
revolutions, 1848. Still this partially garbled
account of Hus produced such a sensation, that
Baron Helfert was commissioned to write in
Bohemian an account of Hus and Jerome, which
should in some wise counteract the effect produced
by Palacky's narrative. Baron Helfert's work
appeared at Prague in 1857 (287 pp., large 8vo).
In 1842, Palacky read before the Bohemian
Society of Sciences, and afterwards submitted to
the censorship of the press with a view to publi
cation, an account in Bohemian of the " Precursors
of Husitism in Bohemia." This remained so long
under the consideration of the censor, that Palacky
withdrew it altogether, in order to avoid the
anticipated "damnatur." It was, however, trans
lated into German by Dr. J. P. Jordan, and pub
lished in 1846 under his name at Leipsic, without
attracting any attention. But in 1869, the remain-

preface.

ing copies were reissued with a new title-page at
Prague by the original author, and the value of
the work was immediately acknowledged.
In 1849, Professor W. W. Tomek published the
first volume of his "History of the University of
Prague," in the Bohemian language, in which he
carried the narrative down to the year 1436.
Between 1865 and 1868, the late K. J. Erben,
Archivarius of the Old Town of Prague, published
in three carefully edited octavo volumes (containing
respectively 478, 440, and 346 pages), John Hus's
collected writings in the Bohemian, or Czeskish,
language ("MistraJana Husi sebrane spisy Czeske"),
many of which were then printed for the first time.
Until the appearance of these volumes, almost all
knowledge of Hus had been derived from incorrect
editions and translations of his ' Postilla,' and
from the account given of him in the edition of his
Latin works published at Nuremberg in 1558, and
again in 1715 (two folio vols, bound in one).
In 1869, Palacky issued a large octavo volume
of 768 pages, containing all extant documents,
Latin or Bohemian, relating to the life and case
of Hus, and to the religious controversies in Bo
hemia between 1403 and 1418.
In 1870, Palacky published the second Bohemian
edition of the first part of his third volume, restoring
the portions struck out, and rejecting the passages
interpolated, by the censorship, and generally
enlarging and revising the whole,

PREFACE.

In 1875, Professor W. W. Tomek published in
Bohemian the third volume of his " History of the
City of Prague," (" Dejepis Mesta Prahy"), which
goes over the same ground as Palacky's vol. iii. pt.
1., but enters into far greater detail with regard to
matters that occurred at Prague, where Hus spent
the greater part of his life. I have also corre
sponded with Professor Tomek with respect to
points of difference between himself and Palacky,
and take this opportunity of acknowledging both his
personal kindness and the merit of his writings,
which are models of research, care, and clearness.
I have given this account of the above works in
chronological order, with the view of exhibiting at
once both the facts themselves and also the diffi
culties which the Bohemians have had to contend
with in investigating and writing the history of
their country and nation. Such difficulties have
for some time been completely at an end, and the
press is now as free in Bohemia as in Britain.
A. H. WEATISLAW.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Historical Introduction ... ... ... 1
II. The Precursors of John Hus in Bohemia... 50
III. John Hus, from his Bieth to his Breach with
Archbishop Zbtnek ... ... ... 75
IV. Secession of the German Element in the Uni
versity. Contest between the King and the
Archbishop ... ... ... ... 108
V. John Hus and his Folloavers at variance with
Archbishop Zbynek ... ... ... 126
VI. John Hus in conflict with the Papal Power 159
VII. John Hus in Exile from Prague ... ... 191
VIII. John Hus at Constance ... ... ... 226
IX. John Hus's Trial  262
X. John Hus's Condemnation and Martyrdom 308
XI. John Hus as a School Divine ... ... 338
XII. John Hus as a Writer in his Native Language 349
XIII. Jerome of Prague ... ... ... ... 376

JOHN HUS.
CHAPTEE I.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
The duty of the historian of the latter portion of
the fourteenth and the early portion of the fifteenth
centuries in Europe is a very sad one. Almost
everywhere it is his to write of decline and deca
dence, of goodness unable to raise its head from
the ground into which it was trampled by unblush
ing shamelessness, and of iniquity sitting enthroned
in the highest places. And this he finds espe
cially true of the Church and the professing
ministers of the gospel, with whom religion was,
to a great extent, a mere source of gain, and
the clerical condition a mere means of ensuring
immunity in crime. The clergy were for the most
part emancipated from the control of the laws and
the jurisdiction of the secular magistrates ; and
their corruption was pre-eminent in the general
B

JOHN HUS.

corruption of the age. Was no one to arise in
righteous indignation, and to call for the suppression
of evil and the encouragement and development
of good? Was there none of Christ's ministers
who would dare to testify against his evil and
degraded brethren, and cry aloud for a real and
not a seeming and hypocritical reform in the
Church of Christ ? Yes ! there was one man who
ventured so to do — one man who ventured to quit
his own country and home, where "he was com
paratively safe and protected by powerful friends,
and to place himself dauntlessly in the hands of
the very people whose wickedness he was exposing,
and against whose licentiousness and selfishness
his purity and morality of life were a living protest.
But it must not be supposed, that John Hus,
like Luther or Calvin, was a great doctrinal re
former, assailing positions deliberately taken up
and maintained by the Church of Borne, and in
that point of view a direct precursor and herald
of the Beformation. He was a better and truer
Catholic, aye, Boman Catholic, than those who
condemned him. He was a true son of his Church;
and while he raised his voice against the sin and
evil that defiled her, and the practical setting up
of the traditions of men above the Word of God,
he stood second to none in his reverence for her
doctrines, her creeds, and her formularies. Still
it is true, that but the slightest traces of Mariolatry
and saint-worship are to be found in his writings ;
it is true also, that the doctrinal abuses and ex-

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

travagancies, against which he specially protested,
have to a great extent disappeared from the Chureh
of Borne herself. It is on the one hand, as a
reformer of life and morals, especially among the
clergy, and on the other, as a dauntless champion
for the rights of conscience and the supremacy of
Scripture, that we must contemplate John Hus ;
and it was as such, that he was foully murdered
by one of the most wicked assemblies that ever
disgraced the name of council.
But how was it that such a man should have
arisen in Bohemia, and not in some other country,
speaking some other language, and possessing a
literature of world-wide renown — the study of
which is an education in itself? The answer to
the question is easy, though scarcely credible, save
to those whose studies have placed them in full
and certain possession of the facts. The state of
education and average general culture in Bohemia
was higher than that of any other country, and
the Czesko-slavonic language had reached a pitch
of flexibility and cultivation which had not been
attained by any other European tongue save that
of Italy, where it was rather poetry than prose that
was in the ascendant.
First and foremost among the causes which led
to the general spread of education and culture in
Bohemia, was the foundation of the University of
Prague, in 1348, by the Emperor Charles IV., son
of the blind king of Bohemia, John of Luxemburg,
who fell in the battle of Crecy in 1346. A noble

JOHN HUS.

layman, educated at that university, Thomas of
Stitny, a prose writer of the highest class, may be
said to have formed the Bohemian as a literary
language, and thus to have rendered Hus, and
the widespread movement which he inaugurated,
possible. "A sermon of St. Augustine's," says Stitny, in his work
Of General Christian Matters, "has encouraged me to be
bolder in writing Bohemian books, which relate to the Holy
Scriptures ; for from it every one can see how good a thing it is
to read the Holy Scriptures. And those who condemn books
in the Bohemian language, even if good ones, wishing perhaps
to be the only persons who appear wise, might well dread the
vengeance of God, when they reflect how guilty those are
¦who would wish to stop the letters and necessary messages
therein, and to prevent the Lord God, the Eternal Bridegroom,
from teaching His Bride His will, and comforting her in her
distress thereby. Yea, justly would he be in terror, who should
stop the letters of a king addressed to his queen, if he knew
that the king was aware of it. And how much greater is the
Lord God than any king ! How much dearer to Him is His
Bride — that is every soul that longeth for Him — than was any
queen dear to any king ! "Wiser men understand this and know
that a Bohemian is as precious to Him as a Latinist."
The Czechian nation or " language " received a
thorough scientific as well as theological training,
through the philosophical as well as theological
writings of Stitny, and was as well prepared to
enter into controversy with the pen as with the
sword. That Wycliffe, though a greater thinker
and reasoner, produced, comparatively speaking,
so much smaller immediate results in England
than Hus in Bohemia, appears due to the fact,

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 5
that the English language was not yet sufficiently
matured for a great national and intellectual move
ment to be carried on in it. Had Chaucer, that
"well of English undented," who is generally con
sidered to have made our language what it is,
preceded instead of following Wycliffe, the history
of England might possibly have told a very
different story as regards the reformation of
religion. But leaving the special circumstances which
evoked and rendered possible such a person as
Hus and such a movement as the Hussite move
ment, let us cast our eyes over the condition of
Europe generally, a little after the commencement
of the last quarter of the fourteenth century. The
year 1378 was one of the most fatal epochs known
to history. The popedom and the empire were
during the middle ages the principal forces in central
and western Europe ; and the spiritual and temporal
heads of Christendom, Pope Gregory XL and the
Emperor Charles IY., were both of them swept
away within a brief interval of each other during
the course of that unfortunate year. And after their
deaths, partly through discord, and partly through
the absence of morality, steadfastness, uprightness,
and capacity in their successors, both the Papal
see and the Imperial throne fell into such decay
and discredit, that the rise and development of a
third power opposed and adverse to them became
almost a matter of necessity. This came to pass
first in Bohemia with irresistible energy, and later

6 JOHN HUS.

with varying vigour and success in almost all other
European nations.
The first and most important circumstance that
gave the turn to the scale for evil at - this epoch
was unquestionably the outbreak of the great
schism in the Church of Bome. The College of
Cardinals was at the time of the death of Gregory
XL mainly composed of Frenchmen, most, though
not all, of whom had reluctantly followed Gregory
from quiet Avignon, where the papal court had
resided for sixty years, to troublous and malarious
Bome. There were strong reasons for expecting
that the future pope would return to Avignon and
leave to decay and ruin old Bome, once the glorious
mistress of the world, but now almost dependent
upon the presence of the papal curia, if not for
actual subsistence, at any rate for some small
shadow of material prosperity. The Bomans,
therefore, at the meeting of the conclave on April
7th, 1378, left no means untried to obtain the elec
tion of a Boman, or at any rate of an Italian, who
would be likely to take up his residence perma
nently at Bome. On the day of election, April 8th,
they assembled in large numbers, came in arms
before the conclave, and threatened the cardinals
with death, if they did not make their choice in
accordance with the feelings of the people. The
Boman cardinals, especially those of the Orsini
family, were afterwards accused of not being alto
gether strangers to these tumultuous proceedings,
and that with the view of causing the choice to fall

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

upon one of their own number. But, whatever
truth there may be in the accusation, they were
at any rate utterly unsuccessful as regards their
alleged aim and object, and a temporary cessation
of party spirit and strife in the conclave brought
about the unanimous election of one who was not a
cardinal at all, Bartholomew of Prignano, Archbishop
of Bari. The tumult without, while the election
was going on, might well be cited as evidence that
the choice of the cardinals was not altogether free ;
but the fact that they did not venture to publish
the name of the person elected at once to the popu
lace, but put them off by evasions and subterfuges,
till the violence of the storm had passed, is also
good evidence that it was not altogether compul
sory. Had they been perfectly free they would
probably not have selected an Italian at all ; had
they really acted under compulsion, their choice
would probably not have fallen upon the Archbishop
of Bari. But for the full validity of the election
the following facts may well be considered decisive :
(1) That, when order was restored, no voice of
protest was lifted up against the new pope, who
assumed the name of Urban VI.; and (2) That
all the cardinals, without excepting even those
who had remained behind at Avignon, recognized
and did homage to him, and announced his
election and coronation in bulls subscribed with
their own hands to the emperor and to collective
Christendom. Pope Urban VI. was learned, frank and upright,

8 JOHN HUS.

a man of rigid morality, vigorous and unbending in
his zeal for religion and God's service, and withal
a declared enemy to everything in the shape of
simony. But he was proud, domineering, harsh
and hard even to cruelty, self-willed and obstinate,
although not altogether inaccessible to the flatterer,
and given over to the most unbounded nepotism.
The zeal that he undoubtedly possessed for the ex
tirpation of the countless and deeply rooted abuses
that were existing and flourishing, was far too defi
cient in the requisite prudence and kindliness to
attain its desired end. He wanted to commence
reform with the cardinals and highest dignitaries
of his court; but public expostulations, reproofs
and threats were scarcely, under the circumstances,
the most eligible means to begin with. The vari
ously aggrieved and mortified cardinals quitted
Bome during the heat of summer under pretext of
the malaria, met together at Anagni, and there
found leisure to compare notes and communicate
to each other their discontent at the election that
they had made. Were courtly French gentlemen
to be put to scorn and shame by a rude and over
bearing Italian? Were not the discomforts of
Bome sufficient, without perpetual inquiry into
little peccadilloes, to which long custom had all
^J>ut given a quasi-sanction ? Beturn to Avignon
was proposed to Urban, who rejected the proposal
briefly and decidedly, but was withal unwise enough
to make by uncourteous and disrespectful treat
ment an enemy of Duke Otto of Brunswick, husband

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 9
of Joanna, Queen of Naples, who was sent to him
on the mission. Thus the malcontent cardinals
obtained protection and encouragement, not only
from the King of France, who was only too happy
to enjoy the eclat of the residence of the pope in
his territories and as it were under his protection,
but also from the Queen of Naples. Finally, four
months after the election and coronation of Urban
VI., the cardinals formed the resolution of declaring
the act ' of the conclave extorted by tumult, and
therefore canonically invalid.
No sooner did knowledge of the threatening
schism reach the ears of the Emperor Charles IV.,
than he sent his commissioners to the cardinals,
urging and adjuring them to stop in what they had
so unhappily begun, to return from their evil way,
to reconcile themselves with Urban VI., and thus
to prevent the ruin that was impending over the
Church. " It becomes the imperial majesty of the world," wrote he,
" to promote the welfare of the state, and wholesomely to pro
vide against the baneful perils of discords, especially those by
which the condition and desired tranquillity of the Holy Church
of God are injured, so far as the Most High deigns to allow it.
Verily the fleeting loquacity of Fame hath greatly disturbed
men's ears with a horrible matter, how that certain lord
cardinals are setting about opposing themselves to Pope Urban
VI., and have separated from him under certain colourable pre
texts. . . . Whereas, from the letters of the major part of the
aforesaid lord cardinals, transmitted to us successively after the
election and coronation of our aforesaid lord the pope, which
we have commanded to be kept in careful custody, it is most

10 JOHN HUS.

clear and evident, that the aforesaid our lord the pope, unani
mously and canonically elected and solemnly crowned, hath,
with you present and consenting to him, performed several, yea,
manifold acts, and has with just title made them papal acts, in
assemblies both public and private, we wonder greatly, and
with good reason, whether a separation of this kind — a thing
which nevertheless we do not believe — rests on a basis of truth.
Who among you, most reverend cardinals, can have stood forth
as a seducer, and not as a cardinal, malevolently sowing tares
so scandalous in the fields of the Holy Church of God ? "
Hearing soon afterwards, that the cardinals had
betaken themselves from Anagni to Fondi, in the
territory of Naples, Charles called also upon the
Queen of Naples, in a letter of similar tenour, to
prevent her vassal, the Count of Fondi, from
giving any assistance to them in their apostasy.
But, being in full understanding, not only with the
Queen of Naples, but also with the powerful King of
France, they considered their position completely
secure, and on September 28th, 1378, elected, at
Fondi, one of their own number, Cardinal Bobert
of Geneva, anti-pope, in opposition to Urban, under
the name of Clement VII. The selection was made
far more in accordance with the dictates of worldly
policy than from any motives connected with re
ligion or the spiritual welfare of the Church. Near
akin to the royal family of France, and more
distantly connected with the House of Luxemburg,
and thus with the present wearer of the Imperial
Crown, it was hoped that he would without diffi
culty obtain general recognition. But the Emperor
Charles IV. refused to entertain the idea of a

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 11
second pope for a moment, and became, unsought^
the most faithful, active, and energetic supporter
of Urban VI. His emissaries hastened with letters,
not only to the princes of the empire, but to
almost every court in Europe, exhorting all to
steadfast adherence to Urban, and refuting the
manifesto of the apostate cardinals. Charles was
Boman emperor, and, as such, chief protector of
the Christian Church ; he felt himself, therefore,
bound in conscience to make head against the
mighty evil that was commencing. Long, too,
had he striven to obtain, and had at length
succeeded in obtaining, the return of the papal
court from Avignon to Bome, and had thus
rescued it from the overwhelming ascendancy of
France. But now the success of his policy was
rendered doubtful by the prospect of Clement VII.'s
return to Avignon.
The schism being now complete, the principal
ecclesiastical authorities, and withal, the three
universities that held the highest rank in Europe,
those of Paris, Oxford, and Prague, cried aloud for
the convocation of a general council. It then
became a question by which of the rival popes
it was to be convoked, but the majority of con
temporary authorities agreed in the opinion, that
under such circumstances this duty appertained
to the Boman emperor. Thus the opinion ex
pressed by many of Charles's contemporaries
appears to have been not altogether groundless,
that the personal esteem in which he was held,

12 JOHN HUS.

and the personal influence, as well as the ac
knowledged prudence, ability, and energy, which
he possessed, would probably, ere long, have
succeeded in suppressing the new-born schism,
had he not been carried off by a fever on
November 29th, 1378, in the 63rd year of his
age. Whom, then, did he leave as his successor in this
difficult and delicate task ? His eldest son, Wen
ceslas IV., surnamed the Lazy, whose election
as king of the Bomans Charles had procured by
no very honourable means, and contrary to all
precedent, during his own lifetime. Wenceslas IV.
was a spoilt child from the first, and a spoilt child
he remained throughout the whole of his life.
Indolent and good-natured, though subject to
violent fits of passion, he was never so happy as
when, casting the cares of royalty on the shoulder
of a brother or a cousin, he devoted himself to the
pleasures of the chase in the vast woods and forests
of Krivoklat or Zwikow. There was nothing that
he loved and admired so much as a huge dog, and
his agents were constantly employed abroad in
seeking and procuring for him these objects of his
affection. The largest of them all was an in
mate of his bedroom, and slept at his feet ; and
it was commonly beheved that the sudden death
of his first wife, Queen Joanna, was due to this
monster, who seized her by the throat when
she rose from her bed in the dead of the
night. Tall, and powerful in stature, Wenceslas

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 13
was well read, and spoke Latin excellently, while
a single anecdote is sufficient to prove his wit.
Accustomed in the early part of his reign to
go about at night incognito with a band of com
panions, partly for frolic, partly for the purpose
of redressing wrongs, and observing the conduct
of subordinate officials, he once found the words
Wenceslaus alter Nero, written upon a wall. He
immediately took a piece of chalk and wrote under
them a rhymed completion of the couplet : Si non
fui, adhuc ero. He endeavoured to rule by personal
sway, like his father, but never, like him, attained
to the power of ruling himself. That he was not
a man of good and delicate taste, is shown by the
obscene embellishments with which he caused his
bible, which is still in existence, to be disfigured ;
and as he grew in years, he became more and
more devoted to the pleasures of the table and the
bottle. In a position to which he was unequal,
with a better will and better intentions than any
of his contemporaries, and never unpopular among
the people of his realm, his name has gone down
to posterity as that of the weakest and most un
successful monarch of his day. Nor was it one of
his smallest difficulties, that his father by will
partitioned his dominions amongst his sons, assign
ing Brandenburg to Sigismund, and the newly-
created Dukedom of Gorlitz to John, while his
nephews, Jost and Procop, inherited the Margravate
of Moravia from their father. To Wenceslas fell
Bohemia, Silesia, parts of Bavaria and Saxony,

14 JOHN HUS.

and the portion of Lusatia which was not included
in the Dukedom of Gorlitz.
How was it with the other states of Europe ?
There was but one ruler who ruled with suecess
and ability, and that was a woman. Margaret of
Denmark, the celebrated foundress of the Union of
Calmar in 1397, governed with vigour and pru
dence in the north of Europe from 1376, first as
guardian of her son, and afterwards in her own
right. But, though Scandinavia prospered and
flourished, she exercised but little influence on the
course of events throughout the central and
southern portions of the Continent. Edward HI.,
of England, had been called away in 1377, leaving
the crown to his grandson Bichard II., who was
but thirteen years old at his accession, and whose
incapacity and dismal fate are- too well known to
be worth dilating upon. France, too, three years
later lost her Charles V., surnamed the Wise,
who had greatly restored his country and raised
the power of his crown after the terrible blows
inflicted by the English, attaining his ends by
measures which were always clever and prudent,
if not altogether just and righteous. His son and
successor was Charles VI., who was only twelve
years old at the time of his father's death, and
the regency was made use of by his uncles for
their own selfish ends, so that the land was deso
lated by misgovernment and misery. And when
Charles became old enough to take the reins of
government into his own hands, it was not long

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 15
before he sank into a melancholy condition of
mental derangement, with lucid intervals but few
and far between. King Louis of Hungary and
Poland, a man of high and distinguished personal
character, died in 1382, leaving only two daughters
behind him, under the guardianship of an ambi
tious and unscrupulous mother, whose characteris
tics were rather vanity and cunning, than pride
and prudence. Spain was divided into several
kingdoms, and engaged in the death-struggle with
the slowly receding Moor.
Thus throughout the rest of Europe there was,
as Palacky says, a kind of equilibrium of weakness,
while in Germany not the smallest trace of
patriotism was to be found among the greater or
lesser possessors of power. All was sunk in the
deepest selfishness, no one thinking of aught but
the advancement of his own power or the increase
of his own territory, and every one utterly careless
as to the morality of the means to be employed for
the purpose. In the cities alone appeared now and
then a comforting exception, to show that there
still remained a germ of goodness. The supremacy
of the emperors had been broken down ever since
the days of the Hohenstaufen, and was now rather
ideal than real, depending entirely upon the per
sonal qualities or military ascendency of the wearer
of the crown. The emperor himself was practi
cally looked upon by the great princes of the empire,
as merely primus inter pares, and was little more
than the head of an oligarchical republic. The great

16 JOHN HUS.

aim of the princes was to convert their fiefs into in
dependent sovereignties, while the inferior nobility
and the towns endeavoured to secure themselves
against them, like the Swiss, by leagues and con
federacies. Charles IV. had never seized the
opportunity of allying himself with the people and
inferior nobility, to break the ever-increasing power
of the princes, but had merely endeavoured by
adroit and skilful diplomacy to calm the troubled
waters and prevent active encroachments and usur
pations. He gained thereby no gratitude from any
one, but left difficulties preparing for his son and
successor, which none but a master-hand could
have successfully encountered or disentangled.
So long as the experienced advisers of his father
lived, Wenceslas exhibited zeal and energy towards
putting an end to the great schism in the church,
and towards the restoration of public peace and
quiet in Germany. Not many weeks after his
accession, he convoked a diet at Nuremberg, but it
was an evil omen that very few of the princes of
the empire appeared there, either in person or by
their plenipotentiaries. At a second diet, at Frank-
fort-on-the-Main, he was more fortunate, and reso
lutions were passed, that Germany would maintain
internal peace at home and unanimously join the
king in espousing the cause of Urban VI. Neither
the ambassadors of the anti-pope, nor those of the
King of France, were allowed an audience, and it
was plainly stated to the latter, that it was not
their king, but the future emperor, that was the

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 17
natural advocate and protector of the Holy Boman
Church, whose duty it was of right to provide for
the well-being of the pope and the Holy Christian
Faith. After this Clement VII. thought it no
longer safe to remain in the territory of Naples,
but placed himself under the more powerful pro
tection of the King of France, at Avignon. He was
followed by the great majority of the existing
cardinals, so that Urban VI. was under the neces
sity of surrounding himself with a fresh body of
those princes of the Church.
Wenceslas found little difficulty in suppressing
the germs of schism in his own inherited crown
lands ; but in Germany, in spite of the resolutions
of the diet, there were many powerful princes, who
were only too ready to seize every opportunity of
turning the contest between the rival popes to the
furtherance of their own selfish ends and interests.
And, to the great misfortune of both Wenceslas
himself and the land of Bohemia, it came to pass,
that all the principal councillors of Charles IV., by
whom he had hitherto been guided, were swept
away by the hand of death in 1380, whether by the
plague, which then raged in Bohemia, or otherwise,
we are uninformed. Thus far his reign had been
merely a continuation of that of his father ; he was
now compelled to come into the foreground himself
with all his personal failings and deficiencies. He
was, however, able to settle the long dispute and
warfare between the rival claimants to the arch
bishopric of Maintz, and by means of an exchange c

18 JOHN HUS.

of bishoprics in Bohemia and Germany, to establish
Adolphus of Nassau at Maintz, as a pronounced
adherent of Urban VI. Here, however, all serious
endeavours on the part of Wenceslas with regard
to the schism came to an end. Finding that
France was not to be induced to cease from sup
porting Clement VII., he renewed the ancient
friendship and alliance between the houses of
Luxemburg and Valois, without the slightest refer
ence to the discord in the Church, a proceeding
which produced a very painful impression on the
mind of Urban.
A grand superstructure of hope had been raised
by the French cardinals upon the negotiations,
which had been begun in 1380 by the French
court, to effect a marriage between their youthful
King Charles VI., and Wenceslas's young and
amiable sister Anne. Cardinal Pileus, Urban's
legate in Bohemia, naturally exerted himself to the
utmost to bring this project to nothing, and to
favour the rival proposals of King Bichard II. of
England ; and before the end of 1381 the princess
made her public entry into London. Her arrival
was signalized by an amnesty, which she obtained
for several political prisoners, and, later, frequent
acts of intercession of a similar kind and other
beneficent actions earned her the name and memory
of "the good Queen Anne." Not only did she
bring new fashions across the water with her, but
also, what at that day was far more extraordinary,
a copy of the gospels in three languages, as Wy-

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 19
cliffe himself informs us — Bohemian, German, and
Latin — which she was in the habit of studying
diligently. The celebrated Thomas Arundel, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, eulogized at her death the
extraordinary love she exhibited towards Holy
Scripture, and the diligence with which she studied
it in the English language ; in this respect far sur
passing many dignitaries of the Church. There is
also reason to think, that the continual and intimate
intercourse, which she kept up with her brother
and her fatherland, was not without its influence
upon the great events that afterwards came to pass
in Bohemia.
Wenceslas went so far in accordance with the
wishes of Urban, as to break off intimate relations
with the French court, although neither Urban nor
Bichard could prevail upon him to enter into an
alliance- against it. Finding, however, that Urban
persisted in appointing bishops in Germany, nay,
actually in Silesia, without the slightest considera
tion for his wishes, Wenceslas wrote the pope a
letter full of complaints and even of threats, and the
cardinal legate in consequence quitted Bohemia.
Still a reconciliation was so far brought about, that
the king made arrangements for visiting Italy in the
April of 1383, to receive the imperial crown from the
hands of the vicar of Christ, a prospect which filled
all patriot hearts in Italy with joy, as they descried
therein grounds of hoping for aid to put a stop to
the proceedings of the wicked Charles of Anjou and
his worthless Frenchmen iu the south. But the

20 JOHN HUS.

condition of Germany prevented the execution of this
project. The terms of the general " land-peace,"
which was agreed upon in the diet at Nuremberg
on March 11th, 1383, with its division of Germany
into four parts, all bound to keep peace together
and to unite in quelling any disturbance thereof,
appeared to the cities to assign more power to the
princes and princely lords than was consistent with
their interests ; nor was it till July 26th, 1384, that
Wenceslas was able to induce the parties to consent
to an agreement to live in harmony for the short
space of four years, a truce which was, however,
eventually of much shorter duration.
Bohemia itself enjoyed, during the first part of
Wenceslas' s reign, uninterrupted peace and quiet
internally, and an amount of prosperity rarely to
be found during the middle ages. No doubt this
was mainly due to the measures and management
of the late Emperor Charles IV., who appears to far
greater advantage as the wise and beneficent King
of Bohemia, than as the shifty and time-serving
Emperor of Germany. But the silver mines of
Kuttenberg, the extensive commerce of the city,
and the celebrity of the University of Prague, and
the lightness of taxation in the country at large,
all contributed to this fortunate result.
Several of the highest offices had become here
ditary in certain noble families, and had thus
sunk into mere honorary titles. Among the chief
members of the council for home affairs were Wen-
ceslas's cousins, Jost and Procop, the Margraves

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 21
of Moravia, and the Archbishop of Prague, John of
Jenstein, while but few of the great officials of the
court and country were included in it. Over and
above this great council Wenceslas organized for
himself a kind of cabinet or camarilla, composed
principally of gentlemen of the inferior order of
nobility, and even of citizens of Prague, who were
entirely devoted to his person. Under their influ
ence the clergy were treated with little consideration,
and ere long the king came into collision with his
Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of Prague, in whose
heart a severe illness combined with other circum
stances had caused gaiety and worldliness to make
way for asceticism and spiritual pride, and who was
now prepared to meet his sovereign in the tone and
temper of Thomas a Becket. A dispute having
arisen between the archbishop and the king's
favourite, John Czuch of Zasada, as to the right of
constructing and maintaining a weir on the Elbe,
and the archbishop having betaken himself to the
use of violence for the purpose of enforcing his
claims, the king in anger summoned him to Karl-
stein, kept him in durance several days, deprived
him of the office of chancellor, and authorized
Czuch to reimburse himself by forays upon the
lands of the archiepiscopal see. In the skirmishes
that thus occurred is found the first certain in
stance of the use of firearms in Bohemia.
King Louis of Hungary and Poland died on Sep
tember 11th, 1382, and his eldest daughter Maria,
then only twelve years old, who was betrothed to

22 JOHN HUS.

Wenceslas' s next brother, Sigismund, was crowned
"King" of Hungary on the 17th of the same
month. Wars and disturbances intervened, and
the actual marriage did not take place till October,
1385. Finally Sigismund found himself obliged
to renounce all claim to the throne of Poland,
but was solemnly crowned King of Hungary on
March 31st, 1387, with the crown of St. Stephen at
Stuhlweissenburg. This elevation brought about
fresh arrangements in the House of Luxemburg,
by which Brandenburg was assigned in mortgage
to Margrave Jost, Wenceslas's cousin; Wenceslas
himself received the revenues of the silver mines
at Kuttenberg, and Sigismund resigned all claim to
the succession to the Bohemian crown in favour
of the youngest brother, John of Gorlitz.
In 1387 the internal peace of Bohemia was dis
turbed for the first time, by a local insurrection which
so enfeebled the king's power of enforcing obedience
in Germany, that a civil war broke out between the
princes and the cities, in which the cities suffered
a decisive defeat on August 24th, 1388, at Doffin-
gen. After this, Wenceslas, weary of a nominal
sovereignty, to which no one paid any regard,
appears to have seriously contemplated the abdica
tion of the dignity of King of the Bomans.
Wenceslas, who had lost his Queen Joanna by
sudden death in December, 1386, now, in 1389,
entered into a second marriage with Sophia of
Bavaria, a young and handsome princess, pious
and kindly, who never varied in the most faithful

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 23
attachment to her husband under the most dis
couraging circumstances. This match exercised a
considerable effect upon subsequent events, as the
queen eventually took up a position favourable
to the party that was calling for reform in the
Church. At the diet at Eger, in April and May, 1389,
Wenceslas was compelled to declare the ille
gality of the confederation of his former allies,
the German cities, and to dissolve it. Meanwhile
a terrible persecution of the Jews broke out at
Prague, of which Wenceslas, though accused by
his enemies as " detested by the clergy and people,
the nobles, the citizens, and the peasants, and
acceptable to the Jews alone," took advantage to
direct a considerable portion of the Jewish wealth
into his own coffers.
On October 18th, 1389, Pope Urban VI. died,
and was succeeded at Bome by Cardinal Peter
Tomacelli, who was crowned on November 9th,
under the name of Boniface IX, To him Urban
bequeathed the carrying out of two decrees : (1) the
introduction throughout Western Christendom of
the festival of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary,
a pet project of the Archbishop of Prague, John
of Jenstein, who had unsuccessfully striven to es
tablish it of his own authority in his own diocese ;
(2) the shortening of the period of recurrence of
the Christian year of Jubilee. This period had
been already reduced by Clement VI. from a hun
dred to fifty years, but was now to be further

24 JOHN HUS.

diminished to thirty-three years, the duration of
the life of Christ upon earth, and at the same time
the average duration of human life. It was there
fore decreed that the year 1390 should be the first
year of Jubilee at Bome under this novel reckoning,
and crowds of pilgrims streamed thitherward from
all parts of Europe to perform the prescribed pro
cessions and acts of penitence in the appointed
churches, and to participate in the indulgences
granted in return.
Boniface IX. was personally a far more agreeable
pope to deal with than the gloomy, strict, and
arrogant Urban VI., and we find King Wenceslas
now thinking seriously about the requisite journey
to Bome to receive the imperial crown. But he
again deferred it till after the completion of the
year of Jubilee at Prague, which was to commence
on March 13th, 1393. The king and his youthful
queen were among the first to perform the required
ceremonies, although not altogether without dis
pensations. The crowd was enormous, although
just then a breach occurred between the king and
the archbishop, which threatened to invalidate the
religious exercises of the festival entirely.
The archbishop had become extremely jealous of
the least infringement of his ecclesiastical privileges
and immunities, and had gone so far as to excom
municate the king's under-treasurer for arresting
several students of the university, and even with the
king's privity and knowledge causing two of them
to be executed. No complaint was made of any

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 25
injustice, but merely of the violation of privilege
involved in the proceeding. And when the king
had come to an arrangement with the pope to
erect the Abbey of Kladrau {Kladruby) on the
death of the then aged abbot, into an episcopal
see, the archbishop caused the monks to proceed
so rapidly with the election, and his vicar-general
with the confirmation, of a successor, that the
king heard of the death of the old, and the elec
tion and confirmation of the new abbot at one
and the selfsame time. The passionate nature of
the king was by this excited to fury, and though
some of his councillors endeavoured to effect a
reconciliation between him and the archbishop,
yet when they met on March 20th, the rage of
Wenceslas was such that the archbishop was obliged
to escape as best he could, several of his clergy
and officials were maltreated, and two of them
cruelly tortured. One of these, the vicar-general,
John of Pomudk, was thereby so seriously injured,
that his death was certain, and the king finally
ordered him to be carried to the bridge, which con
nects the Old Town of Prague with the Kleinseite,
and thence cast into the river Moldau, as a terror
to those of the clergy who might be inclined to
dispute his will.* John of Jenstein naturally be-
* This historical personage was afterwards divided into two
persons, one real and the other imaginary, with an interval of
ten years between them, by the chronicler Hajek (1541). Through
the suppression of the Bohemian language and literature the
legend could not be properly tested, and the Roman Curia actually

26 JOHN HUS.

took himself to Pope Boniface, but found little
favour in his eyes, partly because he was really in
the wrong in interfering with an arrangement which
had already received the pope's sanction, and partly
because Wenceslas had meanwhile laid Boniface
under a considerable obligation by detecting the
papal collector in Bohemia in fraud, and thus
saving a large sum of money for that ever-necessi
tous pope.
Wenceslas now began to feel the evil effects of
his attempts at personal government. His cruel
conduct towards some of the most respected digni
taries of the Church made a deep impression, of
which the great lords, discontented at being practi
cally thrust into the background, while the govern
ment was carried on through a camarilla of inferior
rank, were not slow to take advantage. A league
was formed, mainly through the exertions of Lord
Henry of Bosenberg, which was joined by Mar
grave Jost of Brandenburg and Moravia, Wences-
las's cousin, and even by King Sigismund of
Hungary, his brother. Duke John of Gorlitz, and
Margrave Procop of Moravia, who was already at
war with his elder brother Jost, were the only
members of the House of Luxemburg that remained
faithful to Wenceslas. Sigismund played a double
part. He visited his brother at Prague, formed a
canonized the wrong one under the name of St. John Nepomucen,
in 1727. See the documents fully set forth in my " Life, Legend,
and Canonization of St. John Nepomucen." 1873. Palacky wrote
me on March 12th, 1872: "In my judgment, Saint John Nepo
mucen belongs solely to legend, in no wise to Bohemian history."

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 27
fraternal alliance with him, and declared him his
heir presumptive in Hungary, while at the same
time he came to an understanding with the mal
content lords as to the means to be employed for
the overthrow of the obnoxious camarilla. As
Wenceslas was on his way from his favourite castle
of Zebrak to Prague, Margrave Jost and the barons
with Henry of Eosenberg at their head, came to
him at one of his country houses on the road, laid
their grievances before him, and finally arrested
and conveyed him first to Beraun and then to the
Hradschin at Prague. They then endeavoured to
constitute Margrave Jost " starosta," or dictator
of the realm, leaving Wenceslas nothing but the
empty title of king.
Their sentiments were not, however, shared by
the people at large ; the citizens of Prague declared
in favour of the king, the lords who had remained
faithful rose also in his behalf, and Duke John of
Gorlitz soon found himself at the head of a large
army before the gates of the Old Town of Prague,
which were opened to him. The malcontent barons
thought their prisoner no longer secure in the
Hradschin, and carried him off first to Pribenitz,
then to Krumau, a strong town in the south of
Bohemia belonging to the lords of Eosenberg, and
finally, with great secrecy, to the castle of Wild-
berg. But the devastations committed on the lands
of the principal lords of the league by John of Gor
litz and his army, at length compelled them to give
way, and Wenceslas was, on August 1st, 1394,

28 JOHN HUS.

delivered up to his brother under promise of a
complete amnesty and redress of grievances.
These events had a very evil effect upon the
temper and character of the king, who became
gloomy and vacillating, though no less obstinate
and passionate than before, and a tendency to
drink began to develope itself in him. He again
assembled his favourites around him, and the
league of malcontent nobles began again to raise
its head. Duke John undertook the thankless task
of mediator, but was unable to satisfy his brother,
who harshly and ungraciously deprived him of his
high position in the country, and issued decrees
forbidding any further obedience to be yielded to
his orders. The duke quitted Prague, and on
March 1st, 1396, died suddenly at the Abbey of
Neuzelle. Sigismund of Hungary had hitherto kept him
self in the background, but now came forward as
mediator, taking, however, practically the part of
the league against his brother, and assigning
him a privy council, but one member of which
was a faithful adherent of his own, all the rest
being nobles of the league. Wenceslas suddenly
arrested Margrave Jost, and several of the lead
ing members of the league, at Karistein, on
May 31st, 1396, but, ere long, again released
them. This caused a great increase of embitter-
ment in the feelings of the nobles towards the king,
and the most libellous writings were composed and
circulated against him. War appeared ready to

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 29
break out afresh, but the storm fell instead upon
the heads of the king's favourites. On June 11th
a meeting of the council was summoned at Karl-
stein, under the pretext of important intelligence
from Germany ; four of the favourites were called
out by some of the lords into a smaller room hard
by the council chamber, and were there attacked
and murdered.
The king was in a country house near Beraun
at the time, and the murderers rode to him im
mediately, and, on bended knee, informed him of
the treasonable intentions of his favourites, assur
ing him that they had committed the deed out
of pure love and loyalty towards himself. And
Wenceslas was actually weak enough to grant them
a public pardon for their conduct, Margrave Jost
being, however, banished from Prague and Bohemia,
as being, in all probability, the real instigator of
the catastrophe.
Possibly Wenceslas may have felt that he had
no alternative but to make concessions to the
league, as he could not but be aware of the in
trigues that were being actively carried on against
him in Germany and Italy. He determined to
make a visit of some duration to Germany, and
appointed Margrave Procop his lord-lieutenant
in Bohemia. The " land-peace," which he had
patched up at Eger in 1389, had long been at an
end ; his attempts to prolong it had been fruitless ;
and his nomination of King Sigismund on March
13th, 1396, as his vicar in the empire, had been

30 JOHN HUS.

a nullity, as the victorious Sultan Bajazet had
made matters assume far too threatening an ap
pearance for Sigismund to attend to aught but
the pressing necessities of Hungary. In Germany
there was no supreme executive, the laws were
powerless, and an anarchy was rampant, which
must have been distressing even to those who
were profiting by it. Loud were the complaints
on all sides raised against Wenceslas's negligence ;
yet no one was willing to give him the slightest
assistance in the efforts which he did make for the
restoration of order, while every readiness was
shown to increase his difficulties and frustrate his
best intentioned measures.
We now come to one of those disgraceful trans
actions, by which the papacy endeavoured, as it
were, to bring itself into contempt and disrepute.
The Chapter of Maintz had regularly elected, and
Wenceslas had confirmed, a new archbishop after
the death of Archbishop Conrad in 1396. But
Count John of Nassau, a disappointed candidate,
managed, in spite of Wenceslas's protestations, to
induce the needy Pope Boniface by a heavy bribe to
impose him upon the diocese by virtue of a special
"provision" of the apostolic see. His chief sup
porter was Buprecht, the elector palatine, who had
long formed designs upon the imperial crown, and
had obtained from Count John a formal promise in
writing to assist him in every way, whatever might
be the position of dignity to which he should
aspire.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 31
Wenceslas also, on May 11th, 1395, granted the
title of duke to John Galeazzo dei Visconti, the
able ruler of Milan, whereby he secured for himself
a faithful and powerful adherent, but made a
deadly enemy in the wealthy and powerful republic
of Florence. The Florentines soon entered into
relations with the discontented princes of the em
pire, and the elevation of the Visconti family
became afterwards the most serious charge brought
against Wenceslas by the electors, this important
act having been performed entirely without their
knowledge. Wenceslas, however, succeeded in
assembling a general diet at Frankfort-on-the-
Main, and in obtaining a "land-peace" in Ger
many for the space of ten years, which was
accordingly proclaimed on January 6th, 1398.
But on March 3rd, the elector palatine, and the
Archbishops of Maintz and Trier, had the audacity
to shorten its duration to five years on their own
authority. Charles VI. of France now appears on the scene,
as one endeavouring to put an end to the prolonged
scandal of the great schism in the Church. France
and Spain alone had devoted themselves to the
pope at Avignon, all the rest of Christendom ad
hering to the pope at Bome. Clement VII. had
died in 1394, and Peter of Luna, Benedict XIIL,
an Arragonese, had been elected by the cardinals
at Avignon, contrary to the wishes of Charles.
Charles, therefore, at the instance of the University
of Paris, put forward proposals, in which he was

32 JOHN HUS.

supported by the kings of England, Castille, and
Navarre, that both popes should resign simultane
ously, that the two colleges of cardinals should
be fused into one, and that a new pope, who
should command universal obedience, should be
elected by the united college. The action of the
University of Prague induced Wenceslas reluc
tantly to give up his allegiance to the ungrateful
Boniface, and assent to this project, which was
opposed by those who might have been expected
to co-operate with it to the utmost, the count
palatine and the Archbishops of Maintz and
Trier. Wenceslas now determined to visit France, and
was met on March 23rd, 1398, by King Charles
and the princes of his family, before the gates of
Eheims, and welcomed as a relative with the
highest honours, the greatest care being, however,
taken to exclude all idea of homage and all recogni
tion of any imperial power over France. Wenceslas
appeared to little advantage before the dainty
manners and politeness of the French court, and
his coarseness and the over-indulgence of his
appetite caused many an anecdote to be whispered
about at Eheims. Nay, as early as March 25th,
when he was engaged to dine with Charles, the
Dukes of Berri and Bourbon went to his lodging
to accompany him to the palace, but retm-ned in
shame and perplexity, having found him already
sunk in the deep sleep of gluttony and intoxication.
No very definite engagements were entered into

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 33
during the visit to France, and Wenceslas returned
again to Germany, and thence to Bohemia.
He then, however, appeared to take greater in
terest in the plan suggested for the removal of the
great ecclesiastical scandal, and it was finally
agreed that the Kings of Hungary and of Poland,
with divers other princes, should meet him at
Breslau, at Christmas, 1398, to consider the re
storation of the unity of the Church. But when
the time approached, Wenceslas was attacked by
so serious an illness, that all thoughts of the con
gress were of necessity abandoned, and ere his
recovery events occurred which put an end for the
time to all negotiations on the subject.
Early in 1399 the nobles of the league began
to move again, and a civil war broke out in Bo
hemia, to which neither King Sigismund nor the
Elector Palatine, Euprecht, appear to have been
strangers. Very little is known respecting the
details of the struggle, but on June 15th, an armis
tice was concluded till January 6th, 1400, during
which interval all matters in dispute were to be
settled by eight elected umpires. However, the
land did not so easily regain the blessings of peace,
although the ill-will of the malcontents appears to
have been directed, not so much against Wenceslas
himself, as against Margrave Procop, whom he
had made his viceroy in Bohemia during his ab
sence in Germany, and also during his late severe
illness. Margrave Jost and others visited Sigis
mund at Buda, accusing Procop of being the
D

34 JOHN HUS.

" origin and fomenter of all the discord in the
land of Bohemia ; " and on January 18th, Sigis
mund appeared in armed alliance with the league
at Iglau, in Moravia.
These disturbances in Bohemia offered just the
opportunity that the Bhenish electors desired.
They won over Eudolf, the Elector of Saxony, and
took every means to strengthen their party by new
alliances, while Wenceslas was vacillating with
regard to both imperial and domestic troubles,
and only half-heartedly defending his hitherto
faithful cousin, Procop. In hopes of drawing, at
any rate, some of the Bavarian princes to Prague,
Wenceslas caused his Queen Sophia to be crowned
with the usual pomp and ceremony in the cathedral,
on March 15th, 1400. But no brother, no cousin,
or other relative of the queen appeared at the
coronation, which was only attended by princes
of the House of Luxemburg and the great nobles of
Bohemia, whose hostility even prevented the pre
sence of Margrave Procop. In vain did Sigismund
and Jost counsel Wenceslas to enter Germany at
the head of an army ; for with their usual selfish
ness they reopened the war against Procop at home,
and thus deprived their brother of the power of
availing himself of the military resources of his
realm. Energy on the part of Wenceslas and union in
the House of Luxemburg might even now have
brought the designs of the electors to nought,
their basis being nothing but selfishness and views

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 35
of personal aggrandizement. All agreeing in the
wish to depose Wenceslas, they were equally at
variance as to the choice of a successor. Nay,
to such a pitch of discord did they come, that the
Elector of Saxony was suddenly assailed by the
forces of the Archiepiscopal Elector of Maintz,
defeated, and taken prisoner. Duke Frederic of
Brunswick, the favoured candidate and son-in-law
of the defeated prince, lost his life in the conflict.
And now Pope Boniface IX. began to play a
double part, intriguing with the malcontent electors
and the princes of their party, while assuring Wen
ceslas by letter that " there was one thing which
he desired him to take for fixed and settled, and
that was, that in all matters concerning the position
and honour of his highness, he (Boniface) would be
watchful and attentive with the unwearied zeal of
paternal tenderness, even unto the effusion of his
own blood." The malcontent electors cited Wen
ceslas to appear on August 10th, at Lahnstein, to
clear himself from the accusations brought against
him — a thing which, in the midst of a civil war at
home, it was impossible for him to do, even if he
had been willing to submit to so unprecedented
an humiliation. On his non-appearance at the
appointed time, they proceeded formally to depose
him, in a large and splendid assembly at Oberlahn-
stein, on August 20th. The Archbishop of Maintz
read aloud the articles of accusation, the principal
of which were — (1) That he had not done his duty
as protector of the Church by restoring its peace ;

36 JOHN HUS.

(2) That' he had diminished the empire, in par
ticular by creating Visconti Duke of Milan; (3)
That he had given away many fiefs that had es
cheated to the empire in Germany and Italy ; (4)
That he had issued documents in blank, which
were liable to misuse ; (5) That he had not put
a stop to the disturbances and feuds of the empire ;
(6) That he had been guilty of many personal
cruelties, especially towards the clergy ; (7) That
in spite of admonitions he had not troubled him
self about either the Church or the empire. " For
these reasons," he continued, " the electors had
agreed to depose him as an useless, dilatory,
negligent dismemberer, and an unworthy admini
strator, of the holy empire." The next day the
three archicpiscopal electors (Maintz, Trier, and
Cologne), paying no regard to the three electoral
votes of Bohemia, Saxony, and Brandenburg, pro
ceeded to elect the Elector Palatine, Euprecht,
King of the Eomans. So little foundation was
there for most of the charges brought against
Wenceslas, that the German historian, Aschbach,
says : " One cannot help marvelling how it came to
pass that the Elector of Maintz — the only one who
attached his seal to the instrument of deposition,
although he professed to be acting in the name of
all the electors — had the audacity to lay such
charges before the diet."
Wenceslas received intelligence of his deposition
on August 80th. He swore by St. Wenceslas to
avenge the insult; "either ho, or Euprecht," he

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 37
said, " must perish." Margrave Jost, who hap
pened to be just then at Prague, also threatened
vengeance, "or he wouldn't keep a single hair in
his beard." And for a brief space the four sur
viving members of the House of Luxemburg
appeared to be united, soon — too soon — to be dis
severed by selfishness and greed. Margrave Jost
met the lords of the league in consultation as to
the measures to be taken ; Sigismund came from
Hungary to the neighbourhood of Kuttenberg ; and
it Beemed as if the insulted king was about to be
assisted and avenged by the whole might of his
realm and family. But now came the question
of the price to be paid for such assistance. Not
only was Wenceslas to bear the entire expenses
of the war, which, to his credit, he was willing
enough to do; but he was to redress all the old
grievances of the lords, as a preliminary to any
movement on their part in his favour, and was
at once to give up Silesia and Lusatia to Sigis
mund, and place in his hands the whole govern
ment of Bohemia ! No wonder that demands so
outrageous excited Wenceslas to anger, and that
he ordered his horse and rode away without any
leavetaking. It was unfortunate that Wenceslas, in his em-
bitterment, now allowed himself to commit acts of
arbitrariness and wilfulness, which in the long run
injured himself more than they annoyed his adver
saries. Neither did the anti-King of the Eomans,
Euprecht, spare any pains to turn the troubles of

38 JOHN HUS.

his opponent to his own advantage. The lords of
the league and Margrave Jost united with him,
and even Procop, with his forty castles, was found
making terms with the enemy. Euprecht took
several castles and towns belonging to the Bohe
mian crown outside the frontiers of Bohemia, but
when his son Louis attempted an invasion, the
people soon showed that they were not of the same
mind as the nobles ; the old defensive arrangements
of Bohemia were equal to the occasion, and Louis
was compelled to enter into an armistice on June
20th, 1401. Violence having thus failed, Euprecht
tried the path of negotiation, which, however, led to
nothing, owing to the extravagance of his demands.
The Margraves of Meissen now united then-
forces with those of the league, and appeared in
June before the walls of Prague, where they lay
inactive for six weeks, while then- appearance
where no foreign troops had appeared for centuries,
and the misconduct of their soldiers, excited a
reaction on behalf of the betrayed and hard pressed
king. On August 12th, a treaty was signed, in
consequence of which the league reconciled itself
with its king, and the Margraves retired to then-
own land. The king was henceforth to be guided
by the advice of a kind of regency of four persons,
who were to have a veto in various important
matters. Jost was conciliated by the grant of
Lusatia for life. It may seem strange that King
Sigismund is not found taking part in any of these
important matters. But he had himself been

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 39
arrested and imprisoned by his own rebellious sub
jects on April 28th, 1401 ; nor was he liberated
until the September of the same year, after which
he reconciled himself with the malcontents, and
regained authority by prudent concessions.
King Euprecht now began to busy himself with
the affairs of Italy, intending to receive the imperial
crown after fulfilling to the Florentines his promise
of wresting the Duchy of Milan from the Visconti.
But on his way from Trent to Brescia, the gates of
which he expected to be opened to him, he was
attacked by the Milanese army, which was better
disciplined and commanded, if not more numerous,
than his own, completely defeated, and compelled
to retire with a very small force to Padua. The
victorious duke immediately sent an embassy to
Wenceslas, urging him to undertake the long pro
jected journey to Bome at once, and telling him
that he need bring no army with him ; nowhere
would he find braver or more devoted troops than
those of Lombardy.
And indeed Wenceslas began to think seriously
again of the Bomeward pilgrimage. But so dis
trustful of himself and of almost the whole world
had he become, and so convinced of his brother
Sigismund's intellectual superiority and honesty of
purpose, that he placed himself entirely in Sigis
mund's hands. On February 4th, 1402, he actually
resigned to him the entire government of Bohemia,
upon condition of being escorted and accompanied
by him to Bome to be crowned as emperor. Yet

40 JOHN HUS.

by March 6th a quarrel had broken out between
the brothers, the causes of which are unknown,
and Wenceslas was seized by Sigismund in his own
palace in the Old Town of Prague, conveyed to the
Hradschin, and there detained in strict imprison
ment, although all public documents were still
made to run in his name.
Sigismund made use of his power to impose
grinding taxes in Bohemia for his own purposes,
and at the same time allowed himself to commit
many arbitrary and cruel acts. This gave Mar
grave Procop an opportunity to place himself at the
head of those barons and royal towns which still
remained faithful to the king. A civil war ap
peared inevitable ; negotiations commenced between
Procop and Euprecht, who had seized the oppor
tunity to return with as little loss of honour as
possible to Germany ; and there was every prospect
of combined operations being undertaken against
Sigismund. But Sigismund's energy and faithless
ness were equal to the occasion. He encamped
with his army under the lofty castle of Besig, the
Margrave's principal stronghold, and invited him
to a conference under the protection of a safe-
conduct. Procop came and was immediately
arrested ; and now that his opponents were with
out a head, Sigismund easily overbore all opposi
tion, and in June, 1402, conveyed his illustrious
prisoners away. He gave out indeed that he was
escorting his brother Wenceslas to Bome, to re
ceive the imperial crown from the hands of the

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 41
pope, but in reality placed him in the custody
of the Dukes of Austria, at Vienna, while he
himself kept Procop in strict imprisonment at
Presburg. An insurrection now arose in Hungary in favour
of Ladislaw, King of Naples, who landed in August,
1402, in Dalmatia, with an army, and was ere long
supported by a legate from Pope Boniface. But
Sigismund, justly considering Bohemia for the
moment to be more important than Hungary,
marched into Bohemia, and compelled the town of
Kuttenberg, the most resolute and faithful ad
herent of the captive king, to capitulate on very
unfavourable terms, and to surrender the treasures
of Wenceslas there deposited, amounting in value
to about £340,000. In the summer he returned to
Hungary, more than half of which had acknow
ledged Ladislaw, who was actually crowned king
on August 5th, 1403, by the Archbishop of Gran at
Zara. But success everywhere attended Sigis
mund and his faithful general, Count Stibor, and in
October, 1403, after a succession of reverses, Ladis
law was compelled to quit Hungary for ever.
The apparition of Boniface IX., whom Sigismund
had always befriended, at the head of his enemies,
irritated him greatly, and he proceeded to proclaim
disobedience towards the pope with the selfsame
energy which he had lately displayed in all his
measures. In Bohemia this seed found soil ready
prepared for it ; in Hungary the consequences were
comparatively unimportant. Sigismund also ad-

42 joiin hus.

dressed a letter to tho College of Cardinals, con
taining tho most grievous accusations against
Boniface. All this time Wenceslas was at Vienna, where
the Dukes of Austria allowed him to hold a court
and to ride out daily in the town and in its en
virons. The more contented ho appeared with his
condition, the less care was taken in guarding him.
Thus, with the help of a Maltese knight, named
Bohus, and other faithful friends, he escaped in
disguise on November 11th, L103, to the bank of tho
Danube, where a fishing boat awaited him, which
conveyed him to Hladlau. There he was met by
John of Lichtcnstcin with fifty armed men, who
escorted him first to Nicholsburg in Moravia, and
then to his faithful Kuttenberg in Bohemia.
The first care of Wenceslas, upon whom his late
troubles had produced a salutary impression, was
to destroy all traces of his brother's rrfnne in
Bohemia, and to strengthen himself by alliances
for the projected war with Hungary and Austria.
Nor was ho less energetic in restoring peace and
order at homo. lie sent tho Archbishop of Prague
with an army against the most dangerous of tho
robber-knights that infested the country. Not one
of the brigand's castles escaped capture, and finally
the knight himself was taken with fifty of his men,
tried, and hanged tit Prague, his only indulgence
being that the gallows on which ho was suspended
was loftier than thoso of tho rest. A great impres
sion was made by this righteous severity; nor were

HISTORICAL introduction. 43
the hearts of people less touched by the fact that
Magister John Hus, the favourite preacher of the
day, gave his spiritual assistance to the criminal,
accompanied him to the gallows, and brought the
wild and ferocious robber into such a penitential
frame of mind, that he humbly and earnestly en
treated the prayers of the spectators on his behalf.
Other vigorous measures were taken ; a lord-
lieutenant was placed with increased powers at the
head of each of the twelve circles, into which
Bohemia was divided, and in 1405, internal peace
and order were completely restored.
Boniface IX. died on October 1st, 1404, and the
excellent Innocent VII. was elected in his stead.
He, however, was unfortunately called away on
November 6th, 1406, and was succeeded by Gregory
XII. War had been carried on with more or less
vigour on the Bohemian and Bavarian frontiers
with the adherents of the anti-King Euprecht, and
Wenceslas now applied to the new pope for recog
nition and assistance. To his great annoyance
Gregory unexpectedly refused to listen to him and
took energetically the side of Euprecht. Hence
forth Wenceslas was Gregory's foe.
After Wenceslas's deposition and imprisonment
the French court had given up all idea of the com
promise it had proposed, and had returned in 1403
to the obedience of Benedict XIII., making, how
ever, the stipulation that Benedict must promise to
resign his dignity as soon as the throne at Bome
was vacant. One of the two rival kings of the

44 JOHN HUS.

Eomans, Euprecht, being devoted to the Eoman
pope, and the other, the illegally deposed Wen
ceslas, being without influence and authority,
France again took up the project of bringing to
pass the desired vacancy at Eome. The elections
of Innocent and Gregory had been declared merely
provisional, and the latter had actually promised
to resign his dignity, as soon as his rival at
Avignon should consent to do the same. France
even threatened to cease to recognize either pope,
unless the desired unity of the Church were
attained within a given time by the resignation of
both, and proved her sincerity by making the con
cession, that the future pope should engage to
reside at Bome and not at Avignon. A meeting of
the two popes at Marseilles was arranged, which
was duly attended by Benedict, while Gregory
made use of every pretext to avoid performing his
promise, and refused to go further on the way than
Lucca. The cardinals, however, on both sides nego
tiated together in spite of Gregory, and on May
11th, 1408, Gregory's cardinals forsook him, met on
May 14th at Pisa, under the protection of the Flo
rentines, and issued a manifesto to all Christian
princes justifying their conduct. Benedict was
also forsaken by his cardinals, and both colleges,
supported by France, united at Leghorn and con
voked a general council of the whole of Christen
dom at Pisa.
Wenceslas took up the project of the French
court — I do not say of the French king, whose

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 45
mental aberration caused the affairs of France to
be principally conducted by the Duke of Burgundy
— with zeal and energy, confidently hoping to be
eventually acknowledged as the true and only King
of the Eomans, and thus to obtain the imperial
dignity. He found, however, unexpected resistance
at home, both in the Church and in the university,
which led to the adoption of measures, the subse
quent effect of which is incalculable, but which will
be more properly narrated in immediate connection
with John Hus. After much delay and many sub
terfuges, the cardinals found themselves compelled
by Buprecht's obstinate adherence to Gregory XII.
to acknowledge Wenceslas, who sent his ambassa
dors to the council at Pisa, which opened on March
25th, 1409. On June 5th, the council formally de
posed both popes and declared them schismatics,
and on June 10th, the cardinals bound themselves
by oath not to allow the council to separate till the
long wished-for reform of the Church " in head
and members " should have been carried through.
On June 20th the cardinals met in conclave, and
after eleven days of deliberation unanimously elected
the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Peter Filargo of
Candia, who took the name of Alexander V. The
new pope, disregarding his oath and the oaths of
his brother cardinals, immediately proceeded to
disappoint the hopes of Christendom by exhibiting
the greatest lukewarmness in the cause of reform,
by convoking a new council, which was not to meet
till April 12th, 1412, and finally by dissolving the

46 JOHN HUS.

council of Pisa on August 7th, 1409. There were
now therefore three popes, each of whom had his
adherents — Benedict XIII. being acknowledged in
Spain and Scotland ; Gregory XII. in Naples and
some of the smaller states of Italy, as well as in
three German dioceses ; and Alexander V. by the rest
of Western Christendom, with occasional sporadic
exceptions. It was Wenceslas's duty, as now the
more generally acknowledged King of the Eomans,
to enforce and secure the unity of the Church; but
so far was he from being able to effect this desirable
object abroad, that he could not even bring it to pass
in his own dominions ; nor was it till September
2nd, 1409, that Archbishop Zbynek of Prague and
his suffragan, the Bishop of Olmiitz, withdrew then-
obedience from Gregory XII. and transferred it to
Alexander V. On May 30th, 1410, Alexander V.
died, and the wicked Balthasar Cossa became pope
in his stead, under the name of John XXIII.
Matters now became further complicated instead
of simplified by the death of the anti-King Euprecht
on May 18th, 1410. Bohemia, Brandenburg, and
Saxony had never acknowledged Euprecht, so that
they did not even entertain the question of a vacancy
and new election, while the other four electors, who
formed the majority of the college, were equally
divided, though all agreed that their choice must
necessarily fall upon a prince of the House of Lux
emburg. The elector palatine and the Archbishop
of Trier still adhered to Gregory XII. and favoured
Sigismund, whose personal inclinations Avere in the

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 47

same direction, while the Archbishops of Maintz
and Cologne had- acknowledged the council of Pisa,
and had thus before them only the alternatives of
feturning to Wenceslas or supporting Jost, the
Margrave of Brandenburg. Finding that a new
election was inevitable, Wenceslas came to an
understanding with Jost, and promised him his own
vote on condition that Jost engaged to acknowledge
him as the elder King of the Eomans and future
emperor. After long intrigues Sigismund's party
took the initiative by electing him at Frankfort on
September 30th, 1410, with only three votes, those
of the Palatinate, Trier and Brandenburg, which
latter was claimed by Sigismund as well as Jost.
On October 1st, Jost was elected by the remainder
of the votes, including his own, as actual possessor
of Brandenburg, so that the world had then the
edifying spectacle, not only of three rival popes,
reciprocally anathematizing each other, but also of
three rival brothers, Kings of the Eomans, and
claimants of the imperial dignity. It is true, that
the latter spectacle did not continue long, as Jost
died suddenly four months after his election, not
without grave suspicions of poison. Ere long too,
towards the end of June, 1411, a complete reconcilia
tion was brought about between Wenceslas and
Sigismund, Wenceslas promising his vote to Sigis
mund, while Sigismund promised Wenceslas his
assistance towards obtaining the imperial crown.
So that when these arrangements were carried out
—as carried out they were by the unanimous

48 JOHN HUS.

election of Sigismund, at Frankfort-on-the-Main,
on July 21st, 1411 — Sigismund, the junior King
of the Eomans, stood in nearly the same rela
tion to Wenceslas, as Wenceslas had previously
stood in to his father, the Emperor Charles IV.
Sigismund, moreover, forsook the obedience of
Gregory XII., and acknowledged John XXIII. as
the true and only pope, so that both Kings of the
Eomans were now agreed in their policy.
Thus far it has been necessary to proceed with a
sketch of contemporary history to enable the reader
to understand the state of matters in Europe and
Bohemia, when Hus began to come prominently
forward. I have narrated the earlier part of the
history at greater length and with greater particu
larity, passing with more rapid outline over those
later portions, which will be filled up in the life of
Hus. Never was a period in which, in both Church
and state, iniquity, faithlessness, and wickedness
were more rampant, or in which the destinies of
mankind were entrusted to more incompetent and
unworthy hands. No one rises above the dull
level of selfishness and mediocrity, and the history
of the period is a tedious record of knavery and
counter-knavery, of faithlessness and incapacity,
in which we look in vain for a gleam of patriotism
or devotedness. The prize of superior wickedness
remained long in dispute, until it was carried off
triumphantly by the vicar of Christ himself, Pope
John XXIII.
I have made many remarks upon the low condi-

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 49
tion and depravity of the clergy at this miserable
epoch, and I cannot do better than conclude this
introductory chapter with the remarkable admis
sions made by one of Hus's most bitter and ener
getic opponents, Magister Andrew of Brod, who
concludes his " Tractatus de Origine Haeresis Hussi-
tarum," which he wrote in exile at Leipsic in 1426,
with the following words :—
" In the clergy there was no discipline whatever ; in the courts
of the pontiffs there was public simony ; in the monastic state,
if I may use the term, there was unbounded covetousness.
And, to make an end, there was no vice among the lay people,
which the clergy had not practised first and most notoriously.
There is nothing therefore for us to say but this, which the
Holy Church reads and chants : All that Thou hast done unto
us, Lord, Thou hast done in righteous judgment, because we
have sinned against Thee, and have not obeyed Thy command
ments."

50 JOHN HUS.

CHAPTEE II.
THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA.
It is a singular cir-eumstance that the first person
who must be looked upon as one of the forerunners
of John Hus was not a Bohemian at all, but an
Austrian naturalized in Bohemia. Conrad of
Waldhausen, an Augustinian monk, was ordained
priest in the year 1349, and spent some part of
the following year at Eome. He then employed
himself in his native country, especially at Vienna,
in teaching and in preaching to the populace.
Having distinguished himself by his learning and
eloquence, he was invited into Bohemia by the
Emperor Charles IV., through the mediation of
the lords of Eosenberg, and presented with the
rectory of Leitmeritz on the Elbe. This was,
apparently, in 1359. He resided, however, quite
as much at Prague as at Leitmeritz, and used to
preach in the open space in front of the church of
St. Gallus, there not being room enough for his
audience inside the church. In 1364 he was made

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 51
rector of the "Teyn" church in the Old Town
of Prague, and died at his rectory in 1369, on
December 8.
As soon as he commenced preaching at Prague,
the churches of the begging friars began to lose
their audiences, and in a short time were entirely
emptied. Conrad spared neither the luxury of the
laity nor the vices of the clergy, and inveighed
with special vehemence against the degeneracy of
the begging friars, thereby incurring their deadly
enmity. He wrote and preached in Latin and
German, and the moral reformation which he
brought about among the German population at
Prague (where the Old Town was mostly German
and the New Town Bohemian) caused a still greater
preacher, Milicz of Kreiisier, to arise among the
Slavonians, who was harder pressed by calumny
and misrepresentation than Conrad had been.
Yet Conrad was compelled both to stand a trial
before the pope's legate, and to write an
"apology" in defence of his teaching and
preaching. A contemporary writer, Benesz Krabice of
Veitmil, speaks of his death in the following
terms : —
" In the year 1369, on the Feast of the Conception of the
Virgin Mary, died the distinguished preacher, Brother Conrad,
canonicus regular is, rector of St. Mary ante Lastam Curiam, in
the city of Prague, and was buried in the cemetery there. An
Austrian by birth, a man of great learning and greater eloquence,
he saw, when he came to Bohemia, all men given up to excessive
luxury, and exceeding all limits in many respects; and through

52 JOHN HUS.

his preaching, so reformed the morals of people in our couutry,
that many put aside tho vanities of this world and served God
with zeal. Among the many good things that this man did,
was one especially great and memorable. The ladies of Prague,
who had hitherto worn large and very magnificent mantles, as
well as other clothes ornamented in the most magnificent
manner, put aside all these things, and went daily in very
humble clothing to hear the instructions of this distinguished
teacher and preacher. He preached also dauntlessly against
usurers and other unjust possessors of property, and especially
against religious persons of both sexes (i.e. monks and nuns),
who had been received into their Orders through simoniacal
practices. As, in consequence thereof, many persons, conscience-
stricken by his pious sermons, obtained dispensations from the
Holy Apostolic Curia, and others refused to give up their children
to the Orders with the stipulated sums of money, all the brethren
of the begging Orders rose up against him and loaded him with
manifold abuse. But he, a man of perfect love.'endured it all
with equanimity for God's sake. Iteauiescat in pace. Amen."
I come now to Milicz of Kremsier, about whose
parentage all that is known is, that he was the
son of plebeian parents in humble circumstances.
It is not known for certain where he was educated,
but he must have been so either in Italy, or, more
probably, in his native country. It could not have
been in Germany, or he would not have been
obliged to learn German when grown up, in order
to preach, as Conrad of Waldhausen had done, to
the German part of the population of Prague.
Nothing is known of his early life before 1350, and,
though he is known to have then held some office
or other, no further particulars are recorded.
According to the custom of the times, he, in all
probability as a clergyman, held the post of

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 53

secretary, first at the court of Margrave John of
Moravia, and then at that of the Emperor Charles
IV. Between 1360 and 1362 he was considered
one of the chief officials in the Imperial Chancery.
He was also a canon of the church of St. Vitus
in the royal castle at Prague — the present cathedral
— and an archdeacon, but it cannot be ascertained
when he obtained these dignities. Suddenly, in
the autumn of 1363, he resigned all valuable pre
ferments, in order to follow the Lord Christ in
poverty and humility.
Archbishop Arnost strove in vain to detain him.
"What better thing can you do," he said, "than
help a poor archbishop to feed the flock entrusted to
him ? " But Milicz thought otherwise, and replied
that, as he did not wish to sit in the chief seats,
his intention was to try whether he could not be
useful to the people by preaching the Word of God.
The first place to which he betook himself was
Bischcf-Teinitz, a small town in the circle of
Klattau, where he exercised himself diligently in
preaching to the people. But as soon as this mode
of life began to be acceptable to him, and he found
himself taking, as he thought, inordinate pleasure
in the rector's beautiful garden, he saw in this
simple enjoyment a temptation of the evil one,
and returned within about a year to Prague, where
he preached, first at St. Nicholas's on the Klein-
scite, and afterwards at St. Giles's in the Old
Town. At first he had but few hearers, and even some

54 JOHN HUS.

of these mocked him propter incongruentiam
sermonis — that is, in all probability, on account
of his Moravian pronunciation of the Bohemian
language. Gradually, however, his audience in
creased in numbers, and his severe and cutting
words against pride and avarice, as the root of all
evil, were soon known throughout the whole of
Prague. At length the desire of hearing him
became so general, that he was obliged to preach
three and even five times a day in different places.
He was not only admired by the common people,
but the educated classes also were carried away
by his eloquence ; and the most learned Bohe
mian of the day, Magister Adalbert Eankonis de
Ericino, acknowledged that MiUcz had brought
together in a single hour more than he could have
collected in a month from the most learned authors
for the composition of a sermon. "And so con
cerned was he," says one of his biographers, "for
the salvation of the people, that though he had
never made any progress in German in his youth,
yet now in his age he began with great zeal to
learn the German idiom from his pupil and others,
and frequently wrote down in German the whole
of the sermon that he was about to deliver, and
thus at length he began to preach in German."
Through his zeal against the moral corruption
of the times, and his unceasing study of the Holy
Scriptures, especially of the Apocalypse and the
old prophets, the mind of Milicz became filled
with extraordinary ideas respecting the latter days,

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 55
the coming of Antichrist, and the destruction and
end of the world. He placed the coming of Anti
christ between the years 1365 and 1367 ; and this
notion took such firm possession of his mind, that
in his oratory he spared neither the spiritual nor
temporal heads of Christendom, and in 1366 told
the Emperor Charles IV. publicly to his face that
he was himself the very Antichrist. The clamour
of Milicz's enemies caused the Archbishop of
Prague, John Oczko of Wlaszim, to have him
arrested; but he was soon liberated again, and
neither the archbishop nor the emperor appear to
have been seriously angry with him. Becoming,
however, doubtful as to the correctness of the
results at which, by his studies and calculations,
he had arrived, he determined to visit Eome, and
obtain the counsel and instruction of the pope,
Urban V.
After the papal court had been sixty years at
AvignoD, Pope Urban V., at the earnest entreaty
of the Emperor Charles IV., determined to return
to Italy and Eome. Milicz was there before him, .
and when the pope delayed his coming longer than
was expected, the spirit would not suffer him to
rest in idleness.
"As I began," says he in his "Libellus de Antichristo," "to
despair of the arrival of our lord the pope, I made preparations
for undertaking a journey to Avignon. Meanwhile the spirit
moved in me, so that I could not refrain myself, and said in my
heart : ' Go, publish openly by a placard on the door of St
Peter's church, as thou wast wont to do at Prague, when thou

56 JOHN HUS.

wouldst preach on any subject, that thou wilt preach that
Antichrist is comb ; and warn the clergy and people to pray
for our lord the pope and our lord the emperor, that they may
so order the Church in things spiritual and temporal, that true
believers may be able to serve their Creator in safety. And
publish the discourse immediately in writing, that thy words
may not be perverted or altered, that the subject may he made
generally known, that the wicked may be put in fear, and that
the good may become more zealous servants of God. But
reserve the secret portions of the matter for thy lord the pope."'
As soon as the placard appeared on the doors
of St. Peter's, the Judex Hwreticorum at Eome, a
Dominican, caused Milicz to be arrested in the
church itself, and kept him in strict imprisonment in
the convent of the Minorites. He was then allowed
to preach before an assembly of clergy and other
learned men at St. Peter's, by whom his discourse
was received with great approbation. Nevertheless,
at its conclusion he was taken back to his prison,
where, however, he received less rigorous treat
ment. But when Pope Urban came to Eome in October,
1368, not only was Milicz liberated at once, but
Cardinal di Albano received him into his own house,
and distinguished him by tokens of honour and
friendship. Nay, his enemies, who had caused him
so much discomfort, and who were deprived of their
offices under the new state of things, came to him
themselves and begged for his intercession in their
favour. However, the idea of the appearance of
Antichrist seems to have lost its hold upon him
in consequence of his conferences with the chief

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 57
dignitaries of the church : at any rate, after his
return to Prague, it ceased to be a prominent sub
ject of his discourses.
In other respects he preached with still greater
zeal in the churches at Prague, at the same time
practising a still more ascetic mode of life, and
renouncing everything in the shape of pleasure
and enjoyment. After the death of Conrad of Wald-
hausen, in 1369, he took his post in the " Teyn "
church, and preached there daily in German, while
another clergyman delivered discourses composed
by Milicz, in Bohemian, at St. Giles's. A visible
proof of the effect of his preaching was the destruc
tion of the notorious "Venice" {Bendiky) in the
present " Convikt-Gasse " at Prague, the females
living in which, to the number of one hundred, did
public penance, and quitted for ever that stronghold
of licentiousness. Milicz was not slow to see that
it was his duty to care for the future maintenance
and welfare of his penitents, and devoted himself
to the task with all the fiery energy of his tempera
ment. At the command of the Emperor Charles IV.,
this ancient domicile of sin was demolished, and a
chapel erected on its site in honour of St. Mary
Magdalene. Several neighbouring houses were
purchased, and an ample site procured for a house
for the penitents, and also for a residence for the
young clergy, who became Milicz's pupils and
assisted him in the work. This house, which was
thenceforth called " Jerusalem," became ere long
a refuge for other fallen persons, so that this excel-

58 JOHN HUS.

lent man had not unfrequently from two hundred
to three hundred persons to maintain. Although
alms and presents from all quarters were sent to
him for this purpose, and many pious ladies took
the girls thus reformed into their service, yet
Milicz often found himself in such pecuniary em
barrassments, that he was compelled to incur debts,
and in consequence to suffer many insults from ill-
disposed people. Still, all that happened continued
to raise the esteem in which he was held, and to in
crease his influence over the inhabitants of Prague.
The prominence of Milicz excited the envy and
hatred of many of his brother clergy to such an
extent, that, finding they could effect nothing
against him either through the Archbishop Oczko
or through the emperor, they drew up an accusa
tion in twelve articles against him, which they
sent to the court of Pope Gregory XL, at Avignon,
entrusting their case to the advocacy of Magister
John Kloukot. This person delivered the twelve
articles to the pope, who by his statements was
excited to the most violent anger, not only against
Milicz, but also against the archbishop, for having
allowed such errors to spring up. On January
10th, 1374, bulls were issued, not only to the
emperor, the Archbishop of Prague and the Bishop
of Litomysl, but also to the Bishops of Olnriitz,
Breslau, and Cracow — a proof that the influence of
Milicz had penetrated far beyond the precincts of
Bohemia, and had extended into Moravia, Silesia,
and Poland — in which Gregory complained that true

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 59
Christianity was being injured in those regions by
Milicz ; and required that all that had been thus
improperly begun should be put a stop to, "if" —
as the bull prudently added — "the fact be such as
we have been informed." The aged archbishop was
so panic-stricken at this, that Milicz himself was
obliged to comfort and encourage him. As the
Inquisitor of Prague now rose up armed with papal
authority to commence proceedings against him,
Milicz appealed to the Eoman curia, and went
at once, in the Lent of 1374, to Avignon.
On his arrival at the papal court he was wel
comed by his old ally, Cardinal di Albano, and no
one ventured to interfere with him on account of
the twelve articles. Nay, when the cardinal sum
moned Magister Kloukot into his presence, and
asked him the reason why he was exhibiting
articles of plaint against Milicz, he admitted that
he knew no harm whatever of him himself, but
had preferred his complaint at the request of some
of the clergy of Prague. It is manifest that Milicz
was fully acquitted at Avignon, from the fact that
on May 20th he was allowed to preach before the
cardinal, who invited him to his table immediately
after the conclusion of the sermon.
Soon afterwards Milicz was seized with an
illness from which he never recovered. In certain
expectation of death, two clays before his decease,
he dictated two letters, full of piety and magnan
imity, one to the lords of Eosenberg and the other
to Cardinal di Albano. He died at Avignon on the

60 JOHN HUS.

festival of St. Peter, I.e. either on June 29th, if
the ordinary festival of St. Peter be the day, or on
August 1st, if it be the festival of St. Peter in
Fetters. In Prague the intelligence of his death caused
deep emotion and great lamentation. The work
begun by him in the " New Jerusalem " was not
continued, and on December 17th, 1374, the house
was granted by the emperor to the Cistercian
Order, under the express condition that the Theo
logical Faculty of the University of Prague should
be allowed to pursue its studies there.
Milicz left several works both in Latin and
Bohemian. The most remarkable of these appears
to have been one in the Bohemian language : " Of
the great torments of the Holy Church and of every
faithful soul, which they have to suffer from the
dragon in the last days of Antichrist, and of the
seven last and worst wounds, whereby he will
terribly afflict all the elect of God, and how the
elect of God ought to behave in this affliction."
His book, although admired and studied by both
Catholics and Utraquists, was, nevertheless, placed
in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, probably on
account of certain passages in which he inveighed
against the moral corruption of the clergy in some
what unsparing language.
It was owing to the advice and urgency of Milicz
that Thomas of Stitny commenced that series
of writings which formed and consolidated the
Bohemian language, and thus rendered that great

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 61
national movement possible, which is generally
known as the Hussite movement, but which
eventually assumed dimensions far beyond any
thing that entered into the mind of Hus.
Third in chronological order, but first in point
of intellectual importance among the precursors of
John Hus, stands Magister Mathias of Janow,
although much less is known about the details of
his life than about that of Milicz. His writings
too, remarkable and important as they are, fell
shortly after his death into such oblivion — perhaps
owing to his recantation — that in the beginning
of the sixteenth century portions of them, that
were accidentally discovered, were ascribed to
Hus, and published along with Hus's genuine
works. His father was Wenceslas of Janow, a poor
Bohemian knight, who was still living in the early
part of the reign of the Emperor Charles IV.
Nothing is known about Mathias's early life, except
that he spent some years at Prague, studying under
the guidance of Milicz, with whose spirit and
doctrine he thus became well acquainted ; and that
he then went to Paris, and spent six years at the
university there, where he took the degree of
Master of Arts. Hence he obtained the surname
of Magister Parisiensis, by which he is much
oftener referred to in old manuscripts than by his
own name.
That in his younger years, quite counter to the
example of Milicz, he strove hard for honour, fame,

62 JOHN HUS.

and wealth, is acknowledged by himself in the fol
lowing words : —
" I confess that not long ago I was plagued and possessed by
the spirit of Antichrist, full of concupiscence and pestilential
pride, striving with great zeal after riches, after fame, and the
honours of this world ; and for that end I did much, devoted
my powers and much expenditure thereto, and competed for
four benefices ; and now at this present moment one of my
rivals is in possession of a benefice that rightfully belongs to
me. And, wishing to be rich in this world, I fell deep into tho
snares of the devil."
Mathias petitioned Pope Urban VI. for a canonry
at Prague, and in the winter of 1380-81, went to
Eome himself to urge his suit ; which indeed in
those days, when the pope had arrogated to him
self the right of presentation to all dignities and
benefices throughout Christendom, was the shortest
and easiest method of effecting his purpose. Later,
however, Mathias became one of the most zealous
opponents of the pope's Reservationes et Pro-
visioncs. He returned to Prague armed with a
papal bull, which he laid before the Chapter of the
Cathedral of Prague, and was on October 12th,
1381, elected a canon of St. Vitus in the palace
at Prague, i.e. of what is now known as the cathe
dral in the Hradschin.
The Archbishop of Prague, John of Jenstein,
assigned him the office of confessor in the church
of St. Vitus, which he held till his death, on
St. Andrew's day, 1393. He was buried in the
cathedral.

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 63

His principal work is in five books, entitled,
"Beguhe," or " De regulis veteris et Novi Testa
ment!, " which Dr. Palacky from its contents would
prefer to designate " The Books of True and False
Christianity." Four books of this are found in one
MS., and the fifth in another, which is especially
precious, as having belonged to the author himself.
It is now in the library of the University of
Prague. Mathias protested most solemnly and formally
' against the idea of quitting or in any way violating
the unity of the Church.
" I do not intend," he says, " to say or write aught — yea, I
intend not to say or write aught — that is contrary to the Holy
Catholic Church of Christ, or to the Christian faith, directly or
indirectly; that is in anywise contrary to the good customs of
the church ; or that can in anywise offend the pious ears of a
faithful Christian man. But if — which I trust will not be the
case — it does happen that I say, write, or think anything
contrary thereto, through my ignorance or inadvertence or any
other carelessness or imperfection, which I know to be very
great in me, I from the first revoke and retract it, begging it to
be considered as unsaid. Therefore, and for greater security, I
submit these, my words and writings, as also myself and all my
other actions, to the correction of the Holy Catholic Church,
and to my orthodox fathers, being prepared and desirous in
every respect to be corrected, and by my pious mother herself
and my fathers to be guided and brought back and brought
home (duci et reduci ac deduci) to the way of truth and grace
made by Jesus Christ in the Church."
No doubt Magister Mathias did differ from the
majority of contemporary theologians, and that
especially as regards the question whether pious

64 JOHN HUS.

laymen ought to partake frequently of the sacra
ment of the Eucharist or not. To this question both
Milicz and Mathias replied with the answer " yes,"
while their opponents met it with the answer
" no." Mathias gives the following account of the
matter : —
" It ought to be known that at the present time the question
respecting the daily or frequent participation of the body and
blood of Jesus Christ on the part of laymen has become very
important, especially among ordinary and simple people. Some
preachers and teachers affirm it, and invite the people to daily
or frequent corporal participation in the sacrament of the altar,
under the condition of proper previous preparation and a worthy
life. There are others who maintain the contrary, and enforce it
with great vehemence, endeavouring to persuade the people that
it is absolutely not good that the laity should be often fed with
the body and blood of Christ."
But at a synod of the archdiocese of Prague, in
1388, the views of Magister Mathias were not only
not accepted, but actually repudiated and pro
hibited, as we learn from himself in a second
edition of his first book : —
" Now, however," he says, " ' the continual sacrifice,' as Daniel
calls it, appears to be done away with, since some men rise up
in the Church, and new not only oppose it publicly and in the
pulpit, dissuading the people of Christ from frequent com
munion by their discourses, though they cannot do so by the
words of Scripture, but have also publicly by the voice of the
crier and solemnly declared their disapproval of the Christian
people daily and frequently receiving the body and blood of
Christ, laying it down of their own ordinary authority as a law
of Christ, that no clergymen, not a priest, and no lay person,
however worthy, shall be allowed to receive the sacrament of

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 65
the altar oftener than monthly, or once in four weeks. Moreover,
the sacrifice appears to be put a stop to at one blow, for in
accordance with resolutions of many learned mon and priests,
and with the consent of the archbishop and dignitaries, this
prohibition has been solemnly and publicly proclaimed in the
synod of tho clergy and in the assembly of tho peoplo, to wit,
that the inferior clergy and the laity in the Christian congrega
tion are in no wiso to be invited to daily or frequent partici
pation in the sacrament. This, however, hath been done, and
people have seen it with their own eyes, in the year of tho
Lord 1388, in the month of October, on the day of the Evange
list Luke. Therefore, immediately thereupon, those preachers
and priests who were in the habit of administering the sacra
ment of tho body of Christ daily or frequently to holy and
pious lay people of both sexes, had very much to endure in
public and before the eyes of all, not only from ordinary people,
but also on the part of the church and the dignitaries, and that
merely and solely because they invited and admonished holy-
living people to frequent communion."
It is unfortunate that the acts of this synod of
1388 have never been found. They would in all
probability have decided the question so frequently
contested since 1433, whether or no Mathias of
Janow was the first person in Bohemia who recom
mended communion in both kinds for the laity.
The affirmative was maintained before the council
of Basel, in 1433, by Magister John of Eokycan,
and his opponents did not traverse his assertion,
but simply replied that, if Mathias had begun to
preach that innovation, or even to administer the
communion in that manner himself, his doctrine,
or rather practice, made no progress, for in the
synod at Prague, in 1389, he was obliged to desist,

66 JOHN HUS.

and recant his opinions. It is true that Mathias
uses the terms " sacrament of the body and blood "
and "sacrament of the body" of the Lord quite
indifferently, as in the passage above quoted ; but
I have not been able to discover a particle of
evidence of practical Utraquism in Bohemia before
the custom was revived upon purely scriptural
ground by Magister Jacobellus, after Hus's de
parture for Constance.
The recantation just alluded to is a recent
discovery, and appears for the first time in print
in Palacky's "Documenta," p. 699. I translate it
literally in full : —
" Know all faithful people, that I, M. Mathias, have preached
some things not so rightly, cautiously, and prudently as was
due and convenient ; whereby I either have been or might
have been to some a cause or occasion of error or scandal.
Therefore, to remove those things, and that the truth may not
be concealed, and that the faithful may know what they ought
to believe or hold in these matters —
"(1) I say, firstly, that the images of Christ and the saints
do not give cause or occasion for idolatry ; neither on account
of abuse on the part of any one soever ought they to be burned
or destroyed.
" (2) Secondly, that according to the institution and custom
of Holy Mother Church, images ought to be adored and vene
rated to the honour of those whom they represent, and I do
myself adore and venerate them and desire them to he vene
rated, and that it is fit and just according to me to kneel down
and fasten up lighted candles before images ; and that the
miracles performed on those who are venerating images are
piously to be believed performed by divine power; and if I
have said the contrary of any of these things, I have not said

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 67
it rightly, and being now better informed, I will not hold or
say it any more.
" (3) Item, as regards the saints on their way and in their
fatherland " (i.e., on earth and in heaven), " I hold this, and
affirm that it ought to be held, that the saints in heaven,
and their bodies and bones, and also other sanctified things, as
the garments and ornaments of Christ, of the blessed Virgin,
and of the saints, ought to be venerated here on earth ; and
that the saints themselves in heaven are and can be of more
avail to us by their intercession than the saints living on earth.
And if any one, owing to my words, should believe the contrary
of any of the things aforesaid, he would be in error, and so
would any one who should lead or have led him into such an
error. " (4) Item, I affirm and believe that a man by worthily
receiving tho body of Christ becomes a mystical member of
Christ ; and that it must not bo said on that account, that the
hand, foot, or eye, or any member whatsoever of a man, becomes
the hand, foot, or eye, or other mystical member of Christ.
And if I have said anything of a tenour contrary hereto, I do
not hold it, and I affirm that it ought not to be held.
" (5) Item, I affirm that people, and especially lay people,
ought not to be led or exhorted to a daily communion of the
Lord's Sacrament. Item, that not every incipient penitent
ought presently to be led to approach the Holy Communion.
Item, that not every one ought indifferently to be admitted to
daily communion of the body of Christ. And if I have done or
said the contrary of any of these things, I will not do or say it
ior the future, but rather avoid it."
His sentence was : " Let him be suspended from
preaching and hearing confessions and administer
ing the Eucharist, except in his own parish church,
for half a year."
Another priest, named Jacob, was at the same
time suspended for ten years for " showing a fig "

68 JOHN HUS.

(i.e. putting his thumb between his fore and
middle fingers) to an image of tho Virgin Mary,
and expressing a wish to boil peas with such an
image and others like it.
But the significance of Mathias as a precursor of
Hus will not be properly apparent unless attention
is directed to a few more extracts from his very
remarkable writings, especially from his work
" De Eegulis." In the preface to this he says : —
" I have written these books from love and devotion to the
blessed and super-celestial sacrament of the body and blood of
Jesus Christ, if haply I mi^ht be able to advance its honour
and glory, and tho love of the people of modern days, and a
faithful desire to venerate it more and enjoy it worthily, in such
manner and to such end as it was itself prepared by Christ
Jesus, and distributed and given to the beloved church of the
saints of God. Neither would I under the bushel of my own
laziness and carelessness conceal things which, as a diligent
searcher of the Scriptures from my youth upwards, I have by
and with Christ Jesus gathered from books and received from
tho illumination of that same most faithful crucified Jesus, who
sweetly illuminatcth every man that cometh into this world.
Wherefore in these my writings I have throughout mndo most
use of tho Bible and its actual manuscripts, and but little of tho
sayings of tho doctors; both becnuso the Bible occurs to mo
promptly and abundantly for writing on every matter of con
sideration and every subject, and because out of it end through
its most divine verities, which aro clear and self-evident, all
opinions are innrc solidly confirmed, aro founded with greater
aoutcness, and are meditated on more usefully; and because it
is that which I have loved from my youth up, and have named
my beloved friend and spouse, yea, the mother of beauteous
affection and knowledgo and fear and holy hope. And as soon
as I found tho blessed Augustine, in his book " De Doctrina
Christiana," and Jerome, saying that the study of tho texts of

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 69
the most holy Bible is in the beginning and in the end above all
things necessary and useful to one desiring to attain to know
ledge of theological truth, and is and ought to be the funda
mental thing to every well-instructed Christian, ere long my
mind became attached to the Bible in perpetual love. And here
I confess that from my youth it has not departed from me, even
unto age and unto old age, neither in my path nor in my home,
nor when I was busy nor when I was at leisure ; and in every
doubt of mind, in every question, I always found in and through
the Bible satisfactory and lucid explanation and consolation for
my soul ; and in all my trouble, persecution, and sadness, I
always fled for refuge to the Bible, which, as I have said, is my
dearest friend, and always walks with me. And it has always
met me as an honoured mother, and as a wife married from a
virgin has welcomed me, and according to the multitude of
cares in my heart its consolations have rejoiced my soul. 0 how
sweetly then, in proportion to my capacity and measure, did it
feed me on every occasion with the bread of life and under
standing ! and dispersing the darkness in which I was fluctuat
ing, how usefully did it give me to drink of the water of
salutary wisdom ! Wherefore, when I saw very many carrying
always and everywhere with them the relics and bones of divers
saints, I chose for myself the Bible, my chosen one, as the com
panion of my travel, to carry always with me, and to be ever at
my side in readiness for my defence and continual consolation
even in adversity."
With regard to the schism between the Greek
and Latin Churches, and that in the Eoman
Church between the two antipopes and their
followers, Mathias says : —
" Understand the proverb by those things that are seen at the
present day, to wit, that the great city of the world of Christians
is in fact rent into three parts — i.e. that of the Eomans towards
the south, that of the Greeks towards the east, and that of the
French towards the west. Of whom the Romans say, ' Here is

70 JOHN HUS.

the church and here is Christ ; ' the French say, ' Not so ; we
are the church and here is Christ ; ' and the Greeks say, per
tinaciously, ' Ye lie, both of you ; we are the church and here
is Christ.' Lo 1 to the letter is fulfilled the gospel above quoted,
wherein it is said, ' In those days it shall be said unto you,
Lo ! here is Christ, or lo ! there.' Lo ! the darkened condition
of the sun and moon, so that even the city set upon a hill is
concealed and clouded over, so that it cannot be seen ! So that
out of an infinite multitude of Christians there cannot easily he
found any who can be quite certain where the only true church
of God is, and who can venture to show and consistently to
point out to all inquirers where out of these three the church is,
and where Christ is. This I do not say with regard to all ; for
there are some who do know where Christ and His body are, of
whom it is written, ' Wheresoever the body is, there will the
eagles be gathered together.' And I believe that Christ is in
that portion which has joined the Romans; but what I say
here, I speak comparatively, with regard to the whole multitude
of those who were formerly called Christians. I speak also by
way of comparison with the certainty of the primitive church
of the saints, in which it was notorious where the church was
and where Christ was. But now nowhere is there so great a
certainty of the existence of Jesus Christ evident in these por
tions, as for any one boldly to offer himself to die for Him.
Foxes therefore have holes, and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of man— i.e. the true Christian, the son of our
Lord Jesus Christ— hath not where to lay his head ; i.e. where
to flee safely for refuge, and where to be strengthened and pro
tected from demons and from hypocrites, but is persecuted on
all sides and perplexed by sins in the present exceeding tribu
lation. For lo ! all are, as it were, friends of Jesus Christ in
word and tongue, but in deed and in life almost all are His
enemies : all are corporeally members of His household, hut
almost all are strangers in work and will. If thou pourest out
thy soul to any one in warm feeling and words, as if wishing to
find the crucified Jesus, thou wilt depart from him embittered
in mind, finding in thyself that thou hast there lost the grace of

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA 71
Jesus Christ, and thy toil and fine words as welL Thus neither
wilt thou venture openly and solemnly to profess Christ cruci
fied, because then thou wilt without moderation be treated as a
heretic, and wilt not depart unreviled or unspat upon ; and then
by experience thou wilt feel this exceeding great tribulation and
most bitter bitterness of all faithful bodies, consciences, and souls
in Jesus." On the subject of the images of the saints and
their veneration, Mathias uses language which
he was compelled to withdraw in the recantation
given above. His words are, however, too striking
to be omitted. They run as follows : —
" Alas ! at the present day certain colleges, and a multitude
of those who call themselves masters of the church and wise
men, have established decrees in the church of God, to the
effect that statues of wood and stone, of silver and other like
materials, ought to be adored and worshipped by Christians — ¦
whereas holy Scripture saith openly and expressly, 'Thou
shalt not adore them nor worship them ' — a thing which can in
no wise be maintained or defended by the assertion of Thomas
of Aquinum and other doctors ; and the holy church, although
she hath allowed images and statues, and teaches that they
ought to be honoured and venerated, yet hath never taught or
laid it down that they are to be adored or worshipped, as is
manifest in the corpus [Juris'] in the faculty of the jurists.
They have decreed, moreover, that they ought to be prayed to
(deprecandoe) , which is, in the Bohemian tongue, rnodliti se,
and thus have taught the people with collegiate authority that
the people are to pray to images (aby se obrazom lide modlili).
They have decreed, moreover, and in synod (1388) commanded
it to be preached to the people, that the people ought piously to
believe that the virtue of God and His saints is in painted
statues of stone or wood, and therefore that the miracles, which
appear or are reported to be performed there, are wrought by
God through and owing to these images ; and therefore whoso-

72 JOHN HUS.

ever believes this, or puts confidence in such a statue, and flees
for refuge to the statue, doth in no wise ill — nay, neither ought
simple people to be corrected or chidden for betaking themselves
to statues in time of their need, or to relics of saints or such
other dead things without merit or virtue. They have, more
over, enacted that sermons must not be preached against the
abuse of statues or relics, saying that in such things it doth not
come to pass that the Christian people erreth. But who will
not understand how pernicious these things are to the unin-
structed and carnal Christian people, if he considers that the
modern lay people, not having the spirit of the Lord Jesus, can
in no wise ascend mentally to spiritual things, but being merely
carried away by carnal judgment and imagination, only appre
ciates corporal things, and gapes and fears before them, pouring
itself out wholly to them? "
On the subject of Church reform, as regards
superfluous rites and ceremonies, etc., the words
of Ma,thias are so similar to those of the preface
to the Common Prayer-Book of the Church of
England that I cannot resist the temptation to
quote one other passage at length.
" The Lord Jesus," he says, " did not give any written law to
His followers, although He might have done this in His lifetime
in many ways, but merely placed His own good Spirit and the
Spirit of His Father in the hearts of believers for a living and
perfect law, and a generally sufficient rule of life, according to
what has been proved above, and according to the Scriptures and
prophets. Wherefore also His apostles, desiring not to burthen
the people believing in Jesus with various doctrines, inventions,
and precepts, wrote few things, commanded still fewer, and con
firmed unshakably by statutes fewest of all. It is manifest
in the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles how the beloved
fathers and apostles of Christ desired their fellow-Christians to
be to a great extent free, and not tied to a multitude of precepts.

THE PRECURSORS OF JOHN HUS IN BOHEMIA. 73
Whence it appears that those later persons have acted and still
act cruelly and barbarously, who have introduced and authori
tatively confirmed their numerous inventions, various doctrines,
and rigid commands in the family of God and the Lord Jesus,
binding and burthening their subjects overmuch, so that there
is such a multiplicity and so infinite a multitude of such doc
trines and inventions and commandments of men, that, as was
said a little before, they have filled many books, and those very
large and costly ones, which no one hardly but a rich man could
procure, nor even if he devoted himself to them throughout the
whole of his life, could he sufficiently read and beneficially
digest them. And yet they will have it that the Christian people
are bound to all those things that are therein contained, all
which things, as hath been said, they are unable to perform,
nay, even to learn or fully to remember. Wherefore I have
concluded in my own mind, that, for the purpose of renewing
peace and union in the general body of Christians, it is expedient
to root out all that plantation and curtail again the word upon
the earth, and bring back the church of Christ Jesus to its
salutary and compendious beginnings, retaining proportionately
few, and those apostolic, commandments. For, in the presence
of my crucified Lord Jesus, I think that the law of the Holy
Spirit and the gospel, copied and circulated, and the ordinary
fathers of the lay people — as the pope, the bishops, the parsons,
and their assistants — are quite sufficient for lawfully guidin<*
the whole community of people and every individual man of the
community. The above-mentioned things are, I say, sufficient
for resolving every question and determining every case in the
court of conscience and in the court of justice, with the
addition to the aforesaid of the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments." Well might Sigismund, king of the Eomans and
afterwards emperor, tell the assembled fathers at
Constance that the " sect," of which Hus was
then the immediate leader and exponent, was no

74 JOHN HUS.

new thing, but had taken its origin in his own
early youth ! Well, too, might Augustus Neander,
fresh from the perusal of the MS. of Mathias
of Janow, make the unexpected statement before
the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, on August 13,
1847, that " the study of the writings of Mathias
of Janow, if one goes directly from them to that of
the works of Hus, shows us that already, quite
independently of Wycliffe, a reaction against the
hierarchy in Bohemia, proceeding immediately from
the religious interest, and from sympathy with
the religious wants and requirements of the people,
had formed itself; a reaction which, although it
still attached itself to the dominant ecclesiastical
system, was yet already based upon the principle
of the German Eeformation, reference to Christ
alone, and His Word in Holy Scripture ! "

( 75 )

CHAPTEE III.
JOHN HUS, FROM HIS BIETH TO HIS BREACH WITH
ARCHBISHOP ZBTNEK.
John of Husinetz, commonly called John Hus, i.e.
John Goose, was born on July 6th, 1369, in the
little town of Husinetz, in the south of Bohemia.
The house in which he was born is still standing,
and has been carefully restored by the subscriptions
of patriotic Bohemians. His parents were poor,
and it appears from a Latin letter addressed to
Magister Martin, " his pupil and dearest brother in
Christ," from Constance, in which he recommends
not only his nephews, but also his brother to his
care, bidding him " do to them as thou knowest,"
that he was not an only son. When he grew out
of boyhood, he betook himself to the schools at
Prague, where he maintained himself like other
poor scholars, by chanting and performing other
subordinate services in the churches. He alludes
to his mode of life in several passages of his
Bohemian works. In a singular passage on the

76 JOHN HUS.

subject of wicked women, who endeavour to seduce
others into sin, he says: "These are the devil's
spoons, by means of which he devours others, but
when he has done devouring others with the spoon,
he eats the spoon also. As, when I was a poor
scholar, I used to make a spoon of a piece of bread
till I had done eating my pease-porridge, and then
I ate the spoon." He also deplores having taken
part, as a "mask," in the blasphemous ceremonies
of the "Boy Bishop," and regrets the careless
manner in which — the choir apparently being
found by contract — he had been accustomed to
chant the services. "When I," says he, "was
a scholar and sang vigils along with others, we
merely sang sufficient to get through the business ;
for others took the money and did the harrowing
and ploughing through us." It was always his
idea to enter into the clerical profession, though
he acknowledges he had no higher thought in so
doing than that of obtaining a comfortable mainte
nance. After passing through the inferior schools
he entered the high school or university in the
Faculty of Arts. When he was about twenty-four
years old (1393), the celebrated jubilee or year
of indulgence was proclaimed at Prague, and the
student John of Husinetz performed, like others,
the pilgrimages from church to church and the
duty of confession at St. Peter's on the Vyssegrad.
In order to obtain full absolution, he was obliged to
part with the only four groschen that he possessed,
and was consequently reduced to a meal of dry bread.

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 77
In the September of the same year, he took the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in January, 1396,
that of Master of Arts. Soon afterwards he also
probably took that of Bachelor in Divinity ; but
the first certain mention of him as a Bachelor in
Divinity is not earlier than 1404. As a young
magister, he must have devoted himself to lecturing
in the university, or we should not find him towards
the end of 1398 appointed examiner at the quarterly
examination for the B.A. degree, and afterwards
frequently holding other appointments in the
Faculty of Arts. Becoming a prominent member
of the university, he was on St. Gallus' day
(Oct. 15th), 1401, elected Dean of the Faculty of Arts,
for the half-year ending on St. George's day (April
22nd), 1402. He became rector of the university for
the first time on April 1, 1403. There is little
doubt that he was ordained priest some time in
1400, although the " liber ordinationum " does not
contain his name. But he states himself, in answer
to a charge brought against him at Constance, that
he was not a priest at all in 1399, while it is
certain that he was a preacher in 1401. Writing
to the people of Prague in 1412, he says, that
he had then laboured twelve years among them,
and in the Latin treatise " On the Body and Blood
of the Lord," which he composed at Constance in
1415, he states that he wrote his first treatise on
the subject in the first year of his priesthood and
preaching, which was, he thought, the year of the
Lord 1401.

78 JOHN HUS.

Thus far he appears to have had no higher aim or
object in life, but to have lived like other magisters
in the university. He took especial pleasure in the
robes appertaining to the magister's degree, the
so-called " tabard," the gown with " wings " or
long sleeves, and the cap trimmed with crimson.
Neither had he any objection to the banquets and
other festive gatherings in which the magisters of
the day took great delight. He was also an en
thusiastic chess-player. But after his ordination
to the priesthood he began to withdraw himself
from the vanities of the world, and to comprehend
in its fulness the high calling of his position. He
applied himself especially to the duties of the
pulpit, endeavouring, like his precursors, Milicz,
and Mathias, to educate his hearers in the truths
of Christianity, and awaken them to a life of
virtue. Though he could only have had the
slightest personal knowledge of either Mathias or
Stitny, yet their writings must have been well
known to him and must have assisted him in his
preparations for the pulpit. Nor is there any
doubt that he attached himself from the first to
the party of those ecclesiastics who arrayed them
selves against the abuses then dominant among
the clergy.
The first church in which Hus performed the
duties of a preacher was that of St. Michael in
the old town of Prague, the incumbent of which
was Bernard, a monk from the monastery of
Zderaz, who was a man decidedly opposed to

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 79
reform in the Church, and is designated by Hus
in one of his Latin letters as " a very great enemy
of the Word of God." It would appear, however,
that this difference of opinion did not prevent
friendly after-dinner conversations at the parson
age, in which matters of religion and Church govern
ment were frequently discussed. Hus was also
intimate with Wenceslas the cup-maker, a well-
known citizen of Prague. At his house one day
in 1401, the drowning of John of Pomuk and mal
treatment and imprisonment of other dignitaries
by King Wenceslas became the subject of con
versation, and some one said that Divine service
ought to have been suspended by interdict on that
account. Hus vehemently opposed the idea, and
demanded a reason from Scripture, why the praises
of God should be discontinued on account of the
death or imprisonment of himself or any other
priest. He appears to have committed his sermons
to writing from the first, and to have caused them
to be fair copied for publication, no doubt thereby
obtaining a considerable name as a preacher.
Thus when the preachership at the chapel "Beth
lehem" became vacant in 1402, Hus was duly
nominated under the peculiar arrangements of
the foundation and presented by the patron. No
doubt this took place with the goodwill and possibly
through the exertions of the merchant Kriz (Cross),
who was a frequent visitor at the house of Wen
ceslas the cup-maker, and was at that time, if not
actually burgomaster, at any rate one of the alder-

80 JOHN HUS.

men of the old town. The archbishop's confirma
tion of the presentation was issued on March 14th,
1402, only a few days after the arrest of King
Wenceslas by his brother Sigismund, and before
the expiration of the half-year, during which Hus
was Dean of the Faculty of Arts.
It is singular that during the persecution of the
followers of Milicz, and only a year and a half
after the recantation of Mathias of Janow, men
zealous for religious reform should have succeeded
in founding an institution at Prague, the undoubted
object of which was to work in that direction. Its
principal founder was John of Milheim, a favourite
courtier and confidential adviser of King Wenceslas.
No place of the name of Milheim being known in
Bohemia, it is probable that he was of foreign
origin, and perhaps a relative of John of Milheim,
who came to Bohemia as provincial prior of the
Teutonic Knights. Though he was himself only a
" knight," his wife Anna was of the ancient and
noble family of Hasenburg. He probably died
sometime between 1404 and 1408.
It is possible that the idea may have originated
with the merchant Kriz, who presented a site from
his own house for the erection of the chapel, and
reserved to himself a considerable participation in
the undertaking. Unable to carry it through by
himself, he would naturally seek the aid of a more
powerful friend. The foundation deed, dated May
24th, 1390, declares that it was an institution of
the old fathers that the Word of God should not

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 81
be fettered, but be as free and beneficial as possible
to the Chm:ch and her members, and deplores that
there was as yet no locality in Prague set apart
for the office of the preacher ; yea, that preachers,
especially those who preached in the Bohemian
tongue, were for the most part compelled to go
about from house to house and from secret place
to secret place. John of Milheim, therefore, to
make better provision for this need for the future,
ordained that the incumbent of the new chapel
should be a secular priest, whose duty it should be to
preach in the Bohemian language in the morning
and afternoon of every holy day, except in Advent
and Lent, when there was only to be a morning
sermon. The celebration of mass was left to the
discretion of the preacher, who was strictly bound
to residence, might not absent himself without the
permission of the archbishop or his vicars, and
must then provide a competent substitute. The
endowment amounted to nine " kops " (a " kop " is
sixty) of groschen, minus ten groschen, per annum,
with the proviso that this might be raised to twenty
kops, but not more ; for a priest, who was a
preacher, ought not to thirst for riches. The
preacher was not allowed to appropriate the offer
ings or gifts collected in the chapel, which were to
be kept under three keys, and used for repairs and
other requirements, and after a certain time for
the maintenance of poor students connected with
it, at a rate of five kops each per annum. It was
founded in the name of the Holy Innocents, and
G

82 JOHN HUS.

the name of Bethlehem was given to it. John of
Milheim, according to custom, reserved the patron
age to himself and his heirs, but with this especial
arrangement, that at each vacancy after the first
appointment, the three senior magisters of the
Bohemian "nation," in the late Emperor Charles's
" college/' were to take counsel with the burgo
master of the Old Town, and nominate three men,
whom they thought best adapted for the preacher's
duties, one of whom was then to be presented by
himself or his heirs.
The chapel Bethlehem, and the priest's house
beside it, were built before the execution of the
deed of foundation. Archbishop John of Jenstein
laid the first stone with his own hands, and ere
long (June 27th) confirmed the foundation, which
henceforth possessed the status of a regular eccle
siastical benefice. On September 2nd followed
King Wenceslas's assent to the gift of the site, and
on September 12th to the appropriation of fixed
payments to the amount of thirty kops per annum.
The town council of the Old Town, at the request
of Kriz, emancipated the site from all town dues.
Ninety groschen were to be paid annually to the
incumbent of St. Philip and St. James, in whose
parish the chapel was situated, as compensation for
any loss that his receipts might suffer therefrom,
a sum which in 1403 was raised to three kops.
In Milheim's foundation the right of establishing
a second preachership, as well as an altar in the
chapel Bethlehem, was reserved to the merchant

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 83

Kriz. This right he exercised on this wise. He
first appointed a second preacher, who was to take
turns with the first preacher or incumbent, and
afterwards established an altar in honour of SS.
Martha and Catherine and other holy virgins,
appointing and endowing a special altar priest to
perform an early chanted mass before every morn
ing sermon, and daily in Advent and Lent. The
altar priest was also expressly forbidden to sing
masses elsewhere for money. The patronage of
the second preachership and the altar was reserved
by Kriz to himself and his heirs for ever.
The first preacher and incumbent of Bethlehem
was John Protiva of Novaves (New village), who
was appointed by John of Milheim himself. On
his promotion in 1396, the next appointment was
made in accordance with the terms of the deed,
and the choice fell on Magister Stephen of Kolin,
a distinguished member of the university, who was
a Bachelor of Divinity and a Canon of All Saints,
and had been Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He
was an ardent patriot (Zelaior patrice ferventissimus,
as Hus calls him), and a zealous church reformer.
The second preacher, John of Stiekna, a Cistercian
monk, was likeminded. Having somehow gained
the favour of Queen Hedwiga of Poland, he was
presented to a Polish benefice, and nominated
one of her court chaplains, although he never
ceased to perform his duties at Bethlehem. To his
excellence as a preacher Hus bears witness, testify
ing that he was a " sounding trumpet." He kept

84 JOHN HUS.

himself, however, within the strictest limits of
obedience to authority, and many took it ill, that
he said nothing against the shameful sale of in
dulgences in 1393, and even recommended them
from the pulpit in the church on the Vyssegrad.
Ere long a foundation was also established and
endowed by the merchant Kriz, with the aid of
other benefactors, for the maintenance of poor
students in connection with the chapel. These
students lived in the priest's house, next door to
the chapel, which was also inhabited by the two
preachers and the altar priest. The nomination of
the students appertained to the three senior Bohe
mian magisters, and their supervision to the In
cumbent of Bethlehem. Such was the office to
which Hus was now appointed, and which he
continued to hold during the remainder of his life.
A great alteration had taken place in the tone
and feeling of the Bohemian and German inhabit
ants of Prague, and in the Bohemian and German
members of the university. Both Germans and
Bohemians had alike sympathized with Waldhauser
and Milicz in their endeavours for reform in the
Church, but, as time went on, the Germans withdrew
themselves more and more from the party of reform,
which ere long came to consist almost entirely of
Bohemians. A blasphemous parody of the mass
was composed by Germans, in which it was chanted
in imitation of the gospel genealogies : " Stanislas
begat Peter of Znaym, Peter begat Palecz, and
Palecz begat Hus." Tomek ascribes this bitterness

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 85
on the part of the Germans to the endowments and
dotations, which now began to be given to the
university to the exclusive advantage of the Bohe
mian jazyk or nationality, literally, "language."
There were also disputes between the German and
Bohemian citizens of Prague, both as regards the
rights of their respective "languages," and also
upon religious questions. In 1399 the rector of the
" Teyn" church prohibited the singing of a favourite
Bohemian hymn on the resurrection, apparently
because it contained the lines : " 0 heav'nly King
most dear, Thy Czeskish people hear ! " * Com
plaint was made to the archbishop, and the offend
ing priest was punished by imprisonment.
When Euprecht, the elector palatine, was, after
the deposition of Wenceslas, chosen King of the
Eomans, the German element in the University of
Prague was by no means faithful to Wenceslas, who
could also place but little reliance on the council
of the Old Town, which was almost entirely com
posed of Germans. From patriotic feeling Hus
expressed himself strongly in the pulpit against the
excesses of the troops of the Margraves of Meissen,
when in alliance with the lords of the league they
appeared before the walls of Prague in 1401. But
Hus was no common German hater, but repeats
frequently in his writings, that a good German was
dearer to him than his own brother, if a wicked
man; although he complains of the hypocritical
* The entire hymn is given in my "Lectures on the Native
Literature of Bohemia in the Fourteenth Century," pp. 19, 20.

86 JOHN HUS.

manner in which Germans were wont to go before
the king and swear to be faithful to him and to
the country; "but never will that come to pass,
till the snake basks upon the ice."
After the last citation of Mathias of Janow be
fore the archbishop's court, and his consequent
recantation, no trace of any doctrinal persecution
is found for about ten years. This may be accounted
for partly by the terror excited in the minds of
the superior clergy by Wenceslas's cruel treatment
of John of Pomuk and others, and the failure of
the archbishop to obtain redress from the pope,
and partly by. the circumspect and tolerant cha
racter of his successor, Archbishop Olbram. But
after the death of Olbram in May, 1402, the vacant
see was for a year and five months in the hands of
" administrators," elected by the Chapter of Prague,
King Wenceslas being then in captivity, and his
brother Sigismund usurping authority and ruling
in his stead. Attempts were now made again to
crush the reforming section of the clergy, who
raised their voices against the abuses favoured and
taken advantage of by the dominant party. A pre
text for these proceedings was found in the doctrines
of the Englishman, John Wycliffe, who was a
contemporary of the Bohemian Milicz, and who had
come to the front in defence of the interests of his
country against the drain of money out of it
through the rapacity of the papal see. This man
had not only raised his voice against ecclesiastical
abuses and in favour of a better religious education

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 87
of the people, but had also taken upon himself to
criticize various doctrines of the Church, as incon
sistent with the veritable teaching of Christ. As
early as 1377, he had drawn upon himself the
wrath of Pope Gregory XL, and in 1382, twenty-
four articles alleged to be held and promulgated by
him and his adherents were condemned by a council
convoked at London by the Archbishop of Canter
bury. Powerful protection, however, especially
that of John of Gaunt, " time honour'd Lancaster,"
preserved him from personal persecution till his
death in 1385. It was some time before his works
reached Bohemia and attracted the attention of
men, whose hearts beat in sympathy with his.
There is not the slightest trace of acquaintance
with Wycliffe in the works of Magister Mathias of
Janow. But soon after Wycliffe's death, disputes
began among certain magisters in the University
of Prague respecting some of his views, especially
with regard to the sacrament of the altar. Stitny
himself began in the seventieth year of his age to
incline to the belief, that the substance of bread
and wine remained after consecration, though in
his last work, written in 1400, he rejected this view,
and accepted the current doctrine of the Church.
But the knowledge of Wycliffe's works was still very
incomplete in Bohemia, and according to Hus's
own statement, it was his philosophical works that
were principally in use in and about the year 1403,
while his more important theological writings were
not generally known.

JOHN HUS.

John Hubner, a Silesian of German nationality,
whether on his own account or by order of the
administrators of the archdiocese, examined the
books of Wycliffe and extracted therefrom twenty-
one articles, which, along with the twenty-four con
demned by the London synod, were taken into
consideration by the Chapter of Prague, and all
forty-five articles were laid before the university.
The Eector, Walter Harraser, Hus's immediate
successor in the office, convoked an assembly of the
magisters on May 28th, 1403. After the articles
had been read, a great variety of opinion displayed
itself. Many considered that the selected passages
bore a different sense in extract from what they
had in connexion with their context. Magister
Nicholas of Litomysl told Hubner to his face:
" Thou hast falsely, unrighteously, and mendaciously
extracted articles from books, which stand not thus ; "
and Magister John Hus added, that " such adultera
tors of books were more deserving of being burnt
than Berlin and Wlaska, the adulterators of
saffron," who had not long previously been burnt
alive at Prague. Stephen Palecz threw a copy of
a book of Wycliffe's on the table, and said to the
assembled magisters : " Let who will stand up and
speak against a single word in this book: I will
defend it." Magister Stanislas of Znaym under
took to prove, that not one of the forty-five articles
was heretical or erroneous ; at which some of the
elder magisters took such offence, that they quitted
the assembly. However, the majority declared in

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 89

favour of the views of the chapter, and a resolution
was passed, that no one was to teach or maintain the
articles aforesaid, either in public or in private.
But before the year was out, a new Archbishop,
Zbynek Zajitz of Hasenburg, was elected and
entered into possession of the see. He was a man
still young and of business-like habits, but possessed
more goodwill than learning and knowledge ; nay, it
was even asserted that he learned the alphabet after
his elevation to the archbishopric. He was, how
ever, a skilful and experienced general, and very
successful in the military undertakings entrusted
to him by King Wenceslas, after his escape from
Vienna. Neglecting theoretical disputes in theology,
he turned his attention to the practical reform of
abuses, and soon after entering upon the duties of
his see, commissioned Hus to make known to him,
either personally or by letter, any defect that he saw
in ecclesiastical arrangements. It is easy hence to
see, that the party of reform must have attained
great weight and importance, and that Hus, the
well-known preacher of Bethlehem, must have
begun to be considered as its leader.
Neither did Hus neglect the commission thus
given him by the archbishop, but drew his attention
amongst other things to the deceptions practised in
the exhibition of false relics, in the announcement
of false miracles, and in thus extracting money by
way of gifts and offerings from the pockets of the
laity. Several places in Bohemia were frequented
by pilgrims, but there was one in the Margravate

90 JOHN HUS.

of Brandenburg, Wilsnak near Wittemberg, which
had for some time possessed especial celebrity.
Here was exhibited what was alleged to be the
natural blood of Christ, which of course was repre
sented as possessing miraculous powers. Hus
and two other magisters were commissioned by
the archbishop to examine into the matter, and it
was soon shown that the whole thing was a decep
tion. A lad was said to have had a miracle of
healing performed upon his foot; it was proved
that his foot was worse than before. Two blind
men were asserted to have regained their sight ;
they admitted before the three commissioners, the
public notary and other witnesses, that they had
never been blind at all, but had merely been afflicted
with a painful affection of the eyes. A citizen of
Prague, then lately deceased, Peter of Cachy, had
made a pilgrimage to Wilsnak, and there offered
a silver hand. It was proved by the evidence of
his friends and household, that he had received no
benefit whatever, but that, wishing to know what
the priests would say about the aforesaid hand, he
had remained in the place till the third day. The
priest in his presence exhibited the silver hand in
the pulpit, and said, " Children ! hear the miracle !
A citizen of Prague has had his hand healed by the
sacred blood ; and in witness thereof has offered
this silver hand." Peter rose up and showed his
hand, saying, " Priest, why liest thou ? See ! my
hand is affected as it was before." On account of
such scandals, the archbishop in synod, in 1406,

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 91
forbade further pilgrimages to Wilsnak, under pain
of excommunication, and took similar measures
with regard to similar places in Bohemia. Hus
wrote a Latin treatise on the subject, in which he
distinctly denied the existence anywhere of the
natural blood of Christ, the whiskers of Christ,, the
milk of the Virgin Mary, and other relics of the
kind ; and also warned people against lightly credit
ing miracles of recent date.
Archbishop Zbynek also made use of the services
of Hus and others of the same tendency, as preach
ers before the synods, which he held from time to
time in his diocese. At the synod held on St.
Vitus's Day, 1405, Stanislas of Znaym, and at that
on October 23rd, John Hus, were the preachers. In
both sermons vivid and truthful descriptions were
given of the life of the clergy of the day, and of
the abuses dominant therein, nor was any grade or
rank left unnoticed. Archdeacons, deans, digni
taries, canons, had their unrighteousnesses laid
before their eyes just as plainly as ordinary parsons
and altar priests ; and monks were criticized as
freely as secular clergy. Stanislas did not hesitate
to suggest to the archbishop, that it was his duty
to exert himself to the utmost of his power to
extirpate all evil and punish those who would not
correct themselves. Hus included within the scope
of his criticisms, not only bishops and archbishops,
but also the pope and the cardinals. The arch
bishop was present in person at Hus's sermon, as
well as numerous ecclesiastical dignitaries, and a

92 JOHN HUS.

larger number of clergy than had been seen together
assembled for many years. As soon as the sermon
was ended, Adam of Nezetitz, the vicar-general,
ascended the pulpit, eulogized Hus's discourse, and
addressed the clergy to the same effect. Hus also
delivered a copy of his sermon to the archbishop.
There were also other occasions on which the
preaching powers of Hus and his friends were in
request. At the annual commemoration of the
Emperor Charles IV. as founder of the university,
on December 5th, 1404, Hus was selected to address
the clergy in the church of St. Gallus. But his
principal and regular working station was the
chapel Bethlehem. Thousands of hearers crowded
thither, as they had crowded formerly to hear the
addresses of Milicz, eager to receive the Word of
God from his eloquent lips. And there it was that
he gained the favour and goodwill, not only of the
populace, but also of many influential citizens of
Prague and persons of importance at King Wen
ceslas's court. Many of the clergy also attended
his preaching for instruction and improvement;
and many asked his counsel in various questions
arising in the course of their spiritual duties, of
which Hus required a more conscientious perform
ance than was in accordance with the perverted
usage of the day. It was beyond all question
Hus's preaching at Bethlehem, that so attracted
and influenced Queen Sophia, that she nominated
him her chaplain, and, as is supposed, also made
him her confessor.

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 93
Over and above his duties as a preacher, Hus
never ceased working in the university, where he
lectured, examined, and took part in the govern
ment of his faculty, and in the care of the interests
of the Bohemian "nation." Engagements of this
kind probably took up a great part of his time,
and caused him to be less fertile as a writer.
Besides his written sermons in the Latin tongue,
the above-mentioned treatise on the natural Blood
of Christ, and another on the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, which he composed in 1401, there
is no Latin or Bohemian work of his, which we
can be sure was written before 1412.
Both as a pastor and as a teacher, Hus began
in course of time to draw from the fountain of John
Wycliffe. He saw in Wycliffe's writings the same
energetic zeal for reform in the Church that he
felt himself, and in which he was encouraged by
the example of his worthy precursors in his own
country. So convinced was he of the excellence of
Wycliffe's work and writings, that once in the
presence of the archbishop he is said to have ex
claimed, that he hoped his soul would be where
that of Magister John Wycliffe was. In this favour
able judgment of Wycliffe, he and his friends were
greatly confirmed by a document dated October 5th,
1406, under the seal, and issued in the name of
the University of Oxford, which had been procured
by some of Wycliffe's disciples there, and which
bore testimony to his virtuous life and orthodoxy,
expressly refuting the stories that he had been

94 JOHN HUS.

condemned for heresy, and that his body had been
given to the flames after his death. This document
was brought from Oxford to Prague by two students,
one of whom, Nicholas Faulfisch, also brought
with him a piece of stone from Wycliffe's tomb at
Lutterworth. The decree of the University of
Prague, in 1403, prohibiting the enunciation of
certain articles extracted from the writings of
Wycliffe, did not hinder their being read or their
ever increasing circulation in Bohemia.
But however great was the value set by Hus
upon Wycliffe as a Christian teacher, an "Evan
gelical Doctor," or as the "Doctor of deep thoughts,"
as he terms him in his Bohemian writings, yet he
was no blind follower of his teaching. Selecting
from his books whatever he thought to be true and
useful, he endeavoured withal, like Mathias of
Janow and Thomas of Stitny, to remain at one
with the doctrines of the Catholic Church. The
opinion of Wycliffe, that the substance of bread and
wine remained in the sacrament of the altar after
consecration, was never at any time maintained
or defended, but was always expressly and defini
tively rejected by Hus. Like Mathias of Janow,
Hus ascribed the highest value and weight to Holy
Scripture, as the most certain and infallible rule of
Christian doctrine; but he did not reject to the
same extent as Wycliffe the traditions of the Church
and the teaching of the fathers, but acknowledged
that Holy Scripture ought to be explained in ac
cordance with them. Neither did Hus agree with

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 95
Mathias of Janow in every respect, expressing
himself on many points with much greater mode
ration. For instance, the honour paid to images
and to holy relics was never so sharply condemned
by Hus as by Mathias, nor did Hus coincide with
him and with Wycliffe in their absolute condemna
tion of monastic orders.
It was never Hus's aim to discover novelties in
Christian doctrine, but rather by Christian teach
ing to educate the people, and thus to engraft
correct conceptions of it in them. For that purpose
it was requisite to eradicate erroneous notions,
which had never been in accordance with the teach
ing of the Church, but in which the depraved and
degraded clergy had been only too glad to leave and
encourage the laity. Hence it was that Hus found
abundance to do at first as a preacher and after
wards as a writer. In Hus's time the priests were
in the habit of boasting of their superiority to the
Virgin Mary, because she only once conceived and
bore the Saviour, whereas every priest both could
and did create Him daily. Hus treated all such
sayings as silly blasphemies. The priests boasted
that at their will they forgave and retained men's
sins, and that thus they sent whom they would to
heaven and whom they would to hell. But Hus
taught that the priest did not himself remit sins,
but that God remitted them by the agency of the
priest, even if an unworthy one ; yea, that circum
stances might occur under which remission might
be had even without priestly absolution. The

96 JOHN HUS.

priests took payment for hearing confessions, and
granted absolution on easier terms for money.
But Hus warned the people that absolution was
not valid, without honest sorrow for sin, without
the intention of amendment of hfe, and without
making proper satisfaction. The priests raised no
objection against, but rather encouraged the people
in, excessive reliance on purchased prayers and
masses, on the intercession of saints, on pilgrim
ages to miraculous localities, and on gifts to eccle
siastical foundations, as means of obtaining salva
tion. But Hus warned his hearers against such
notions, and admonished them that salvation was
not to be had without loving God above everything
and one's neighbour as one's self.
" Robbers and usurers," said he, " and other wicked acquirers
of wealth, do greatly deceive themselves in thinking to please
God by getting much wickedly and giving a little to the poor,
or by endowing altars and chaplains." " He who gives a single
halfpenny for God's service, while alive and well, profits his
soul more than if, after death, he were to give as much gold as
would reach from earth to heaven." " He who endures one
contrary word profits his soul more than if he were to break as
many rods on his back as could grow in the largest forest."
" He who humbles himself to the meanest man profits his soul
more than if he were to go on pilgrimages from one end of the
world to the other." " He who sheds one tear for his sins
profits his soul more than if, after death, he were to weep till
two rivers flowed from his eyes." " He who holds the Lord
God dearer than all the creation profits his soul more than if the
Mother of God with all the saints were to intercede for him."
Such expressions exhibit to the full the working
of Hus amongst and upon his countrymen. And

HT3 Df FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITHS. 97
he taught net only by word bat by example. Not
that he devoted himself with the self-abnegation of
Milicz to the direct performance of works of Chris
tian charity, but that his private life was such that
his greatest enemies and adversaries were never
able to discover anything to east in his teeth.
While urging others to a life of morality, he avoided
himself the slightest approach to immorality, which
was the great scandal of the day amongst the
clergy ; and while blaming others for their thirst
for promotion and preferment, he remained content
with the scanty income obtained from the endow
ment of Bethlehem and his occupations in the
university. But these qualities gained little recognition
among the dominant class of the clergy of the day,
but were looked upon in Hus with the same aver
sion with which they had formerly been looked
upon in Milicz. Thus the favour which Hus en
joyed with the archbishop, and the archbishop's
goodwill towards himself and his work, were a
thorn in the flesh to the clergy of the opposite
party, and they accordingly sought to undermine
one who was a living and perpetual reproof to
them. They found the wished-for opportunity in
the delight with which Hus and his party studied
the works of Wycliffe. As the archbishop himself
paid little attention to their hints, the matter was
taken up in an underhand manner by some of the
dignitaries connected with the cathedral, and in
formation was sent to the papal curia, that the
H

98 JOHN HUS.

Wycliffite heresy was being disseminated in Bohe
mia. Thus, as early as June 24th, 1405, Pope
Innocent VII. issued a bull to the Archbishop of
Prague, in which he exhorted him to be diligent
in extirpating those errors. This bull produced
no immediate effect, and the kindly feeling of the
archbishop towards Hus remained unaltered. But
all Hus's friends, who studied the works of Wycliffe,
were not so careful and circumspect in their accept
ance of his sentiments as himself. In particular
Stanislas of Znaym and Stephen Palecz took up
some of the opinions of Wycliffe, which had been
expressly condemned. Stanislas was not satisfied
with maintaining in private conversations that the
substance of bread remained in the sacrament of
the altar after consecration, but endeavoured to
induce Hus to embrace the same view, and com
posed a treatise in which he indirectly defended
Wycliffe's doctrine. This treatise he read aloud in
his room in the Carolinum on February 9th, 1406,
at which Hus's co-preacher at Bethlehem, John
Stiekna, took offence and laid an information
against it as erroneous, in the archbishop's court.
Stanislas at first thought little of this, and declared
that Stiekna would soon be obliged to ask his
pardon on bended knee ; but the archbishop, no
doubt fearing to fall into discredit at Bome, issued
a citation against Stanislas, who helped himself out
of the difficulty by stating on oath that his treatise
was still unfinished.
This was probably the reason why, at the synod

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 99
in 1406, the archbishop issued an order, strictly
enjoining it to be taught, that the substance of
bread did not remain in the host after consecra
tion, but only the true Body of Christ ; nor the sub
stance of wine after the consecration of the chalice,
but only the Blood of Christ. WThoever taught or
argued otherwise was under pain of excommunica
tion to be presented to the archbishop for punish
ment as a heretic. In the course of 1407 several
persons, both clerical and lay, were cited and ques
tioned on these points, but all gave answers more
or les3 satisfactory, and were released. And we
may infer that the good understanding between
Hus and the archbishop had not suffered thereby,
from the fact that Hus was the preacher at the
synod held on October 18th, 1407.
But soon afterwards a change appears to have
taken place. No doubt the thoughtlessness of some
of Hus's friends and partizans enabled his enemies
to bring him under a superficial suspicion of heresy
with the archbishop, whose scanty theological
knowledge did not enable him to form an indepen
dent judgment. The archbishop had also been
again cited by the papal curia under the new pope
at Bome, Gregory XII., to whom it had been repre
sented, that there were sectaries in Bohemia who
entertained Wycliffite views of the sacrament of the
altar ; nay, that King Wenceslas himself was pro
tecting certain of them in their errors contrary to
ecclesiastical law. This incensed the king, who
did not choose to put up with any such evil report,

100 JOHN HUS.

and demanded that a searching investigation should
take place for the purpose of clearing his kingdom
from the charge. He also expressed his firm reso
lution to punish even with burning to death any
who should be really convicted of heresy. Thus in
1408 several persons were cited before the arch
bishop's court on the charge of holding Wycliffe's
forbidden doctrines.
There is some ground for inferring, that the
chapel Bethlehem was now made a special object of
attack by Hus's enemies. At any rate, after six
teen years had elapsed since its foundation, the
merchant Kriz, as its only surviving founder, pre
sented a petition at Bome, praying, that for the
greater encouragement of pious people who enter
tained a special affection for it and visited it in
great numbers, its foundation might also receive
papal confirmation. No doubt it required protec
tion against the unfriendly feeling of the arch
bishop's court, from which it had as yet received
its only confirmation. And in fact Kriz did ob
tain from the pope a bull of very laudatory tenour
respecting the special dedication of the chapel to
the preaching of the Word of God in the Bohemian
language, in which the pope commissioned Arch
bishop Zbynek, if the fact were as the petitioner
asserted, to confirm the foundation with apostolic
authority. This bull unfortunately arrived at
Prague just when the archbishop's court was pro
ceeding with increased severity against people
suspected of Wycliffism, and when the archbishop

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 101
was already beginning to be prejudiced against the
entire tendency of Hus and his adherents. Thus
the foundation of the chapel never received the
desired confirmation.
Mathias of Knin, apparently a pupil of Stanis
las of Znaym, who presented him for his magister's
degree in 1404, was one of those accused of Wy-
cliffism. Although the offence had not been defini
tively proved against him, yet he was cast into the
archbishop's prison and ordered to recant the doc
trine of Wycliffe as to the sacrament of the altar, and
to purge himself by the testimony of four witnesses.
On May 14th, 1408, the archbishop sat in judgment
in his palace in the Kleinseite in a large assembly
of magisters, doctors and others. The accused at
first defended himself, asking what could be the
meaning of the recantation of error or heresy on
the part of an unconvicted person ? But the gene
ral vicar, John Kbel.'said to him : " Thou must
recant heresy, even though thou hast never held it."
And finally the archbishop addressed the prisoner
himself with military brevity in the words : " Cease
talking, magister ! thou wilt either recant or stay
here in my prison." After this Mathias took the
oath of abjuration, and purged himself by means of
the four witnesses as required.
Six days afterwards, on May 20th, a meeting of
the Bohemian " nation " in the university was held,
no doubt at the instance of King Wenceslas and
Archbishop Zbynek, who wanted to know its opinion
respecting the forty-five articles extracted from the

102 JOHN HUS.

books of Wycliffe, which had five years previously
been condemned by the whole university. At this
meeting seventy-four magisters took part in the
proceedings, and the audience consisted of one hun
dred and fifty bachelors and about one thousand
Bohemian students. It was unanimously resolved
that the said articles were not to be held or defended
by any member of the Bohemian "nation" "in
their heretical, erroneous or offensive sense," under
penalty of expulsion. It was also resolved, that the
perusal of Wycliffe's "Dialogus " and " Trialogus,"
and of his treatise on the sacrament of the altar,
should be prohibited to students who had not
taken a degree. Hus was present and voted for
the above resolutions, neither did any of his friends
in anywise oppose them. The addition of the
words, "in then- heretical, erroneous or offensive
sense," satisfied the consciences of those, who failed
to find in Wycliffe's books the meaning assigned to
them by their censurers.
These resolutions were communicated to the
archbishop, but did not suffice to revive in him his
former favourable feelings towards the party of
reform. Its enemies began now to make other
charges against it than that of holding erroneous
doctrines. They complained of the mischievous
nature and evil effect of sermons preached at
Prague or elsewhere in the diocese, in which the
life and conversation of " prelates," i.e. ecclesias
tical dignitaries, and other ecclesiastics were cen
sured. This also was ascribed to Wycliffite teaching.

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 103
For this reason, at the special summer synod of
the year (June 29th, 1408), |the archbishop not
only caused the previous decree respecting the
doctrine required to be taught as regards the sacra
ment of the altar to be proclaimed anew, but also
prohibited any condemnatory remarks to be mado
on the clergy in sermons addressed to the laity.
He at the same time issued an order, that all
doctors, magisters, bachelors, students, priests, or
others, possessing copies of Wycliffe's works, were
to deposit them in the treasurer's office in the
episcopal palace by St. Procop's day in that year,
to be examined. The singing of divers new hymns
in churches was also prohibited.
Very soon afterwards two priests were inhibited
from preaching in Prague without having any
special appointment. One of these, Nicholas of
Velenovitz, surnamed Abraham, on being cited by
the vicar general and told that he had no right to
preach without the archbishop's licence, appealed
to his vocation as a priest, and went so far as to
assert, that not only priests, but even laymen were
permitted to proclaim the gospel. The vicar
general exclaimed, that this was an heretical opinion,
and imprisoned him, with a view to a fresh hearing
by the inquisitors, Jaroslaw, Bishop of Sarepta, a
Minorite, and the Dominican Maurice Bvaczka, a
Professor of Theology. Abraham was, according to
custom, required before his hearing to make oath
to speak the truth ; he was willing enough to swear
by the living God, but scrupled at swearing on the

104 JOHN HUS.

gospels and the crucifix. Hus entered just at this
moment, intending to be a spectator of the trial,
and interceded for Abraham, appealing to a state
ment of Chrysostom's, that it was a greater matter
to swear by God than by a creature. John Kbel,
the vicar general, immediately interrupted him,
saying : " Ha, magister ! thou art here to hear, not
to interfere."
Hus took occasion from this to write a letter to
Archbishop Zbynek, in which he appealed to his
former commission to make known to the arch
bishop defects in the government of the Church,
and represented to him that it was not right thus
to persecute meek priests, diligent in the discharge
of their duties, who did not go after covetousness,
but worked gratuitously in preaching the Word of
God, while the licentious and ill-conducted walked
at liberty and gave themselves haughty airs with
impunity. He did not, he said, ascribe this to the
archbishop himself, but to the malignity of others,
meaning thereby the then officials of the consistory
court. This letter produced no effect, and the arch
bishop remained under the influence of his anti-
reforming advisers. Still, as the investigations
hitherto made had not convicted any one of obsti
nate maintenance of heresy, the archbishop caused
it to be solemnly announced at an extraordinary
synod on July 17th, that by the permission and at
the desire of King Wenceslas he had made careful
inquiry in Prague and in the diocese and province of
Prague, but had not found and could not find any

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 105

heterodox person or heretic. Nevertheless he per
sisted in his edict as to giving up the copies of the
books of Wycliffe, and in confirming the decrees of
the previous synod, which were aimed at preachers
of Hus's tendency. His intention was to cause all
Wycliffe's works, in which errors were discovered,
to be burnt, and he therefore sent word of the state
of matters in Bohemia to Pope Gregory XII., re
questing special authorization for the purpose.
The archbishop's orders naturally produced an
unfavourable feeling towards him in the minds of
the reforming section of the clergy ; still they
almost all obeyed and gave up their copies of Wy
cliffe's books. Hus did so himself, paying a per
sonal visit to the archbishop, and after giving up
his books, requesting him to note aught erroneous
that he found in them, and promising to draw
public attention to the error. Five students alone
determined to take up an attitude of resistance, and
not only refused to give up their copies, but also
ventured to appeal to the pope. They complained
of the order to give up the books as a violation of
the rights and liberties of the university, and
accused the archbishop's edict, as to the doctrine to
be taught respecting the sacrament of the altar, of
error and even of heresy, arguing that its express
tenour, that after consecration nothing remained in
the host but the Body of Christ, and nothing in the
chalice but the Blood of Christ, was incorrect, since,
according to the doctrine of the Church, both the
Body and Blood of Christ were in each kind. More-

106 JOHN HUS.

over, on August 5th, placards were posted early in
the morning, condemnatory of the archbishop and
canons, and also of certain Bohemian magisters,
who had not been in accord with the rest.
A friend of Hus's, Magister Marek of Hradetz,
one of the three professors of the Faculty of Arts and
a Canon of Prague, went to Bome as legal represen
tative of the appealing students. After some time he
was excommunicated by Archbishop Zbynek, and
deprived of his stall in the cathedral, yet was not
thereby deterred from sympathizing with the party
of Hus. Nor was it any advantage to Hus that he
had personally taken no part in the demonstrations
against the archbishop. Emboldened by the arch
bishop's prohibition of preaching respecting the
state of the clergy, Hus's adversaries filed a formal
complaint against him in the name of the clergy
of the city and diocese of Prague, accusing him
generally of preaching mischievous sermons,
whereby the people were rendered more antago
nistic to the priesthood than heretofore, and in par
ticular bringing two matters against him from a
sermon preached a year previously, on July 17th,
1407, and therefore before the last year's synod, at
which he had been appointed preacher by the arch
bishop himself. One was, that he had made men
tion in the sermon of Canon Peter of Vseroby, then
deceased, who had been a mighty pluralist, hold
ing four canonries and an archdeaconry by special
favour of the pope. In urging the people to pray
for his soul, Hus had warned the numerous clergy

HUS IN FAVOUR WITH THE AUTHORITIES. 107
present against avaricious thirsting for benefices,
and declared that he would not accept the whole
world on condition of dying in possession of such
and so many preferments. The other was, that he
had laid down the position, that it was simony,
and therefore heresy, in a priest to require aught
from the people, especially from the poor, for the ad
ministration of the sacraments, or for performance
of the burial service ; for in that case — argued the
complainants — every incumbent must be a heretic.
Never was a more irrefragable proof of the decline
of respect for ecclesiastical law among the mass of
the clergy. For the statement which the framers
of the plaint brought as a serious charge against
Hus was a mere repetition of the tenour of Article
65 of the provincial statutes of Archbishop Arnost,
who died in 1364 !

108 JOHN HUS.

CHAPTEE IV.
SECESSION OF THE GEE1TAN ELE1IEXT IN THE ITNTVEB-
SITT. CONTEST BETWEEN THE KING AXD THE
ARCHBISHOP.
Both popes — Gregory XII., the Pope at Bome, and
Benedict XIH., the Pope at Avignon — were now
forsaken by their cardinals, who united into one
college, and in June, 1408, convoked a general
council to meet at Pisa, on March 25th in the
following year. They entreated all kings and
princes, especially King Wenceslas of Bohemia, to
aid them in their endeavours to end the great
schism, and reform the Church in head and mem
bers, begging them, until a final decision should
be come to by the council, to observe a strict neu
trality between the rival claimants of the popedom.
Wenceslas was travelling in Lusatia and Silesia,
some time in September, when the letter of the
cardinals reached him. He summoned the Silesian
princes and other prominent laymen and clerics to
meet him for consultation in November at Breslau,

SECESSION OF THE GERMAN MAGISTERS. 109
and on the 24th of that month replied to the
cardinals, that it was his intention to act in
accordance with their request, and to send his
ambassadors to the council, provided that they
recognized him as the rightful King of the Eomans,
and engaged to treat his ambassadors accordingly.
For further negotiation he accredited to them
Magister John "Cardinal" of Eeinstein, a friend
of Hus, by whom he had been presented for the
degree of M.A. in 1404. It would seem that
Wenceslas also consulted the principal Bohemian
magisters in the University of Prague respecting
this matter, and that the proceedings of the
cardinals met with their decided approval ; but the
date of his so doing is not ascertained. No doubt
it must have caused joy and enthusiasm in their
hearts, when the long-desired reform in the Church
was publicly made the end and object of a general
council. But for that very reason the adversaries of
reform, dreading the loss of tlreir gainful simoniacal
practices and voluptuous mode of life, rose up in
opposition, and led Archbishop Zbynek into resist
ance to the views of King Wenceslas, as soon as
the question of the adhesion of the Bohemian clergy
to the neutrality requested by the cardinals came
upon the tapis.
Shortly after St. Gallus's day (October 15th),
1408, two friends of Hus, Stanislas of Znaym and
Stephen of Palecz, preceded Magister John Cardinal
to Italy with a commission of some kind from the
king. By orders of the legate, Cardinal Balthazar

110 JOHN HUS.

Cossa, they were arrested at Bologna, their property
taken from them, and themselves cast into prison
as suspected heretics. This was doubtless the
result of the intrigues of their enemies at home,
the legate, in hopes of future elevation, being a
staunch supporter of the united cardinals, and thus
having no special reason for unfavourable feeling
towards Bohemians. Stanislas had already been
entangled with the archbishop's court on account
of his treatise on the sacrament of the altar, and
this was the principal charge brought against him
at Bologna. On hearing of their imprisonment,
Hus and others exerted themselves in then- favour,
and a formal letter was sent by the university
under the seal of the rector, on December 5th,
to the cardinals at Pisa, petitioning for then-
liberation. Not long afterwards King Wenceslas quitted
Breslau and came to Kuttenberg. He had required
the university to express its opinion as to the
question of neutrality between the rival popes, in
order to get over the difficulties raised by the arch
bishop in that respect. In the meeting convoked for
the purpose, the magisters of the Bohemian "nation"
delivered then- opinions in entire accordance with
the king's wishes, while the other three "nations"
opposed them. The three "nations" were undoubt
edly in the majority, but the rector, Hening of Bal-
tenhagen, did not venture on direct contradiction
to the king's will, and the meeting dispersed with
out coming to any definite conclusion. The Bohe-

SECESSION OF THE GERMAN MAGISTERS. Ill
mian magisters adhered to their opinion, and Hus in
particular exerted himself personally with the nobles
and others in high station, as well as by sermons
addressed to both clergy and laitj'-, to procure general
acceptance of neutrality between the popes in the
interest of the unity of the Church, without, how
ever, asking for further renunciation of obedience
to Gregory XII., than so far as concerned his dis
pute with the rival" pope. But Archbishop Zbynek
saw in this an offence against obedience to the
Church, and punished it by suspending Hus and
all magisters of the university, who had expressed
themselves in favour of neutrality, from the per
formance of all priestly duties in his diocese. Hus
wrote a letter to the archbishop on the subject,
explaining his views on the question, but it is not
known with what result.
Meanwhile the variance between the "nations"
in the university became more pronounced, the
Bohemian "nation," as it ripened more and more
to self-consciousness, feeling the predominance of
the other three "nations" an intolerable grievance.
To understand the situation fully we must recur to
the foundation of the university. The aims of the
Emperor Charles IV. in founding the University of
Prague by a " golden bull," in 1348, were rather
dynastic and imperial than national and patriotic.
As Paris was the great university of the Langues
d'oc et d'oil, so did Charles design that Prague should
become the great university of the German empire,
and of all nations lying on its borders, which might

112 JOHN HUS.

some day be incorporated with it. He therefore
divided it into four "nations," in all but one of
which the German element became practically
dominant, owing to the large and populous German
towns, like Breslau, in districts otherwise Slavonic.
These "nations," each of whom had an equal voice,
were (1) the Bohemian, including the Moravians,
Hungarians, and South Slavonians ; (2) the Ba
varian, including the Austrians, Swabians, Fran-
conians, and Ehinelanders ; (3) The Polish, including
the Silesians, Lithuanians, and Bussians ; and (4)
the Saxons, containing the people of Meissen, of
Thuringia, of Upper and Lower Saxony, the Danes
and the Swedes. This arrangement was successful
enough, so long as Prague was the capital and the
King of Bohemia the head of the German empire,
but it was manifestly unsuited to the state of things
that arose after the deposition of Wenceslas in
1400. The foundation of the University of Cracow
in Poland in the same year had also a disastrous
effect upon that of Prague, reducing, as it did, the
Polish "nation " there almost entirely to Germans
from Silesia, Prussia, and Pomerania, so that the
Bohemian "nation" had now to contend against
what had practically become three thoroughly
Teutonic bodies.
The accounts we have of the proceedings that
took place are extremely fragmentary, and we do
not know who it was that originated the idea of
upsetting the hitherto existing relations and placing
preponderating power in the hands of natives.

SECESSION OF THE GERMAN MAGISTERS. 113
Thus much, however, is certain, that among the
Bohemian magisters Hus came prominently for
ward in the matter, and that the principal "favour
ites " of King Wenceslas exerted themselves to carry
it through, probably considering it the most con
venient mode of fulfilling the king's wish to obtain
the approval of the university for the position of
neutrality between the rival popes. In understand
ing with the "favourites," Hus sought first of all
to secure unanimity on the point in the Bohemian
"nation" itself, whatever might be the views of its
members in other respects. In particular he con
ferred with Magister Andrew of Brod, and asked
him seriously whether he considered the measure
a righteous one. Andrew gave a decided assent
and inquired of Hus in turn, whether any liberator
was to be found for them. Hus replied: "I hope
we shall have a liberator," meaning probably
Nicholas of Prague, one of the king's privy council
lors and chief secretary of the king's revenues at
Kuttenberg, to whom the eventual fulfilment of the
wishes of the Bohemian magisters was mainly due.
It is pretty clear that, after private conferences of
this nature, a resolution was come to by the entire
fcody of the Bohemian "nation" to address a peti
tion to the king to the above effect ; and also that
the German magisters took counsel together to
bring the plans of the Bohemians to nought.
Very early in 1409, an embassy from the King
of France came to King Wenceslas at Kuttenberg,
charged with the duty of negotiating with him respect-

114 JOHN HUS.

ing the proposed renunciation of obedience to both
popes. Wenceslas summoned the rector of the
university and the principal magisters of all four
"nations" to consultation on this important subject.
Amongst these were the Professors of Theology, John
Elias and Andrew of Brod, and also John Hus and
his younger friend Jerome of Prague. It would
seem that the French ambassadors laid their case
before the king in presence of the magisters, whose
opinion was then requested by his majesty. It was
now no longer possible to conceal the difference of
opinion among them. The Bohemian magisters
approved, while the Germans opposed, the French
proposal. It is not known whether it was before
or after this, that the question of the alteration in
the constitution of the university, so earnestly
desired by the Bohemian "nation," was first taken
into consideration. On this occasion the German
magisters first entreated the king to protect them
in their ancient rights and privileges, which Wen
ceslas promised to do. Then, and not till then, did
the Bohemian magisters prefer their request, which
the king listened to in angry mood. Turning, it is
said, to Hus, he said to him angrily, that he and
his associate Jerome were continually creating dis
turbances ; if those whose duty it was did not look
to this, he would himself cause a fire to be kindled
for them. But ere long, through the intervention
of the king's councillors, matters took a different
turn, and Wenceslas fulfilled the desire of the
Bohemian magisters in overflowing measure. A

SECESSION OF THE GERMAN MAGISTERS. 115
royal decree, dated Kuttenberg, January 19th,
1409, was issued to the rector and the whole society
of the University of Prague, in which it was de
clared iniquitous and highly improper, that the
German " nation," possessing no native rights in
the land of Bohemia, should claim three votes in
all proceedings of the university, while the Bohe
mian "nation," the rightful inheritor of the land,
had hitherto possessed only one ; wherefore the king
ordained, that henceforth the Bohemian "nation"
should enjoy three votes in all consultations, trials,
examinations, elections, and all other acts and
proceedings whatsoever, even as the French nation
in the University of Paris, and other nations in
Lombardy and Italy in their several universities.
Hus received by a trusty hand a copy of the
king's letter before any one else. He had mean
while fallen seriously ill — some say from chagrin
at the reception he had met with from the king —
and the two professors, John Elias and Andrew
of Brod, came to visit him. Hus again put to
them the question whether they deemed it just
that the Bohemian nation should possess three
votes in the University of Prague? "God grant
it," said they, "but we shall never obtain it."
Then he showed them the copy of the royal letter,
the contents of which filled their hearts with un
expected comfort. Hus had at that time little
expectation of recovery, and exhorted them, should
he be called away, to exert themselves for the sake
of justice and for the liberation of their nation.

116 JOHN HUS.

Four days after the issue of this decree a royal
edict was also issued (January 22nd), from Kutten
berg, wherein all persons, especially spiritual
persons, of whatever office or dignity, were pro
hibited from either receiving or keeping in their
possession any documents from Pope Gregory
relating either to rights or favours, or from making
any payments to him, until the unity of the Church
was renewed ; and all royal officials, and also the
magistrates of cities, towns and villages, were com
manded to arrest and bring before the king every
one who disobeyed this ordinance. Wenceslas then
returned to Prague, and on February 16th, con
cluded a solemn agreement with Cardinal Landulf,
the legate commissioned by both colleges of
cardinals, in which he engaged to assist them in
their undertaking with all his power, to send his
ambassadors to the council to be held at Pisa,
and in every way to prevent obedience being paid
in any of his crown lands to Gregory XII. until
the final decision of the council. In return
Cardinal Landulf engaged, in the name of the
united cardinals, that the council would look to
Wenceslas as the only true King of the Eomans,
and in particular would assist him with all its
power for the humiliation of his rival in the
empire, the Elector Palatine, Euprecht. On March
4th, the king nominated an embassy, which was
to represent him with plenipotentiary powers at tho
council, and aid it in every way. At the head of
this was Wenceslas, Patriarch of Antioch, and

SECESSION OF THE GERMAN MAGISTERS. 117
amongst its subordinate members was a privy
councillor, Dr. John Naz (Nasus), a Doctor of Law
and Canon of Prague, of whom we shall hear more
hereafter. Meanwhile the royal decree respecting the three
votes had been publicly proclaimed in an assembly
of all four "nations" in the university on January
26th. The members of the three German "nations "
were naturally exasperated at its tenour, and re
solved not to rest contented under it. They entered
into an engagement together, rather to emigrate from
Prague than submit to the new order of things,
and bound themselves by an oath so to do, and
never more to return to the University of Prague,
under the fourfold penalty of the guilt of perjury,
excommunication, loss of honour, and a fine of
100 kops of groschen, but with the proviso, that
all exertions should be used both with the king
and with other persons of importance to obtain the
revocation of the decree. To this end they pre
sented, on February 6th, a written petition to King
Wenceslas, praying him to maintain them in the
ancient system, which they could not surrender
with honour, and representing to him that the
arrangement by which three votes were given to the
Bohemian "nation" was extremely grievous, yea,
intolerable to them, and that, if it remained in
force and validity, its result would be the ex
termination of their "nations" and the ruin of
the whole university. If, however, the Bohemian
"nation" considered it a detriment to itself that

118 JOHN HUS.

each of the three " nations " should be equal to it
as heretofore, they prayed the king to separate the
Bohemian "nation" from the rest, and asked that
the Bohemians might have a council and tribunals
of their own, and their own examinations and
elections, as also the other three " nations." In
consequence of this further negotiations began
between the parties at the king's court, on account
of which both Bohemian and German magisters
journeyed to the king at Zebrak and Tocznik,
whither he had gone from Prague in April. The
Germans rested their claims mainly upon old
custom and the long observed statutes of the
university, even accusing the Bohemian magisters
of perjury, on the ground that every member of the
university was required to swear to the observance
of the statutes. The Bohemians, on the other hand,
appealed to the king's inherent power of altering the
statutes as much as any other laws in the land ; to
the natural right of Bohemians to have precedence
in their own country, as the Germans had in their
own Universities of Vienna and Heidelberg, and
finally to the fact, " that, by God's help, the fulness
of time had come, when the Bohemian had multi
plied beyond the Teutonic magisters, and had risen
above the foreigners in every science and faculty; "
wherefore they contended, that what might have
been grounded in reason at the first beginnings of
the university was no longer adapted to present
circumstances. During these proceedings the German magisters

SECESSION OF THE GERMAN MAGISTERS. 119
hindered in every way the actual realization of
the new arrangements. In particular, when Lent
arrived, and with it the usual time of examination
for the B.A. degree, the Germans elected an ex
aminer from each "nation" according to the old
system. The Bohemians resisted, appealing to
their new right to three votes, and thus the exami
nation was prevented from taking place at all.
But the exertions of the German magisters with the
king and his council were eventually fruitless. It
would appear that a proposal was at one time made
to place natives and foreigners on an equal footing
in the university, so that the rector, the Dean of
the Faculty of Arts, and the examiners should be
chosen each half-year alternately from Bohemians
and foreigners, but it led to no result. On St.
George's day (April 23rd), 1409, the time came for
the election of the rector and the deans of faculties,
but the German magisters refused to submit to the
new system, and thus the elections became impos
sible. When more than a fortnight had elapsed
after the usual day of election, King Wenceslas
determined to fill up the vacant official positions in
the university by an extraordinary exercise of his
own authority. By the king's command a meeting
of the university was convoked on May 9th, which
was attended by Nicholas of Prague, as royal com
missioner, accompanied by the magistrates of the
Old Town. Almost all the magisters of all four
" nations " were present. The royal commissioner
first required the Lector, Hening of Baltenhagen,

120 JOHN HUS.

to deliver up to him the seal and matriculation
book of the university, as the insignia of the
rectorial office. This he did, it is said, through
fear, and Lord Nicholas then ordered a royal decree
to be read in the court of the Carolinum, by which
Zdenek of Labaun, a canon of Prague, Magister of
Arts, and Bachelor of Medicine, who was clerk
of the royal kitchen, was nominated rector of the
University, and Magister Simon of Tisnow, one of
Hus's younger followers, Dean of the Faculty of
Arts. No mention occurs in extant notices of the
deans of the other faculties or of the Faculty of
Law, which indeed formed a separate body in the
university, and was but slightly, if at all, affected
by the change of system. The German magisters
refused to submit to these nominations by royal
authority, while the Bohemians willingly recognized
them, and Nicholas of Prague without more ado
proceeded to institute the nominees of the crown
into their several offices.
The Germans now acted in accordance with their
oath. Magisters, Bachelors and Students sold
their goods and on an appointed day, shortly after
Ascension-day (May 16th), all quitted Prague, some
on foot, others on horseback or in vehicles, to the
number of several thousands. Exactitude as to
the details however is not to be obtained. iEneas
Sylvius, in his "History of Bohemia," informs us,
that two thousand left Prague in a single day, and
that these were followed ere long by three thousand
more, while a contemporary Bohemian annalist

SECESSION OF THE GERMAN MAGISTERS. 121
states that more than twenty thousand thus de
parted. Most of them migrated to Leipsic, where
in the course of the same year a new university
was founded by the Margraves of Meissen.
This event naturally caused great excitement in
Prague, and men's feelings varied a good deal.
The German inhabitants doubtless bewailed the
loss of the pecuniary advantages arising from such
numerous sojourners, many of whom were wealthy,
whereas the Bohemians saw therein an important
gain to the power and influence of their own
nationality. Hus, who had meanwhile recovered
from his illness, addressed his congregation at
Bethlehem on the subject, speaking of it as a joy
ful victory for Bohemia, and urging his hearers to
give especial thanks to Lord Nicholas for having
obtained this important concession from the king.
The king himself looked upon the conspiracy and
migration of the German professors as a crime,
not only against the university, but also against
himself and the realm, and by edict dated June
28th, pronounced their banishment at Zebrak and
nominated others to their places in the university
and colleges.
The results of these changes in both Bohemia
and Germany were great and important. Prague
had for half a century stood on a level with Paris
and Oxford, as one of the most influential universi
ties in Europe. Witness a letter from the Council
of Constance to King Sigismund in 1416 ! " That
splendid University of Prague," it runs, "was

122 JOHN HUS.

counted among the greater jewels of our world.
For of all the universities of the German nation it
bore not undeservedly the character of being the
greatest, flowing as there did to it from all the
realms and lordships of Almayne youths and men
of mature age, alike through love of virtue and
study, who, seeking the treasure of philosophy and
knowledge, found it there in abundance." All this
was gone at one fell swoop ; Prague was no longer
the intellectual capital of Germany, and intellect,
instead of being concentrated in one grand centre,
now shone in various focal points in the lands
inhabited by the Teutonic race, and developed itBelf
with greater freedom and diversity. On the other
hand, the idea of " Bohemia for the Bohemians ! "
became dominant throughout the realm, and with
it was united a great impulse towards the develop
ment of reforming views in matters ecclesiastical.
In fact the discontent of the sufferers in pocket by
the migration of the Germans was completely car
ried away by the great stream of Church-reforming
ideas, which took full possession of the minds of
the Bohemian people.
Meanwhile negotiations had been going on for
the release of the two captives at Bologna, Stanislas
of Znaym and Stephen of Palecz. King Wences
las's personal intercession, as well by letter ad
dressed to the cardinals, as by oral representations
made to them through his ambassador, John Car
dinal of Eeinstein, was eventually decisive in their
favour, and they were allowed to return home

CONTEST BETWEEN THE E3NG AND ARCHBISHOP. 123
shortly after the migration of the Germans from
the university. Stanislas, however, was previously
constrained to " complete " his " unfinished "
treatise, i.e. so to amend and alter it, that it was
adjudged to be free from error, a judgment which
was confirmed by the new pope elected by the
council, Alexander V.
Meanwhile also the difference between the king
and Archbishop Zbynek, as to withholding or not
withholding obedience from Gregory XH., had
caused great troubles and considerable excesses
against the clergy, not only in Prague, but also
throughout Bohemia. The Archbishop had re
fused to fall in with the edicts issued by the king
in understanding with the cardinals and their
plenipotentiaries at Prague, and the mass of the
clergy had followed his example. Several members
of the clerical body having suffered both in person
and property from the execution of the injunctions
of the royal edict, Archbishop Zbynek placed Prague
and its environs, to the distance of about nine
English miles, under an interdict. It would seem
that Hus and his friends disapproved of this inter
dict, and they unquestionably paid little or no
attention to it. After a sermon preached by Hus,
probably with especial reference to the subject, the
people rushed with outcries into the street and
crowded with threats to the archbishop's palace.
Though nothing worse took place, yet this was
probably the cause of the retirement of the arch
bishop from Prague to his country seat at Eaudnitz,

124 JOHN HUS.

whither, without the king's permission or know
ledge, he also conveyed the treasures usually kept
in the tomb of St. Wenceslas in the cathedral.
Irritated by this, the king proceeded to persecute
all ecclesiastics who joined the archbishop in resist
ing his orders, or who put a stop to Divine service
on account of the interdict. The estates and
revenues of those who had quitted Prague with the
archbishop were confiscated, and others were
assailed, not only by the officials of the towns, but
also by the common people, who bore them no
goodwill on account of their inveterate abuses.
Some were robbed, others insulted in various ways ;
some were dragged out of their houses half -naked
along with their concubines and placed in the
pillory ; mud was thrown at them, they were ducked
or hunted with ignominy out of the towns, and
many laymen also, who took their part, were mal
treated and banished from the different com
munities. Although the new pope, Alexander V., had been
elected by the council of Pisa in June, yet this
persecution of the clergy in Bohemia did not reach
its height till the latter part of July (1409), owing,
no doubt, to the refusal of Archbishop Zbynek to
recognize the pope approved and supported by
the council. But, finding public opinion and
royal power combined against him, he at length
ceased his impotent resistance with no little loss in
influence raid estimation. After consulting his
suffragans, his chapter and other spiritual persons,

CONTEST BETWEEN THE KING AND ARCHBISHOP. 125
he, on September 2nd, issued an ordinance to the
clergy of his diocese, announcing his adhesion to
Alexander V., as regularly elected and acknow
ledged by the majority of the Church after the
deposition of the two preceding popes by a general
council. Upon this the bells were rung, and a "Te
Deum " sung at Prague, and on the next day the
public joy was expressed by bonfires in front of the
houses in all the streets, to the number of full six
hundred, and by a procession on horseback headed
by the burgomaster and magistrates in the evening
with festive music.

126 JOHN HUS.

CHAPTEE V.
JOHN HUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS AT VARIANCE WITH
ARCHBISHOP ZBYNEK.
The half-year for which Magister Zdenek of Labaun
had been appointed rector of the university by the
king, was now drawing to a close. He therefore on
September 27th, 1409, convoked a meeting of the
magisters, in which it was resolved, that the royal
decree respecting the three votes of the Bohemian
"nation" should be entered in the statute-books,
and that all that was not in accordance with it in
the existing institutions of the university should
henceforth be null and void. A new mode of elect
ing the rector of the three faculties was therefore
instituted, which was to rest, as aforetime, on the
basis of the division of the university into four
"nations;" but the Bohemian "nation" was to
choose three electors, and the others together cue ,•
and if the votes of these electors were equally
divided, the outgoing rector was to have a casting
vote. These resolutions were announced and ap-

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 127
proved in a full assembly of the university on
October 13th, and immediately afterwards, on St.
Gallus's day, October 15th, Hus was the first
rector chosen under the new system for the half-
year ending on St. George's day, 1410.
With this renewed elevation to the highest dignity
in the University of Prague began for Hus a period
of ever-increasing troubles on the path of public life,
from which scarce any respite was granted him till
he finally underwent a martyr's death. The en
deavours for the reform of the Church, to which,
after the example of the noblest spirits of several
preceding centuries, he had devoted all his powers,
might to a great extent have attained their end in
Bohemia in peaceful and legal wise, had the highest
authorities of the Church in the realm interested
themselves therein, in the way in which they
seemed about to do at the commencement of the
Archbishopric of Zbynek Zajitz of Hasenburg. But
all hope thereof vanished with the change of senti
ment on the part of the ignorant and ill-informed
Archbishop, who allowed himself to be drawn by
contrary counsels from the good path which he had
begun to tread. The injuries and insults which
the archbishop and his clergy experienced in their
ill-advised attempt to resist and upset the council
of Pisa, exasperated them still more against Hus
and his adherents, who had placed themselves in
an attitude of opposition to them. Unquestionably
Hus, amongst others, had disregarded the prohibi
tion of the performance of priestly duties, which

128 JOHN HUS.

the archbishop had issued at the beginning of the
dispute. Self-evident, too, it is that, when the arch
bishop was compelled to give in his adhesion to
Alexander V., and thus approve what he had pre
viously condemned, the right of punishing those
who had supported the winning cause must neces
sarily fall to the ground. But Archbishop Zbynek's
advisers ere long devised more effective means of
persecuting their adversaries, in order to liberate
themselves from the annoyance of those adversaries'
persistent exertions in the cause of reform. And
although Hus had steadily rejected those doctrines
of Wycliffe, which had been condemned by the
Church, yet it was Wycliffism that must serve as
a weapon against him ; he and his friends must be
branded with suspicion of heresy, as restless and
dangerous people, in order that this plague-spot
might cleave to all their endeavours, endeavours
which the archbishop had but a short time ago him
self commended and supported.
Hus had, immediately after the presentation of
the complaint of the clergy against him in 1408,
addressed to the archbishop an answer in writing to
the accusations contained therein; but it is not
known how far this was considered satisfactory or
sufficient at the time. When about a year had
elapsed, and the archbishop had ceased his resist
ance to the pope elected by the council of Pisa, he
once more ordered Hus to justify himself with
regard to the charges already made, and also
others newly brought against him, before Magister

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 129
Maurice Evaczka, the inquisitor. These latter con
sisted of statements extracted from confidential
conversations held nine and ten years ago, in the
parsonage of St. Michael's, and in the house of
Wenceslas the cupmaker, whence it was en
deavoured to prove that Hus had accepted Wy
cliffe's teaching as to the sacrament of the altar,
and also the doctrine, that a priest in mortal sin
does not make the sacrament. These things were
brought forward against him by his predecessor in
the preachership at Bethlehem, the priest Jan
Protiva of Novaves, who had in 1407 exchanged
his benefice of Bystritz for that of St. Clement at
Porzicz, a suburb of Prague, and had thenceforth
been living in Prague. This man regularly attended
Hus's sermons at Bethlehem, and carefully marked
what he saw, in order to find occasion against him.
One day Hus noticed him, as he sate with head
bent down, in a grey mantle, and concealing his
face with his cowl, and called out to him from
the pulpit in the midst of an explanation of the
difference between the laws of God and the laws of
men : " Write that down, cowled monk ! and carry
it over to yon side," i.e. to the archbishop's palace
on the Kleinseite, on the other side of the river.
In these complaints what Hus had said at the
synod of 1405 against taking payment for the
administration of the sacraments, was also brought
as a charge against him, although it had then been
publicly approved by the vicar general himself.
And his preaching at Bethlehem was accused of
K

130 JOHN HUS.

seducing people from their appointed spiritual
pastors, whereas they ought to remain in their own
parishes, and there receive instruction respecting
the laws of Christ. Hus was therefore called upon
to prove his right to preach to people belonging to
other clergy, to perform Divine service, and to ad
minister the sacraments in his chapel. This was a
strange requirement to emanate from the arch
bishop's chancery, such right being entirely
indubitable, both by the foundation of the chapel
Bethlehem itself, and by the archbishop's con
firmation thereof. Finally, from the part taken by
Hus on the question of the three votes of the Bohe
mian " nation " in the university, a charge was also
made against him of causing discord between the
Bohemians and Germans.
Hus not only gave the answer requisite for his
justification at a hearing appointed by the arch
bishop, but also refuted the charges of heresy, and
of inciting the Bohemians against the Germans, by a
kind of public declaration. He appealed especially
to his hearers at Bethlehem to bear witness that he
had always taught the contrary of the Wychffite
doctrine respecting the sacrament of the altar.
Archbishop Zbynek, however, and his advisers paid
no heed thereto, but in order to strengthen then- hands
for the campaign against him and his tendencies,
sent a deputation to Pope Alexander V., provided, it
is said, with rich and abundant presents. After the
delivery of these, it was stated to the pope that in
Prague and in the realm of Bohemia, in the Mar-

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 131
gravate of Moravia, and also in certain other lands,
the hearts of many were infected with the erroneous
articles of John Wycliffe, and especially with his
doctrine respecting the sacrament of the altar, so
that it was requisite to make use of a swift remedy,
and as such remedy it was suggested, that, without
regard to any right or privilege to the contrary, no
preaching should be allowed, save in cathedral, col
legiate, parish, or conventual churches. This was
specially aimed at Hus, whose chapel Bethlehem did
not belong to any of the four classes thus enume
rated, although there was as yet no pretext for in
hibiting him personally from preaching. This depu
tation was headed by Jaroslaw, Bishop of Sarepta.
Archbishop Zbynek had hitherto enjoyed no
great favour at the court of Alexander V., through
having so long refused to recognize him and submit
to his authority. To this we must ascribe the fact,
that the appeal of the five students made against
him in the previous year had not been altogether
without effect. It had apparently been delivered
by Magister Marek of Hradetz to Pope Alexander
shortly after his election. The pope had placed it
in the hands of one of his " auditors," whom he
had empowered to cite the Archbishop of Prague
for trial. This citation was actually issued on
December 8th, 1409, and the archbishop was there
by required to appear personally at the papal court.
But his ambassadors, who arrived meanwhile, soon
turned the current into a direction advantageous to
the archbishop. So that twelve days afterwards

132 JOHN HUS.

(Docember 20th), Popo Aloxandcr issued a bull, in
which he revoked his previous decroo against tho
archbishop, and commissioned him to tako four
magistors in thoology and two doctors of ecclesias
tical law as assessors, and, in accordance with their
opinion, to prohibit the enunciation of tho errone
ous articlos, by virtuo of tho apostolic authority,
with which he investod him ; to forbid all preach
ing in any other places whatsoever, save and excopt
the four classes of churches aforesaid ; to require
Wycliffe's books to bo given up to him by all who
possessed them, "that they might bo removed from
the eyes of the faithful ; " and to proceed against all
who resisted any portion of this decree by penal
measures to tho exclusion of all further right of
appeal. Pope Alexander's bull did not arrive at Praguo —
owing probably to the bad state of tho roads in tho
winter — till about March 9th. Archbishop Zbynek
immediately appointed the prescribed commission
of four magisters in thoology and two doctors
of law, to examino tho writings of Wycliffe. Ah
soon as Hus became cognizant of tho tenour of the
bull, he appealed to tho popo against it, disre
garding tho prohibition of so doing contained in
the bull itself. lie grounded his appeal on tho
fact that the pope was ill-informed, no one in
Bohemia having yet boon convicted of having obsti
nately and contumaciously adhered to Wycliffe's
doctrines — yea, it being in direct opposition to the
public declaration of tho nrehbisbop at tho synod

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 133
of 1408, that he had not found any one holding
error in Prague or elsewhere in Bohemia. There
was, of course, no doubt from the first that the
magisters and doctors appointed by the archbishop
would consider the books erroneous and heretical.
In accordance with their report, and in concert
with his suffragans and with the dean and chapter of
Prague, as well as other dignitaries, the archbishop
caused his sentence to be proclaimed at the St.
Vitus synod (June 10th), whereby all the writings of
Wycliffe, that had been given up to him "to be
removed from the eyes of the faithful," were to
be burned with fire ; the five students, who had
appealed against the surrender of the books, and
their legal representative, as also all others who had
hitherto refrained from giving up their copies and
who had kept their possession of them secret, were
warned to surrender them within six days ; defend
ing and teaching Wycliffe's errors, especially those
respecting the sacrament of the altar, was pro
hibited under pain of deprivation of ecclesiastical
benefices and other penalties, for the due execution
whereof the archbishop threatened to employ the
secular arm, and, in particular, the assistance of
King Wenceslas, as equally with himself called
upon by the pope to that effect; and, finally, preach
ing in all "private" places — that is to say, every
where except in cathedral, collegiate, parish, and
conventual churches — was, after the expiration of
six days from the publication of that prohibition,
forbidden under pain of excommunication.

134 JOHN IIUS.

Such was tho fatal step by which tho religious
movomont in Bohomia, which had beon unfolding
itself with over increasing prosperity sinco the days
of Waldhauser and Milicz, was now dragged from
its path of peaceful and legal development on to tho
rugged road of resistance and insurrection. Arch
bishop Zbynok and his advisers thought fit to make a
uso at onco crafty and violent of the Church's power
in order to crush all efforts for Church reform, and
thereby seriously injured the respoct and reverence
hitherto entertained for ecclesiastical authority.
For tho state of opinion respecting tho necessity
of a change in the corrupt condition of tho clergy
was already such in Bohemia, that a firm resolve
had been unconsciously formed to oiler active
resistance to thoso who opposed it. In conse
quence of this growth and development of a cause
othcrwiso identical, there camo to pass this dif
ference between Hus and Milicz or Mathias of
Janow, that, wheroas thoy meekly submitted to
external authority, when it declared against them,
Hus had tho boldness to cast off blind and implicit
obedienco, when ho saw that an improper uso
was being mado of Church authority against the.
vcry end and object of tho Clmreh. lie laid no
great stress on tho defence of tho much-decried
doctrines of Wycliffe. What in them hud been
regularly adjudged to be erroneous ho was always
ready to reject, although ho look exceeding delight
in Wycliffe's writings considered as n whole. But
in tho prohibition of preaching in chapels, intended

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 135
as it was to put a stop to the reprehension of domi
nant abuses among the clergy and to the guidance
of the people to a deeper conception of Christian
doctrine, he descried an unlawful assault upon the
freedom of God's Word, and thus an opposition to
the law of Christ Himself. This was for him a
matter in which it was his duty to obey God rather
than man.
Pope Alexander V., to whom he had appealed,
having meanwhile died (May 3rd), Hus determined
to make a renewed appeal to the new pope, John
XXIII. , who had not long previously (June 1st)
signified, according to custom, his accession to the
rector and University of Prague. But his firm in
tention was, from the first, not to submit to the
prohibition of preaching in chapels. He therefore,
on the first Simday after the publication of the
prohibition (June 22nd), preached in Bethlehem to a
congregation of unusual magnitude. After making
mention of the deceased pope, who had by his bull
commanded the extirpation of errors in Bohemia,
he testified, in the first place, that, thanks be to
God, he had never yet seen any Bohemian who
was a heretic — that is, such a one that he had
obstinately persisted in errors contrary to Holy
Scripture — and declared that the Bohemian " pre
lates " had wrongly informed the pope in that
respect. " They lie ! " shouted the exasperated
people. He spoke, further, against the projected
burning of Wycliffe's writings, which contained, ho
said, much that was good. He announced his

136

JOHN HUS.

intention of appealing against the archbishop's
order, and asked the people, whether they would
stand by him therein. Again they cried : " We
will and do stand by you." Then he finally de
clared, that he would not cease preaching, even
though he were driven into exile or were to die in
prison, and exhorted them to steadfastness ; for a
need was arising, even as in the Old Testament ac
cording to the ordinance of Moses, to gird on the
sword and defend the Word of God. These were
words which found an echo in all classes of the
population, not only in Prague, but also in the
whole realm of Bohemia. Three days afterwards
(June 25th), there was read and published before a
public notary and witnesses an appeal to Pope
John XXIIL, in the names of John Hus ; of Lord
Zdislaw of Zviretitz, an M.A. ; of three bachelors
and three students of the University of Prague ;
as also in the name of all other masters and
doctors, licentiates, bachelors and students of the
said university ; also of the lords, barons, knights,
esquires, rulers of circles, districts, cities, castles,
towns, villages, and communities ; and of all
manner of persons, spiritual and lay, who adhered
to them therein.
The three students were three out of the five who
had taken part in the former appeal, two of the
number having retired for fear of excommunication.
Zdislaw of Zviretitz, otherwise of Wartenberg, was
a young magister, presented for his degree on
March 11th of the selfsame year by Hus himself.

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 137
The appellants employed as their chief argument
against the burning of Wycliffe's 'writings, that it
was unreasonable to desire to destroy works of
logical, mathematical, philosophical, and other
tenour, containing no errors, but a great deal that
was good; and that it was also unreasonable to
burn even heretical books, because the learned
required acquaintance with them in order to be
able to refute them and defend Christian truth ;
declaring moreover, with a view to their enemies,
that they had no intention of defending or holding
any error contained in any books whatever, neither
had they hitherto held or defended anything of the
kind. Against the prohibition of preaching in
chapels, they appealed particularly to the privileges
of the chapel Bethlehem and the beneficial nature
of its foundation ; and, withal, to the ordinance of
Christ, according to which the Word of God ought
not to be bound, but the preaching thereof ought
to be in very deed most free, as being profitable
to the Church above all things ; and to the example
of Christ, who always preached, even unto His
death, in schools, in the streets, on the highways,
on the sea, in the fields, and in the desert.
On June 15th, the day before the publication of
the archbishop's orders in the synod, a meeting of
the university was convoked with regard to them —
their tenour being already known by rumour — by
the rector, John Sindel, a celebrated magister in
medicine, who was Hus's immediate successor.
Then and there, in the presence of a large number

138

JOHN HUS.

of magisters, bachelors and students, it was de
clared, that the university did not agree with the
archbishop and "prelates" in their project of burn
ing the writings of Wycliffe, and it was resolved to
petition the king to prevent such burning, lest
shame should come therefrom on him, on the whole
realm, and on the university. All the magisters
assented to this resolution, save those few whom
the archbishop had selected as his commissioners
to sit in judgment upon the books. King Wences
las, upon the receipt of this petition, immediately
sent to the archbishop to make inquiries. The
archbishop in consequence postponed his intention
of burning the books on the morrow after their
condemnation, and promised to do nothing without
the king's consent, and in particular to wait till
the arrival of Margrave Jost, who was then expected
at Prague, and with whom the king intended to
take counsel on the subject. The margrave bore
the reputation of great devotion to literature, but
he was not in the habit of slaking his thirst for
reading at his own expense, but at that of others,
from whom he borrowed books, which he was not
over ready to return. A few days later, June 21st,
the university also issued a public declaration,
that it did not approve the sentence of the arch
bishop with respect to the books, and would not by
silence with regard to it render itself an accomplice
in such an act of unrighteousness.
Hus's appeal against the condemnation of
Wychffe's writings and against the prohibition of

111,'S AT VARIANCE WIT/I THE ARCHBISHOP. 139

preaching in chapels, as well as these other tokens
of resistance to tho archbishop's authority, irritated
him or his advisors into a fresh act of hostility
against Hus. That is to say, tho archbishop sent
the popo a complaint against him, in which he
designated him tho chief author and defender of
tho spread of Wycliffite views in Bohemia, accusing
him of preaching in disregard of the prohibition of
preaching in chapels, and mentioning especially
the dangerous tonour of his sermon at Bethlehem
on -Juno 22nd, not without various exaggerations
and possibly additions. On this basis ho requested
tho pope — (1) to empower him (tho archbishop),
without further regard to any appeal whatever, to
proceed under tho commission of the lato Popo
Aloxandor V. with respect to Wycliffo's errors, and
(2) to cite Hus personally to the papal court, and
bring him to answer and to punishment for his
transgressions. As Margrave Jost continued absent
fromPraguo for a longtime, the archbishop appears
to havo considered himself released from his en
gagements, and proceeded to tho actual execution
of his decree with regard to Wycliffe's writings.
On Wednesday, July 16th, ho summoned the
"prelates" and many other ecclesiastics to tho
arclacpiscopal palaco on tho Kloinseite, caused tho
doors to bo closed and guarded by armed men,
and tho copies of Wycliffe's works, which had been
given up to him, to bo placed on a pile of faggots
in tho courtyard. Ho thon with his own hands set
the pilo on firo and thus delivered the books to the

140 JOHN HUS.

flames. When they were fairly on fire, a loud
"Te Deum" was sung, and a funeral knell was
rung, " in the expectation," as a contemporary
annalist says, "that they had now the end of all
troubles, whereas, by the permission of God, the
righteous Judge, the troubles had but first taken
their beginning."
It would seem that King Wenceslas was not at
that time at Prague, or this book-burning would
scarcely have taken place without interference on
his part. As soon as Archbishop Zbynek learned
the king's sentiments on the subject, he betook
himself to Baudnitz, and thence, on July 18th, ex
communicated Hus and all who had participated
directly or indirectly in the appeal to the pope.
Great disturbances thence arose among the popu
lation of Prague, the major part of which was
antagonistic to the archbishop and clergy, espe
cially to the canons and the incumbents of city
parishes. When at the archbishop's command
the priests began on the ensuing Sunday to publish
the excommunications in the churches at Divine
service, which they were required to repeat every
Sunday and holy day, the people broke out in
many places into acts of violent resistance. In
the cathedral itself, on the festival of Saint Mary
Magdalene (July 22nd), such an uproar arose, that
the priests who were celebrating High Mass, and
also forty others who were celebrating at other
altars, were obliged to desist and leave the church.
On the same day at St. Stephen's, in the New Town,

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 141
when the preacher spoke in condemnatory terms of
Hus, six men rushed upon him with drawn swords
and threatened him with death. Elsewhere the
priests, when publishing the excommunications, were
exhorted by the people to refrain from telling lies
in their discourses. Excesses on the one side were
met by excesses on the other. Such unauthorized
critics and instructors of the clergy were seized by
the priests and choirmen in the cathedral itself,
beaten, mauled and slapped in the face, or dragged
to the common room or refectory of the clergy, and
there mercilessly scourged with rods. The choir-
men actually proceeded so far as to seize adherents
of Hus outside the cathedral and beat them with
rods. Similar deeds were done by the monks at
the monastery of the Mother of God in the New
Town and elsewhere. However, Hus's party even
tually proved the stronger, and even some of the
king's courtiers placed themselves at its head in
various enterprises against the clergy, till all the
incumbents of Prague were frightened into desist
ing from the publication of the excommunications.
The populace gave vent to their ill-will against the
clergy hostile to Hus by composing libellous songs
and singing them in the streets, which the other
party requited by effusions of contrary tenour.
The archbishop's educational deficiencies were re
marked upon in a song beginnning —
"Zajitz, Bishop A, B, C,
Burnt the books, but ne'er knew he
What was in them written."

112 JOHN HUS.

It was also commonly reported that the authors of
the book-burning kept the handsomest copies for
themselves, and dehvered old parchments and
registers to the flames in their stead. To put a
stop to further disorder, King Wenceslas finally
commanded both sides to cease from reciprocal
annoyance, and forbade all singing of libellous
verses in the streets under threat of capital punish
ment, at the same time ordering the archbishop to
make compensation to those whose books he had
destroyed. Hus and four of his friends in the university
now came forwards against the book-burning in the
following fashion. They announced a public dis
putation in defence of certain of Wycliffe's works,
with regard to which they felt confident they could
prove that no errors whatever were in them. Hus
undertook the defence of Wycliffe's work on the
Holy Trinity; Magister Jakaubek of Stribro of that
on the ten commandments; Simon of Tisnow of
that on the proofs of propositions ; Zdislaw of Zvi
retitz of that on universals ; and Magister Procop
of Pilsen of that on ideas. This disputation was
conducted as advertised on five successive days,
from July 27th to 31st, each disputation occupying
one day.
By the confirmation of Alexander's bull, just as
if the realm had been infected with errors, although
not a single person had been proven guilty in that
respect, King Wenceslas felt affected as by a per
sonal insult. He also, as well as his courtiers,

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 143
agreed with Hus in looking upon the prohibition
of preaching in chapels as a violation of the
freedom of the Word of God. He therefore de
termined to interest himself in favour of the per
secuted party, and make intercession for it at
the papal court. And shortly afterwards, on the
arrival of the nuncio to announce the accession of
John XXIIL, he availed himself of the opportunity
of writing a congratulatory letter to the pope
(September 12th, 1410) to mention withal his as
tonishment at his predecessor's bull limiting the
preaching of the Word of God, whereas how could
the Church advance in faith, hope, and love, save
by the proclamation of the Gospel? He com
plained of the manner in which his realm was
aspersed by unfriendly calumniators, and requested
the revocation of the orders given in Alexander's
bull. He also wrote to several cardinals, to whom
he had heard that the matter was entrusted, and
intercessory letters were also written by Queen
Sophia, by several Bohemian lords, in particular
by the High Steward, Lacek of Kravary, and
also — no doubt at the king's instigation — by the
burgomasters and aldermen of the old, new, and
lesser towns of Prague. Queen Sophia's letter
contained Hus's favourite expressions, that the
Word of God ought not to be bound, but ought to
be preached in the squares, in the streets, on the
housetops; yea, everywhere, as required. Lord
Lacek expressed his astonishment at the prohibi
tion of preaching in the chapel Bethlehem, with

144 JOHN HUS.

which no monastery or parish church in the realm
could stand a comparison in that respect. " What
will be the good of the chapels in our castles,"
wrote he, "in which the Word of the Lord has
often been preached ? Or how shall we hear the
Lord's Word when we are in the field, a time when
it ought most especially to be heard?" The
magistrates of the old town appealed to their right
of patronage to one of the two preacherships, and
petitioned the pope to confirm the chapel.
At the papal court, which was then at Bologna,
Hus's appeal, as well as the archbishop's petition
against it, had been placed in the hands of Cardhr
Odo di Colonna, with directions to fulfil the arc
bishop's wishes. The cardinal accordingly issu
an order to the Archbishop of Prague (August 25th,
to take further proceedings according to the bull
of Alexander V., and likewise a citation to Hus to
appear personally before the papal tribunal.
The letters of King Wenceslas and the rest had
scarcely started on their way, when these orders
arrived at Prague. Archbishop Zbynek conse
quently issued (September 24th) an "aggravation"
of the excommunications against Hus and his
associates. By this King Wenceslas was incensed
anew, and wrote again (September 30th) to Pope
John, requesting him in curt and decided language
to annul his decrees and enjoin silence on the
parties, who were disputing about the works of
Wycliffe. He said that he did not intend to put
up with such quarrels in his realm, none of his

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 145
subjects having been convicted of error or heresy
on account of the books. He made a special re
quest, that the chapel Bethlehem might be pre
served and confirmed, and that Hus might continue
peacefully to preach the Word of God there, and
be released from appearing personally at Eome.
It was not convenient — he wrote — to his realm to
place a man, so useful in preaching, in danger from
his enemies on the highways, and thereby irritate
the whole population. If any one wished to accuse
him, he must do so in Bohemia, before the University
or some other competent judge. King Wenceslas
yote also to Cardinal Odo di Colonna, inviting
¦. 1 to come to Bohemia to hear and judge with
% own ears. Queen Sophia wrote too (October
ifst and 2nd) to the pope and to the cardinals, men
tioning expressly in her letter to the pope, that she
had frequently heard the Word of God in the chapel
Bethlehem, and especially imploring the cardinals
to seek to bring the matter to a satisfactory settle
ment, "in order to preclude evil consequences."
Her lord and husband, she said, in concert with
herself and the lords, would take suitable measures
to prevent the further spread of disorder. With
the same intent Wenceslas commissioned Dr. John
Naz, his ambassador at the papal court, to re
present to the pope, that he could easily punish
the slanderers and adversaries of his realm him
self, but refrained from so doing from humble
reverence to the apostolic see. The king gave
further confidential orders to Magister John of
L

146 JOHN HUS.

Eeinstein, surnamed Cardinal, who was one of
Hus's friends, while Magister Jerome of Seiden-
berg, the king's third plenipotentiary, received
severe and threatening rebukes, the king having
learned from an intercepted letter from Jaroslaw,
Bishop of Sarepta, that he had conducted himself
disloyally towards his sovereign, and aided the
archbishop's agents to obtain the decrees against
Hus and his adherents.
Hns also' sent a written petition to the pope,
entreating to be released from appearing personally
before his court, assigning as a reason the danger
he would be in on the journey on account of his
numerous enemies, and appointing procurators with
full powers for his defence. The chief of these
was his friend Magister John of Jesenitz, who
had taken the degree of bachelor of laws in 1407,
and was then apparently continuing his studies
at Bologna. Hus was at that time in a frame of
joyous delight on account of the favourable senti
ments of the king and his court, not because he
was himself thereby guaranteed against personal
danger, but because he thence hoped for aid
towards the progress of the cause which he had
so deeply at heart. His name was already well
known in England among those who, amidst
persecution, were still treading in the steps of
Wycliffe, and he now received a letter from one
of Wycliffe's former fellow-labourers, Eichard
Fitz, dated September 8th, 1410, which greatly
encouraged him and his followers, and specially

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 147
saluted, along with Hus, Magister Jakaubek of
Stribro, as Hus's "helper in the Gospel." Hus
addressed the people publicly in a sermon with
regard to this letter, the congregation consisting
of about ten thousand hearers, and replied to it
with a salutation "from the Church of Christ in
Bohemia to the Church of Christ in England,"
making joyful mention of the good progress of
the Gospel in Bohemia ; for the king and his court,
the queen, the lords and the commonalty, were
all defenders of the Word of Christ ; the people
would listen to nothing but Holy Scripture, espe
cially the gospels and epistles ; and when they
found a preacher of the truth, they flocked to him
in villages, towns, and castle3, avoiding the dis
orderly clergy. He also plainly expressed his firm
resolve to suffer for the truth. It must also have
been a great encouragement to him, when in the
month of September, the theological faculty at
Bologna, a city belonging to the pope, in which
the archbishop's ambassadors had used their
utmost exertions to obtain approval for the burning
of Wycliffe's books, formally refused to approve it.
Of this Magister John of Jesenitz obtained written
testimony, dated November 25th, 1410, from brother
Thomas of Udine, prior of the Dominicans in
Bologna, and then Dean of the Faculty of Theology
in that university.
King Wenceslas's letters to the papal court in
favour of Hus produced no effect whatever. With
a pope like John XXIIL, a man of notoriously

148 JOHN HUS.

wicked life, who, regardless of the decrees of the
Council of Pisa respecting the projected reform
of the Church in head and members, rapaciously
carried on the old simoniacal system for lucre, it
was difficult to obtain consideration for a man like
Hus, who was, at any rate, well known as a zealous
opponent of that system in his own country. And
perhaps, after all, it made no great difference, if
Archbishop Zbynek's ambassadors, who were sent
to the aid of the coadjutor Bishop Jaroslaw at
Bologna, Zdenek Dlauhy of Chrast, and Dr.
Kunes of Zwole, did present a number of horses,
caskets, and rings to Pope John from the arch
bishop, and handsome rings to Cardinals Colonna
and Orsini. Anyhow, the result of their efforts
was, that Cardinal Odo di Colonna, at the expira
tion of the specified time for Hus's appearance at
Bologna (February, 1411) issued sentence of ex
communication against him for non-appearance.
Archbishop Zbynek ordered this to be immediately
proclaimed at Prague, and his orders were obeyed
on March 15th in all the churches save those of
St. Michael and St. Benedict in the old town.
The incumbent of the former was Magister
Christian of Prachatitz, a sincere friend of Hus's ;
that of the latter, brother Nicholas, a knight of the
Teutonic order, of whom nothing further is known.
These proceedings irritated King Wenceslas
afresh, and he now put into execution the in
tention, which he had announced to the papal
court, of punishing the detainers of his realm

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 149
himself. As the archbishop and his advisers
had paid no regard to the king's order to -make
compensation to the owners of the books, which
they had burned, Wenceslas now caused various
estates, farms, and houses belonging to the arch
bishop and certain dignitaries, canons and other
ecclesiastics to be put under sequestration, that
such compensation might be made out of their
rents. The king nominated as his commissioners
for this purpose the burgomasters and aldermen
of the three towns of Prague and of Hradcany, and
also the burgrave of the Vyssegrad, Eacek of Dvo-
retz, and the chief usher, Voksa of Waldstein, who
soon put the royal commands into execution. The
archbishop employed his spiritual power to resist
these proceedings in the usual way. He issued an
edict from Eaudnitz (May 2nd), against the com
missioners, warning them as appropriators of
Church property to restore the sequestered estates
and revenues within three days under pain of
excommunication ; nay, when nothing was gained
by this, he proceeded, as he had done four years
previously, to lay the whole of Prague under an
interdict. This uncircumspect severity had not the success
which the archbishop probably expected from it.
King Wenceslas was still more exasperated, and
began to persecute all who obeyed the archbishop's
order with regard to the suspension of Divine
service. Some had their revenues sequestered, and
others were driven from their benefices. Many of the

150 JOHN HUS.

incumbents in Prague and elsewhere were terrified
into disobedience to the archbishop, and performed
service in their. churches, as was also the case with
the residentiaries in the cathedral, who asked and
obtained absolution from the papal curia, on the
ground that they had been compelled thereto by
the secular power. Much less was the order obeyed
by the clergy of Hus's party, who considered it
unrighteous and illegal. King Wenceslas took pre
cautions also to prevent the archbishop from re
moving, as in 1409, the treasures of the cathedral
from Prague. On May 6th, he rode in person to
Hradcany, went to the house of Canon John of Kra-
lovitz, who was then probably subdean, and caused
several other dignitaries and canons to be summoned
thither. These were compelled to attend the king,
who himself rode on horseback into the cathedral,
where he caused all the treasures to be opened and
exhibited to him, and after satisfying himself that
all was in order, rode back again from the Hrads
chin. He also issued a special commission to
Kunes of Olbramovitz and the aldermen of the
three towns of Prague, who in execution thereof
caused excavations to be made in the cathedral
during the evening and night, in order to explore
secret receptacles. They only found, however, four
secret niches, which were empty. They further took
possession of all the treasures, i.e. principally the
holy relics, which were magnificently ornamented,
and the coffin of St. Wenceslas, and conveyed them
the next day (May 7th) to Karlstein.

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP, lol
Not long afterwards King Wenceslas took his
seat in person at the Grand Court of Justice during
the Whitsun Ember days, and on June 5th, in
conjunction with the lords of the realm, issued
a severe edict agamst the arbitrary extension of
the power of the spiritual tribunals to the detri
ment of the temporal courts. If any one should
cite another respecting a civil matter before a
spiritual tribunal, or if any one should venture to
act as judge in such tribunal, the king's officers, in
conjunction with the Burgrave of Prague, were
to take possession of his revenues and property,
and hold them until satisfaction was made to the
person cited for damages and expenses. But should
the person citing possess no property, then he was
to be arrested and imprisoned during the king's
pleasure or until the lords should give sentence
in his case. This edict appears to have at once
resulted in active interference with many spiritual
persons and their estates.
Archbishop Zbynek, even as his whilome pre
decessor, John of Jenstein, was at length con
strained to understand, that longer contest with King
Wenceslas, respecting a matter in which the king
interested himself personally, was dangerous and
beyond his strength. It therefore came to pass,
that the ill-success of the harsh methods which
he had hitherto employed inclined him to have
recourse to moderate measures with a view to the
renewal of peace. It would seem that this was
greatly forwarded by the admonitions of certain

152 JOHN HUS.

persons of distinction then at Prague, in particular
of Eudolf, Duke of Saxony, of Stibor of Stiboritz,
Voyvode of Transylvania, King Sigismund's pleni
potentiary at the Bohemian court, and of the High
Steward Lord Lacek of Kravary, who had been
lately appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Moravia. An
agreement was come to under which Archbishop
Zbynek submitted, as regards all matters in ques
tion with Hus and his adherents, to the decision of
King Wenceslas and his privy council, as friendly
arbitrators, it being conditioned that Duke Budolf,
the Voyvode Stibor, and the High Steward Lacek,
were to take part in the deliberations ; but if no
decision were arrived at during their stay in
Prague, then the king was to have the power of
final decision with the aid of other lords and nobles,
whom he might think fit to consult. A document
to this effect was drawn up on July 3rd, in the
first place on the part of Hus and his adherents,
running in the names at Magister Simon of Tisnow,
the rector, and the whole society of the University
of Prague ; of Thomas of Lysa, Dean of the Faculty
of Arts ; of Magister John Hus himself, and of all
who had adhered to him in his appeal to the pope ;
and moreover of John Gauditensky, Doctor of
Medicine, and five other magisters of the University
of Prague. These all met in a room at St. James's
Monastery in the Old Town, and gave in their
adhesion to the agreement before nine witnesses,
seven of whom were distinguished lords and nobles
of the realm, and two court ecclesiastics in atten-

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 153
dance on Wenceslas. Afterwards Archbishop Zbynek
formally accepted the same in his own name and
in the name of the rest of the clergy, before witnesses
assembled in his cabinet in the archiepiscopal
palace on the Kleinseite. These were all ecclesiastics
of the party hostile to Hus, and among them were
Dr. Adam of Nezetitz, formerly vicar general,
Canon Zdenek of Chrast, and John Protiva, in
cumbent of St. Clement's and formerly preacher at
Bethlehem. Besides Duke Eudolf, the Voyvode Stibor and
Lord Lacek, King Wenceslas summoned to council
Wenceslas, Patriarch of Antioch ; Conrad, Bishop
of Olmiitz ; Sulek, Provost of Choteschow ; Lord
Wenceslas of Donin; Bohus, Commander of the
Knights of St. John at Manetin ; Peter Zmrzlek of
Svojsin, Master of the Mint; and Nicholas of Prague,
who was now Chief Secretary of State. Three days
after the acceptance of the above agreement by the
parties, i.e. on July 6th, the arbitrators issued their
decision. The archbishop was to make submission
to the king as his lord, and to write to the pope,
that he knew of no errors in the land of Bohemia,
but that there were difficulties between himself and
the magisters of Hus's party, with respect to which
he had had recourse to the king. He was there
fore to request from the pope absolution for Hus,
who was under papal excommunication, to absolve
those whom he had himself excommunicated, and
also to remove the interdict. Both parties were
to cease litigation at the papal court and to recall

154 JOHN HUS.

their procurators; the king was then to take
counsel with the bishops, doctors and prelates,
and also with the lay princes, lords and nobles,
respecting errors and heresies, should any be found
amongst either clergy or laity, and with the advice
of clergy and laity to purge out and punish
the guilty. On the other hand, the revenues or
incomes, of which the priests had been deprived,
were to be restored, and those who had been
arrested were to be released. At the same time
both the clergy and the university, as well as the
lords and gentry in general, were to remain in
possession of their rights, with an express proviso,
that the spiritualty was not to interfere with the
laity by means of its newly invented rules of law,
even as it had been decreed in the foregoing par
liament. An especial clause declared that, having
ascertained that the late action of the people of
Prague against the clergy had been taken by
the king's command, the archbishop annulled the
edicts he had issued against them, and "neither
took it evil of them nor laid aught evil to their
charge." This agreement might have made an end to the
then existing variance between the archbishop and
the section of the clergy that adhered to John Hus;
nay, it might perhaps have resulted in the timely
introduction of reforms in matters ecclesiastical in
Bohemia, had it been honestly and intelligently
carried into execution. But to this it never came.
Archbishop Zbynek presented himself personally

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 155
before the king and unquestionably made the de
sired submission, but failed thereby to regain his
former favour. It would seem that his submis-
siveness led the king to conceive a wish to make
him, like John of Jenstein, feel his power, and thus
Wenceslas behaved with harshness and unMndness
towards him personally. It is still more probable
that, over and above this, the archbishop regretted
the agreement, by which he thought he had placed
himself too completely in the king's hands, and that
he was also egged on by his advisers, to whose pro
jects against Hus the agreement presented a serious
obstacle. According to the decision of the arbi
trators, the archbishop was to remove the interdict,
and he did so ; but he refused to release from ex
communication the clergy who had not ceased from
the performance of Divine service during the inter
dict, maintaining that this was a sin for which
they must seek absolution from the pope. The
other parly argued that the archbishop, who had
issued the excommunications, had likewise the
right of granting release from them, whereto he
was expressly hound by the agreement ; and that
it was no sin in the priests who had performed
Divine service, because the interdict was not legiti
mate, but void, referring the archbishop to his own
acknowledgment of the guiltlessness of the citizens
of Prague, against whom the interdict had been
issued. To this effect, Stephen Palecz expressed
himself in a special pamphlet; and King Wenceslas
urged the archbishop to make a written declaration

156 JOHN HUS.

to the same effect. This, however, he refused to
do ; neither would he write the letter to the pope,
according to the decision of the arbitrators, in the
form laid before him by the king's command. As,
therefore, the bishop failed to fulfil the agreement,
it also remained partially unfulfilled on the part
of the king. Many priests were not restored to
their estates and revenues; others suffered new
oppressions, as occasion arose ; and the archbishop
himself complained that the king's corn-tiers invaded
his spiritual rights, and that libels were composed
and placarded or distributed against him. He
had at that time a dispute with the Provost of
Prague, George of Janovitz, in which the latter is
said to have opposed him with force and arms.
The king, before whom the archbishop was said to
have wished to lay his complaint, refused to grant
him an audience, and exhibited his ill-will towards
him in various ways, so that, finding himself in
danger, he quitted Prague five weeks after the date
of the agreement.
Although it was thus manifest that the arch
bishop had no intention of abiding by the agree
ment, Hus nevertheless made an attempt to turn
it, as far as might be, to his own advantage. He
wrote a letter of entreaty to the pope, declaring
his belief and repudiating as false all charges of
erroneous doctrines, in particular denying that he
had taught that the substance of material bread
remained in the sacrament of the altar, or that a
priest in mortal sin did not make the sacrament.

HUS AT VARIANCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP. 157
He excused his non-appearance at Eome by the
danger to his life which menaced him on the road
from the plots of his enemies, especially the Ger
mans; appealed to the fact that he had been
reconciled to the archbishop by the arbitrators,
and entreated that, this being taken into considera
tion, he might be released from the citation. To
give this letter greater weight, he read it publicly
himself (September 1st), in a full assembly of
magisters of the University of Prague convoked
for the purpose by the rector, Simon of Tisnow,
who, in accordance with an unanimous resolution,
caused the university seal to be affixed to it. He
also wrote at the same time to the College of
Cardinals, referring especially to the fact that the
archbishop's anger had originally arisen against
him for adhering to them, when the renunciation
of obedience to Gregory XH. was meeting with
violent opposition from the archbishop. It is pos
sible that Hus's letters of entreaty were also
supported by a letter from King Wenceslas to the
pope, which the king certainly contemplated writing
after the conclusion of the agreement between the
parties. Archbishop Zbynek meanwhile bethought him
self of other means for the maintenance of his
power, which could scarcely have led to peace, but
rather to greater disturbances between the spiritual
and temporal authorities in Bohemia. He betook
himself to Litomysl, no doubt to consult with
Bishop John, who was adversely inclined towards

158 JOHN HUS.

King Wenceslas, and thence sent the king a letter
dated September 5th, in which he reproached him
with unfriendly and partial behaviour towards him
self and with non-observance of the agreement,
and declared that, since the king would not put a
stop to the wrongs that were being done him, he
was compelled to go to King Sigismund, to lay his
complaints before him and request his intercession
on his behalf. The whole form and style of this
letter indicates that it was no mere intercession
that was contemplated by the archbishop, but some
more violent proceeding on the part of Sigismund
against Wenceslas, towards whom Sigismund had
never acted honestly. But these intentions were
never fulfilled, being cut short unexpectedly by the
hand of death . Archbishop Zbynek quitted Litomysl,
travelled through Moravia, and arrived at Pres-
burg, but there fell ill, and died on September 28th,
1411. His corpse was conveyed to Prague, and
buried in a marble tomb in a chapel under the
new tower of the cathedral.
The death of Margrave Jost in January, 1411,
thus followed by that of Archbishop Zbynek in the
same year, smoothed the way for a reconciliation
between Wenceslas and Sigismund, which accord
ingly came to pass as related in the introductory
chapter.

( 159 )

CHAPTER VI.
JOHN HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER.
Shortly before the death of Archbishop Zbynek,
and while he was still either at Litomysl or on his
way to Hungary, an embassy arrived at Prague
from King Henry IV. of England, which was also
accredited to King Sigismund of Hungary. As
several English magisters were members of or
attaches to it, some of the Bohemian magisters,
anxious probably for intelligence from the country
of Wycliffe, paid a formal visit to them at their
lodgings in the Old Town, taking with them in pro
cession a number of bachelors and students.
Among the English was a Licentiate in Law, John
Stokes, with whom the Bohemians wished for
further conversation after the conclusion of their
brief morning visit. With the consent of the
rector, they therefore invited him to the Carolinum
for the afternoon, but he was persuaded by another
member of the embassy, Sir Hartung Glux,* to
* This name, if correct, is indicative of a German rather than
an Englishman. Another " Hartnng " is mentioned in Palacky' s
" Documenta," p. 406 ; and in p. 40S the name of " Jux " occurs.

160 JOHN HUS.

decline the invitation. Shortly afterwards reports
became rife of language held by both Stokes and
Glux respecting Wycliffe and his followers, which
was extremely adverse to the views entertained by
the party of Hus. Thinking this detrimental to
the honour of the university, several magisters be
took themselves to Stokes with a public notary and
asked him plainly, whether he intended to abide by
his statements or no. He replied to the effect,
that whoever read or studied the works of Wycliffe,
be his mental disposition and qualities ever so
good, and be he ever so firm in the faith, must
necessarily in course of time sink into the mire of
heresy. As the Bohemian magisters considered
such language to contain an implication against
themselves, Hus caused a notice to be affixed to
the door of the ambassador's residence, stating
that it was his intention on Sunday, September
13th, to hold a disputation respecting Stokes's
words, and challenging him according to the custom
of the schools to appear in the public hall of the
Carolinum and there maintain his opinion. Stokes
did not reply till the day appointed, and then by a
placard on the door of the cathedral, stating that
as he had come for another reason, i.e. on an em
bassy, he did not consider it his duty to appear and
argue ; but if Hus or any one else thought fit to go
to Paris or the court of Eome, or any other approved
university, which would be impartial between the
parties, he would there defend his statements, add
ing, arrogantly, that if the other could not afford

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 161
the journey, he would himself provide his expenses.
He thus by implication justified the language
ascribed to him, and also added expressly that,
when questioned as to Wycliffe and public opinion
respecting him in England, he had replied that
Wycliffe was there considered a heretic and his
teaching condemned as heretical. Hus nevertheless
held the disputation without the presence of Stokes,
defending Wycliffe's teaching, and saying, that " he
did not believe Wycliffe to be a heretic, neither
howevc" did he deny him to be so, but hoped that
he was not a heretic, but one of those predestined
to salvation."
After the death of Archbishop Zbynek the arch
bishopric was placed in the hands of administrators.
No less than twenty-four candidates entered the
field for it, all ready to spend money to the utmost
extent of their resources, whether at the papal
court or elsewhere, amongst whom was John,
Bishop of Litomysl, whom King Sigismund had
unsuccessfully supported at the vacancy in 1404.
But the victory was won by a man almost unknown
among the clergy, Magister Albie, King Wenceslas's
body physician. His success was doubtless owing
to the action of the king, to whom it was a matter
of importance to have the see filled by an archbishop
devoted to him. In order to anticipate the action
of the papal court, Albik was unanimously elected
by the chapter on October 29th, 1411, only a month
after the occurrence of the vacancy. Pope John
XXIIL afterwards asserted, that during Archbishop M

162 JOHN HUS.

Zbynek's lifetime he had determined to reserve to
the Apostolic See the nomination of a successor,
but the election having taken place before this
reservation became known either to the chapter
or to the person elected, he declared indeed the
election invalid, but by the power reserved to him
self nominated Albik archbishop by a bull dated
from Bome January 25th, 1412.
Albik of Uniczow was a Moravian by birth and
a German by language, B.A. of Prague 1382, and
M.A. 1385. He studied both law. and medicine,
taking the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1389 at
Prague, and that of Doctor of Laws afterwards at
Padua. It is not known where he took the degree
of Doctor in Medicine. After 1389 we do not hear
of him at Prague till 1394, but it was not long
before he became celebrated as a " great magister
of internal medicine," both through numerous
writings on the subject, through cures effected by his
skill, and as " professor in ordinary " of the Faculty
of Medicine. In 1396 he was body physician to
King Wenceslas, whose special favour he afterwards
gained by curing him of his severe illness in 1398.
Magister Albik was then a married man and had
several children, but his wife died soon after the latter
date. By his professional skill he amassed a con
siderable fortune, and became known as a man who
set a very high value on money, and it was there
fore generally believed, that he had purchased the
archbishopric. We may well suppose that, over
and above the personal exertions of King Wenceslas

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 163
in his favour, such a man as John XXIIL did not
allow so valuable a piece of preferment to slip
through his fingers without a consideration. It
was of little consequence, that the archbishop elect
had never turned his thoughts towards the duties
and obligations of the priesthood, although in youth
he had been ordained to the inferior position of an
acolyte, and had thus, by this fourth and lowest of
the minor orders, obtained the immunities of the
clerical profession. Nor was it till after his ap
pointment to the archbishopric by the pope, that
he was ordained sub-deacon (February 27th 1412),
after which in June he was ordained to the priest
hood. But before the date of the bull, which
appointed him, he sold his own house, and took
possession of the archiepiscopal palace and estates,
being at that time about fifty-four years old.
He was not, however, allowed to enjoy the
revenues of his see in luxury and comfort. This
was prevented by the religious movement, which
kept assuming larger and larger proportions, till,
shortly after the new archbishop's accession, mani
fest storms arose among both clergy and laity.
The brief hope of reconciliation, which had been
disappointed by Archbishop Zbynek's unconcilia ¦
tory conduct during the latter part of his life, b ad
given place to greater and greater exasperation
against the higher officials of the Church, which
exhibited itself with ever-increasing boldness. Hus
had now taken up such a position that he had no
longer any idea of obeying either archbishop or

164 JOHN HUS.

pope in matters which appeared to him contrary to
God's law, and this resolve daily became stronger
and stronger both in himself and in others.
In the beginning of 1412 the usual disputation
de quolibet, " about what you please," was held in
the Carolinum, one of Hus's pronounced adherents,
Magister Michael of Malenitz, surnamed Czizek, a
Bachelor in Theology, being the "Quodlibetarius,"
who was bound to maintain certain theses against
all comers. During the disputation, it was publicly
contended, probably by Magister Jakaubek of Stri-
bro, that the anti-Christ foretold in Scripture was
then holding the highest position in the Church,
and possessing the highest executive power over the
Christian clergy and laity. Thus Pope John XXIIL
was clearly indicated as very anti-Christ.
Ere long matters became still worse, owing to
general orders of the pope, issued December 2nd,
1411, whereby John XXIIL proclaimed his rival,
Gregory XII., and Ladislaw, King of Naples, as
Gregory's aider and abettor, guilty of heresy,
ordered a crusade against Ladislaw, and promised
plenary indulgences to all who should either take
part in the war personally or furnish pecuniary aid
towards it. In May, 1412, the pope's legates or
commissioners came to Prague, with Wenceslas of
Tiem, Dean of Passau, at. their head, and after
obtaining the consent of the king and archbishop,
proceeded to the execution of then- duties. The
sale of indulgences had been in evil odour at
Prague ever since the jubilee in 1393, and there-

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 165
fore the archbishop's consistory issued injunctions
whereby certain crying abuses were to be kept
down on the present occasion. The appraisement
of the people at confession was especially pro
hibited; that is to say, payments, varying
according to property or other circumstances, were
forbidden to be imposed for indulgences. But
the papal commissioner, Tiem, paid little heed
thereto, and simply carried on his traffic in God's
mercy in the manner best suited to obtain the
largest and most certain gains. To make the
matter easier, he farmed out entire archdeaconries
and deaneries or individual churches to priests,
who took the contracts under him, paying him
fixed sums and making what they could out of the
indulgences afterwards. It was not likely that
godly priests would enter into such contracts, and,
as a matter of fact, they were undertaken by men
notorious for avarice, gambling, concubinage, and
the other vices in vogue among the clergy of the day.
These men trafficked with the people at confession
in the most shameless manner, and perpetrated
various disgraceful actions. A broad road was
opened for them by the " articles," which Tiem
issued as a guide to preachers according to the
tenour of the papal bull. In Prague, which he kept
under his own superintendence, three churches
were appointed for hearing confessions and grant
ing indulgences, i.e. the cathedral, the church on
the Vyssegrad, and the Church of the Virgin in
front of the " Teyn," commonly called the " Teyn "

1C6 JOHN HUS.

Church. In each of these was fixed a box or chest,
well clamped with iron, as a receptacle for money.
That in the cathedral was placed behind the altar
of St. Vitus, where the largest number of people
was wont to pass.
The sale of indulgences was an abuse against
which godly preachers and writers had long ex
hibited the greatest zeal in Bohemia, considering
it the- fountain-head of great iniquities. Thus the
pope's bull itself, and still more the manner in
which it was acted upon, caused great exasperation
among the clergy of Hus's party. Hus himself,
and others with him, deemed the matter one in
which blind obedience ought not to be paid, and
consequently determined upon resistance. They
first, in an assembly of the university, raised the
question whether its members were bound — in
accordance with the pope's bull — to contribute
pecuniary aid for the crusade against Ladislaw,
King of Naples. The Doctors of Theology present,
headed by Stephen Palecz, Dean of the Faculty,
endeavoured to stop the discussion by arguing, that
it did not appertain to them to judge the pope's
bulls or resist the king's command, by which they
had been approved. Yet Palecz, when Tiem's
" articles," containing the rules prescribed to
preachers, first came into his hands, had declared,
in a conversation with Hus at St. Michael's Par
sonage before several witnesses, that they contained
" palpable errors," " errores inanu palpabiles." But
when resistance to them, and thus to the pope's

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 167
commands, was in question, Palecz refused assent
to the views of Hus, who had hitherto been his
friend, and placed himself in a decided attitude of
opposition to him, as did also their older and once
more daring comrade, Stanislas of Znaym. In
Hus's judgment, it was their harsh imprisonment
at Bologna that filled them with terror of the papal
power, and caused this entire alteration in their
views. On the present occasion, the majority of
the assembly decided in accordance with the opinion
of the doctors.
Hus, however, did not allow himself to be thus
diverted from his purpose, but, in the first place,
began to preach about the pope's bull, and to set
forth his objections to its improper and unworthy
tenor. He also wrote and published a special
treatise upon the subject. Some days afterwards,
he announced a public disputation respecting the
bull, to be held in the great hall of the Carolinum
on June 7th, and issued invitations to attend it by
placards affixed to almost all the church doors in
the city, to those of the cathedral and of the church
on the Vyssegrad, to the city gates, and other con
venient places where large numbers of people were
wont to pass. The question proposed by him for
discussion was: "Whether, according to Christ's
law, it is possible and beneficial, for the honour of
God and the salvation of Christian people and for
the good of the country, to recommend to Christ's
faithful people the pope's bulls respecting the
crusade against Ladislaw, King of Naples, and his

168 JOHN HUS.

confederates ? " The Theological Faculty sought
to prevent Hus from carrying out his intentions,
and commissioned two of its members to go to the
archbishop and request him to prohibit the dis
putation. It was undoubtedly owing to this that
Hus was summoned before the archbishop, and
that the pope's commissioners were invited to
attend at the same time. The legates asked him
whether he intended to obey the apostolic com
mands. He replied that he was willing to do so
with his whole heart. But when, pleased at such
an answer, they turned to the archbishop and said,
" See now, he is willing to obey the commands of
our Master ! " Hus undeceived them by saying,
"Understand me, gentlemen! I term the doctrine
of Christ's apostles apostolic commands, and so
far as the commands of the Pope of Eome agree
with that doctrine and those commands, I am
willing to obey them gladly; but when I see the
contrary, I shall not obey, even if ye place before
me fire to consume my body ! " The Faculty of
Theology now tried another method. It issued and
placarded a prohibition to all its Bachelors, for
bidding any of them to argue against the pope's
bulls. Hus was a Bachelor of Theology, and thus
fell under the prohibition, which, however, he only
turned into ridicule, both in the schools and in the
pulpit. The disputation was held on the appointed day,
in the presence of a very large audience of magis
ters, bachelors, and students, both adversaries and

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 169
friends of Hus being present. The magisters sat
together in order, according to ancient custom, and
when Hus had stated his reasons for the position,
that it was improper to give money to the pope for
the purpose of shedding Christian blood, expressed
their various opinions in turn, some in accordance
with, and others in opposition to, his views.
After this disputation Hus scarcely ever lost an
opportunity of speaking from the pulpit with respect
to the pope's indulgences, and of exhorting the people
not to pay money for them. He worked also in the
same direction by numerous letters sent to various
districts and places in Bohemia and Moravia, and
also in Poland and Hungary. He even addressed
a letter, dated June 10th, to Wladislaw, King of
Poland, urging him to endeavour to stamp out
simony in his realm. His words had a powerful
effect upon the people, so that not only did the
revenue derived from the traffic in indulgences
suffer great diminution, but a general spirit of resist
ance to ecclesiastical authority arose. In Prague
various excesses took place, whereby the duties
of those charged with the execution of the papal
bulls were rendered difficult or turned into ridicule.
On June 20th there was found in the money
box behind the altar of St. Vitus in the cathedral,
a tract against the vendors and defenders of indul
gences, in which they were nicknamed Asmodeists,
Belialists and Mammonists, and were finally told,
that truth-speaking Hus was more to be believed
than an assembly of cheating church dignitaries.

170 JOHN HUS.

On June 24th, Prague was entertained with a
satirical procession, got up by Lord Voksa of Wald-
stein, one of the king's favourites, which was con
cluded by the public burning of documents with
seals representing papal bulls, a more particular
account of which will be given in the biography
of Jekome of Peague. This was followed by great
excitement among the populace, young men going
about from church to church, and giving the lie to
preachers who recommended the people to purchase
indulgences. While this was going on at Prague, King Wen
ceslas was staying at his favourite country seats,
Zebrak and Tocznik. Doubtless numerous com
plaints from the pope's legates and other eccle
siastics reached him there, setting forth the various
hindrances and annoyances to which they were
subjected. The king, unwilling to put up with such
disturbances of public tranquillity, summoned some
of the aldermen and principal citizens of Prague to
Zebrak about the middle of June, and shortly after
wards a strict prohibition was issued by public pro
clamation in the name of the king and the magis
trates, forbidding any one to speak in opposition to
the preachers or the papal bulls.
This, however, was not enough for the opponents
of Hus's party. Their aim was nothing less than
the extirpation of the tendencies, which had for
their end and object the reform of the dominant
system among the clergy ; and the weapon, of which
they most eagerly availed themselves, was accusa-

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPA.L POWER. 171
tion of heresy. The Faculty of Theology now came
to the front, headed by Stephen Palecz and Stanis
las of Znaym, who from personal friends of Hus's
had suddenly become the deadly enemies of the
tendencies in which they had formerly stood shoulder
to shoulder with him, and even outstripped him in
zeal and energy. It would seem that King Wen
ceslas himself requested the opinion of the faculty
as to the best method of restoring tranquillity thus
disturbed by religious discord. The assembly of
doctors in the first place required Hus as their sub
ordinate — he being only a bachelor in Theology — to
give them a copy of his treatise on the bull relating
to indulgences, that they might come to a decision
respecting it. Hus refused to give it. The doctors
then took as their basis the forty-five articles ex
tracted from the writings of Wycliffe, which had been
condemned nine and again four years previously
by the university in general, and the Bohemian
"nation" in particular, once more declaring which
of them were "heretical," which "erroneous," and
which " scandalous " or " contrary to good morals."
They also framed six other articles relating to late
events :
(1) That every one was a heretic, who thought otherwise
than the Church of Rome respecting the sacraments and the
power of the keys ; (2) That it was an error to teach, that the
anti-Christ, who was to come at the end of the world, was existing
and reigning in those days ; (3) An error, that the constitutions
of the holy fathers and laudable customs ought not to be main
tained, because they were not contained in Holy Scripture ; (4)
An error, that the relics of the saints ought not to be venerated

172 JOHN HUS.

by the faithful; (5) An error, that a priest did not absolve
ministerially in the sacrament of ^enance, but merely announced
to the penitent confessing that he was absolved ; ((i) An error,
that the pope could not summon the persons of Christ's faithful
ones, or ask aid from them for the defence of the holy see and
the chastisement of the adversaries and enemies of Christ, by
granting to such as faithfully aided, truly repented, confessed
and were contrite, full remission of all their sins. A seventh
article was added, affirming that the injunction of the king and
the citizens, prohibiting any one from clamouring agamst the
preachers or papal bulls, was just, reasonable, and holy.
Both these sets of articles were laid before the king
by the Faculty of Theology, with the advice, that the
archbishop by the king's command and in concert
with the "prelates," the chapter of Prague and the
other chapters, and also with the university, should
cause their condemnation to be proclaimed anew,
in such manner that, whoso should thereafter not
behave accordingly, should fall under sentence of
excommunication and other penalties, which the
king of his good pleasure should annex thereto, in
particular that of exile from the realm. They ad
vised also, that certain preachers, from whom dis
turbances and disputes among the people originated,
should be inhibited from preaching. It is self-
evident that this was primarily directed against Hus.
If the fragmentary and defective notices extant
are understood aright, it would seem that the king-
summoned the Doctors of Theology on the one hand,
and Hus and the magisters of his party on the
other, to Zebrak shortly after the beginning of June,
in order to make an attempt at bringing about a

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 173
reconciliation between them. Both parties met
first at the parsonage in the town of Zebrak.
There Stephen Palecz read a document composed
by himself and Stanislas of Znaym against Hus in
the name of the faculty, accusing him of disobe
dience to the faculty in refusing to give up his
treatise; nay, even of disobedience to the king him
self, inasmuch as the royal councillors had by royal
command ordered the treatise to be delivered to the
doctors, and the doctors to give in their opinion
respecting it in writing. When the magisters of
both parties were summoned before the king's
council, and Hus was bidden to deliver his treatise
to the doctors, he declared his willingness so to de
liver it, provided the doctors would agree with him
to a reciprocal wager of death by burning. This
terrified them, and they requested permission to go
aside for consultation. On returning to the council-
room, they declared their willingness to give up one
of their number for the purpose, but not to enter
into the engagement collectively. To this Hus
replied, that if they stood as one man collectively
against him, a single individual, they must also
accept the penalty of death by burning, whether it
were to fall upon himself, the individual, or upon
them collectively. But the royal councillors put an
end to the altercation by saying to both parties:
" Eeconcile yourselves handsomely; " and therewith
broke up the meeting.
Soon afterwards (July 10th), the articles of the
Faculty of Theology were taken into consideration at

174 JOHN HUS.

Zebrak, in a meeting of certain of the king's coun
cillors appointed for the purpose, which two alder
men and two citizens from each of the three towns
of Prague were also summoned to attend. This
meeting was held at the house of the king's under-
treasurer, Conrad Bishop of Olmutz, in the town of
Zebrak,^ but it is not known what, or whether any,
decision was arrived at.
However, on the next Sunday, fresh disturbances
took place at Prague, and the preachers recommend
ing the indulgences were again contradicted in their
sermons. Three young men, apparently of the
artizan class, and probably apprentices living with
their masters, named respectively Martin, John,
and Stasek, were arrested in three different churches,
and brought to the town hall of the Old Town,
where the magistrates contemplated dealing severely
with them according to the late proclamation.
Others, who were found acting similarly in the
cathedral were merely hustled, scourged, or cud
gelled by the clerics of the choir.
The fear, that these three young men would pay
for their misconduct with their lives, caused great
excitement in Prague, and in particular touched
John Hus to the quick, as it was the attitude
assumed by himself against the indulgences that
had been their principal incentive. He therefore,
on the following morning (July 11th), betook him
self, with a large number of magisters and students,
to the town hall, and requested to be admitted into
the presence of the aldermen. He must have felt

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 175
himself the more strongly urged to this, as the
aldermen had very early caused their beadles to
give public notice to all people, rich and poor,
without exception, to meet in the "ring," or great
square, which caused something extraordinary to
be anticipated. The assembled aldermen allowed
Hus and several magisters to come before them,
while the remainder, magisters and students (ac
cording to the testimony of an eyewitness, about
two thousand in number), remained standing below
in front of the town hall. A multitude of other
people also assembled, both on account of the
public notice, and also because of the unusual con
course of magisters and students. Hus entreated
the aldermen not to do anything to the three
prisoners, saying that he was himself the cause of
the resistance to the indulgences ; if, therefore,
they were going to do anything to them, let it be
done to himself in the first instance. The alder
men, after consultation together, replied, that
nothing would happen to the prisoners ; Hus and
the others might go home with their friends in
tranquillity. Calmed by this, Hus departed to his
abode, and the rest, after accompanying him thither,
dispersed to their own homes.
But the aldermen had been merely making use
of deceit in order to carry out their intentions with
out interruption. As soon as Hus had departed
with the magisters and students, they ordered the
beadles to give notice to the rest of the people to
disperse likewise. When this had partially taken

176 JOHN HUS.

place, they caused the three prisoners to be led out
to execution, surrounded by a large body of armed
men. They did not, however, conduct them to the
ordinary place of execution under the pillory on
the north side of the "ring," but forming a dense
circle of armed men round the prisoners at a spot
near a house at the corner of " Green Street," there
caused them to be beheaded, while a beadle pro
claimed : " Whoso commits the same, the same
shall be done to him." At these words many of
the bystanders, laymen and clergymen, men and
women, shouted that the prisoners had been wrong
fully beheaded; they too were ready to undergo
the same for the same cause. Some of them were
actually arrested and led to prison, which caused
great murmuring and uproar among the increasing
multitude. Finally, a charitable woman stepped
forward, and placed three white linen cloths on
the ground to cover the corpses, and immediately,
under the guidance of a young magister, John of
Jiczin, a vast procession of magisters, bachelors,
students, and others was formed, the bodies were
taken up under the eyes of the aldermen and armed
men, and carried devoutly to then- burial. Magis
ter Jiczin commenced with a loud voice the anthem,
" Isti sunt sancti," "They are holy," as usually
chanted at commemorations of martyrs, and thus
they were borne in a vast crowd of people, high
and low, and of both sexes, with loud chanting, and
also with much weeping and wailing, to the chapel
Bethlehem, where they were interred,

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 177
To this religious excitement was attached also,
to a certain extent, the incentive of national feeling
on the part of the Bohemian against the German
population. An old Bohemian annalist, who was
an eyewitness, ascribes the excessive severity em
ployed towards the three young men partly to the
circumstance that all the aldermen of the Old Town
at that time were Germans, as were also the armed
men in their service, and complains bitterly of the
German inhabitants, many of whom were present
and looking on with approving eyes. It is true
that there was a German majority in the town
council, but the statement that its members were
all Germans is not literally true.
The excitement which this cruel execution caused
in the population of Prague, evidently surprised
and terrified the aldermen. They, therefore, on
the morrow (July 12th) sought to get quietly
rid of the prisoners arrested on the preceding day.
But they were again obliged to have recourse to
deceit, because the prisoners, animated by some
what of the spirit of Paul and Silas at Philippi,
refused to be satisfied with their release and take
their departure. The beadles were obliged to notify
to the prisoners that they were to go before the
aldermen for trial, and then, on their leaving the
prison at this summons, the prison and town hall
were both closed, and they were bidden to depart
to their own homes. Some who remained standing
in front of the town hall were threatened away with
scourges. Through this the populace became em-
N

178 JOHN HUS.

boldened. Everywhere the aldermen were spoken
against and accused of unrighteously shedding
innocent blood ; and for several days some hundreds
of people paraded in front of the town hall, shout
ing that they too were willing to die for the truth.
The beadles had plenty of occupation in prohibiting
the assembling of crowds in front of the town hall,
but the more they made proclamation, the larger
were the multitudes that assembled, and if these
dispersed for a time, they soon reassembled anew.
Not knowing what to do, the aldermen went to the
king, and requested orders from him, as they were
unable to quiet the disturbance. King Wenceslas
flew into a passion, and is reported to have said to
them : "Be there a thousand such people, let it
be done to them as to the others; and if ye have
not executioners enough in this realm, I will have
them fetched from other countries." But the
aldermen did not venture to act upon the flighty
and passionate expressions of the king.
Anger at the defiant conduct of the people of
Prague appears to have finally inclined the king to
the advice tendered him by the Faculty of Theology.
He summoned a conjoint meeting of the clergy and
university, as proposed by the faculty, in order
that the articles above mentioned might then and
there be condemned. This meeting was held after
the fashion of a synod on the next Saturday (July
16th) in the town hall of the Old Town. Several
bishops were there (but it is not known whether
Archbishop Albik was present or not), many canons,

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 179
several abbots, the Prague incumbents, and also
the aldermen of the Old Town and perhaps of the
other towns of Prague. To strike terror into the
excited populace, the town hall was surrounded by
a considerable armed force. But the university,
which was especially intended to participate in the '
condemnation of the articles, divided itself into two
parts. The Doctors of Theology presented them
selves at the town hall and were the chief leaders
of the proceedings there, but the majority of the
magisters, and with them almost all the bachelors
and students, assembled in the Carolinum, where
the magisters consulted together under the presi
dency of the rector, Magister Marek of Konigratz.
Disapproving alike of a bare condemnation of the
forty-five articles extracted from Wycliffe's works,
and of a bare assent to the six articles of the Theo
logical Faculty, they sent deputies from their body
to the town hall, to summon the members of the
university there present to come to the Carolinum,
as the appointed place for university business.
This duty was undertaken by the rector himself in
conjunction with two other magisters, Frederic
Epinge and Procop of Pilsen. When the Doctors
of Theology and their associates refused to yield to
their representations, Magister Marek and his com
panions protested against the condemnation of the
articles in the town hall, so far as it was not de
monstrated by proofs from Holy Scripture. The
meeting, however, paid no regard to their protest,
and passed a resolution, that no one should main-

180 JOHN HUS.

tain the articles, which had been read before it,
under penalty of excommunication, of confiscation
of property, and of banishment from the realm.
On the Sunday after (July 17th), a vast con
gregation assembled at Bethlehem, thirsting to
hear what Hus would say in his sermon about the
young men who had been executed. He, however,
had neither taken part in their solemn funeral, nor
did he then say a single word about the event, a
thing upon which an evil construction was put, as
if, forsooth, the beadles and aldermen had stopped
his mouth. Possibly his motive was to avoid
further exciting the people, already in far too
stormy a temper. Nor was it till the next Sunday,
July 24th, that he made any mention of the un
fortunate young men, when he spoke in praise of
their guiltless death, and exhorted his hearers not to
allow themselves by any tortures to be scared away
from the truth.
Totally different was the language now held by
his former friend, Stephen Palecz. Preaching in
the church of St. Gallus, he warned his hearers
against the doctrines of Wycliffe, which he had
formerly defended. He plainly designated Wycliffe
a heretic, and a more dangerous heretic, the more
circumspectly he covered and guarded his errors
with texts of scripture.
" So delicious," he said, " are his writings to many, that it
is delightful for them to go to death for their sake ; even as ye
have seen how delightedly and boldly some have bent their
necks beneath the sword. And this," he continued, " is a great

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 181
token of heresy ; for amongst us would scarce one, or perhaps
not one, be found whe would give himself up to death for the
truth." And again : " See how timid their faith is ! for they
dare not go anywhere with it. For if they went to Eome or
elsewhere, and did not recant it, they would be burned as
heretics. But we can go anywhere safely with our faith."
Such language exhibits the mean nature of this
man, with whom Hus was now no longer on speak
ing terms. In a last conversation Hus had taken
leave of him with the words : " Palecz is a friend,
Truth is a friend. Both being friends, it is con
scientious to give the preference to Truth."
Hus's uprising against the papal indulgences
was such an assault upon the simoniacal system
of the day, that it could not but raise a storm
against him in the highest ecclesiastical quarter,
the court of Eome. His lawsuit with Archbishop
Zbynek had there dragged its slow length along
till the death of the archbishop. Not long after
Cardinal Colonna had issued sentence of excom
munication against Hus, the pope transferred the
further conduct of the case to certain other car
dinals. But when they provisionally allowed Hus's
excuses for not appearing personally, he took it
again out of their hands and entrusted it to one
only of their number, Cardinal Ludovico de Bran-
catiis, commonly called Cardinal Brancas, who
took no steps whatever to bring it to a conclusion,
in spite of all the urgency of Hus's procurators.
After the death of Archbishop Zbynek, but in all
probability before the final confirmation of his

182 JOHN HUS.

successor, the dignitaries of the cathedral at
Prague caused renewed complaint to be made
against Hus through Canon John Cifer and the
priest Michael, surnamed " de Causis," from his
office of a "procurator de causis fidei." This latter
was a man of evil reputation, a German by lan
guage, a native of Deutschbrod in Bohemia. In
1399 he was appointed to the incumbency of St.
Adalbert in the New Town of Prague, but his
spiritual duties were never very near his heart.
Having some knowledge of mining, he obtained a
commission from King Wenceslas to improve the
gold mines of Jilow, and the requisite sum of money
was entrusted to him for the purpose. He, how
ever, about 1408, absconded with the money, and
betook himself to the papal court, where he ap
pears to have maintained himself by practising as
a lawyer. Being retained by the " prelates " of
Prague, he presented to Cardinal Brancas a plaint
against Hus, in which he audaciously accused
him of all the heretical doctrines, which Hus had
more than once publicly repudiated, and moreover
of disobedience to his ecclesiastical superiors, and
of exciting disturbances among the people, petition
ing that he might be proclaimed a heretic, de
prived of his office of preacher, compelled to recant
his errors, and punished according to law.
By the exertions of these new complainants
Cardinal Brancas was probably still more hardened
against Hus's legal representatives, so that, when
they waited upon him with requests that the case

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 183
might be brought to a conclusion, he finally forbade
them to represent Hus any longer, or to come
to him any more, as he had no intention of hearing
them again, such being the commands he had re
ceived from the pope. As, however, they did not
cease their importunities, some of them were im
prisoned and part of their property taken from
them. Michael de Causis furthermore accused
Hus's principal representative, Magister John of
Jesenitz, of being a heretic himself, and filed a
plaint against him towards the end of 1411, firstly,
as a supporter of Hus in his heresy, and secondly,
on account of certain theories maintained by him
in the hall of the College of Jurisprudence at Prague
on September 25th, 1407. At Michael's request
the papal " auditor," to whom this plaint was
referred, inhibited Jesenitz from leaving Eome
until he had satisfactorily cleared himself; nay,
by order of the pope himself he was cast into
prison in March, 1412. Magister John, however,
made his way out of prison during the same month,
and escaped from Eome to Bologna. Failing there
fore to appear at Eome on the day appointed, he
was formally excommunicated on July 29th, 1412.
Hus's other procurators also quitted Eome after
suffering various humiliations, the whole time of
their fruitless residence there having been about
a year and a half. Hus's expenses in the conduct
of his cause amounted to over 1100 florins, with
which, however, he was supplied by some of his
wealthier friends.

184 JOHN HUS.

At the time of the excommunication of John of
Jesenitz, news had already arrived at Bome of
Hus's resistance to the sale of indulgences, and
so had the new plaint of the clergy of Prague
against him. These things at length induced the
papal curia to bring his ease to a conclusion, and
that not in a manner favourable to himself. Pope
John placed it in the hands of another judge,
Cardinal Peter of St. Angelo, who proceeded to
final sentence in the course of July. He decreed
an " aggravation " of the excommunication issued
by Cardinal Colonna in the preceding year, so that
the excommunication was to be publicly proclaimed,
with a warning to all believers not to hold com
munication with Hus, publicly or privately, in
eating and drinking, in conversation, in buying
and selling, in walking about with him, in recep
tion into lodgings, in giving fire and water, and in
all and singular good actions, and with a prohibition
forbidding any member of his household to attend
Divine service. If Hus continued obstinate for
twenty days, a renewed aggravation was decreed,
so that everybody was also to lie under excom
munication who held communication with him in
any wise soever, and that in every place, in which
Hus should stay, Divine service was to be sus
pended so long as he should there remain, and
one day after his departure. Again, if after this
he did not within twenty days submit and apply
for absolution, the interdict was to be maintained
in all places to which he should go until three days

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 185
after his departure ; and after renewed publication
of the excommunication, aggravation and re-ag
gravation in all churches, convents, and chapels,
three stones were to be cast at the house in which
he resided, in token of everlasting damnation.
This sentence no doubt arrived at Prague some
time in August 1412. Hus composed a public
protest against it, in which, after the example of
Bobert Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln, he appealed
to Christ, the most righteous Judge, and declared
that wrong was being done him, for he had had
sufficient excuses for non-appearance before the
pope, but had for two years been unable to obtain
a hearing for them ; wherefore he declared himself
not guilty of contumacy, and unaffected by the
pretended and frivolous excommunication.
Meanwhile further steps were taken by the papal
court against Hus himself and his friends. Cardinal
Peter of St. Angelo had probably already issued his
sentence, when news came to Bome respecting the
further course of events at Prague after Hus's dis
putation against indulgences, and in particular
respecting the extraordinary proceedings by which
the pope's bulls had been turned into ridicule. On
the basis of this intelligence Michael de Causis
drew up new plaints at the papal court, in which
he referred in insulting terms to King Wenceslas
himself, and requested that some of the king's
favourite courtiers should be personally cited to
Eome, and moreover that Hus, as a manifest
defender of Wycliffite doctrines, and others who

186 JOHN HUS.

agreed with him therein, should be without further
judicial proceedings proclaimed heretics, and as
such be arrested and delivered over to the secular
arm ; also that Wycliffe's books should be burned
at Eome, and wherever else they should be found.
As Hus's associates deserving of punishment, he
especially named John of Jesenitz, Zdislaw of War-
tenburg, Jacob of Stribro, Procop of Pilsen,
and Marek of Konigratz. Pope John shrank from
harsh measures against King Wenceslas, whose aid
he still required against the anti-Pope Gregory,
neither did he venture to make a direct attack upon
his courtiers, but in all other respects he approved
the proposals made to him. A new bull was issued
and sent to Bohemia, commanding Hus to be
arrested and delivered over either to the archbishop
or the Bishop of Litomysl or some other judge to be
condemned and burnt ; ordering the chapel Bethle
hem to be destroyed and levelled with the ground as
a nest of heresy, and the above-named and all other
aiders and abettors of Hus to be under excommuni
cation, and if they did not after warning recant
within thirty days, requiring them to appear within
forty days personally at the court of Eome and
answer the plaint of Michael de Causis.
The publication of Hus's excommunication by
the pope and these still more violent injunctions
caused great excitement among the inhabitants of
Prague. When, after expiration of the term of the
first aggravation (probably some time in Septetm
her), Divine service was ordered to be put a stop to

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 187
throughout all Prague, with the exception of the
Vyssegrad, which was protected by the peculiar
privileges of its chapter, and when the priests con
sequently refused either to baptize children or to
perform the funeral service over the dead, the part
of the population which favoured Hus was still
more irritated against them, while another part
was angry with Hus and impatient at suffering
such tribulation on his account. The German
inhabitants began almost universally to behave in
a manner hostile to Hus, while the majority of the
Bohemians defended him. Some of the king's
courtiers behaved defiantly towards the clergy who
obeyed the pope, and began to conduct the funeral
services over the dead themselves. Hus himself,
regardless of the interdict, preached as usual every
Sunday at Bethlehem, and so did Nicholas of
Miliczin, John Stiekna's successor in the second
preachership there. The Germans now formed a
conspiracy against Hus, intending to offer their
services for the execution of the papal order for his
arrest. On October 1st, the anniversary of the
consecration of the cathedral, they assembled in
armour, with crossbows, partizans and swords,
under the leadership of Bernard Chotek, who was
in charge of the church of St. Philip and St. James,
the parish in which the chapel Bethlehem was
situated, and marched to Bethlehem, while Hus
was actually delivering a sermon there. But his
hearers, though unarmed, boldly confronted their
armed adversaries and forced them to retire. Still

188 JOHN HUS.

attacks directed against Hus continued to be
renewed in various ways to such an extent, that he
could not but be in fear of his life. Considering
also the distress of the people, who felt grievously
the deprivation of the sacraments, and were thus
becoming dispirited, he finally made up his mind
to quit Prague, that the cause of the interdict
might be removed. In his own words he "fled,
that he might not be to the unrighteous the cause
of eternal damnation, and to the righteous a cause
of suffering and tribulation, and also that in their
madness they might not put a stop to the service
of God."
After his departure a meeting was held in the
town hall of the Old Town, in which the destruction
of Bethlehem according to the pope's command
was discussed. This was probably an assembly of
the whole community, in which the Bohemians
and Germans deliberated apart. The Germans
decided for the destruction of the chapel, and were
joined therein by some of the Bohemians, one of
whom afterwards delivered an address to the
Bohemians to that effect. But the majority of the
Bohemian citizens expressed itself counter to any
such act, which consequently the other party did
not venture to undertake by itself.
Party spirit for and against Hus was undoubtedly
the cause of various other disturbances and breaches
of the peace at Prague. In the university also there
was much discord on the subject of religion, which
especially exhibited itself at the election of a rector

HUS IN CONFLICT WITH THE PAPAL POWER. 189
of the three faculties on St. Gallus' day, 1412, after
the conclusion of the rectorship of Marek of Konig-
ratz. The Doctors of Theology endeavoured to
obtain the election of a partizan of their own,
Nicholas Hernetz (Cacabus), a Bachelor of Laws,
and finding themselves unable to induce the meet
ing to adopt then* views, withdrew in a body. The
meeting then proceeded to elect Magister Christian
of Prachatitz, incumbent of St. Michael's in the
Old Town, and one of Hus's most faithful friends.
After some negotiation the theologians found them
selves with no alternative but submission to the
will of the majority.
It was not till a little after this election that
Magister John of Jesenitz retm-ned to Prague.
After his escape from the papal prison at Eome, he
betook himself to Bologna and prosecuted his legal
studies in that university. His place of residence-
was apparently unknown at Eome, when he was
formally excommunicated there on July 29th. But
in September an order came from the pope to the
vicar general of the bishop and the authorities of
the city of Bologna, to arrest John of Jesenitz, and
this order -was carried into execution. However,
his friends appear to have taken up his case on the
basis of the liberties of the university, and to have
effected his release from the common prison as a
member thereof. They even obtained his promo
tion to the degree of Doctor of Laws, though, it is
said, without the knowledge of the rector and certain
others in authority, and with the omission of the

190 JOHN HUS.

usual ceremonies. In all probability before the
papal curia received information of these proceed
ings, John of Jesenitz secured himself by making
his escape to Prague. On December 18th, 1412,
under the auspices of the new rector, Christian of
Prachatitz, he held a solemn disputation in the
college, in which he proved from the laws of the
Church, that the excommunication fulminated by
the pope against Hus was legally null and void.

( 191 )

CHAPTEE VII.
JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE.
No express information has reached us as to King
Wenceslas's immediate feeling with regard to the
proclamation of the papal excommunication agamst
Hus and the carrying out of the interdict at Prague,
but, from his subsequent behaviour, it would seem
that both steps were displeasing to him. His
courtiers certainly never ceased to give their aid to
the tendencies and aims of Hus, nor did Queen
Sophia ever conceal her partiality for them ; nay,
even after the publication of Hus's excommunica
tion and the aggravation thereof, and also after
that of the interdict, she personally attended Hus's
sermons at Bethlehem.
After his withdrawal from Prague, Hus betook
himself, first, to a very distant district in the south
of Bohemia, where a noble of the highest rank,
Lord John the elder of Austi, provided him with a
safe retreat in a tower named Kozi, not far from
his town Austi on the Luznitz, which afterwards

192

JOHN HUS.

became the celebrated stronghold of the Taborites.
It would seem that for some time Hus's place of
residence was kept a secret, and that the priests
and others, to use his own words, "inquired and
conversed as to where he was." He kept up a fre
quent correspondence thence with Prague, exhort
ing his former hearers in Bethlehem and the people
of Prague in general to steadfastness and constancy
in the faith. These letters were probably read
aloud in Bethlehem, where Hus left a priest named
Havlik (Gallus) as his representative during his
absence, probably with the young Magister Martin
of Volyne as his assistant, over and above his faith
ful comrade, the second preacher, Magister Nicholas
of Miliczin. Hus also wrote from Kozi to the
highest state officials and other lords assembled at
the parliament and high court of justice held at
Prague in the second half of December, complain
ing of the persecution to which he was subjected,
and entreating them to defend the freedom of the
Word of God.
At this court refusal was made to appear and
a,nswer a plaint in a lawsuit relating to a freehold
inheritance, under the plea that the plaintiff was
under the archbishop's excommunication. But the
lords, with the approval of the king, overruled the
plea, and declared it to be bad in the high court.
Neither did Hus's petition remain entirely without
effect. The lords took into consideration the ques
tion of the removal and extirpation of the baneful
cause of discord among the clergy, owing to which

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 193
the realm and its inhabitants were grievously tra
duced in various surrounding countries; and in
accordance with a resolution passed by them, King
Wenceslas determined that an extraordinary synod
of the clergy should be held for the purpose.
Some time previously another change had taken
place in the archbishopric of Prague. Magister
Albik had soon become weary of this high dignity,
involving as it then did such serious cares and
difficulties. It was no easy task to steer a middle
course, which should avoid giving umbrage either
to the king or to the see of Eome. He therefore,
in accordance with the simoniacal system of the
day, concluded an agreement, by which he resigned
the archbishopric in favour of Conrad of Vechta,
Bishop of Olmutz, while Conrad gave up his
bishopric to Wenceslas of Burenitz, Patriarch of
Antioch, the king's high chancellor, who in return
resigned the wealthy provostship of the Vyssegrad
to Albik. "They made an extraordinary ex
change," says the old chronicler, who records the
succession of the Bohemian bishops and arch
bishops ; " but, 0 that that exchange had taken
place without the greatest simony ! " The sanction
of the papal court was necessary for the ratification
of such an exchange, and this was not obtained
without a considerable cost of time and, no doubt,
of money. Nevertheless the holders of these richly
endowed positions gave up to each other the
charge of their respective benefices by anticipation
towards the end of 1412, Conrad designating himself

194 JOHN HUS.

" governor and administrator of the archbishopric
of Prague in spiritualities and temporalities," and
Albik styling himself " administrator of the pro
vostship of the Vyssegrad."
Conrad of Vechta was a foreigner, a Westpha-
lian, but none the less devoted to King Wenceslas,
in whose service he had long been, formerly as
Master of the Mint, and at this time as the king's
Under-treasurer. No doubt it was not till after the
conclusion of the above agreement that he resigned
his secular office, to which his personal qualities
were much better adapted than to his new ecclesi
astical position. At the request of the king and
parliament he issued, as administrator of the arch
diocese, an order to all prelates, Doctors of Laws,
magisters, and other "enlightened men, both secular
and regular," to appear at the projected synod on
February 2nd, 1413, at Bohmisch Brod, a town
belonging to the archbishop, where the adminis
trator of the archdiocese and the Bishop of Lito-
mysl would be personally present to hear then-
counsels and come to a determination respecting
the requisite measures to be taken. The king also
issued a proclamation on the same subject, com
manding all whom it concerned to come, and
promising them protection and safety on the way.
The reason why this synod was not convened at
the archiepiscopal palace at Prague was probably,
that the palace was not yet vacated by Albik. But
on January 25th he purchased a house in the New
Town for himself, his aunt and his two daughters,

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 195
and went to reside there at once. Thus the synod
came to be actually held, not at Bohmisch Brod,
but in the palace on the Kleinseite at Prague.
Meanwhile, shortly after Christmas, 1412, Mag
ister John Hus returned to Prague and began to
preach again in Bethlehem, having from the first
been disquieted in conscience as to whether he had
acted rightly in withdrawing from his duties as
preacher on account of his enemies. On the one
hand he thought of the words of the Saviour in
John x. : " The good shepherd giveth his life for
the sheep ; but he that is an hireling and not the
shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, beholdeth
the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and the wolf
snatcheth and scattereth the sheep ; " on the other,
of His words in Matt. x. : " When they persecute
you in one city, flee into another." He also pon
dered the counsel of St. Augustine to Honoratus,
a bishop who asked his advice under somewhat
similar circumstances. Augustine said: "Whoso
fleeth in such manner, that the necessary ministry
is not wanting to the church through his flight,
doth what the Lord hath enjoined or promised.
But he who so flees, that the nourishment by which
the flock of Christ lives spiritually is taken from it,
is the hireling, who sees the wolf coming and fleeth
because he careth not for the sheep." Augustine
also cited the example of the flight of Athanasius,
and expressly laid down the proposition, that if
a man were sought for individually (singularitcr) ,
he might lawfully make his escape. Such is the

196 JOHN HUS.

statement of the case as given by Hus himself in
a letter to his friends Magister Martin and Magister
Nicholas of Miliczin.
It was doubtless also Hus's intention to deliberate
with his friends at Prague as to the course they
should take at the approaching synod. As soon,
however, as he began to preach, the clergy of the
opposite party put a stop to Divine service. It
being now almost time for the synod to meet, the
king himself called upon Hus to withdraw. He
obeyed and departed for the second time, but not
till he had from the pulpit asked and obtained the
permission of his congregation. Later, in 1413,
recurring to his conduct in this respect, he con
cluded a letter to Magister Christian of Prachatitz
with these words : " I think I sinned in giving up
preaching at the king's wish, and therefore I don't
wish to sin thus any more."
The hopes entertained by King Wenceslas and
the Bohemian lords of obtaining through the synod
some reconciliation and modus vivendi among the
clergy might have been fulfilled, had both the
parties, into which it was divided, been animated
by a good and honest will in that direction. But
the party opposed to Hus had no idea or thought
of conciliation. In their sight there could be no
reconciliation save by the entire submission of their
hated adversaries. In the opinion read before the
synod on February 6th, the eight Doctors of Theology
espied the fountain of discord only in the disobe
dience of a portion of the clergy to their superiors,

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 197
and in the dissemination of heretical doctrines.
The evil repute of the realm could only, according
to them, be got rid of by the punishment of those
who in their judgment disagreed in belief with
the Catholic Church. They therefore requested a
renewed condemnation of the forty-five articles
extracted from the writings of Wycliffe, the accept
ance of the six articles set forth by themselves in
the preceding year, and the recognition of the
validity of the papal excommunication issued
against Hus. They also proposed :
(1) That all doctors and magisters of the university should
be summoned to the archbishop's palace, and that each should
then and there make oath before the archbishop and the other
" prelates," that he doth not and will not hold any of the long
prohibited forty-five articles ; and that with regard to the sacra
ments, to the rules and laws of the Church, to indulgences, to
the honouring of the relics of the saints and other matters, he
believes and will believe as doth the Church of Eome, the head
whereof is tho pope and the body the cardinals ; and that obe
dience ought to be paid to the authorities of the Church in every
thing, unless pure good be forbidden or pure evil commanded
by them ; (2) That all members of the university should be
forbidden to act in contravention thereof under pain of excom
munication and banishment ; that this prohibition should be
proclaimed at synods and in sermons; and whotver should
offend against it should be punished by his diocesan, that no
one might venture " to preach or dogmatize of his own head as
hath already been done ; " that the singing of scandalous and
libellous songs in the streets, in taverns and elsewhere, should
be prohibited ; and finally that Magister John Hus should not
preach, until he had obtained absolution from the papal curia
neither should he by open or secret presence prevent the per
formance of Divine service at Prague.

198 JOHN HUS.

Hus and his friends at once denied the pro
position, which formed the basis of this opinion of
the doctors, viz., "that the dissemination of here
tical doctrines had been the cause of discord ; " and
grounded their denial upon the fact, that none of
them had yet been convicted of heresy, neither had
the forty-five articles from Wycliffe's writings been
condemned by higher authority than the isolated
and local assemblies to which the doctors appealed.
They affirmed, that the true and universally ac
knowledged cause of discord was evangelical preach
ing, in which rebukes were administered — (1) to
Simonists, the chief of heretics, who flourished
especially at the court of Bome, and thence spread
their branches throughout the world; (2) to
manifest adulterers and concuhinists ; and (3) to
the covetous and proud, who were lording it in
secular fashion among the clergy.
When the magisters of Hus's party, who formed
the majority in the university, consulted together
as to the suggestions which they were to make to
the synod, Magister Jakaubek of Stribro ( Jacobellus)
laid his opinion before them, to this effect :
" That there were two kinds of peace and concord, one accord
ing to the world, the other according to Christ. That, in order
that peace in Christ, which consisted in the observance of His law,
should be restored, it was necessary that the king, with the rest
of the inhabitants of the land, should exert themselves to put
down the simoniacal heresy, to put a stop to licentiousness,
adultery, and concubinage, and to superabundance of tempo
ralities and secular dominion among the clergy. That, inasmuch
as Hus and his adherents strove and endeavoured to introduce

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 199

this evangelical order into the realm, but many of the clergy,
blinded by maliciousness, opposed them, Hus and his adherents
should be cited to answer the complaints against them, and
purge themselves from calumny. If worldly peace could not
thus be attained, let people be satisfied with peace according
to the law of Christ ; for calumny and accusations of heresy
would do no harm to the realm of Bohemia."
The assembled magisters, having in all pro
bability come to an understanding with Magister
John Hus, did not accept these suggestions in their
letter, but adopted others resting upon the same
basis, which were also read before the synod. The
magisters requested :
" That the late decision of the king's privy councillors in their
arbitration between Archbishop Zbynek and the party of Hus
should be observed as just and convenient ; and that, as Arch
bishop Zbynek had not then brought any charge against Hus,
Hus should be allowed to appear before the synod, and whoever
wished to accuse him of any error or heresy should there do so
under engagement to undergo an equal penalty, should he fail
to prove his accusation. That, if no one did this, proclamation
should be made by the king's command in all the towns, and
likewise by order of the bishop by all incumbents, that Hus was
ready to answer for his belief, and that whoever wished to come
forward publicly against him, was to notify the same with his
name in the archbishop's chancery. That if no one appeared for
this purpose, those who were making denunciations at the papal
court, that in the realm of Bohemia and margravate of Moravia
the hearts of many were infected with heresy or error, should be
summoned, should be required to prove their statements, and if
they failed to do so, should be punished. That all the Doctors of
Theology and Ecclesiastical Law should be asked separately and
apart, if they knew any heretic or maintainer of error, to name
him ; and if they knew none such, should make acknowledgment
thereof before the public notaries and under seal. That, this

200 JOHN HUS.

being done, the king and the archbishop should prohibit under a
penalty any one to designate another a heretic, unless he were
willing to prove it ; and that the king with the lords should
then send a. fitting embassy to the court of Eome, taking a
collection from the clergy for the expenses, to purge the realm
from the accusation of heresy ; and that those, who maligned the
realm at the papal court, should also go with the embassy at
their own expense. And finally, that the interdict should not
be again proclaimed on account of the presence of Hus or his
preaching in Prague.''
Of the superior authorities of the Church in
Bohemia, who were, according to King Wenceslas's
wish, to have presided together over this synod,
only one, Conrad, the administrator of the arch
bishopric, occupied the presidential chair, the other,
Bishop John of Litomysl, being expected later.
Both the above opinions were sent to him at
Litomysl for consideration, and he gave his judg
ment upon them in writing on February 10th. He
decidedly rejected the suggestions of the magisters
of Hus's party and approved those of the doctors ;
yea, annexed to them advice still sharper in some
respects, suggesting that a vice-chancellor should
be appointed in the university to inquire into and
correct the errors of magisters and students ; that
Hus and his " accomplices " should cease and be
prohibited from preaching, and should be forbidden
to enter Bethlehem ; and that all Bohemian books
should be prohibited, by which Hus and his
"accomplices" sought to disseminate their errors
among the laity.
Unfortunately no intelligence has come down

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 201
to us of the further course of the synod, and thus
much only is certain, that it did not lead to re
newal of concord between the parties. It is certain
too, that Bishop John did not go later to the synod,
being detained by urgent cares of his own, and it
is probable that the Administrator Conrad did not
venture to come to a decision on the basis of
counsels so diametrically opposed to each other.
Hus's enemies now, to their joy, received welcome
intelligence from Eome, where, simultaneously with
the synod at Prague, an assembly of the Eoman
clergy was convoked by Pope John XXIIL, and
designated by him a " general council," in which,
on February 2nd, all Wycliffe's writings were, with
out exception, condemned, and ordered, although
containing some truth, to be universally burned,
as injurious to the faithful ; and all of them that
could be collected at Eome were actually burnt
in front of St. Peter's. This intelligence arrived
shortly after the conclusion of the Prague synod
in a letter from " Olenus, procurator of causes in
the Eoman curia," to "the Honourable Doctor of
Decrees, Dominus George Bora, in Prague."
But this joy was ere long greatly overclouded
from another quarter. The unconciliatory and
passionate behaviour of Hus's adversaries at a
synod, which was, according to King Wenceslas's
earnest desire, to have led to a reconciliation,
caused an alteration unfavourable to them in the
mind of the king. Hus's party pointed to the fact,
that the basis of the Doctors of Theology, that part

202 JOHN HUS.

of the Bohemian clergy were devoted to heretical
doctrines, could not possibly conduce to peace, but
contained a repetition of the charge of heresy
brought against the realm, which it was just King
Wenceslas's object to refute. Doubtless the king's
courtiers, who were favourable to Hus, did not
omit to draw his attention to this, and the king
began in consequence to incline more decidedly to
Hus's side. When the synod failed as a means
of quieting the dissensions among the clergy, the
king determined to avail himself of another mode
of attaining the desired end, and shortly after
Easter (April 23rd), appointed a special com
mission to engage in the task. The commissioners
were Archbishop Albik, whose resignation had not
yet been confirmed by the pope ; Magister Zdenek,
of Labaun,[Provost of All Saints ; Jacob, Dean of
the Vyssegrad, and Hus's friend, Magister Christian
of Prachatitz, then rector of the university. Zdenek
and Dean Jacob were members of the king's privy
council, and were, therefore, expected to shape
their course in accordance with the king's wishes,
and the same expectations were entertained with
regard to Archbishop Albik.
The royal commissioners summoned before them
on the one hand four prominent Doctors of Theo
logy, Peter of Znaym, John Ehas, Stanislas of
Znaym, and Stephen Palecz ; and on the other,
John of Jesenitz, Hus's procurator ; Magister
Jakaubek of Stribro, and Magister Simon of Tisnow.
The conference took place on a Friday at Magister

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 203

Christian's residence, the parsonage of St. Michael's.
Here, after some conversation, Magister Zdenek
inquired of both parties in the name of the com
missioners, whether they were willing to abide by
the decrees and decisions of the Eoman Church
with regard to the sacraments and all other matters
whatever relating to the Church and the Catholic
faith. The Doctors of Theology replied in the
affirmative, but with the addition, that they meant
by the Eoman Church, that Church whose head
was the pope and whose body was the college of
cardinals. On the other side, John of Jesenitz gave
in an answer in writing :
(1) That they stood and abode by the convention made by
the king's councillors in the preceding year ; (2) That they
admitted themselves to be, as a party, opposed to the chapter
of Prague and the doctors, prelates, and other clerics adhering
to them in the inconsiderate burning of Wycliffe's books, in
the arrogant condemnation of the forty-five mutilated articles,
and in the slanderous writings given in at the late synod, in
which it was asserted that there were clergy in Bohemia
entertaining evil sentiments with regard to the seven sacra
ments and the keys of the Church ; (3) That they were and
intended to be obedient to the decrees and decisions of the
Eoman Catholic Church, whose head is Christ and the pope
his vicegerent, in all wherein faithful Christians ought to abide
and be obedient ; and (4) That with regard to all personal
disputes they submitted to the decision of the commissioners
under such penalties as they should appoint.
After hearing these declarations the royal com
missioners gave sentence, notifying it to the parties
by the mouth of Zdenek : That, whereas it was
found, that both parties were agreed as regards

204 JOHN HUS.

obedience to the Catholic Church in all wherem
faithful Christians ought to be obedient, they
were, therefore, in accord therein; wherefore neither
party was to condemn the other ; and they were all
to make acknowledgment to this effect before the
king, the archbishop and the lords, or wherever
else the question might be put to them. In the next
place, as regards matters of personal dispute, they
were to give them in in writing the next day, and the
commissioners would seek to bring them to agree
ment with regard to them. The doctors raised their
voices at once against the first portion of this de
cision, and refused to abide by it ; but, as regards
personal disputes, they could not stand out, but
promised to submit, as well as the other party, under
penalty of one thousand kops of groschen, and
banishment from the realm.
On the morrow, Saturday, the commissioners
inquired of both parties whether they would abide
by the engagements made the day before. The
Doctors of Theology again resisted the statement,
that they were at one with the other party in then-
view of obedience to the Eoman Church, request
ing the omission of the words "wherein faithful
Christians ought to obey," and the re-discussion in
detail of the forty-five articles and the other
matters brought forward at the late synod. The
commissioners, whose only business it was to fulfil
the king's wishes by quieting the strife, reproached
the doctors for their obstinacy, and told them that
they should inform the king that Hus's party

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 205
had complied with everything, whereas they (the
doctors) refused to accept their decision ; they
would, however, find out that within a week it
would fall on their own heads. With this all nego
tiation was broken off, and the four doctors imme
diately took their departure from Prague for fear
of the king's anger, and sent written advice to the
other magisters of their party to avoid further
negotiation, and either, like them, to depart or to
conceal themselves.
The threat of the royal commissioners did not
wait long for its fulfilment. King Wenceslas issued
an edict banishing the four doctors aforesaid, as
the authors of dissension, from the realm of
Bohemia and the lands thereto appertaining, and
commanding their expulsion from the university,
and the nomination of others to fill their places,
both in the college and in their canonries and pre
bends at All Saints. Proclamation was to be made
thereof in the college and elsewhere, and all who
opposed the unity and reconciliation, which it was
the duty of the commissioners to bring about, were
to be similarly punished by exile and deprivation.
The king's command was carried into execution
without resistance, and it appears that Magisters
Christian of Prachatitz, Simon of Tisnow, Simon
of Eokycany, and Antonin of Launy, succeeded to
the positions of the four doctors in the Emperor
Charles's college and in the chapter of All Saints.
Magister John Hus returned to Prague after the
conclusion of the synod and resided there without

206 JOHN HUS.

let or hindrance till after Easter. The priests of
the opposite party did not suspend Divine service
on account of his presence, although they were
aware of it, until he recommenced preaching in
Bethlehem. When, however, the royal commission
commenced its work of endeavouring to reconcile
the parties, Hus again quitted Prague, no doubt at
the king's wish, and was not there when the four
doctors went into exile. He betook himself again
to the tower or castle of Kozi, where he allowed
nothing to hinder him from preaching, a duty the
temporary omission of which he considered a sin.
He not only preached at Kozi, whither large num
bers of people congregated from the neighbouring
country, especially from the town of Austi, to
hear him, but began to travel also far and wide
from castle to castle, from town to town, from
village to village. Where he was unable to preach
in the churches, he preached in the open fields, in
woods, on the highways, and among the hedges,
appealing for his justification to the example of the
Saviour. He especially sought out occasions at
which large numbers congregated, as church-wakes
or weddings, and was everywhere followed by mul
titudes on foot, on horseback and in carriages.
The proceedings at and connected with the synod
of Prague caused further polemical controversy be
tween the more prominent members of the parties,
and the dispute was conducted on both sides with
no small amount of acrimony. In the first place,
Hus himself and his zealous ally, John of Jesenitz,

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 207
respectively wrote replies to the " conditions of
concord" handed in at the synod by the eight Doc
tors of Theology. Stanislas and Palecz rejoined in
two pamphlets shortly after their flight from Prague,
in which they also assailed the declaration made
by their adversaries before the commission at St.
Michael's parsonage. These writings induced Hus
to compose a more extensive treatise " on tho
Church " (" De Ecclesia "), whereof more hereafter,
in which he especially propounded his views as to
the power and authority of the pope. This treatise
was undoubtedly written at Kozi, but sent thence
to Prague for publication and circulation, and was
for that purpose dictated at Bethlehem to several
copyists at once, who finished their work on July
8th, 1413. Hus afterwards composed separate an
swers to the two pamphlets of Stanislas and Palecz.
The disputes of the learned soon passed into a
wider sphere among their respective adherents,
who began reciprocally to annoy each other in
various ways, especially by bandying nicknames.
Hus's adherents were designated " Wycliffites," or
— from the Christian name of both the English and
Bohemian leaders — " Johannites." These again
retorted upon their adversaries by the nickname of
" Mahometists," thus reproaching them for their
violent proceedings in order to attain their ends.
"It was Mahomet," said Jacobellus, "not Christ,
who taught this law, viz. to persecute and slay."
Hus's literary activity did not however confine
itself to these learned controversies, which were

208 JOHN HUS.

throughout conducted in Latin, but turned itself
simultaneously to matters of more general interest.
His distance from Prague provided him with more
leisure than he had hitherto enjoyed, and he there
fore began from the commencement of his residence
at Kozi to compose writings in the Bohemian lan
guage, by which he made a way for his teaching
among all classes of the population. Such were
the " Bohemian books," the prohibition of which
was proposed, as above mentioned, by the Bishop of
Litomysl. Besides other lesser writings, Hus had
before November 11th, 1412, completed his com
prehensive exposition of the creed, the ten com
mandments, and the Lord's prayer, wherein he
dealt in a similar spirit to that of Thomas of Stitny
in the preceding century with the principal portions
of Christian faith and morality. Hus did not
attain to the depth of thought or purity of language
of his great predecessor, but his plainer and simpler
style made his writings more intelligible to the
common people. By February 2nd, 1413, he had
finished his work " On Simony," which was an
unreserved description, without respect of per
sons, of the faults and failings of the clergy, and of
all the corruption existing at the day in ecclesias
tical government, entering into much greater detail
than Mathias of Janow had done, yet never over
stepping the limits of truth. During the further
course of 1413, Hus's principal employment was
the composition of his "Postilla," or expositions of
all the Sunday and Saint's-day Gospels of the

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 209
ecclesiastical year, which was completed at Kozi on
October 28th.
Not only in his work on Simony, but more or
less in all his writings, did Hus castigate the abuses
dominant among the clergy, interweaving also
bitter reflections on the events of the day. Yet
never did he reject any article of the creed, any
sacrament, any ceremony or custom generally
received in the Church, though he never ceased
from warfare agamst gross errors in their accepta
tion. The fundamental difference between him
and his opponents in matters of faith was touching
the limits of the power and authority of the pope,
the existence of which is admitted by the latest
decree respecting papal infallibility. Hus's adver
saries hardly admitted any such limits, taking as
they did for their basis the definition, that " the
Church is the pope with the cardinals," or, as com
monly expressed, " the Church is that of which the
pope is the head and the cardinals the body." To
this Hus in his treatise " On the Church " opposed
the counter-definition, that " the Church is the
collective body of those predestined to salvation."
The definition of Hus's antagonists was practical
enough, and intended to require absolute obedience
to be paid to the pope, "unless pure good were
prohibited or pure evil commanded by him." It
did not, however, provide for the very possible
contingency of a dispute between the pope and
cardinals, in which case the head and body of the
Church would have been at variance. Nor was it
p

210 JOHN HUS.

so very long before ridicule was cast upon the whole
idea of this definition by the body proceeding to
decapitate itself at Constance. Hus's definition on
the other hand was of an utterly unpractical nature,
especially as he did not draw any clear distinction be
tween the visible and invisible Church, to the latter
of which alone his definition is applicable. But he
maintained reasonably enough, that what the pope
commanded must not be at variance with the law
of Christ, and therefore with Holy Scripture, since
the sole Head of the entire Church militant, dor
mant and triumphant, is Christ Himself, the pope
being only His vicegerent in the Church militant.
No decision had at that time been come to by autho
rity as to the definition of the Church, which might
therefore to a great extent have been looked upon
as an open question.
In assuming Holy Scripture as the infallible and
most certain fountain of Christian doctrine, Hus
did not mean to assert, that the tradition of the
Catholic Church was essentially at variance with
Scripture, and that therefore the doctrinal system
relating to the creed and ordinances of Christianity
required to be reviewed in detail and recast upon
the basis of Scripture. He was always far removed
from any such notion, nor did he ever exhibit the
slightest tendency to diverge from the teaching of
the Church through research into Holy Scripture.
It was not his aim to introduce doctrinal or litur
gical novelties, but never did he lose from sight the
reform of the existing condition of Church govern-

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 211
ment, and the subversion of the simoniacal system
under which it was carried on. In considering the
means by which this end was to be obtained, the
first and foremost object of his wishes was a pope
who would come forward as a true and authorita
tive reformer. Entertaining, however, but slender
hopes of such a person being elected to such a
position, he thought it good that secular princes
and lords should rise up against the abominable
traffic in spiritual offices ; yea, that they should take
the superabundant endowments of spiritual persons,
which he considered to be the fountain head of the
entire pestilence, into their own hands, and give
the priests a modest competence out of them. And
finally, he concluded that ordinary people should
also take up a position counter to open simonists
and ill-living clergymen by withholding their main
tenance from them, and that pro tempore they
should cease to dread citations and excommunica
tions, which he looked upon as the weapons with
which the clergy defended their wickedness. In
enunciating such principles, and more and more
plainly urging the laity to act upon them, Hus (says
Tomek) was undoubtedly treading upon what we
should call revolutionary ground; but these views
originated in him from the persuasion that under
certain circumstances it was a matter of duty to
obey God rather than man, and the longer he de
fended them, the more zealous did he grow in their
defence ; yea, the more and more did he become
confirmed in his resolution to risk his life for them.

212 JOHN HUS.

Thus much it is requisite to state at once with
regard to Hus's principal writings, in order that
his position, both as a Church-reformer and as an
individual, both in his own country and in the
ecclesiastical world in general, may be properly
understood, before we accompany him on his final
journey to Constance. The man himself will after
wards stand revealed before us in a selection from
his own writings and letters, especially those in his
native language, in which he speaks heart to heart
to his own countrymen. Never was reformer more
unselfish, never did a man more completely lose —
or rather abandon — his own individuality in the
great end and object to which he devoted his life.
But to return to the course of events. It was
not till June 17th, 1413, that Bishop Conrad, after
finally obtaining his confirmation as archbishop
from Pope John, was solemnly inducted into the
archiepiscopal see of Prague. The arrangements
made respecting the exchange of the bishopric of
Olmutz and the provostship of the Vyssegrad, were
also confirmed, Magister Albik receiving the
honorary title of Archbishop of Ca3sarea.
On the day of the exhibition of the relics at
Prague, April 20th, 1414, Hus again quitted his
refuge at Kozi, and returned to Prague, where he
took up his residence at Bethlehem, but does not
appear to have preached publicly. Although the
priests, and in particular the archbishop, were
aware of his presence, yet Divine service was not
on this occasion suspended, doubtless in order to

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 213
avoid disturbances among the populace. During
his stay at Prague, Hus composed his little treatise,
" On Six Errors," in which he criticized faulty
notions respecting the power of the priesthood, the
wicked employment of excommunication, and the
dominant system of simony. He caused the entire
treatise to be inscribed on the inner walls of the
chapel, in order to draw the continuous attention
of the people to the subject. This work being
completed on June 6th, he returned, in all proba
bility, shortly afterwards to Kozi, where, however,
apparently just about this time his friend and
protector, John the elder, died, and John's brother
Ulric, whose views were unfavourable to Hus,
became the guardian of his children. This is
probably the reason why we find Hus residing in
the town of Austi, whence, on June 26th, he dated
another little treatise, intituled " The Kernel of
Christian Doctrine." Soon afterwards he quitted
the district, and betook himself to the castle of
Krakovetz, near Eakovnik, whither he was invited
by another noble friend, high in office at the king's
court, Lord Henry Lefl of Lazany. It would seem
that he travelled to Krakovetz by Prague, where
he stayed a few days, and recommenced his journey
on July 15th. At Krakovetz he composed a
pamphlet against a priest, who had become a
nobleman's clerk of the kitchen, and who had
asserted that Hus had been expelled from another
district ; i.e. from the neighbourhood of Austi.
This Hus denies in the words :

214

JOHN HUS.

" The priest, who is a clerk of the kitchen, must be informed,
that they feel the want of me greatly in that district, in which
I preached in towns, villages, and fields, in castles, and under
castles, and in a wood under a linden-tree by the castle called
Kozi. And having proclaimed the Word of God to them, I
have betaken myself to another district to proclaim the truth
there also. And afterwards, if God permit, I shall go into
another district."
There is no doubt that Hus is perfectly correct in
his statements as to the feehngs of the people in
Austi and its neighbourhood, but the priestly clerk
of the kitchen had also something to say in de
fence of his assertion, considering the sentiments
of the new master of Kozi.
Meanwhile adversaries arose against Hus in
foreign and distant lands. His fame had by this
time spread throughout Christendom, and brought
into the field against him, amongst others, no less a
person than the distinguished French theologian,
John Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris,
who, though recognizing the need of reform in the
Church, especially in the discipline of the clergy,
was nevertheless a passionate defender of rigid
authority, and of the supremacy of the Church over
temporal rulers and nations. The tendency in
Bohemia to resist ecclesiastical authority excited
his displeasure, and he therefore wrote on May 17th,
1414, to Conrad, Archbishop of Prague, setting
forth the danger of Wycliffe's doctrines, and " how
difficult, yea impossible," it was to correct and
reduce to order their disseminators " by reasoning
or authority, because they feared neither to deny

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 215
nor oppose the principles of Divine law and apostolic
authority, by which they ought to regulate their
conduct." He therefore urged Conrad for this pur
pose to seek the aid of King Wenceslas, and, if
requisite, endeavour to constrain him thereto by
means of excommunication and other punishments
ordained by spiritual and temporal law against
rulers who paid no regard to the extirpation of
heresy. Later, after copies of some of Hus's writ
ings had been placed in his hands, he extracted,
particularly from the treatise " On the Church,"
various propositions, either explicitly or implicitly
[formaliter aut elicitive) therein contained, and sent
them to Archbishop Conrad as erroneous. He also
wrote him a second letter (September 24th), re
presenting the danger of such principles to all
power, whether spiritual or temporal, reiterating
that both powers ought to arise and extirpate them
by fire and sword, rather than by careful or
" curious " reasoning.
Archbishop Conrad (September 2nd) returned a
courteous answer to Gerson's first letter, thanking
him for his attention, and declaring his own readi
ness to do his utmost to extirpate error, even if he
had to risk his life in so doing. But such language
could scarcely have come from his heart, knowing
as he did the sentiments of Wenceslas far better
than the Chancellor of Paris, and intending, as far
as possible, to shape his course thereby. Appli
cation was also made to King Wenceslas by Pope
John, who wrote to him from Bologna (June 17th),

216 JOHN HUS.

again complaining that the Wycliffite heresy, which
had been condemned by what he termed a "general
council " at Eome, was increasing in the countries
under Wenceslas's rule, and that disobedience
towards the papal see, and disregard for ecclesias
tical penalties, were publicly preached ; expressing,
moreover, his confidence that the king, as protector
of the Church, would exert all his power to root out
that plague for the preservation of the honour and
good estate of his realm.
When Pope John sent this letter, he had been
more than a year non-resident at Eome, owing to
its capture by his mortal foe, Ladislaw of Naples,
on May 31st, 1413. The blow thus inflicted upon
him induced him after long refusal eventually to
assent to the wish for the convocation of a real
" general council " according to the resolutions of
the council of Pisa. Moreover, at the instance
of Sigismund, King of the Eomans and of Hungary,
who had marched into Italy, partly to - his assist
ance and partly on account of the war between
Hungary and Venice, he also agreed (December
9th, 1413), that the council should be held in a
German city, Constance, in Swabia. The opening
of the council was appointed for November 1st,
1414. After a personal interview with the pope at
Lodi at the end of 1413, in which no doubt the
condition of Bohemia was discussed, Sigismund
began to interest himself in the matter of Hus,
and hit upon the idea of inducing Hus, who re
fused to appear for trial at Eome, or before the

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 217
papal curia, to appear before the council to justify
himself with regard to his orthodoxy, a plan which
Sigismund intended to provide him with full and
free opportunity of carrying into execution. While
staying at Friuli some time in the spring of 1414,
Sigismund requested two Bohemian nobles at
tached to the court of Wenceslas, who were with
him either on some embassy or possibly assisting
him in his war against Venice, Lord Wenceslas of
Duba and Lestno, and Lord John of Chlum, sur
named Kepka, to discuss the subject with Hus on
their return to Bohemia. Later, he also made
use of the services of Lord Henry Lefl, with whom
Hus was residing at Krakovetz, and likewise of
those of Lord Nicholas Divoky of Jemniste. These
were all favourers of Hus and his party.
These negotiations were probably the cause that
Hus, after a brief stay at Krakovetz, journeyed
thence to Prague (August 6th), attended by a
numerous escort of gentlemen and others, intend
ing, no doubt, to consult his friends with regard
thereto. King Sigismund's intention, as signified
to Hus by the noblemen commissioned to com
municate with him, was not only to give him a
safe conduct on his way to Constance, but also to
procure him a free and safe public hearing in the
council, in such manner indeed, that if he were
unwilling to submit to the judgment of the council,
he was to have a free and safe journey back to
his own country. Such is Hus's own statement
in a letter written after June 5th, 1415, and also

218 JOHN HUS.

in an earlier, but undated letter, in which he ex
pressed a wish that he could but once at any rate
speak with the king, since he had come thither at
his wish and under his promise that he should
return safe to Bohemia. Nor is there any reason
to doubt that such inducements were actually held
out to him by Sigismund. Whether the king were
exceeding his powers or not in promising a safe
return, to Bohemia, should Hus decline to submit
to the judgment of the council, is another question ;
but it is impossible not to suspect that Sigismund
promised more than he knew he could perform,
in hope that the chapter of accidents would even
tually relieve him of trouble and responsibility.
There were not wanting people among Hus's
friends and favourers, who knew Sigismund well,
and warned Hus at once against trusting his safe
conduct. "He will deliver thee to thine enemies
himself," they told him ; nay, Lord Nicholas
Divoky said to him in a confidential conversation
in the presence of Magister John of Jesenitz :
" Magister ! know for certain that thou wilt be
condemned." " I think," writes Hus in the letter
first above quoted, " he knew the king's intention.
I thought that God's law and the truth had a
Bavour for him ; now I understand that they savour
to him not much ; he condemned me before my
enemies did so." Probably Hus partly entertained
a certain belief in Sigismund's honour and honesty
and expressed intention " to bring his cause to a
satisfactory conclusion," and partly had made up

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 219
his mind too firmly to be diverted from his pur
pose by any personal considerations. He desired
to make use of the assistance proffered him by
Sigismund to make an attempt to gain a victory
for his views in the council, and should it be un
successful, he had no wish to elude the danger
that threatened his life. He therefore, some time
in August,^replied in writing to King Sigismund,
that he intended humbly to risk his life and appear
under the protection of his majesty's safe conduct
at the approaching council of Constance.
Meanwhile the last-mentioned letter of Pope
John to King Wenceslas, urging him to extirpate
heresy, had arrived at Prague. Hus, on hearing
of it, sought to pacify the king by taking a short
and ready method of extricating himself from ill-
repute. On August 27th there was to be an ex
traordinary synod at Prague on account of some
business between the king and the clergy. On the
day preceding Hus caused notices to be placarded
in Latin, Bohemian, and German, at the cathedral
and other churches in Prague, at all colleges, on
the gates of the king's and archbishop's palaces
and elsewhere, sent them about to other towns,
and caused them to be read aloud at sermons,
inviting every one, who desired to accuse him of
obstinate persistence in error or heresy, to bind
himself to prove the same under penalty of a like
punishment should he fail to do so ; for he (Hus)
was willing to appear before the arehbishops and
prelates and answer every one with regard to his

220 JOHN HUS.

faith, and if convicted, to suffer as a man in error
or a heretic ; and was willing similarly to appear
at Constance before the pope and the general
council. When the synod was opened in the archbishop's
palace on the Kleinseite, Magister John of Jesenitz
came as Hus's representative in front of the palace
with a notary and witnesses, knocked at the door,
and requested that either Hus in person or him
self as his representative should be admitted into
the assembly before the archbishop, the prelates,
and the rest of the clergy, with the intent and
purpose notified in the placards. The archbishop's
marshal came out and informed the magister that
at that time, and so long as the assembly was
treating of the king's matters, he could not be
admitted, but he might wait outside and return
when the business was ended. Magister Jesenitz
waited for some time requesting admission, and
when he found himself unable to obtain it, caused
a declaration to that effect to be drawn up and
signed by the witnesses.
No one came forward in answer to Hus's pla
cards, and he therefore placarded another notifi
cation on the gates of the king's palace in the Old
Town, addressed to the king, the queen, the high
steward, and all the king's court, requesting them
to bear him witness, that he had presented himself
to answer any one who wished to accuse him, but
nobody had entered into the required engagement
with him ; and announcing anew that he intended

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 221
to appear before the general council at Constant j,
and did not refuse to suffer as a heretic, should any
heresy be proved against him. He also wrote to
King Sigismund on September 1st, sending him
copies of his placards, and requesting him, accord
ing to promise, to grant him a safe conduct to
Constance and obtain him a safe and public hear
ing; for he hoped without fear "to confess the
Lord Christ, and, if requisite, suffer death for His
most righteous law."
Hus then adopted another mode of obtaining
evidence to show that no heresy had yet been
proved against him. His authorized representa
tive, Magister John of Jesenitz, appeared on
August 30th at the house of the royal master
of the mint, Peter Zmerzlik of Svojsin, before
Nicholas, Bishop of Nazareth, inquisitor of heresy
in the diocese of Prague, and inquired whether he
was aware of any error or heresy in Magister
John Hus. The bishop replied before witnesses,
" that he had frequently associated with Magister
John Hus, eating and drinking with him, had often
boon present at his sermons, and had had many
conversations with him on divers matters of Holy
Scripture, but had never found any error or heresy
in him, but in all his words and deeds had found
him an orthodox and Catholic man." Magister
Jesenitz again inquired whether any one had ever
accused Hus of error or heresy before him, as
inquisitor appointed by the papal see. The bishop
replied that this had never been done by any one,

222 JOHN HUS.

although Hus had at that time issued notifications
for the purpose by placards throughout the whole
city. In addition to the testimony signed by the
witnesses, the bishop gave Hus a letter patent
under his own seal in the words above cited.
Hus's adversaries did not come forward publicly
against him, as they were invited by him to do,
but conspired against him the more in secret, as
soon as they learned his intention of appearing
before the council. They commenced their prepa
rations to destroy him there by collecting witnesses
against him, and taking their evidence, in order
to be able to accuse him of heresy. Again, as in
1409 before the late archbishop at Prague, the
first among these witnesses was John Protiva, in
cumbent of St. Clement's at Poritz, and formerly
preacher at Bethlehem, and with him Magister
Andrew of Brod, one of the eight Doctors of Theo
logy and a Canon of Prague. The principal tenour
of their evidence was, that Hus taught that the
substance of bread remained in the sacrament
after consecration, and that a priest in sin did not
absolve. These things they brought agamst him,
partly from private conversations held several years
ago at St. Michael's parsonage and in the house of
Wenceslas the cupmaker, and also at a friendly
visit which Hus made to Andrew of Brod in his
room in the Carolinum in the presence of two other
magisters ; and partly from Hus's public sermons,
in which they caught phrases, to which they gave a
different turn, and which they applied in a different

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 223
sense. They also accused him of exciting disturb
ances between the Bohemians and Germans, re
ferring not only to his action as to the three votes
of the Bohemian " nation " in 1409, but also to his
sermon in 1400, at the time of the siege of Prague
by the Margraves of Meissen. Andrew of Brod
was not ashamed to accuse Hus of his exertions
with respect to the three votes, although he had
himself stood shoulder to shoulder with him, when
that matter was in question.
Hus, who had meanwhile returned from Prague
to Krakovetz, not only received information of the
plots of his adversaries, but also obtained copies
of the statements of all the witnesses, with their
names. Not desiring to remain in evil repute
upon false grounds, especially if he were to lose his
life at Constance, the possibility of which he never
concealed from himself for a moment, he wrote
notes and interlineations, proving the charges to
be false, and again, as ever, repudiated the opinions
which were now ascribed to him anew. It was his
wish that the statements of the witnesses, with his
replies, should be read aloud after his departure
" to all faithful and beloved brethren in the Lord
Jesus, who had heard or received the Word of God
through him," as well as a farewell letter which he
sent them (October 10th), in order that, knowing
his opinions, they might not be dispirited if he
were condemned for any imputed heresy.
As regards the accusation relating to the assign
ment of three votes to the Bohemian "nation"

224 JOHN HUS.

against the one left to the Germans, Hus requested
the rector and council of the university to give him
for his defence a copy of King Wenceslas's charter
(privilegium), and of the university's own decree,
from the statute book, and likewise a copy of the
resolution of the university protesting against
Archbishop Zbynek's burning of Wycliffe's books.
Although no safe conduct had yet reached him
from Sigismund, Hus resolved to start without it,
and made all needful preparations for the journey.
The escort of the three commissioners appointed
by King Wenceslas to travel with him was provi
sionally to secure his safety on the way to Con
stance. These were the same two noblemen who
had originally negotiated with Hus on behalf of
King Sigismund, Lord Wenceslas of Duba and
Lestno, and the Knight John of Chlum; and,
thirdly, a relative of the last mentioned, Lord
Henry of Chlum and Lacembok.
As meanwhile, during the usual session of the
high court of justice at the Ember days preceding
Michaelmas, a parliament of the estates was held
at Prague, Hus wrote a letter to the lords there
assembled, petitioning them to inquire of Arch
bishop Conrad, who was also present, whether he
was aware of any error or heresy in him, because
he was willing to clear himself of it in the realm
beforehand, or suffer punishment if he failed to do
so ; and if the archbishop was not aware of any
such thing, requesting him to give his testimony to
that effect. The lords put the question to the arch-

JOHN HUS IN EXILE FROM PRAGUE. 225
bishop, who replied orally, that he was not aware
of any error or heresy in Hus, neither did he accuse
him of such; but it was the pope who accused him,
and it was therefore before the pope that he must
clear himself. Testimony was borne to this by the
High Burggrave of Prague and others in a letter in
the Bohemian language to King Sigismund, dated
October 7th, in which they also entreated him on
their own account to obtain for Hus a public hear
ing in the council, " that he might not be put to
shame in a corner to the disgrace of their nation
ality and of the land of Bohemia."
Four days afterwards, on the Thursday before
the festival of St. Gallus, October 11th, 1414, Hus
started with the three lords appointed to accompany
him from Krakovetz on the road to Constance,
taking leave of his friends in an earnest and affec
tionate letter in the Bohemian tongue, which will
appear in extenso afterwards.

226 JOHN HUS.

CHAPTER VHI.
JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE.
During Hus's journey to Constance without safe
conduct everything seemed to smile upon him. He
travelled with his face uncovered, and never con
cealed by his hood. In every German town that
he entered he was received, either by the clergy
or by the civil authorities, in a friendly manner.
The incumbent of Pemau drank his health and
told him that he had always been his friend. At
Salzbach the "Landrecht " was sitting in the inn
at which he lodged ; he made himself known to the
magistrates and elders, and had an agreeable con
versation with them. In Lauf, he had a pleasant
conference with the incumbent, who was a " great
jurist." At Nuremberg he arrived on October 29th,
his approach having been announced beforehand
by travelling merchants ; and crowds of people
stood in the streets looking out and asking, "Which
is Magister Hus ? " One incumbent wrote him a
letter, stating that he had long wished to talk with

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 227
him ; another came after dinner desiring to confer
with him in a friendly manner. Hus declined a
private conference, saying that he was in the habit
of preaching publicly, and wished all comers to
hear what he said. The conversation lasted about
four hours, till twilight, and at its conclusion those
who had taken part in it said to him : " Certainly,
magister, the things that we have heard are
Catholic, and we have taught and held them many
years; and if there is nothing else against you,
you will be sure to come forth or return with
honour from the council." Hus says that he did
not meet an enemy on the journey ; nowhere was
Divine service suspended on account of his pre
sence ; and all applauded the German and Latin
notification of his intention of travelling to the
council of Constance to answer for his faith and
doctrine, which he caused to be placarded in every
imperial town. He was not, however, always
without a precursor, who endeavoured, though
unsuccessfully, to raise a prejudice against him.
The Bishop of Lubeck preceded him during part of
his journey from place to place by one night,
spreading a report that he was being conveyed in
fetters in a cart, and warning people against him
"because he knew men's minds." The natural
result was, that greater curiosity was roused and
larger crowds assembled to see him.
Lord Wenceslas of Duba quitted Hus at Nurem
berg, and went to the Ehine in quest of the
promised safe conduct, while Hus travelled onwards

228 JOHN HUS.

with John of Chlum and Henry Lacembok. At
Biberach, John of Chlum talked so fluently and
learnedly on behalf of Hus, preaching, as Hus
says, more than he did himself, that he was taken
for a Doctor of Theology, and was thenceforth
sportively nicknamed by the party the "Doctoralis
de Pibrach." They arrived at Constance on
November 3rd, and Hus took lodgings with a
"good widow" named Fida, in St. Paul's Street.
The next day the two nobles visited Pope John
XXIIL at his palace, and informed him that they
had brought Magister John Hus under safe conduct
from the King of the Eomans and of Hungary.
The pope promised that he would allow no violence
to be used towards him, and that he should be
safe in Constance, even " though he had killed his
(the pope's) own brother." On November 4th, Hus
wrote a Latin letter to his friends at Prague,
telling them of the dearness of both food and
lodging, and intimating that he should soon be
in want of necessaries. On November 9th, the
pope sent a message to him, informing him that
in the plenitude of his power he had suspended
the interdict and excommunication against him,
and that he might walk freely about Constance, and
visit whatever localities he thought fit, but withal
requesting him not to attend high masses, in order
to prevent scandal arising and to avoid becoming
the subject of conversation. The safe conduct, which
Wenceslas of Duba obtained from the king, was
dated Spires, October 18th, but the exact date of its

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 229
arrival at Constance does not appear, although it
had manifestly arrived before November 28th. It is
couched in tolerably strong language, commanding
all princes, lords, and officials to assist Hus on his
journey to Constance, and allow him to "pass, halt,
stay and return, freely," but I do not see anything
in it which would make it of exceptional value
as compared with other letters of safe conduct,
though it was certainly not an ordinary passport.
Full of hope that he would be allowed, according
to Sigismund's promise, to defend his belief freely
and publicly in the council, and to speak in the
interest of the aims and endeavours to which he
had devoted the greater part of his life and powers,
Hus wrote on November 16th a Bohemian letter to
the people of Prague, exhorting them to steadfast
ness in all that was good. After consulting with
the lords who escorted him, he determined to take
no active step till after the arrival of King Sigis
mund, who was expected to appear at Constance
in person about Christmas.
But matters ere long took a very different turn.
Hus's enemies were no laggards in making pre
parations for his destruction, and in collecting
everything that might be useful for accusing him
before the council. The first instigation thereto
appears to have come from the chapters of Prague
and the Vyssegrad, the two societies which were
composed of the richest pluralists and foremost
traffickers in the simony of the day in Bohemia,
whose material interests were most deeply con-

230 JOHN HUS.

cerned in the maintenance of the existing system.
It was no doubt through their action that a collec
tion was made from the clergy in all deaneries for
the expenses of Bishop John of Litomysl, Hus's
declared enemy, who was to go to the council
and manage all for the attainment of the desired
end. It was no doubt, too, by commission from
the chapter of Prague, that Michael de Causis, its
former agent at Eome, now betook himself to
Constance to carry on the proceedings against Hus,
which he had hitherto conducted in the papal
curia. Two of Hus's former friends, Stanislas of
Znaym, and Stephen of Palecz, were urged on
against him by the goad of personal spite, and
started for Constance at their own expense to
testify and assist against him. Stanislas, who
appears to have been residing at his birthplace
in Moravia, died suddenly on the road from a
paralytic stroke at "Henry's Castle," in the south
of Bohemia. Palecz appears to have arrived at
Constance a little earlier than Hus, and to have
immediately united"" with Michael in his work.
They were soon joined by other enemies of Hus's,
in particular the former Dean and then Provost
of Passau, Wenceslas Tiem, whose traffic in
indulgences had been so terribly spoilt by Hus at
Prague in 1412.
Michael de Causis placarded, on the day after
Hus's arrival at Constance, public denunciations
against him, as obstinate and contumacious under
excommunication, and suspected of heresy; and

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 231
this he continued to do, day after day, without the
slightest notice being taken thereof by Hus. Soon
afterwards he not only drew up a formal accusation,
which he gave in to Pope John, but also, in com
pany with Palecz, paid almost daily visits to the
cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and other digni
taries present at Constance, representing to them
the dangerous character of Hus, especially as
an exciter of the nobility and people against the
clergy, and insinuating that the humiliation of
the ecclesiastical body would be greatly increased
if he were allowed to return home safe and free
from the council. Besides this he depicted Hus
as a disseminator of Wycliffe's heretical doctrines,
and even had the audacity to charge him with
having brought about the German magisters' loss
of the three votes in the University of Prague, and
their consequent wholesale emigration in 1409,
in order to rid himself of their opposition to
his machinations. Such instigations were the more
effective, as most of those to whom they were
applied were of one spirit with those who applied
them. At length an arrangement was made be
tween the pope and the cardinals who managed the
council, that Hus should be deprived of freedom,
and that the authorities should proceed to judg
ment against him, which he had hitherto eluded
by non-appearance to the papal citation. A silly
story became suddenly current at Constance after
Hus had been there three weeks and a half. It
was said that he had been conveyed out of the

232 JOHN HUS.

town in a hay cart, a tale which may have been
purposely circulated to lend a colour to the action
of the ecclesiastical authorities in arresting him.
As a matter of fact, he had never passed the
threshold of his lodgings, though he had privately
celebrated mass there and conversed freely with
any one who thought fit to visit him.
On November 28th, th£ Bishops of Augsburg and
Trent, the Burgomaster of Constance, and a noble
man, John of Baden, came to Hus's lodgings
about dinner-time, and told Lord John of Chlum
that they had come to Magister John Hus on
behalf of the cardinals and by command of the
pope, who were ready to give him a hearing, even
as he had himself previously asked to speak with
them. Chlum saw at once through the transparent
device, and gave them an angry reply, stating the
position in which Hus was under the protection of
a safe-conduct from the king. He turned to the
burgomaster, and told him in German that even if
the Devil were to come to plead his cause, he ought
to have an honest hearing ; and finally informed
them, that it was the king's express wish that Hus
should say nothing respecting his case till his (the
king's) arrival at Constance, and warned them to do
nothing contrary to the king's honour. The Bishop
of Trent replied, that they had come merely in
the interests of peace and to prevent a tumult.
Hearing this, Hus, who was probably personally
unknown to the bishops and those with them, rose
from table and said, that he had not made that

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 233
long journey to meet the cardinals, neither had he
ever desired to speak with them apart, but had
come to the whole council, and would there say
what God should put in his mouth, and answer
the questions asked him. Still, at the request of
the cardinals, he was ready to go to them at once,
and should he be questioned on any subject, he
hoped he should prefer to suffer death rather than
deny any truth that he had learned from the
Scriptures or otherwise. Meanwhile, the house
itself and several others had been surrounded by
armed men belonging to the city. As Hus came
downstairs, his hostess stepped forwards to bid
him farewell. He solemnly blessed her, and she
replied by tears. Hus then mounted a pony, and
rode with the messengers and Lord John of Chlum
to the pope's palace and the assembled cardinals.
On entering the room in which the cardinals
were, Hus saluted them, and the president ad
dressed him, saying, " Magister John ! many
strange things are said of you, that you have
held and disseminated many errors in the land of
Bohemia; we have therefore caused you to be sum
moned, because we wished to speak with you, to
know if this be so." Hus replied, " Most reverend
fathers ! let your paternity know, that I would
rather die than hold a single error. See ! I have
come freely to this council, and when it is shown
me that I have erred in any respect, I am ready
humbly to be corrected and to amend it." The
cardinals said, " Verily, these are good words ; "

234 JOHN HUS.

and with that departed to their lodgings, leaving
Hus in the custody of the pope's armed attendants,
Chlum also remaining with him.
While Hus was in this situation, an incident
occurred which does not appear to have any very
great significance in itself, but which possessed
such importance in the eyes of the Austrian cen
sorship of the press, that it was struck out of
Palacky's great " History of Bohemia." A Minorite
monk appeared, went up to Hus and addressed
him in a modest and lowly manner, telling him
that he was a simple monk and layman who had
heard many extraordinary things about him, and
had therefore come with the desire of learning
whether or no he held the things ascribed to him ;
in particular, that after consecration material
bread remained in the sacrament of the altar.
Hus replied that he did not. The monk repeated
the question, and received the same answer no less
than thrice. At this Chlum entered into the con
versation, asking the monk what manner of man
he was, and saying, " If any one once affirms or
denies a thing to me, I believe him ; this man has
stated to you thrice that he doesn't hold it, and
you keep on asking the question again." The
monk replied, " Excellent knight ! do not find fault
with me, layman and simple brother that I am,
for asking questions for the sake of instruction."
He then proceeded to make further inquiries of
Hus as to the hypostatic union of the two natures,
Divine and Human, in the person of Christ. Upon

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 235
this, Hus said to Chlum in Bohemian, " Verily,
this monk says he is a simple layman ; he is not
over simple, asking as he does for the resolution
of a very deep question." Then, turning to the
monk, he said, "Brother! you say that you are
simple (simplex), but I consider that you are double
(duplex)." The monk denied that he was double,
but the magister proved it on the principles of
morals, because his mouth pretended simplicity,
while his deeds showed subtlety in inquiring into
so deep a question. Hus, however, gave his opinion
on the subject, and the monk retired with thanks for
the good instruction that he had received. When
he was gone, tne pope's armed attendants came up,
and asked Hus whether he knew who that monk was.
He replied in the negative, and they informed him
that it was Magister Didacus, who had the repute
of being the subtlest theologian in all Lombardy.
" I wish I had known it," cried Hus, who now first
perceived that he had been undergoing a kind of
examination; "I'd have plied him (pupugissem)
differently with Scriptures. I hope they are all
like this one ; with the help of God and the support
of Holy Scripture, I shall not be much afraid of
them." At four o'clock in the afternoon, the cardinals
met again at the pope's residence, to consider what
was to be done with Hus. Several Bohemians,
both friends and foes of Hus, waited in an ante
room to see how the matter would end. Michael
de Causis, Palecz and other enemies of the

236 JOHN HUS.

prisoner could not restrain their joy, dancing about
(saltantes) and exclaiming, " Ha ! ha ! we've got
bim now ; he won't go out from us till he pays the
last farthing." Late in the evening, the pope's
high steward came with a request to Lord John of
Chlum to depart, and an order for Hus to remain
in the palace. Chlum, in anger at Hus being thus
arrested under pretext of a conference, hastened
to the pope, whom he found still in the assembly,
and addressed him in presence of the cardinals in
the following words : "Holy father! this was not
the promise made by your holiness to me and my
uncle, Henry Lacembok. I told and still tell your
holiness, that I brought Magister Hus under the
safe-conduct of my lord the King of the Eomans ;
and your holiness said, that if Hus had killed your
own brother, he should be safe here, and you would
neither let or hinder him, nor allow him to be let or
hindered, nor take any steps against him. And lo !
here he is arrested while under protection of the
aforesaid safe-conduct, and one of your especial
messengers — a Franciscan — was at the lodging to
bring the magister. And your holiness must know,
that I intend to cry aloud and warn all who have
violated my lord's safe-conducts." The pope re
plied, " My brethren " — pointing to the cardinals —
" are within hearing, and know that I never ordered
him to be arrested ; and that Franciscan is a 'ribald'
— he does not belong to me." He afterwards took
Chlum aside, and said to him, " You know on what
a footing my affairs are with them. They delivered

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE.

him to me, and I was obliged to receive him into
captivity." Matters thus remained as they were. Chlum
was obliged to retire, and Hus remained in custody
in the pope's palace, where Peter Mladenovitz
afterwards brought him his overcoat or cloak and
money. At about nine o'clock he was taken to the
house of the precentor of Constance, where a
cardinal was lodging, and there remained for
a week, carefully watched by a force of armed men-
On December 6th, he was removed thence and
transferred to the Dominican convent on the shore
of the lake of Constance, and there thrust into a
dark and gloomy dungeon in the immediate vicinity
of a sewer.
This first step being taken, Michael de Causis
and Palecz eagerly continued their work. They at
once constructed a whole series of articles of accu
sation against him, and delivered them to the pope
with the petition, that Hus might be tried upon
them, and that special commissioners might be
appointed for the purpose by the pope, as well as
certain doctors, who should examine Hus's writings.
Michael audaciously repeated in these articles all
his old falsehoods respecting Hus's heretical doc
trines, and added new ones, in particular, that Hus
had publicly preached the necessity of receiving
the sacrament of the altar under both kinds. In
thus doing he took a dishonest advantage of the
fact, that Hus's followers at Prague had since his
departure, under the leadership of Jakaubek of

238 JOHN HUS.

Stribro (Jacobellus), actually begun to administer
it in that way. The wishes of Michael and Palecz
were soon fulfilled by a resolution of the council
(December 4th), appointing John, Patriarch of
Constantinople, John, Bishop of Lubeck, and Ber
nard, Bishop of Castell, judicial commissioners in
the matter of Hus. Full powers were given them
to inquire into the charges alleged against him, but
that of passing a final sentence was expressly taken
out of the sphere of then- commission.
Meanwhile John of Chlum had been using the
utmost exertions to obtain Hus's release from
prison. He publicly complained of the pope and
cardinals for having arrested Magister John Hus,
when under the protection of a safe-conduct from
the king, exhibited the safe-conduct to all the prin
cipal personages assembled at Constance, and also
to the more notable citizens of the place, and caused
it to be read aloud to them. The Saturday before
St. Thomas, he went alone and affixed to the doors
of the cathedral and of all the churches in Constance
a letter sealed with his own seal, arraigning the
conduct of the pope and cardinals, and complaining
that the pope himself had broken his plighted
word, by arresting and still detaining in captivity
Magister John Hus, while under the protection of
a royal safe-conduct. He also sent word of the
violation of the safe-conduct to King Sigismund,
who immediately dispatched a special embassy to
Constance to demand the liberation of Hus, and
even went so far as to threaten to break open the

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 239
doors of his prison by force, if his demand were not
complied with. But the pope and council paid no
regard whatever either to his requests or to his
threats, in the execution of which they did not
believe. At length on Christmas day, about midnight,
King Sigismund with his queen, Barbara of Cilly,
with numerous princes and princesses, and with
a splendid retinue of about a thousand horsemen,
made his grand entry into Constance by torchlight
in extremely severe and wintry weather. Scarcely
allowing the queen and princesses time to warm
themselves and change their travelling clothes, he
betook himself before break of day in solemn pro
cession by torchlight to the brilliantly lighted
cathedral, where the pope awaited him, and imme
diately on his arrival proceeded to celebrate high
mass with unusual splendour and magnificence.
According to ancient custom the King of the Eomans
ministered at the altar vested as a deacon and
chanted with a loud voice the gospel : " Then went
forth a decree from Cassar, etc." Mass over, the
pope delivered to him the consecrated sword, bidding
him to use it for the defence of the Church, which
Sigismund joyfully promised to do.
The first business however transacted by Sigis
mund with the fathers assembled for the council
was not of a very pleasant or tranquillizing charac
ter, touching as it did the imprisonment of Hus.
The king undoubtedly felt deeply the insult offered
to his dignity in the violation of his letter patent

240

JOHN HUS.

of safe-conduct, which he had also good reason to
fear would cause great displeasure and discontent
in the empire, and especially in the lands appertain
ing to the crown of Bohemia. But as the pope
cast the onus of this off his own shoulders before
the king, as he had done previously before Chlum,
Sigismund soon perceived that he had to do not
so much with the pope, as with the whole body of
assembled cardinals, prelates and doctors. The
last meetings and conferences held in 1414 were
principally occupied with this question, and when
the fathers set up their right of dealing with a
person accused of heresy according to the laws
of the Church against his right of affording pro
tection to a subject, Sigismund several times quitted
the assembly with quick steps and in violent
anger. Matters even went so far that he contem
plated or pretended to contemplate abandoning the
council entirely and troubling himself no further
about it ; nay, in order to prove the honesty of his
purpose, he even quitted Constance not long after
his arrival sometime about the end of December.
A deputation sent after him informed him, that the
council would disperse at once, if he impeded its
legitimate action. Sigismund was not inclined to
take upon himself the responsibility of such a reso
lution. What was Hus to him, that the hopes
entertained by all Christendom of the reunion and
reform of the Church should be brought to nothing ?
The higher significance of Hus and his work was
a secret to him ; he comforted his conscience by

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 241
the authority of the Church, which was now assem
bled in larger numbers than ever before ; and tho
Church taught him and afterwards certified him by
a formal document, that, whereas by law Divine
and human no promise made to the detriment of
the Catholic faith was binding, so neither was he
bound to keep a promise made to a heretic. He
therefore eventually allowed his anger to be ap
peased, and no longer offered any impediment to
the proceedings against Hus taking their course.
So cruel was Hus's imprisonment and so foul
the atmosphere of his dungeon, that his health
could not but suffer. After some weeks he was
attacked by so severe a fever, that his life was
despaired of, and the pope found himself compelled
not only to send his own physician to attend him,
but also to cause him to be removed into a more
wholesome chamber near the refectory in the same
convent. And as the forms of law, which were
scrupulously observed by the commissioners in
their conduct of the case, required all witnesses to
take their oaths in the sight of the prisoner, fifteen
of them were brought at once in front of the prison,
while Hus was lying in one of his most violent
paroxysms of pain, and took their oaths one after
the other before his eyes. Some of these, as
Palecz, were eager enough for Hus's destruction,
but others were dragged forward to give evidence
against their will. One of these, a layman, actually
said in Bohemian before his name was called,
"I swear to God, that I know nothing to testify."
R

242 JOHN HUS.

Michael de Causis said to him : " Dear brother !
thou knowest not what they will ask thee, and
swearest that thou knowest nothing to testify ! I
would testify against my own father, if it were
aught against the faith." The layman replied :
" True, but I know nothing." In all this nothing
was more deeply felt by Hus than his treatment by
his apostate friend Stephen Palecz, who was so far
from sympathizing with him in his sickness, that
he cast in his teeth, as he lay in anguish, that since
the birth of Christ there was never a greater heretic
than Hus save Wycliffe. No advocate or pro
curator was allowed Hus to assist him in his defence
or in taking exception to the witnesses, many of
whom were his mortal enemies. The excuse was,
that it was illegal for any one to defend a person
suspected of heresy.
On recovering from his severe illness, Hus wrote
his first letter from prison to the people of Prague,
dated January 19th, and intended to be read aloud
in the chapel Bethlehem, in which he informed
them of his sufferings, and committed his cause to
the will of God, asking them for then- prayers, that
he might be enabled to persevere in the grace of God
even until death. The power of carrying on corre
spondence was procured for him by his Bohemian
friends at Constance, who gained over some of his
attendants or guards to convey letters secretly to
and from him. Foremost among these was John of
Chlum, a man both enlightened and firm, who never
let anything slip that might conduce towards obtain-

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 243
ing the release or forwarding the interests of Hus.
Lords Wenceslas of Duha and Henry Lacembok like
wise remained at Constance with the king's court,
and there were also several other Bohemian gentle
men of rank in Sigismund's service. Of the clergy
there was Hus's devoted friend, John of Eeinstein,
commonly called "Cardinal" from frequent employ
ment on King Wenceslas's affairs at the court of
Eome. He and Lord John of Chlum had been very
early appointed deputies from the university to the
council, although Stephen Palecz also claimed the
title for himself, having been perhaps nominated as
such by the Faculty of Theology. John of Chlum's
secretary was a young B.A., Peter of Mladenovitz,
who compiled the memoirs of Hus's residence and
captivity at Constance, which, with Hus's corre
spondence, form the basis of our knowledge of what
passed there. Mladenovitz wrote both a shorter and
a longer narrative, the former of which is given with
divers additions and suppressions in the account
prefixed to the Nuremberg edition of Hus's works
(1715) ; while the latter, which includes a large
number of valuable documents, has been carefully
edited and published in the "Documenta" by
Palacky. Tho sympathy which Hus's friends entertained
for him was of no little-minded character. Although
they deplored his personal sufferings, yet they set
a higher valuo upon the cause, which they had
taken up in concert with him and under hi3
guidance. One of those who held him in highest

244

JOHN HUS.

honour, Lord Henry Skopek of Duba, sent a
message to him by Chlum, saying how rejoiced
he was at Hus having met with so blessed a thing
as persecution for the truth ; and Chlum exhorted
him in his letters not to forsake the truth for any
terror on account of this miserable life. Nor was
Hus from the first otherwise than prepared for
either a good or an evil ending to his undertaking.
As soon as Hus's health began to be re-estab
lished, the judicial commissioners proceeded to
examine him respecting the charges brought against
him. In particular they required from him (1) a
written exposition of his opinions respecting the
notorious forty-five articles extracted from the
writings of Wycliffe and condemned as heretical in
the so-called council of Eome ; (2) answers to the
fourteen articles extracted by Palecz principally
from Hus's work " De Ecclesia," and afterwards (3)
to those extracted from the same work by Gerson,
the chancellor of the University of Paris, who had
attained a position of high consideration in the
council. Hus was compelled to compose his re
plies and explanations from memory without the
aid of books, yet when they were compared with
the MS. written with his own hand, it was found
that they corresponded word for word. He proved
with regard to the greater part of the articles,
that Palecz's extracts had been unfairly made, some
passages having been abbreviated at the beginning,
others in the middle, and others at the end, while
others had never existed in his work at all ; and that

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 245

for the most part an incorrect sense had been foisted
upon them. If, however, he had erred in aught,
he declared that he had no intention of maintaining
anything obstinately, but intended to abide by the
decision of the council and receive instruction.
The commissioners endeavoured to induce him
to submit to the decision of twelve or thirteen
magisters to be appointed by the council. But
this he resolutely refused to do, declaring that he
was ready to stand before the whole council and
there and there only to answer for his belief. His
friends at Prague, especially the jurist, John of
Jesenitz, considered it an error on his part to have
given any answer at all in prison, but Hus himseli
considered it impossible to avoid doing so, espe
cially as he was not allowed the assistance of a
legal adviser. But he made a point of placing
copies of his written answers in the hands of his
friends, lest false reports should hereafter be dis
seminated about them. He also endeavoured,
through the Bohemian lords at Constance, to prevail
upon King Sigismund to obtain him a public hear
ing in a full assembly of the council, after which
he hoped by the king's aid to be more easily re
leased from imprisonment. King Sigismund was
also urged in the same direction by more powerful
intercessors. The violation of the safe-conduct had
created a very angry feeling among the Bohemian
and Moravian nobles, who considered it a matter
affecting their own honour. Seeing that Sigismund,
"the heir presumptive of the Bohemian crown,"

246 JOHN HUS.

was now utterly neglecting the rectification of such
a matter, the Bohemian barons, with Lord Lacko
of Kravary, the Lord Lieutenant (Heitman) of
Moravia, at their head, met at Mezeritsch in the
beginning of February, and thence sent him a
letter, requesting him to abide by his safe-con
duct, to effect the liberation of Hus, and to
procure Hus a free and public hearing in the
council; otherwise "many would have cause to
dread his letters of safe-conduct." Sigismund saw
the danger of neglecting such utterances, and
exerted himself with the council to obtain a pro
mise, that Hus should be publicly heard before any
sentence was passed upon him.
Although Hus, on learning that some of his
friends at Prague were anxious to follow him to
Constance, had earnestly advised and warned them
against running any such risk, nevertheless his
old and faithful adherent, Magister Christian of
Prachatitz, ventured upon the journey, and Hus's
friends at Constance actually obtained him access
to Hus's prison on some day not later than March
3rd. This unexpected visit drew tears of joy from the
eyes of the prisoner. Magister Christian did not,
however, altogether escape the danger which was
foreseen and dreaded for him. Michael de Causis,
on hearing of his arrival at Constance, procured his
arrest and handed in thirty articles against him,
to which he was obliged to give replies in writing.
He was afterwards released, partly through Sigis
mund's intercession, and merely required to take

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 247

a certain oath in presence of the Patriarch of Con
stantinople. He was then allowed to return to
Prague, and commenced his homeward journey on
March 17th or 18th. Hus had also reason to fear
that Magister John Cardinal was to be subjected to a
similar citation, and caused him to be counselled to
keep as close as possible to the king's suite. The
coming and fate of Jerome of Prague — the "Wbiske-
randos (Barbatus), who wouldn't obey the advice of
his friends " — will be related in his own biography.
Meanwhile matters were^taking a turn at Prague,
for the explanation of which we must recur to the
time of Hus's departure for Constance. Four
churches there, and four churches only, were in
the hands of resolute adherents of Hus, one of
them being that of the non-resident Michael de
Causis. The ministers of these four and their
subordinates were in evil odour with the other in
cumbents of Prague, who excited some of their
parishioners against them, asserting that the sac
raments received at their hands were invalid, and
in this way inducing the timid to refrain from con
fessing and communicating in the four churches
thus denounced. The majority of the Prague
clergy, also, as well as the penitentiaries of the
cathedral, refused to hear the confessions of lay
people, who attended the sermons of Hus's adherents
at Bethlehem or elsewhere. This led the clergy
of Hus's party to advise the people to disregard
the previously existing rule, by which confessions
were made and heard in each man's parish church,

248 JOHN HUS.

and nowhere else. Then, as more and more pressure
was put upon the people by the clergy hostile to
Hus, especially in matters reserved either to the
archbishop or to the pope, the priests of Hus's party
proceeded to transgress the regulation by which
such matters were governed, and gave absolution
in cases of this kind by mere virtue of their sacer
dotal power. In this Magister Jakaubek of Stribro
took the lead, following also the example set him
by Hus in the country by visiting other churches
and performing Divine service in them. This he
did sometimes without the consent and agamst the
will of their incumbents.
Not long after Hus's departure from Constance,
a far more important innovation was originated by
Jakaubek, which not only exhibited disobedience to
authority in matters of ecclesiastical discipline, but
also transgressed the then universal custom of re
ceiving the sacrament of the altar in one kind, and
in one kind only. Magister Jakaubek, in pondering
the words of our Lord in John vi. 51, " Except ye
eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His
Blood, ye have no life in you," elicited the mean
ing, that the sacrament of the Body and Blood of
Christ ought to be received, not only by the priests,
but also by the laity, in both kinds, viz., in bread
and wine. According to the principle, that eccle
siastical tradition ought not to be in opposition to
Holy Scripture, he concluded that the existing cus
tom of distributing the sacrament to the laity
under one kind only, was contrary to the law of

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 249
Christ and ought to be reformed. In the first zeal
of his conviction he announced a public disputation
in the Carolinum on the subject, and expounded his
views in an assembly of the doctors, magisters,
and others, in such a manner, that many adhered
to them at once and began to act accordingly with
out delay. The first of these was the incumbent of
St. Martin's-in-the-Wall, Magister John of Hradetz,
whose example was followed in Christian of Pra-
chatitz's church of St. Michael's, where Magister
Jakaubek was in the habit of preaching, and in
that of St. Adalbert in Jirchary. Thus far the
matter had ripened within three or four weeks after
the departure of Hus. The archbishop's officials
immediately issued orders prohibiting the inno
vation, whereupon Magister Jakaubek presented
himself uncited before Archbishop Conrad's vicar
general, Canon Wenceslas of Kaurini, and requested
to be informed or instructed why hindrance should
be given to the form of reception which was in
accordance with the gospel. To this he received
no answer, but was shortly afterwards excommuni
cated without any judicial proceeding. Jakaubek
paid no regard to this excommunication, which
indeed produced no evil results for him in the then
state of feeling at Prague. His teaching was op
posed by Professor Andrew of Brod, first in a
private letter, and then in a learned treatise.
Jakaubek replied in a treatise, in which he set forth
his proofs and arguments at greater length than he
had done in the disputation in the Carolinum.

250

JOHN HUS.

This controversy soon caused a disruption in the
ranks of Hus's party, as not all the clergy who had
adhered to him, were ready to participate in
Jakaubek's innovation, which was not necessarily
connected with Church reform, as hitherto con
templated. Even one of Hus's representatives in
the chapel Bethlehem, the priest Havlik, placed
himself in an attitude of opposition to Jakaubek
and his followers, and, ere long, wavered in his
attachment to Hus's principles and Hus's person.
Thus, when he read aloud in Bethlehem Hus's first
letter from prison to the people of Prague, observing
that it was written on torn paper, he exhibited it
with a grimace, exclaiming : " Ha ! Ha ! Hus is now
short of paper ! " To set bounds to the evil con
sequences of such discord, many desired to know
Hus's own sentiments on the subject, and he was
therefore requested by John of Chlum to state
them. Upon his own principle, that the custom of
the Church might not be counter to the express
tenour of Holy Scripture, it was inipossible for
him to oppose the innovation, which could scarcely
have originated at his own instigation. He there
fore wrote in his prison a brief treatise on reception
in both kinds, taking as his basis the facts, that
such was the teaching both of the Gospels and of
St. Paul, and that such was also the practice of
the primitive Church. In a letter to Chlum he
advised, that' endeavours should be made to procure
a bull, granting permission to those, who devoutly
requested it, to partake in both kinds under proper

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 251
safeguards. His declaration respecting communion
in both kinds gave a great impulse to the practice,
so that by the end of the first half of 1415 it had
spread from Prague to many other towns, and even
villages, in Bohemia, and the majority of the
population was already enlisted in its favour.
Hus wrote several other Latin treatises in his
prison, at the special instance of some of his
warders, whose regard and good-will he seems to
have gained, all of which appear in the Nuremberg
edition of his Latin works. Among these were
" Expositions of the Lord's Prayer and Ten Com
mandments," and treatises " On the Body of Christ,"
" On Marriage," " On Eepentance," " On the Three
Enemies of Man," " On Sin and its Generation,"
" On the Love and Knowledge of God," etc.
The case of Hus was, however, only one of the
things with which the attention of the council was
engaged, and it was therefore temporarily neg
lected, while other pressing matters were being
attended to. But on March 20th, 1415, an event
occurred, which exercised a considerable influence
upon the destiny of Hus, for the full explanation
and understanding whereof we must again recur
to circumstances of earlier date.
When Pope John XXIIL entered Constance in
solemn procession on October 28th, 1414, with nine
cardinals, numerous archbishops and bishops, and
his whole curia and suite, an anxious- foreboding
took possession of his soul, as soon as he descried
the city, in which all his magnificence was to vanish

252 JOHN HUS.

into nothing. In his trouble of mind he wished
to recall all that he had said and done in favour of
Constance, and reassemble the council in some
Italian city. But in vain ; the cardinals prevented
any such change of purpose. As, however, accord
ing to his view, the council of Constance was
merely a continuation of that of Pisa, and its aim
and object merely, on the one hand, the putting
an end to the trinity of popes by the deposition of
both his rivals ; and, on the other, a reform of the
Church, which was to be accomplished by the ex
tirpation of the heresy of Wycliffe and Hus, he
still comforted himself with the hope of successfully
manipulating the council according to his will, and
dissolving it at the earliest moment. Still he felt
from time to time a heavy weight upon his heart,
when he perceived the stern and resolute deter
mination of many of tho fathers. The discontent,
which began to display itself before his eyes, gained
greater and greater strength, the more fathers and
influential members of the Church arrived at
Constance from distant regions. The view, con
trary to his own, that the council of Constance
was not to be reckoned a mere continuation of that
of Pisa, but was to be considered a separate and
independent council, and that it was necessary
that all three popes should be compelled to abdicate
their dignity, obtained daily more and more re
solute adherents, especially after the arrival of the
highly-reverenced Cardinal Peter d'Atllt, who
was looked upon as the father of Church reform

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 253
in his day. In order to obtain free course for such
views, and the projects of reform connected with
them, it was proposed as early as November 12th,
1414, that the council should be divided into
"nations," and that the votes on all important
matters should be taken, not by number of indi
vidual voices, but by nations. This innovation
was, after some opposition, accepted and established
as a law on February 7th, 1415. The first direct
opposition to John XXIIL exhibited itself on No
vember 19th, 1414, when the question was discussed
whether the ambassadors of Gregory XII. should
be allowed the title of papal legates and access
to the council as such. John succeeded, indeed,
in quelling this attempt at opposition, but, owing
to his own conduct, which sank more and more
deeply into unworthiness, kept approaching nearer
and nearer to the inevitable abyss. A memorial
was drawn up and circulated among the members
of the council, which, in fifty-four accusatory
articles, delineated the entire public and private
life of this wicked man. To avoid the scandal
and clanger of such inquiries, John XXIIL declared
on February 16th, his willingness to lay clown the
papal dignity under certain conditions. The
wording of this declaration being considered too in
definite and equivocal, he finally, after a good deal
of negotiation, agreed, on March 1st, to another,
expressed in most definite and unequivocal terms,
declaring that, for the sake of peace and unity in
the Church, he would resign his dignity the instant

254 JOHN HUS.

that Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII. should,
either by their own good -will or by death, give
cause to expect, that the long looked-for end of
the existing disunion was approaching. But he
soon gave people reason to think that he repented
of his promise. Complaining of the insalubrious
air of Constance, and the danger he professed to
apprehend there for his person, he requested that
the council might be transferred to some Italian
city, and by various preparations brought himself
under suspicion of an intention to escape secretly,
and proclaim the dissolution of the council. It
was, therefore, considered necessary to watch the
city gates most strictly, and King Sigismund took
care to warn him not to do anything of a hasty
nature, if he wished to avoid disagreeable con
sequences. He determined, however, to run the
risk, and took as his accomplice Frederic, Duke of
Austria, whom he had the year before elevated to
the position of generalissimo of the Church of
Eome. The duke got up a grand tournament for
the afternoon of March 20th, and while public
attention was directed towards the splendid pre
parations that were being made, the pope disguised
himself a3 a common man-at-arms, escaped un
recognized through one of the city gates, and by help
of the duke's attendants, arrived before the next
dawn at Schaffhausen, a town belonging to the duke.
The next day looked upon a scene of terror and
confusion in Constance, and at one time it appeared
as if all was over with the council. The burgo-

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 255
master called the citizens under arms, the money
changers and merchants shut their shops, and no
one knew what to do or what was about to happen.
But King Sigismund sprang on horseback, and in
company with the Count Palatine and other nobles,
rode through the whole town with sound of trum
pet, exhorting every one to be tranquil, and not
to lose heart, and promising aid and protection.
" Let who will," he cried, " follow the example of
the fugitives, ways and means will be found for
their return. The council stands firm and will not
allow itself to be broken up." He also encouraged
the assembled fathers, by assuring them that he
would protect them with his life and with all his
power. By such energetic action he succeeded in
saving the council from the evil consequences that
might have resulted from this untoward occurrence,
and all the harm that ensued fell upon the heads of
the aiders and abettors of the pope's flight. Duke
Frederic was placed under the ban of the empire,
lost part of his dominions in the consequent war,
and found no mercy till he bound himself to bring
the pope back. The council also proceeded to take
action against the pope, first suspending him from
his high dignity, and then (May 29th) actually
declaring his deposition.
. The flight of the pope caused an alteration in
Hus's imprisonment. John XXIIL having sent
orders from Schaffhausen to all his attendants,
who had remained behind in Constance, to follow
him, Hus's warders on Palm Sunday, March 24th,

256 JOHN HUS.

gave up the keys of his prison to the king and
quitted the city. Hus was left with nothing to eat,
and wrote to some of his friends begging them, " if
they loved the poor Goose," to contrive that the
king should send him guards from his own suite,
or liberate him from prison that evening. But all
in vain. Sigismund had no longer the will to
release Hus, though he still played the hypocrite
a little longer with his friends. He consulted with
the fathers of the council, and on that very day gave
up the keys of the prison in his own name and that
of the council to the Bishop of Constance, who
caused Hus to be conveyed in the night time by
boat under the escort of 170 armed men to Gott-
lieben, a castle of his own on the lake. To Hus
the change of prison was much for the worse. He
was placed in a room in the upper part of a tower,
where the atmosphere indeed was salubrious, but
his feet were fettered with chains, and every night,
when he went to bed, his hands were fastened to
the wall by a chain attached to a manacle. Neither
was he sufficiently supplied with food or drink, so
that he soon began to suffer from various ailments,
especially from one previously unknown to him,
the stone.
Not long afterwards (April 6th)— the powers of
the previous commission having expired with the
flight of the pope — the council appointed four new
commissioners, at the head of whom was Cardinal
d'Ailly, with power to add to their number by
co-opting other prelates and doctors, both for the

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 257
conduct of the process against Hus, and also for
the purpose of examining and reporting upon the
writings of Wycliffe. These commissioners held
several private examinations of Hus at Gottlieben,
but no detailed accounts of them have come down
to us. They also reported unfavourably with
regard to the works of Wycliffe, and on May 4th
the council formally confirmed the condemnation
of the forty-five articles extracted from them, which
had been issued three years previously by the so-
called council of Eome.
It was but natural that the Bohemians and
Moravians, inclined as the majority of them were
to the doctrines of Hus, should be offended, should
complain of the wrongful imprisonment of their
teacher, and should look with displeasure upon the
dishonourable conduct of their future king. Nay,
sympathy exhibited itself even in Poland, where the
Bohemian reformers had many friends, especially
at the royal court. The nobility of Moravia met
at Briinn on May 8th, and that of Bohemia at
Prague on May 12th, and at these meetings ener
getic letters were addressed to King Sigismund, as
heir presumptive of the Bohemian crown, which
spoke plainly and bitterly enough of the violation
of the safe conduct and of his own word by the
arrest and cruel imprisonment of Hus. No request
was made that Hus should not be subjected to trial,
or that he should be allowed to escape from the
law or from his judges, but it was requested that
he should not be imprisoned, or judged secretly in a

258 JOHN HUS.

corner, but should be permitted to plead his cause
freely at a pubhc hearing. Several copies of these
letters were made, to which many nobles of higher
or lower rank, who had been unable to attend the
meetings, afterwards affixed their seals. A letter
was written at the same time from the meeting at
Prague to the lords at the court of Sigismund at
Constance, requesting them to aid by their inter
cession towards obtaining the fulfilment of the
wishes of the writers.
But before these letters crossed the Bohemian
and Moravian frontiers the lords sojourning at
Constance took up the matter themselves, and sent
in a letter of plaint to the council, in which they
complained of the arrest of Hus, which had taken
place contrary to the safe conduct, and of his in
human treatment in his grievous imprisonment,
and requested the council to make a righteous
ending in his case without delay. Several Polish
nobles united in this petition to the council, which
was read in presence of all who had set then- signa
tures to it by Peter Mladenovitz in the session of
the council on May 13th. The chief of the Bohe
mian lords who signed it were Wenceslas of Duba,
John of Chlum, Henry Lacembok and Puta of
Ilburk ; and the principal Polish nobles who did
so were Hanus Halissky and Zawise Czerui, the
Polish king's ambassadors to the council. And as
Bishop John of Litomysl had shortly before made
certain remarks in an assembly of the German
nation in the council respecting the novel intro-

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 259

duction of the reception of the sacrament under
both kinds in Bohemia, in which, he had described
the irreverence with which, according to him, the
sacrament was treated, the Bohemian lords at the
conclusion of the letter separately requested the
council not to give credence to any such slanders,
which proceeded from enemies and defamers of the
realm of Bohemia. The bishop replied first orally,
and then three days afterwards in writing, partly
denying the language ascribed to him, and partly
explaining that he had not said such things for
the purpose of insulting the land of Bohemia,
which was his own fatherland, but in order that its
reputation might be cleared by a stop being put
to heretical innovations. To this the lords two
days afterwards returned a sharp and haughty
answer. While the Bohemian and Polish lords were
waiting for an answer to the petition which they
had laid before the council, the letter of the Mora
vian lords at then- meeting at Briinn on behalf of
Hus arrived at Constance, and gave them a fresh
impulse to persevere in their urgency towards the
council. They therefore, on May 31st, addressed
another letter to the presidents of the four nations,
into which the council was divided. They re
presented that the charges brought against Hus
emanated entirely from his enemies, and that these
were endeavouring, from hatred towards him, to
prepossess the leading members of the council with
the idea that it was Hus's intention to persist obsti-

260 JOHN HUS.

nately in mischievous doctrines. They appealed
to his frequent declarations of earlier and later
date, according to which he was ready to submit
to better instruction ; and they therefore requested
that Hus might be effectually questioned by learned
men in the council as to the meaning of passages
in his writings, which had in their (the lords')
opinion been extracted from them in a mutilated
and garbled condition. Moreover, as Hus had been
sorely harassed by severe imprisonment, and re
quired relaxation to acquire strength to give the
necessary explanations, they requested that he
might be released from such imprisonment and
placed in the hands of some bishops or other com
missioners of the council ; they (the lords) would
furnish sufficient guarantees that he would not
withdraw himself by flight from the power of such
commissioners, before the final decision as to his
faith was arrived at. The patriarch of Antioch
replied on the same day, in the name of the council,
that it could not assent to the liberation of Hus, not
even if a thousand sureties were offered, but that with
regard to the request previously preferred, to that
it agreed, and would give Hus a public hearing on
the Wednesday next ensuing, June 8th.
Nothing could have been more courageous,
straightforward, honourable, and praiseworthy
than the conduct of these Bohemian and Moravian
lords and their Polish coadjutors. Like Hus him
self they were in the midst of enemies, with only
a false king upon whom they could in any wise

JOHN HUS AT CONSTANCE. 261
rely. The Poles indeed were invested with the
sanctity of ambassadors, but the Bohemians and
Moravians had no such support. No ambassador
had been sent by King Wenceslas of Bohemia to
the council, in spite of all entreaties and all re
presentations. The reconciliation of the two sur
viving brothers of the House of Luxemburg had
been but skin deep. The less energetic and more
honest of the twain had soon found reason to dis
trust his more energetic and less honest brother,
and had steadfastly abstained from allowing him
self to be represented at the council. Neither
were the meetings of the lords in Bohemia and
Moravia regular and formal meetings of the estates ;
certain nobles were but acting by themselves and
using their rights as freemen to expostulate with
the faithless heir presumptive of their crown. The
Biipport received by those sojourning at Constance
was not official, and not backed by the power of
their king and country, so that the greater credit
is due to them for the steadfast and unflinching
manner in which they persevered to the utmost
in their energetic interference on behalf of their
isolated and cruelly treated countryman. And the
result lives in history. Instead of a secret in
quisition and secret murder, we have the record
of a public trial and a judicial homicide, in which
we are at a loss to discover any valid or reasonable
grounds of condemnation.

262

JOHN HUS.

CHAPTEE IX.
JOHN HUS'S TRIAL.
First Day.
The 5th of June now arrived, and cardinals, arch
bishops, bishops, and almost all the ecclesiastical
dignitaries sojourning at Constance crowded into
the refectory of the Franciscans or Minorites.
With them came doctors, magisters, bachelors of
theology, and others of inferior standing, and the
hall was full. Orders were given for the evidence
against Magister John Hus to be read aloud, and
then for the reading of the articles or passages
extracted in garbled form enough from his own
works, some of which were even pure inventions.
Condemnation was to be pronounced over these
before Magister John Hus was to be heard ; it was
to be pronounced in the absence of the prisoner,
and then he was to be admitted to — Heaven knows
what manner of hearing !
Nay, the draft of his condemnation itself was
ready. First, a few verses of the fiftieth Psalm

JOHN hus's trial. 263
were read, beginning with the sixteenth verse : " But
unto the ungodly said God : Why dost thou preach
My laws and takest My covenant in thy mouth ?
Whereas thou hatest to be reformed, and hast cast
My words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief
thou consentedst unto him, and hast been partaker
with the adulterers. Thou hast let thy mouth
speak wickedness, and with thy tongue thou hast
set forth deceit. These things hast thou done and
I held my tongue. Thou thoughtest wickedly that
I am even such a one as thyself; but I will re
prove thee and set before thee the things that thou
hast done." After this what professed to be part
of a letter, which Hus had left behind for his
friends on commencing his journey to Constance,
was read to this effect : " If it fall to my lot to abjure,
be assured, that, although I confess and abjure
with my mouth, yet with my heart I shall not
consent thereto." It is needless to say, that not
a word to this effect is contained in the actual
letter, which will be given hereafter in extenso, but
that the above so-called extract is a vile and mali
cious invention.
Meanwhile a Bohemian, of whom nothing else
is known, but who is denoted in Mladenovitz's
narrative by the letter " V," probably for " Ulric,"
happened to be standing in the outer ring close
to the reader, obtained a view of the papers before
him, and thus perceived what was in contempla
tion. He ran and told P., i.e. Peter Mladenovitz,
who ran and told lords W. and Joan, i.e. Lords

264 JOHN HUS.

Wenceslas of Duba, and John of Chlum. They
went immediately to King Sigismund, and informed
him with grave and serious indignation of the
mockery of justice that was being enacted. Sigis
mund, knowing the tone and temper of the nobles
of the land, to the crown of which he was heir
presumptive, dared not disregard such representa
tions, and at once sent the "princes," Louis of
Heidelberg, Count Palatine, and Frederic, Bur-
grave of Nuremberg, with a message to the council,
forbidding its members to condemn or settle any
thing at that hearing, and bidding them hear John
Hus himself patiently, and deliver to him (Sigis
mund) their decision upon the different articles in
writing, and he would entrust them to certain
doctors to be considered.
Moreover, in order to exhibit the evil animus
and unfaithfulness of those who had extracted the
articles from Hus's writings, the lords who were
his friends determined to lay before the council
copies of his work " On the Church," and of his
treatises against Stanislas of Znaym and Stephen
Palecz, written by his own hand. These they
sent by the king's princely messengers, with the
proviso that they were to be retm-ned when done
with. John Hus appears then, and not till then,
to have been brought into the council hall. The
Count Palatine and the Burgrave delivered their
message from the king, and also that from the
Bohemian lords, laid the copies of the books before
the council, and departed. These were given to

JOHN hus's trial. 265
Hus, who took them, looked carefully over them,
raised them up in his hands, and publicly acknow
ledged them to be his, stating in addition, that
if it were shown that he had set down anything
wrong or erroneous therein, he was and had been
prepared humbly to correct it.
The articles and statements of the witnesses were
then read aloud. When the magister wanted to
reply thereto, many shouted simultaneously against
him. His friends were unable to obtain entrance
into the hall, but heard him as he answered, turn
ing towards those who were shouting and clamouring
against him, now on the right hand, now on the left
hand, and now behind his back. When he wanted
to explain ambiguities or different acceptations of
words in the articles complained of, which the
extractors had frequently wrested to a sense which
they were never intended to bear, a shout was
immediately raised: "Drop your sophistry, and
say Yes or No." When he alleged the authorities
of holy doctors on behalf of certain points in the
" articles," many immediately shouted, as with one
voice, that the citations were not to the purpose. At
length, seeing that it was useless to answer, he held
his peace. Others immediately shouted: "See!
you are now silent ! 'Tis a token that you agree
with those errors."
The authorities now, having the fear of the king
and the dauntless Bohemian lords before their
eyes, and perceiving that so disorderly a trial
could, under the circumstances, lead to no satis-

266 JOHN HUS.

factory result, closed the sitting, and appointed a
further hearing for the next day but one, June 7th.
As Hus was being led away by the Bishop of Eiga,
in whose charge he was, as well as Jerome, he
espied his friends, and, offering his hand to them,
said: "Don't be afraid of me." They answered :
"We are not." He added: "I know it well, I
know it well ; " and blessing the people with his
hand, as he went up the steps, he smiled and re
joiced, going away joyfully after the mockery with
which he had been treated.
I add a translation of a Latin letter written by
Hus immediately after this first "hearing" to his
friends sojourning at Constance :
" God Almighty gave me to-day a brave and stout heart ; two
articles are already struck out. I hope, by God's grace, that
more will be. Almost all shouted against me, as the Jews did
against Jesus. They have not yet come to the first point, i.e.
that I should admit, that all the ' articles ' stand written in the
treatises. Tou did wrong in giving in the treatise ' Against an
Anonymous (Occultus) Adversary' along with that 'On the
Church.' * You should give nothing in but the treatises against
Stanislas and Palecz. It is well done, that the princes required
my book to be returned to them ; for some shouted : ' Let it be
burnt ! ' in particular Michael de Causis, whom I heard. I did
not think, that in the whole number of clergy, I had a single
friend save ' the father ' " (of whom more anon) " and a Polish
doctor, whom I know. I thanked the Bishop of Litomysl for
his kind assistance ; but he said no more than : ' What have I
done for you ? ' I am very grateful that you have thus collected
* This was a mistake on the part of Hus. This treatise was not
laid before the council. In a later letter he expressed his satis
faction that " Occultus had remained Occultus."

JOHN hus's trial. 267
the articles, and it is a good thing to publish a copy of them in
that shape, etc. The presidents said I should have another
hearing. They refused to hear the distinction I drew respecting
the Church. Greet the faithful lords and friends of the truth,
and pray God for me, for it is needful. I think they will not
admit on my behalf the opinion of St. Augustine respecting the
Church, and respecting its predestined members and the fore
known, and respecting evil dignitaries. Oh, if a hearing were
granted me to answer their arguments wherewith they want to
impugn the articles that are in the treatises ! I think many
who shout would hold their peace. As it is willed in heaven,
so be it!"
It is easy enough to explain the hostility of the
mass of the council towards John Hus, there being
in reality but few who were truly zealous for
Church reform, while the many desired to uphold
in the main the existing system, by which they
profited, introducing only modifications intended
rather for show than practical effect. But there
were also men there, like Cardinal d'Ailly, who were
truly anxious for reform, and that a reform of an
extensive, and in some respects radical, nature.
How was it that they were animated by an equally
bitter spirit against one who had at heart the self
same ends and objects as themselves? I think
two reasons may be given for this. In the first
place they espied great and serious danger in a
reform originating from beneath and not from
above, from the inferior clergy and not from the
princes and dignitaries of the Church. It was an
aristocratic, not a democratic reform, that they
wished to carry out, whereas the movement origi-

268 JOHN HUS.

nated by Hus was of a thoroughly democratic
nature, and they feared that it might cause the
leading strings to escape out of their hands. In
the second place, Hus, in despair of a reform com
mencing from above, had called upon kings, princes,
nobles, and people, to insist upon needful reforms,
and even constrain them to be enacted by external
pressure. This was an unpardonable crime. The
spiritual power claimed to be the superior of the
temporal, and now this daring cleric had called
upon the temporal power to force the spiritual to
reform itself, whether it would or no. Thus, both
the better and the worse members of the council
were banded together in an unholy alliance against
one poor priest, whose only fault was, that he had
clamoured over-loudly for the selfsame ends and
objects, for which the Council itself had been
convened. Second Day.
On the second day, June 7th, Hus was brought
into the Franciscan refectory, and the hearing
began about an hour after a total eclipse of the
sun. Armed men stood round to prevent the
escape of the one poor priest. The "articles"
were read aloud, respecting which witnesses had
testified at Prague before the vicar of the arch
bishop and again at Constance, and Hus made his
comments upon some of them. While this was
going on, the king arrived and entered the council
hall, bringing with him Lords Wenceslas of Duba

JOHN hus's trial. 269
and John of Chlum with their secretary, Peter
Mladenovitz. At their arrival an " article " was being read,
which charged Hus with preaching at various times
in the chapel Bethlehem, and in other places at
Prague, many errors and heresies out of Wycliffe's
books, in particular that material bread remained
on the altar after the consecration of the host.
Hus, calling God and his conscience to witness,
replied that he had never said or stated any such
thing. He admitted that when the Archbishop of
Prague had forbidden the employment of the term
"bread," he had resisted the order, because in
John vi. Christ had eleven times termed himself
"tho bread of angels," "the bread that giveth
life to tho world," "the bread that came down
from heaven." For this reason he had refused
to contradict the gospel, but never had he said
anything of the kind respecting material bread.
Cardinal d'Ailly then took a paper, which he said
had come into his hands the evening before, and
asked Magister John Hus whether he assumed the
separate existence of " Universals," thus, as a
nominalist, intending to entangle Hus, a realist, in
a scholastic difficulty. Hus replied that he did, as
St. Anselin and others had done before him. The
cardinal then endeavoured to prove the impossi
bility of a realist holding the orthodox view of
tronsubstantiation, to which, however, Hus steadily
adhered. Two Englishmen then entered into the
discussion on the side of the cardinal; but, after

270 JOHN HUS.

the argument had continued for some time, and a
good deal of irrelevant matter had been introduced
out of the nominalistic and realistic controversy,
one of them clinched the matter in Hus's favour
by saying, " WThy are these irrelevant things intro
duced, which have nothing to do with matter of
faith ? He thinks rightly concerning the sacrament
of the altar, as he acknowledges." John Stokes
then made a final effort against Hus by saying,
"When I was at Prague, I saw a treatise ascribed
to Hus, in which he laid it down in express terms,
that material bread remained in the sacrament
after consecration." Hus replied : " Begging your
pardon, it is not true."
This was, apparently, the first and only attempt
to mingle scholastic questions with theological
controversy in the case of Hus. It is clear, there
fore, that the nominalistic and realistic dispute
had little or no influence on the development of
the Hussite movement, whatever may have been its
effect upon the various difficulties, which the dispu
tatious Jerome got into in different universities.
It was, however, a mean and illnatured act on the
part of Cardinal d'Ailly to take advantage of a philo
sophical dispute of the schools in order to obtain the
conviction of an almost friendless prisoner on the
ground of heresy, the sole penalty for which was
death. And it is agreeable to find an Englishman
recognizing the true nature of the position, and
speaking boldly on the side of j ustice and fair dealing.
But Hus's danger in this respect was not yet over.

JOHN hus's trial. 271
Cardinal Zabarella, addressing himself to him,
said : " Magister John, you know that it is written,
that every word should be established in the mouth
of two or three witnesses. And lo ! here are full
twenty witnesses against you, dignitaries, doctors,
and other great and notable men, some of whom
depose from hearsay and common report, and
others from knowledge, alleging reasonable ground
of knowledge ; why, then, do you persist in denial
against them all?" Hus replied: "If the Lord
God and my conscience are my witnesses, that I
have neither preached nor taught what they depose
against me, nor hath it ever entered into my heart
— though all my adversaries depose against me,
what can I do ? Neither doth this eventually harm
me." Cardinal d'Ailly then said: "We cannot
judge according to your conscience, but according
to things here proved and deduced against you,
and some things confessed by you. You would,
perhaps, wish to term all who depose against you
from knowledge, alleging reasonable grounds of
knowledge, your enemies and adversaries ; toe must
believe them. You said that you entertained sus
picions of Magister Stephen Palecz, who has
certainly dealt religiously and very humanely with
those books and articles, even extracting them in
a milder form than they are contained in the book ;
and similarly with all the other doctors. Nay, you
said that you suspected the Chancellor of Paris
(Gerson), who is certainly as grave a doctor as
can be found in all Christendom."

272 john hus.

Here we may observe that it is quite reasonable
to say that judges must decide according to the
evidence, and not according to the conscience of
the prisoner. But in this case, although we hear
plenty about evidence against Hus, we hear nothing
about evidence in his favour. In all lay courts of
justice the prisoner has a right to call witnesses
to rebut the evidence for the prosecution, but in
this ecclesiastical court the prisoner suspected of
heresy was not allowed to clear himself by evidence
at all. Nothing could be more iniquitous than the
whole proceeding, which was a violation of every
principle of honour and justice. But to continue.
It was deposed that the said John Hus had obsti
nately preached and defended erroneous "articles "
of Wycliffe's in the schools and in public sermons.
Hus replied that he had neither preached nor did
he desire to follow either Wycliffe's or any one's
erroneous doctrines, Wycliffe not being his father,
nor o. Bohemian. If Wycliffe had disseminated
errors, let the English see to it. And when it was
charged that he had resisted the condemnation of
the forty-five " articles " from Wycliffe's writings,
he replied that, whereas the doctors condemned
the forty-five " articles" on the ground that none
of them were catholic, but every one of them was
either heretical, erroneous or scandalous, he had
not ventured to offend his conscience by consenting
to then- condemnation. In particular with regard
to this : " Pope Silvester and Constantine erred in
thus endowing the Church." As regards the follow-

JOHN hus's trial. 273
ing: " If a pope or priest be in mortal sin, he doth not
make the sacrament, nor consecrate, nor baptize,"
he qualified the statement by saying that he doth
not do such things worthily, but unworthily, being
for the time an unworthy minister of God's sacra
ments." They said, " It stands absolutely in your
book." He replied, " I am willing to be burnt if
it does not stand as I have qualified it." They after
wards found it standing in this qualified form in
the beginning of Chapter II. of the treatise against
Palecz. Hus also said that he had not ventured
to consent to the condemnation of the statement
that : " Tithes are pure alms." Cardinal d'Ailly
argued against him thus : " For anything to be
alms, it must be given freely and independently of
obligation and debt ; but tithes being given from
obligation and debt, it follows that they are not
alms." Hus denied the major proposition of the
syllogism, saying, that in a similar case the rich
were bound under pain of eternal damnation to the
six works of mercy, to clothe the naked, to feed
the hungry, etc., yet their gifts were received as
alms by the poor. The English Bishop of Salisbury
said, " If all are bound to the six works of mercy,
it follows that the poor, not having the means of
bestowing them, must be subject to damnation."
Hus replied that he had made the statement with
the qualification, that those who had the means and
power of giving were bound by the gospel to give
alms under pain of damnation. And he was begin
ning to explain further how it was free to the first
T

274 JOHN HUS.

givers to give tithes as alms, whereas their posterity
inherited the obligation to pay them ; but he was
not allowed to complete his explanation. He also
expressly declared that he had not obstinately
asserted any of the forty-five "articles," but had
with others resisted their condemnation, because
he wanted to hear scripture proofs or reasons
for it.
It was also deposed that on a certain occasion
Hus had said, "Would that my soul might be
where that of John Wycliffe is ! " He replied that
it was true that twelve years ago, before Wycliffe's
theological works were brought into Bohemia, when
he was much pleased with his philosophical writ
ings, and knew nothing about him save his good
life, he had said, " I don't know where the soul of
John Wycliffe is ; I hope he is saved, and I fear
he is damned ; nevertheless, in hope I would wish
my soul to be where the soul of John Wycliffe is."
On this they shook their heads and derided him.
It was also deposed that he had resisted the
condemnation of Wycliffe's books, which were con
demned at Prague and also in the council at Eome.
Hus replied, that being admonished amongst others
by the Archbishop of Prague to give Wycliffe's
books up to him, he had brought the book himself,
and delivered it to the archbishop with the words :
" Reverend father, I bring you my books, and wher
ever you find any error in them, order it to be
noted, and I will publish it as such before the whole
community." " The archbishop," he continued,

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 275
" never pointed out any such passages, but ordered
the books to be burnt, which was not in his instruc
tions from the apostolic see." From that burning
and from the sentence and proceedings of the
archbishop he admitted that he had appealed to
Alexander V., and after his death to John XXIIL,
now called Balthasar Cossa. No hearing being
granted him through his procurators within two
years, he had finally appealed to Christ.
When asked whether he had received absolution
from Pope John, he answered that he had not ; and
when further asked whether it was lawful to appeal
to Christ, he replied, ' ' I acknowledge here publicly
that there is no more righteous and efficacious
appeal than to Christ." This they greatly derided,
and he continued : " Whereas to appeal, as the law
books say, is, under a grievance from an inferior
judge to ask or implore the aid of a superior one :
who is a more powerful and righteous judge, and
who can better relieve and succour the aggrieved
and oppressed than Christ, who neither deceives nor
can be deceived ? "
It was deposed, that on the next day placards
had been posted up in various places, presumably
by his order and inducement, that every one was
to gird himself with his sword upon his thigh, and
not spare his brother or his neighbour. Hus re
plied that he knew nothing about any such placards
or any such thing.
It was also deposed that John Hus had preached
divers errors, whence scandals had arisen between

276 JOHN HUS.

the ecclesiastical dignitaries and the people of the
realm of Bohemia and the magisters and students
of the University of Prague, with disobedience of in
feriors toward their superiors, and the destruction
of the University of Prague. He replied that it was
not owing to him, but to the refusal of adherence
to the king in the matter of neutrality between the
rival popes and withdrawal from the obedience of
Gregory, that the king had rightfully given the
Bohemian nation three votes in the university, and
that those who had refused to agree with the king
therein had sworn rather to quit the University of
Prague than submit to the change. Then, pointing
to Albert Warentrape, he said, " This was one of
them; he was then Dean of the Faculty of Arts."
Warentrape rose and said, "Eeverend fathers, that
John Hus may not be believed truthful in his narra
tions and statements, may it please you to hear
me ! " But he was not heard.
Doctor Naz then rose and said, that King Wen
ceslas himself had never been favourable to Hus
and his associates, but that his favourites had done
it all, and had lately maltreated himself (Naz),
while under the protection of the king's safe-con
duct. Palecz rose and said, that not only foreigners,
but also doctors of his own nation, were in exile
owing to Hus. To this Hus replied, that this was
not true ; for he (Hus) was not at Prague when
they quitted it.
Here it would appear that a scene of consider
able disorder took place, which caused Hus to ex-

JOHN hus's trial. 277
claim : "I thought that in this council there would
have been more reverence, piety, and good order."
All then listened quietly, because the king had
commanded a hearing in silence to be given him..
Cardinal d'Ailly then said : " Magister John ! you
spoke lately in the tower more patiently than you
are doing now. You must know that this is not in
your favour." Hus replied: " Ee ver end father ! it
was because they then spoke with me handsomely
(pulchre), but here almost all clamour at me ; I
suppose, therefore, they are all my enemies."
The cardinal said : " Who is clamouring ? When
you speak, they listen to you in silence." Hus
answered : " If they did not clamour, orders would
not have been given in the king's name and also
in yours for silence to be kept under pain of ex
pulsion from this place. Moreover, we are here
engaged in a judicial proceeding ; others ought to
be silent, else I cannot hear what you say."
It was also deposed, that owing to Hus's scanda
lous and erroneous sermons at Prague a great
sedition had ensued, and catholic and God-fearing
men had been compelled to quit Prague and con
ceal themselves outside, and various depredations
had been committed upon their property. Hus
replied, that it was not owing to him, but to non-
adherence to the king and the university in the
matter of neutrality between the popes, that Arch
bishop Zbynek had imposed an interdict for two
miles round Prague, had despoiled the tomb of St.
Wenceslas and had fled to Eaudnitz, followed by the

278 JOHN HUS.

"prelates" and other clergy, whose property had
been interfered with by others, but not by his
(Hus's) order or inducement.
After Dr. Naz and Cardinal d'Ailly had spoken a
few words on this subject, the cardinal addressed
Hus as follows: "Magister John ! when you were
brought to the palace, we questioned you as to the
manner in which you had come hither, and you
said, that you had come freely; and if you had
not chosen to come, neither the King of Bohemia
nor the King of the Romans could have forced
you to do so." Hus replied: "Yes, I said that
I had come freely, and if I had not chosen to come,
there are so many and such great lords in Bohe
mia, who love me, in whose castles I might have
remained concealed, that neither the one king nor
the other could have compelled me to come hither."
The cardinal shook his head, and with an altered
expression of indignation on his countenance, ex
claimed : " What audacity ! " When the bystanders
murmured at this, Lord John of Chlum said to
them : " Nay, he speaks the truth, and true it is.
I am but a poor knight in our realm, but I would
keep him a year, will or nill any one, so that he
could not get hold of him. And there are many
great lords, who love him, who have very strong
castles, who would keep him as long as they pleased,
even against both the kings."
The session now closed for the day, but before
Hus was led away, Cardinal d'Ailly said to him :
" Magister John ! you said lately in the tower, that

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 279
you would submit humbly to the judgment of the
council. I therefore advise you not to involve
yourself as regards these errors, but submit to the
correction and instruction of the council, and the
council will deal mercifully with you."
The king then said : " Listen, John Hus ! Some
have said that I did not give you a safe-conduct till
you had been a fortnight in prison. I say that this
is not true, because I wish to prove by the evidence
of the princes and many others, that I gave you a
safe-conduct before you quitted Prague, and I also
commanded Lords Wenceslas and John to bring you,
and make sure that you should not be attacked
while coming freely to Constance, but that a public
hearing should be given you, that you might
answer respecting your belief. This the authorities
have done, and have here given you a public, quiet,
and honourable hearing, and I thank them for it,
although some say that I could not give a safe-
conduct to a heretic, or one suspected of heresy.
Therefore, as this lord cardinal advises you, even
so do I advise you, not to hold aught obstinately,
but, in these matters which have been proved
against you, and which you have admitted, to
surrender yourself entirely to the grace of the
sacred council, and they will show you some favour
for our sake and our honour, and for the sake of
our brother and the realm of Bohemia; and you
will undergo penance for the same. But if you
luill hold them obstinately, verily then they will
know what to do with you. I have told them that

280 JOHN HUS.

I will not protect any heretic ; nay, if one chose
to be obstinate in his heresy, I would light the pile
myself unassisted, and burn him. I would advise
you to surrender yourself entirely to the mercy of
the council, and the sooner the better, that you
may not involve yourself in deeper errors." Hus
replied to the first part of the king's speech : " I
thank your serene highness for the safe-conduct,
which you graciously vouchsafed to give me."
Others interrupted, and the long-baited and wearied
man appearing to forget to make due protestation
as to not intending to hold any errors obstinately,
Chlum said to him: "Magister John! answer
the Becond part of the king's speech." Hus said :
" Most serene prince ! let your serene highness be
assured, that I came here freely, not to maintain
aught obstinately, but to correct it humbly, when
shown wherein I have erred."
He was then led back to prison in charge of the
bishop of Eiga.
We may notice now, that no attempt was made
by the council to define any of the matters in
question. Hus would have considered it his duty
to submit to any definition or decree of the council
as regards what was to be believed or held. But he
was simply called upon to retract what was articled
or deposed against him, whether he had held it
or not. He was to be crushed morally, and thus
rendered powerless and innocuous for the future,
or that was to be done with him which was
eventually done with him. The bearing of these

JOHN hus's trial. 281

observations will be more fully seen in the account
of the third hearing, in which questions relating
to the Church and its constitution were taken into
consideration. Third Day, June 8th.
We now come to what Mladenovitz designates as
"the last so-called hearing, but rather jeering."
The king was again present, with cardinals, arch
bishops, bishops, and other dignitaries, as before ;
and Lords Wenceslas of Duba and John of Chlum,
with their secretary, Peter Mladenovitz, were also
present. Thirty "articles" were read consisting
of professed extracts from the work " On the
Church," seven from the treatise against Palecz,
and six from that against Stanislas of Znaym.
Those which were honestly extracted Hus at once
acknowledged, and, when others were read, which
were not in express terms, in forma, in his books,
an Englishman, who acted as reader, read the
corresponding passages from the copies in Hus's
own handwriting. When anything displeasing
was read from the books, Cardinal d'Ailly turned
to the king and others, saying : " See ! what is here
written is worse, more dangerous and more erro
neous than what hath been articled." Every now
and then Hus made observations upon what was
read, which sometimes gave rise to conversations
between himself and the cardinals, the most inte
resting of which I proceed to give in their order.
The 12th article was— (1) "The papal dignity

282 JOHN HUS.

originated with the Caesars," which is not in Hus's
book; and (2) "The primacy and appointment of
the pope emanated from the power of Caesar,"
which is in chapter xv. When this was read,
along with corresponding passages from the " De
Ecclesia," Hus rose and said: "This is what I
affirm, that as regards external adornment and the
temporal goods bestowed on the Church, the papal
dignity hath origin from the Emperor Constantine,
which was afterwards confirmed by other emperors,
as is shown by the decree, dist. 96 ; but as re
gards spiritual administration and the power of
ruling the Church spiritually, such dignity arises
directly from the Lord Jesus Christ." Cardinal
d'Ailly observed : " In Constantine' s time a general
council was assembled, and that decree was there
ascribed to Constantine on account of his presence
and the reverence due to him — why, then, don't
you say that the pope's primacy emanated from
the council, rather than from the power of
Caesar ? " Hus replied : " On account of the dota
tion, as I said, which Cassar made."
The 15th article ran : — " The vicarial power of
the pope comes to nought, unless the pope him
self be conformed to Christ or Peter in morals and
life; nor doth he otherwise receive procuratorial
power from God, since no other sequence more
pertinently follows." When this was read along
with the corresponding passage from the book,
which gives a very different impression, Hus rose
and said: "I understand it in this way, that the

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 283
power in such a pope comes to nought (frustratur),
as regards the merit or recompense which he ought
to, but doth not, obtain therefrom, but not as
regards his office." They asked him, " Where is
this interpretation (glossa) in your book ? " He
replied, " It is in the second chapter of the treatise
against Magister Palecz." They looked at each
other and smiled. The passage in the treatise
against Palecz, which must be specially noted by
my readers, runs as follows : " We grant that an evil
pope, bishop, prelate, or priest, is an unworthy
minister of the sacraments, through whom God bap
tizes, consecrates, or works in other respects for the
benefit of his Church."
The 17th article was honestly extracted, as
follows : — " The cardinals are not the manifest
and true successors of the college of the other
apostles of Christ, unless they live after the manner
of the apostles, keeping the commandments and
counsels of the Lord Jesus Christ." The proof
thereof was also read from the book : " For if they
come up otherwise than by the door~ of the Lord
Jesus Christ, they are thieves and robbers, as the
Saviour himself declares, speaking of all such :
' All who have come are thieves and robbers ' "
(John x.).
Upon this being read, the president, Cardinal
d'Ailly, said : " See ! it stands worse and more
grievously in the book than hath been articled."
Then, turning to Hus, he continued: "You have
not observed due limits in your preaching and

284 JOHN HUS.

writings. But you ought to have adapted your
discourses to the requirements of your hearers.
Why in preaching to the people was it useful or
necessary to preach against the cardinals, none of
them being present, whereas such things ought
rather to be preached or said in their presence,
and not scandalously before laymen?" Hus re
plied : " Eeverend father, it was because priests
and other learned men were present at my
sermons, that I mooted such things, that present
and future priests might be on their guard against
them." The cardinal retorted: "You do ill in
wishing by such discourses to lower the status of
the Church."
Here it must be admitted that the cardinal had,
to a certain extent, the better of Hus. If Hus
never exceeded the bounds of truth in his invec
tives, he certainly exceeded those of discipline and
respect for his superiors. And Cardinal d'Ailly
would naturally consider that such a course was
likely to excite revolution from below, which would
tend to endanger or obstruct the progress of re
form from above, which, there is no doubt, he really
had at heart. Still, very little practical stress was
placed during the trial upon the subject of ecclesi
astical discipline and subordination; the real venue
was laid in the region of heresy, in which there
would have been no real difficulty in coming to an
understanding with Hus, had the council thought
fit to define what was to be held or believed upon
the points in question. But the authorities at

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 285

Constance deemed it necessary to sweep him out
of their path in some way or other ; his condemna
tion as a heretic must first be obtained and pro
nounced, and then they would see what could be
done for him.
The 18th article ran : — " Over and above eccle
siastical censure, no heretic ought to be left to a
secular tribunal to be punished with the death of
the body." This is a shameful concoction, and
stands very differently in Hus's work. But as it
professes to be extracted from one of the passages,
which I have selected to illustrate the style of his
Latin writings, I shall content myself with referring
the reader to it in its place (ch. xi.), and proceed
to give Hus's own remarks upon the subject before
the council.
He said : " I assert, that a heretic, who is such,
ought first to be fairly, religiously, humbly in
structed through the sacred Scriptures, and reasons
deduced from them, as was done by St. Augustine
and others in their disputations with heretics. But
if, after such instruction, he will in no wise desist
from his errors, I do not say that such a one ought
not to be punished even corporally, but I always
assert, that such instruction from the Scriptures
ought to precede." This caused a murmur and
tumult in the assembly. Then a passage in the
book was read, in which he inveighed against those
who took violent measures against heretics, saying:
" Verily they are herein like the Chief Priests,
Pharisees, and Scribes, who said to Pilate : ' It is

286 JOHN HUS.

not lawful for us to put any man to death,' and
delivered Jesus to him. And they are proved to
be greater homicides than Pilate by the evidence
of Jesus, who said : ' He who delivered Me to
thee hath the greater sin.' " A great tumult and
murmur then arose, and they shouted to Hus :
" Who are like them. ? Those who deliver a heretic
to the secular arm ? " Hus, with dauntless courage,
replied: "Those who expose an innocent man to
death by the secular arm, as did the Chief Priests,
Scribes, and Pharisees to Christ, delivering him
to Pilate." They shouted : " No ! no ! You are
speaking here of doctors." Finally, Cardinal d'Ailly
said : " These things are much more grievous than
those that are articled. Verily they have framed
their articles religiously."
The 21st article ran : " That a person excom
municated by the pope, if he appeals to Christ,
neglecting the judgment of the pope or a general
council, is preserved, and such excommunication
doth not affect him."
This is not in Hus's wrork, which, however, con
tains a justification of his own conduct in appeal
ing to Christ, when unable to obtain a hearing
from two successive popes, because he considered,
that the further appeal from the pope to a future
council would be but "imploring a distant and
uncertain aid under a grievance." When this
article had been read, he said : " I admit that I
appealed to Christ, as aforesaid, in the final in
stance, when my legal representatives were not

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 287
admitted to a hearing for two years or more."
Cardinal d'Ailly retorted: "Do you want to be
better than St. Paul, who, when aggrieved at
Jerusalem, appealed, not to Christ, but to Caesar ? "
Hus replied: "Very well; but if one were to do
that (i.e. appeal to Caesar) here for the first time,
he would be considered a heretic. Moreover, St.
Paul did not do this of his own inclination, but by
the will of Christ, who appeared to him and said :
' Be firm, for thou must go to Eome.' "
When he was charged with off: ciating and per
forming Divine service, while under excommunica
tion, he admitted that he had done so, but under
appeal. When asked whether he had obtained
absolution from the pope, he acknowledged that he
had not, a matter of which special notice was taken
by Cardinal Zabarella, who leant forward and
ordered his secretary, sitting at his feet, to make
a note of it.
The 22nd article ran correctly in Hus's own
words: "If a man is vicious and does anything,
he acts viciously ; if he is virtuous and does any
thing, he then acts virtuously."
When this and the full passage in which it
occurs were read, Cardinal d'Ailly observed : " Yet
the Scripture saith, that ' we sin all ; ' and again,
' If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our
selves.' It must, therefore, be the case that we
always act viciously." Hus replied: "The
Scripture there speaks of venial sins, which do
not expel the habit of virtue, but are compatible

288 JOHN HUS.

with it." Magister William observed : "But those
sins are not compatible with a morally good
action." Hus cited a passage from Augustine, but
was shouted down with the outcry: "What has
this to do with the point ? "
The 23rd article ran : " A priest of Christ, living
according to His law, possessing knowledge of
Scripture and capacity to edify the people, ought
to preach notwithstanding a pretended excommuni
cation; " and lower clown : " If the pope, or other
superior, orders a priest so disposed not to preach,
he ought not to obey."
Upon this Hus observed: "By a pretended ex
communication, I mean one unjust and irregular,
issued contrary to due course of law and contrary
to God's commandment. A priest so disposed as
premised ought not on account of it to cease from
fruitful preaching, nor fear such excommunication
finally as regards damnation." They answered,
by way of objection, that " such an excommunica
tion is a blessing." Hus replied: "True; and I
say, moreover, that an excommunication, whereby
a man is unjustly excommunicated, is a blessing in
the sight of God, according to the statement of
the prophet : ' I will curse with your blessings, and
bless with your cursings.' And : ' They shall curse,
but thou shalt bless.' " Cardinal Zabarella said :
" There are, however, rules of law, that even an
unjust excommunication is to be dreaded." Hus
replied : " True, there being about eight reasons
why it is to be dreaded." Cardinal Zabarella con-

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 289
tinued : " Are there not more ? " Hus replied :
" It is in the books that there are more."
We now come to the seven articles extracted
with no great honesty from the treatise against
Stephen Palecz.
The 1st of these ran: "If a pope, bishop, or
dignitary, be in mortal sin, he is not then a pope,
bishop, or dignitary."
When this article, with its qualification or limita
tion, already given at length under article 15
of those extracted from the " De Ecclesia," was
read, Hus said: "Yes! neither is one who is in
mortal sin worthily a king in the sight of God, as
is evident from 1 Kings (1 Sam.) xv., where the
Lord said by the prophet Samuel to Saul, who
ought to have slain Amalek, and did not do so :
' Because thou hast rejected My Word in not slaying
Amalek, I will reject thee from being king.' "
Meanwhile King Sigismund had gone out into a
balcony, and was conversing with the Count Pala
tine of the Ehine and the Burgrave of Nuremberg,
telling them that in the whole of Christendom
there was not a greater heretic than Hus. As
soon as the above statements were made by Hus
as to a king and as to Saul, the ecclesiastical digni
taries present shouted: "Call the king!" But
as the king was out of earshot, the presidents called
to those who were nearer him to bring him in to
listen, for Hus was touching upon him. When
he came in, they caused Hus to repeat what he
had said. When he had finished, and qualifiedu

290 JOHN HUS.

his statements, Sigismund said : " John Hus ! no
man lives without fault." Cardinal d'Ailly, who
never lost an opportunity of doing Hus an unfriendly
turn, then said to him, with the view of irritating
the secular princes against him : " Was it not
enough for you to vilify and lower the spiritual
estate by your writings and doctrines ? Do you
now want to lower the royal estate, and bring kings
down from their position ? " Palecz then rose with
the intention of proving that Saul was a king,
though God had rejected him, and showed how
David had forbidden him to be slain, not on account
of the holiness of his life, but on account of that of
his anointing. And upon, Hus citing Cyprian's
words : "In vain doth he obtain the name of
Christian, who doth not imitate Christ in conduct,"
Palecz exclaimed: "What fatuity ! What is it to
the purpose to allege, that, if a man is not a true
Christian, he is therefore not a true pope, bishop,
or king ? The learned know, that ' pope,' ' bishop,'
'king,' are names of office, but 'Christian' is the
name of a meritorious thing ; and thus it is incon
trovertible, that a man is a true pope, bishop, or
king, though he be not a true Christian." After a
few words Hus said: "Nay, this was made clear
in the case of Pope John XXIIL, now called Bal
thasar Cossa ; if he were a true pope, why was he
deposed ? " King Sigismund closed the discussion
by observing, that the lords of the council had
decided, that Balthasar was a true pope, but on
account of his notorious misdemeanours, whereby

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 291
he had scandalized the Church and wasted its
goods, he was deposed from the papacy.
Here we cannot but remark, that Hus had clearly
the worst of this encounter, and that it was his own
over-subtilizing that brought him into the diffi
culty. Still, with the qualification already cited
from the treatise against Palecz, his doctrine was
perfectly innocuous, and might safely have been
left to fall into oblivion with other subtleties and
over-refinements. The 4th article ran: "An evil or 'foreknown'
(prsescitus) pope or dignitary is not truly, but
equivocally" (i.e. only in one sense of the term)
" a shepherd ; but is truly a thief and a robber."
Hus observed : " I have thus qualified, and do
thus qualify, all such statements, by conceding that
such persons, as regards merit, and thus truly and
worthily before God, are not proper dignitaries or
shepherds ; but, as regards their offices and the
repute of men, are popes, shepherds, priests, etc."
A black-capped monk from Fiirstadt immediately
rose behind Hus and said : " My lords ! take heed
lest Hus deceive both himself and you by those
glosses, as if they were in his book. Lately, at a
hearing, I replied to him respecting the articles,
and said : ' Magister ! perhaps those evil popes,
etc., are not such as regards merit, but as re
gards their offices are truly such.' He is now
making use of the glosses, which he obtained and
heard from me, not that they are anywhere to be
found in his books." Magister John turned to

292 JOHN HUS.

him and said : "Didn't you hear that they are in
my book, and have just been read here ? " Then,
after some further remarks, he added: "This has
been made clear in the case of John, formerly Pope
John XXIIL, now called Balthasar, whether he
was a true pope, or truly a thief and a robber."
They looked at each other, and mocked him,
saying : " Nay, he was a true pope."
When the 6th article was read, Hus observed:
" This is what I mean, that if a pope, or other
dignitary, lives contrary to Christ in the vices
aforesaid, he enters otherwise, even if humanly
elected to such office, since he does not enter into
the fold of the Church by the lowly door, which is
Jesus Christ. This was manifest respecting Judas,
who, though chosen by Christ to his apostleship,
nevertheless did not enter by Christ, being a thief,
a covetous person, and a son of perdition." Palecz
rose and said : " What fatuity ! Judas was chosen
by Christ, and yet entered otherwise, and not by
Christ ! " Hus replied : " Nay, it is well estab
lished, that he was chosen by Christ, yet entered
otherwise, being a thief, a devil, and a son of per
dition." Palecz rejoined : " Any one may be duly
and lawfully elected pope or bishop, and after
wards live contrariwise ; he does not, therefore,
enter otherwise." Hus explained his meaning at
length : "I say further : whoso enters a bishopric,
prelacy, or any benefice whatsoever simomacally,
not with the intention of labouring in the Church
of God, but rather with that of living delicately,

JOHN hus's trial. 293
voluptuously and luxuriously, and of indulging
pride, every such person enters otherwise, since he
enters not by the lowly door, which is the Lord
Jesus Christ, and, by the evidence of the Gospel,
every such person is a thief and a robber."
The 7th article, relating to the condemnation of
the forty-five articles extracted from the works of
Wycliffe, was constructed in the usual manner, by
taking parts of different sentences, connecting and
dovetailing them together, so as to form a whole,
which could not be accepted without protest by
the author of the work from which it professed to
be taken.
After this had been read, a passage was also
read from the conclusion of the " De Ecclesia," in
which certain doctors were rebuked for incon
sistency in condemning the doctrine, that ecclesias
tical revenues were of an eleemosynary nature, and
then petitioning for their restoration in their own
case, on the ground of their being of such a nature.
Thereupon Cardinal d'Ailly said : " Magister ! you
stated that you would not defend any error of
Wychffe's, and here it is now manifest from
your books, that you have publicly defended those
articles. Certainly there are many things set down
here which are scandalous and grievous." Hus
replied: "Eeverend father! as I said before, so
I say still, that I will not defend the errors of
Wycliffe or any one else. But because it appeared
to me contrary to my conscience to consent
absolutely to then- condemnation without any

294 JOHN HUS.

scriptural ground against them, I therefore did
not think it right to consent to it, especially
because the reason alleged, which is a copulative
one, cannot be verified in all its parts with regard
to every one of them."
In the six articles extracted from the treatise
against Stanislas of Znaym, the principal discus
sion turned on the necessity or non-necessity of
a corporeal head of the Church, and of the possi
bility of its being governed without such head.
Hus argued that at that time there was no such
corporeal head, Pope John XXIIL having been
deposed, and it might be ever so long before there
was one; yet Christ did not cease to govern His
Church. He argued further that before the insti
tution of the papacy the apostles governed the
Church in things necessary to salvation, and
that certainly better than it was governed at the
time then present. No reply appears to have been
attempted to his arguments, which indeed were
very forcible, but Stokes, the Englishman, accused
him of vanity in pluming himself upon doctrines
which were really not his, but Wycliffe's.
Evidence and articles having now been read, a
kind of silence ensued, and Cardinal d'Ailly said :
" Magister John, two ways lie before you, of which
you must choose one ; either to surrender yourself
absolutely and entirely to the mercy and into the
hands of the council, so as to be content with what
ever the council shall determine with regard to
you — and the council, from reverence for the King

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 295
of the Eomans, and his brother, the King of
Bohemia, and for your own good, will deal religi
ously and humanely with you ; or, if you still
desire to hold and defend some of the articles
aforesaid, and wish for another hearing, it will be
granted you. But you must know that there are
here such great and enlightened men, doctors and
magisters, who have such strong reasons agamst
your articles, that it is to be feared you will involve
yourself in greater error, if you wish to defend and
hold them. I am advising ; I am not speaking as
a judge." Others added: "Certainly, Magister John,
it is better for you, as the lord cardinal says, to
surrender yourself entirely to the mercy of the
council and hold nothing obstinately." Hus bent
his head and answered humbly: "Most reverend
fathers, I came here freely, not to defend aught
obstinately ; but if in some points I have stated
things incorrectly or defectively, I wish to submit
to the instruction of the council. But I pray, for
God's sake, that a hearing may be granted me to
explain my meaning as to the articles charged
agamst me, and to cite the writings of holy doctors ;
and if my reasons and scriptures be not strong
enough, I will humbly submit to the instruction
of the council." A shout was immediately raised :
" He is speaking guardedly and obstinately ; he
wants to submit to the instruction, and not to the
correction and determination of the council." Hus
replied : " Nay, I will submit to the instruction,
correction, and decision of the council. God is

296 JOHN HUS.

my witness ; I am speaking sincerely and not
guardedly." Cardinal d'Ailly said to him : "Magister
John, whereas you desire to surrender yourself to
the mercy of the council, you must know that your
unanimous instruction from full sixty doctors, some
of whom have departed, while those from Paris
have just arrived, by the command and commission
of the council is this : — (1) That you humbly
acknowledge your error in the articles which you
have hitherto held ; (2) That you abjure those
articles, and swear that you will never more hold
or preach them, or put them forth as doctrines;
(3) That you publicly recant and retract those
articles ; and (4) That you determine, hold, and
preach the contrary to those articles, which, as is
here proved against you, you have held, written,
and preached."
While wordy missiles were being showered upon
him from all quarters, Magister John said : " Most
reverend fathers, I am ready to obey the council and
receive instruction, but I pray you, for God's sake,
not to desire to place the halter of damnation upon
me, that I may not be compelled to abjure articles,
respecting which, God and my conscience being
my witnesses, I know nothing. Witnesses depose
things against me which never entered into my
heart, especially as regards the doctrine, that
material bread remains in the sacrament of the
altar after consecration. Those which I do know
about, and which I have set down in my books, I
will humbly recant, when I have been taught the

297
contrary. But in abjuring all the articles laid to
my charge, many of which have, by God's permis
sion, been falsely ascribed to me, I should by lying
prepare the halter of damnation for myself, because
'abjuring,' as I remember reading in the 'Catho-
licon,' is ' renouncing an error previously held.'
But as many articles have been ascribed to me
which I have never held, and which have never
entered into my heart, it therefore appears to me
against my conscience to abjure them and tell a
falsehood." They said: "No! no! this is not
' abjuring.' " When he called his conscience to
witness, many shouted : " Perhaps your conscience
would never tell you that you have erred or were
erring." The king then said: "Listen, Hus!
why should you refuse to abjure all the erroneous
articles of which you speak, because witnesses have
deposed wrongfully against you ? I am willing to
abjure all errors ; yet, because I do not wish
to hold any error, it is not necessary that I have
previously held one." Hus replied: "Lord king!
this is not the meaning of the word or verb, 'to
abjure.'" Cardinal Zabarella said: "Magister
John ! a sufficiently qualified formula will be given
you with the copies of the articles, under which you
will be required to abjure them ; and then you will
consider what you ought or are willing to do."
The king then said : " John Hus ! two ways
lie before you : either to abjure and recant the
errors here condemned, and surrender yourself to
the mercy of the council, and the council will in

298 JOHN HUS.

some measure be merciful to you ; or, if you choose
to defend those errors, the council and doctors have
their laws as to what they ought finally to do with
you." Hus replied: "Most serene prince! I do
not wish to hold any error, but to submit to the
determination of the council, only not to offend
my conscience by saying that I have held errors,
which I have never held, and which never entered
into my heart. I also pray that a hearing may be
granted me, merely that I may be able to explain
my meaning in certain points and articles charged
against me, especially respecting the pope, the
heads and members of the Church, wherein they
equivocate with me in understanding my meaning ;
because I allow and assert, that popes, bishops,
dignitaries, etc., if they are foreknown and in
mortal sin, are not truly such as regards then-
merits nor worthily so for the time before God,
but are such as regards their office, namely popes,
bishops, dignitaries, etc.; since, as I said, they
are unworthy ministers of the sacraments." After
a good deal of discussion on both sides, the king
said again : " Listen, Hus ! As I told you yester
day, so I tell you to-day ; I cannot repeat it to you ;
you are of full age ; if you had chosen, you could
have understood it. You now hear that the lords
have laid two ways before you, i.e. either you must
surrender yourself in all respects to the mercy of the
sacred council — and that the sooner the better — and
abjure all errors, both those written in your books,
and also those which you have yourself acknow-

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 299
lodged. You must likewise abjure those respecting
which sufficient evidence has been adduced against
you by persons whom we must believe, because the
scripture saith, that every word is to be established
in the mouth of two or three witnesses. And here
how many more great men have deposed respecting
several articles ! You must also undergo penance
for those errors, as the council shall dictate to you,
with a contrite heart and not with a feigned re
pentance ; and you must determine and write the
contrary to them, and swear no more to hold these
or other errors. Or, if you choose obstinately to
hold and defend them, the council will certainly
proceed against you according to its laws." An old
and hoary bishop from Poland said : " The laws
are clear in the Clementine constitutions and in
Sextus respecting the manner in which heretics
ought to be dealt with."
Hus replied to the king : " Most serene prince !
I said before, that I came here freely, not with the
intention of holding any error or heresy, but wish
ing humbly to abide the instruction of the council."
A shout was raised : "He is obstinate ! He wants
to abide the instruction of the council, and has held
those errors many years, and will not submit to
the correction and decision of the council so as to
recant them." A fat priest, who sat in a window
in a costly robe, shouted: "Let him not be ad>
mitted to recantation, because, if he does recant, he
will not keep it. He sent a letter at his departure
to his favourers and adherents, to whom it was

300 JOHN HUS.

publicly read, stating, that, if he were compelled to
recant, he intended to do it with the mouth only
and not with the heart. Don't therefore believe
him in any wise, for he will not keep it ! " Hus
answered: "Nay, I will humbly submit to the
instruction, correction, and decision of the council ;
and I made public protestation in my treatise
against Magister Stanislas, that I meant humbly to
abide the determination of Holy Mother Church, as
every faithful Christian ought ! " Palecz then rose
and said : " If I were to protest ever so much, that
I would not slap Magister Albert, who is here sit
ting beside me, and did nevertheless slap him,
what would be the value of my protestation ? So
you protest that you do not mean to hold or
defend any error, especially any error of Wychffe's."
Palecz then read from a paper nine articles from
Wycliffe's writings, against five of which Stanislas
had preached, and he said that he had himself also
preached against them, but Hus and his accomplices
had obstinately defended them in the scho'ols and in
public. Then turning to Hus he said : "You com
posed certain writings in their defence, which are
here in hand, and if you don't produce your own
writings, we will produce them." Hus said : " Pro
duce them." The king said : " If you have such
writings, it would be good that you should produce
them for the council to consider. If you do not
produce them, others will." Hus replied: "Let
them produce them."
An article was then exhibited, stating the manner

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 301
in which Hus had " glossed " or interpreted a sen
tence of the pope's. He declared that he had not
glossed it, neither had he ever seen the gloss along
with the sentence, save in prison in the Dominican
convent, when it was shown him by the com
missioners. They asked him whether he knew who
had composed the gloss, and bade him answer under
the oath which he had taken to speak the truth.
He said : " I do not know for certain the author of
the gloss, but I have heard it was Magister Jesenitz."
They rejoined : "Yet in the prison you confessed,
that he was the author of the gloss." He answered :
" I did so only from hearsay." They asked him
whether he approved the gloss, and whether it had
been satisfactory to him ? He replied : " How
could it have been satisfactory to me, when, as I
said before, I never saw it?" They asked him
further: "Is it satisfactory to you now?" He
replied: "No."
After all this baiting and harassing Hus was very
pale, and people who knew the fact, said that he
had spent the whole previous night without sleep,
tormented by toothache and headache, and was
already beginning to shake with ague.
An article was then read respecting Hus's alleged
conduct in the case of the three young men, who
were beheaded by the magistrates of the Old Town
of Prague for opposing the sale of indulgences in
1412. He was accused of having caused them to
be carried to the chapel Bethlehem and there buried
with the chant : Isti sunt sancti ; of having caused

302 JOHN HUS.

a mass, de martyribus, to be chanted over them the
next morning, and of having afterwards in a sermon
declared, that he would not give them up for a lump
of silver as large as one which he pointed to in the
chapel. Hus replied that it was true that they were thus-
beheaded, but not true that he had caused them to
be carried to their funeral with any such chant, as
at that time he was not present.
Dr. Naz then rose and gave a detailed account of
the matter, which has already been related at length
in Chapter VI. Palecz rose and referred the council
to a passage in Hus's "De Ecclesia" (cap. 21), in
which he alluded to the case. This runs :
" Practical experience explains the meaning of this text (Dan.
xi. 33, 34), because, taught by the grace of God, simple laymen
and priests teach many by the example of a good life, and rush
upon the sword, publicly contradicting the lying word of Anti
christ. As is manifest with regard to the laymen, John, Martin
and Stasek, who fell upon the sword, contradicting the lying
disciples of Antichrist. Others exposed their lives for the truth,
and were maltreated, arrested, imprisoned and slaughtered, yet
did not deny the truth of Christ, as well priests, as laymen, and
women. But some who had joined them withdrew deceitfully;
for, daunted by the censures of Antichrist and by the arrests,
they turned into the contrary path."
When this was read, the presiding cardinals
looked at each other, as if surprised.
The English then produced a copy of a letter in
commendation of Wycliffe professing to be from the
University of Oxford, which had been brought to
Prague, and which they said Hus had publicly read

JOHN hus's trial. 303
in a sermon, exhibiting the seal of the university.
This Hus admitted, the letter having been brought
to Prague by two students, sealed with the seal of
the University of Oxford.* The English demanded
the names of the students, the letter being a forgery.
Hus pointed to Palecz and said: "Yon friend of
mine knows the late Nicholas Faulfisch, who
brought the letter with another student, who is un
known to me." The English inquired where he
was, and Hus replied that he believed him to
have died somewhere between Spain and England.
Palecz then said : " That Faulfisch was not an
Englishman, but a Bohemian. He brought a piece
of stone from Wycliffe's tomb, which was after
wards venerated and kept as a relic at Prague.
And to all this Hus was privy."
The English then caused a letter of very different
tenour with the seal of the Chancellor of the
University of Oxford to be read, in which the
university requested the condemnation of 260
articles extracted from Wycliffe's writings by twelve
grave doctors and great theologians.
Silence now prevailing, Palecz rose and said:
"Most serene prince, and most reverend fathers!
I call both you and God to witness, that in my pro
ceedings against Hus I have not acted from any
jealousy or personal hatred, but only to fulfil my
* Wood, in his " History and Antiquities of Oxford," ascribes
this misuse of the university seal to a certain " Petrus Paganus"
or " Payne." A person of that name became M.A. of Prague in
1417, and afterwards played an important part in Bohemian history.

304 JOHN HUS.

oath, as a Doctor of Sacred Theology." Michael
de Causis, who sat in front of Hus, rose and said :
" I do the same." Hus replied to them : " I stand
at the judgment-seat of God, who will judge me and
you righteously according to our deserts." Car
dinal d'Ailly said, that Palecz and the others had
dealt very religiously with the books and the articles
extracted from them; for what was in the books was
far worse than what they had framed into articles.
The Bishop of Eiga then took Hus into his charge,
and as he was on his way to prison, Lord John of
Chlum greeted him, offered him his hand, and com
forted him. Hus felt deeply and gratefully the
kindness of his friend, who was neither ashamed
nor afraid to offer him his hand in public, after he
had been rejected, scorned and pronounced a heretic
by all. He afterwards wrote a touching letter to
Chlum to that effect.
The session was now over; but, before all had
departed, an incident occurred, which was not much
noticed at the moment, but which eventually cost
Sigismund the crown of Bohemia. The armed
men, who were on guard, having retired, Lord John
of Chlum, Lord Wenceslas of Duba, and Peter
Mladenovitz, went up to the window where the king
was. The king apparently did not notice them,
but supposed them to have departed, when Hus was
led to prison. The king in their hearing addressed
the fathers who were still about him as foUows :
" Beverend fathers ! You have heard that out of the many
things which are in his books, and which he has admitted, and

JOHN hub's trial. 305
which have been sufficiently proved against him, any one would
have been sufficient for his condemnation. If therefore he will
not recant and abjure and make statements contrary to those
errors, let him be burnt, or do with him as you best know
according to your laws. And be sure, whatever promises he
makes you as to a wish to recant or as to recantation, not to
believe him ; nor would I believe him, because he would go to
Bohemia and his favourers, and would disseminate more errors,
and the last error would be worse than the first. Therefore
prohibit him from all further preaching, and even from going
any more to his favourers, that he may not disseminate his
errors more. And send the articles here condemned to my
brother in the land of Bohemia, and alas ! to Poland and other
lands, where Hus already has many secret disciples and favourers.
And let the bishops and dignitaries in those lands punish all
who are found holding them, that the branches may be torn up
along with the root. And let the council write to kings and
princes to be more graciously disposed towards their prelates,
who have laboured diligently in the sacred council for the
extirpation of those heresies. You know too, that it is written,
that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is to be
established ; but here the hundredth part would have been
sufficient for his condemnation. Therefore make an end also
with his other secret disciples and favourers, because I am soon
about to depart, and especially with that, that " — repeating the
word " that" — "fellow, who is detained here in prison." They
said: "Jerome?" He said, " Yes, Jerome." " We'll make a
finish with him in less than a day. It will be an easier matter,
for the other is the master and that Jerome his scholar.'' The
king resumed : " Verily I was still young when that sect arose
and began in Bohemia, and see to what magnitude it has
grown and multiplied!"
After this conversation they all retired to their
several abodes rejoicing.
Here it is to be observed, that Sigismund traced

306 JOHN HUS.

the movement — which, so far, had culminated in
Hus — to his precursors Milicz and Mathias of
Janow, an account of whom is thus manifestly
with propriety prefixed to the biography of Hus.
It is also to be noticed, that it was not so much the
fact, that Sigismund — after once condoning the
violation of his safe-conduct — did not protect Hus
against condemnation and execution as a heretic
by the council, that the Bohemians took to heart,
as his deliberate faithlessness in first luring him to
Constance by promises of protection and assistance,
and then, instead of interceding for him, urging
the already exasperated fathers to his destruction.
The unintentional hearers of the conversation
made no secret of what they had heard, either to
Hus, who felt it bitterly, or to their countrymen,
so that what was spoken in a corner in the Fran
ciscan refectory soon became known throughout the
length and breadth of Bohemia. What trust could
henceforward be placed in such a king ? How
would the rights and liberties of the Bohemians
fare, when such an heir presumptive came to sit
upon their throne ?
The die was now cast on the part of the coun
cil, which had evidently acted throughout in a
thoroughly hostile spirit towards Hus. It was not
his instruction or correction, but his condemnation
that had been aimed at from the first. His con
science was not to be a factor in the proceedings ;
the authority of the council was to be all in all.
But from that time forth the individual conscience

JOHN HUS'S TRIAL. 307
began to be a factor of serious import in the con
stitution of society, and as time went on, gained
greater and greater power. Hus may be looked
upon as the protomartyr of conscience, conscience
in opposition to mere authority ; and ere long we
shall see authority all but supplicating conscience
to waive her claims and yield the desired sub
mission.

308 JOHN HUS.

CHAPTEE X.
JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM.
The champion of conscience was now in his cell,
condemned by authority, but the struggle was not
yet over. Authority did not wish to have blood on
her hands, if she could but obtain the submission and
concessions which she deemed needful. Besides,
the path of bloodshed was not without danger, a
significant hint whereof had just arrived. After
the conclusion of Hus's public hearings, the letter
of the Bohemian lords to Sigismund completed its
journey to Constance and was read in the session of
the council on June 12th. No less than two hun
dred and fifty seals were attached to it ; nor could
such a document fail to cause some sensation in the
assembly. An attempt was made by Palecz to lessen
its effect by drawing attention to the fact that King
Wenceslas had not participated in it, but the coun
ter-fact also stood out in sharp relief, that neither
had Wenceslas sent an ambassador to the council,
remaining indeed as far removed from its proceed-

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 309
ings, as Sigismund had been from those of the
council of Pisa. Still neither did this letter of
the Bohemian nobles to the king, nor that of the
University of Prague to the cardinals, which arrived
along with it, containing intercessions for both
Hus and Jerome, produce any eventual effect upon
the proceedings, beyond perhaps causing a certain
amount of delay and increasing the solicitude of
authority to obtain submission rather than have
recourse to the secular arm.
True, a council, which had deprived three popes
of their high position, and had proclaimed its power
superior to that of any pope, could not possibly
accept the definition of the Church given by Hus's
adversaries, viz. that the Church was that of which
the pope was the head and the cardinals the body.
Nor, if it had thought fit to issue an authoritative
definition, is there any reason to doubt that it would
have been humbly and gratefully accepted by
Hus. But then authority would have had in some
measure to descend from her throne, and the sub
mission of the so-called heretic would not have been
sufficiently complete ; the movement below would
have exerted an unmistakable influence upon the
decision arrived at above. Hus was ready to re
ceive instruction and to submit to the decision of the
council, but the council would neither condescend
to instruct him nor to give its decision upon the
points in question ; it simply called upon him to
submit to authority and abjure everything, true or
false, that had been laid to his charge. Could con-

310 JOHN HUS.

science be satisfied with such an ending ? Could
conscience retract truths that she had held and
falsehoods that she abhorred in the selfsame breath ?
Could such a grovelling in the dust at the feet of
authority be satisfactory in the sight of the Most
High, whom conscience had endeavoured honestly
to serve ? Conscience might have been mistaken in
some things, and upon these she would gladly have
received instruction, but in the main she felt that
she was in the right and righteous, and that she
was being dealt with falsely, insincerely, and im
piously. She therefore held her own, and in default
of either instruction for herself or decisions uni
versally binding for the future, refused to abjure
the medley of garbled articles and false charges,
which she was required to recant. The stake and
the flame were better in her eyes than the gnawing
worm of remorse, which a lie, spoken deliberately
in the face of the Most High, would have introduced
into her being, it might be, for ever and ever.
Although in Hus's last public hearing the autho
rities had promised to allow him a further audience
should he desire it, yet this promise was never ful
filled. King Sigismund had also promised that a
copy of the articles of accusation should be given
him, in order that he might briefly reply to them.
It was very important in Hus's eyes, that written
evidence of his sentiments in these respects should
remain after him, and he wrote an earnest letter
from prison to Chlum, begging that all the Bohe
mian lords in Constance would betake themselves

JOHN hus's condemnation and martyrdom. 311
in a body to the king and council, and demand the
fulfilment of this promise. They did so, and their
request was granted. The council in its session
on June 18th determined to place in Hus's hands
a brief statement of the articles against him, to
which he wrote answers in the course of the two
following days. But this had no effect upon the
subsequent course of proceedings.
The council had already caused the question of
the reception of the eucharist by the laity under
both kinds to be examined into by a number of
Doctors of Theology and Law, and issued its deci
sion on June 15th, which was substantially this :
" That, although the sacrament had originally been received
in both kinds, yet on reasonable grounds a custom had been
introduced of administering it to the laity under the form of
bread only, which was sufficient; that, therefore, this custom was
to be established as a law, and this law could not be arbitrarily
rejected or altered without the consent of the Church ; to do so
was an error, and whoever persisted obstinately in an error was
a heretic." At the same time the council issued orders to all
archbishops and bishops to smite the introducers
of this error, if they would not desist from it, with
ecclesiastical punishments as heretics, and to use,
if requisite, the aid of the secular arm. Shortly
afterwards the council also gave sentence against
Hus's treatises and books, both Latin and Bohe
mian, the former of which they were able, and the
latter of which they were unable, to read, decreeing
that they should be burnt, as containing errors.

312 JOHN HUS.

With Hus himself negotiations were carried on
privately as to the manner and form in which he
was to recant in order to satisfy the council. One
of the leading members of the council (formerly
supposed on insufficient grounds to have been Car
dinal John di Brogni, Bishop of Ostia), who is re
ferred to by Hus himself as " the father " (Pater),
and who seems to have really been favourably
inclined towards him, composed a formula for the
purpose, intended to smooth the way for his recan
tation of errors falsely ascribed to him, which ran
as follows :
" I, such a one, etc. Over and above the protests made by
me, which I wish to consider here repeated, I protest anew,
that though many things are laid to my charge, which I never
thought of, nevertheless, as regards all things laid to my charge
or objected against me, whether extracts from my books or also
the depositions of witnesses, I humbly submit myself to the
ordinance, decision, and correction of the holy general council,
to abjure, to revoke, to retract, to undergo merciful penance,
and to do all and singular, that the said holy council shall
mercifully and according to its grace deem proper to be ordained
for my salvation, recommending myself most devoutly to the

To this Hus replied :
" May the most wise and righteous Father Almighty deign
to grant eternal life and glory to my ' father ' for the Lord
Jesus Christ's sake ! Beverend father ! I am very grateful for
your pious and paternal favour. I dare not submit myself to
the council according to the tenour of the recantation exhibited
to me, both because I must condemn many truths, which, as I
heard from themselves, they designate scandalous, and because
I must incur the guilt of perjury by abjuration through admit-

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 313
ting that I have held the errors ; whereby I should greatly
scandalize God's people, who have heard the contrary from me
in my preaching. If then the holy Eleazar, a man of the old
law, an account of whom is in the Book of the Maccabees,
would not lyingly admit that he had eaten flesh forbidden by
the law, lest he should act against God and leave an evil example
to posterity, how should I, a priest of the new law, though an
unworthy one, for fear of a punishment which will soon be over,
be willing to transgress the law of God more grievously, (1) by
withdrawing from the truth ; (2) by committing perjury ; (3) by
scandalizing my neighbours ? Indeed, it is better for me to die,
than, avoiding a momentary punishment, to fall into the hands
of the Lord, and perhaps afterwards into fire and everlasting
reproach. And because I have appealed to Christ Jesus, the
most powerful and the most righteous of judges, committing
myself and my cause to Him, I therefore await His decision
and sentence, knowing that He will judge every man, not
according to false or erroneous witness, but according to truth
and deserving."
The "father" did not give up his attempt to
persuade Hus to submit to the council in the only
manner in which it was willing to receive his sub
mission, but rejoined :
" As regards the first point, most loving and beloved brother !
let it not affect you, that you would be condemning truths,
because it is not you, but those who are your superiors, and at
the present time ours also, who are the condemners. Attend
to this word : Do not rely on your own wisdom ; there are
many scientific and conscientious men in the council. My son !
hear the law of thy mother ! This as to the first point.
" As regards the second, concerning perjury. If it be perjury,
it would not redound upon you, but on those who require it.
Also, they are not heresies as regards yourself upon the cessa
tion of obstinacy. Augustine, Origen, the Master of Sentences,
etc., erred and gladly returned. I have often believed myself

314 JOHN HUS.

to have understood some things well, in which I have fallen
short ; when corrected, I returned with joy.
"I am writing briefly, because I am writing to one who
understands. You will not depart from the truth, but approach
to the truth ; neither will you make matters worse, but better;
you will not scandalize, but edify. Eleazar was a glorious Jew,
more glorious was the Jewish widow with seven sons and eight
martyrs ; nevertheless Paul was let down in a basket to effect
better things. The Lord Jesus, the Judge of your appeal, gives
you apostles, and these are they. Still greater contests will be
given you for the faith of Christ."
This was ingeniously argued by the " father,"
but Conscience felt that it was but playing fast and
loose with truth. Hus therefore finally replied :
" The council has frequently made all these demands from
me ; but because they imply that I am to recant, abjure, and
undertake penance with regard to matters in which I must
depart from many truths ; (2) because I must abjure, and thus
be a perjured man by confessing with regard to myself errors
falsely laid to my charge ; (3) because I should thereby scan
dalize much people of God, to whom I have preached ; where
fore it would be better that a millstone were placed upon me
and I were sunk in the depth of the sea ; and (4) because, if I
were to do this, desiring to escape a brief confusion and punish
ment, I should fall into the greatest confusion and punishment,
if I did not repent most seriously before death. Therefore for my
encouragement I call to mind the seven Maccabsan martyrs,
who preferred to be cut in pieces rather than eat flesh contrary to
the law of the Lord. I call to mind also the holy Eleazar, who,
as is there written, refused merely to say that he had eaten flesh
forbidden by the law, lest he should give an evil precedent to
posterity, but in preference underwent martyrdom. How then
ought I, having these before my eyes, as well as many holy
men and women of the new law, who gave themselves up to
martyrdom, refusing to consent to sin — how ought I, who have

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 315
for so many years preached of constancy and faith, to fall into
many falsehoods and perjury and scandalize many sons of God ?
Far be it from me, because Christ the Lord will most abun
dantly recompense me, giving me patience at the present and
glory in future ! "
This was decisive, and it was now plain, that
Hus would never consent to an indefinite recanta
tion, in which the matters recanted were left
uncertain ; neither would he recant what he had
hitherto held to be true, unless better instructed
from Scripture, or unless a definite decree on the
points in question were issued by the council. He
had dedicated his life and all his powers to the
promotion of a true and searching reform of the
Church, and he would not take upon his conscience
the responsibility of the perplexity and confusion
which would arise amongst his followers in Bohe
mia, and of the injury which would be done to this
great end and object of his life, if he made the kind
of recantation which the council demanded.
Other members of the council visited him in his
prison, and endeavoured to persuade him, that the
recantation of errors did not necessarily contain
the acknowledgment of having held them. Hus
told them, that he would gladly recant by declaring
that he had never held or taught, and would never
hold or teach, any such errors. To this they made
no reply, well knowing that the majority of the
council would not be satisfied with such a recanta
tion. Stephen Palecz also counselled him to recant.
Hus had requested the commissioners to grant him

316 JOHN HUS.

a confessor, and had expressed a wish that Palecz
might be selected for the purpose, even for the
very reason that Palecz had been his greatest ad
versary. Another confessor was assigned him, a
monk and doctor, who listened to his confession
" piously and very handsomely, absolved and ad
vised him without imposing any penance, as others
recommended." When Palecz, who visited the
prison- at Hus's own request, endeavoured to per
suade him to abjure, Hus asked him plainly what
he would do himself, if he knew for certain that
he had not held the errors ascribed to him ?
Palecz answered : " 'Tis difficult," and began to
weep. Hus also requested Palecz to forgive him
for having designated him a " concoctor " of names
(fictor) in his treatise against him, and over this
again they wept together.
It is also to be noticed, that in his Latin letters,
written after his trial, Hus several times entreats
his friends not to entrust them to the care of any
cleric. Michael de Causis had made such arrange
ments, that no one was admitted in front of the
prison, nor were even the wives of the warders
allowed entrance. Michael himself — " poor fellow,"
as Hus calls him — came several times with the
commissioners deputed to confer with Hus, and
told the warders : "By God's grace we shall soon
burn that heretic, on whose account I have ex
pended many florins." " Be assured," writes Hus,
in a letter to his friends at Constance, " that I do
not in thus writing wish for vengeance upon him,

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 317
which I have committed to God, and I pray God
earnestly for him."
On July 1st, a commission of eight, with John
Wallenrode, Archbishop of Eiga, at their head,
entered Hus's prison, and demanded a final answer
from him. Hus replied, in writing, that he could
not recant all the articles charged against him by
witnesses, lest he should incur the guilt of perjury,
they being founded upon false evidence. But, as re
garded the articles extracted from his own writings,
he rejected everything incorrect that was in them,
but did not intend to abjure each and all of them
for fear of condemning truth. His views in these
respects are already set forth at large in his own
words in his correspondence with the " father," and
need not be restated here.
Ever after his last pubhc hearing in the council
on June 8th, Hus had contemplated death, ex
pecting his sentence from day to day, but always
with a calm and resolute mind. On June 10th, he
wrote a letter intended for general perusal to all
"faithful Bohemians," and others on June 24th
and 26th, all in the Bohemian language. In the
Bohemian letters he does not mention the decree
of the council condemning the administration of
the chalice to the laity. But in a Latin letter,
addressed to his friends at Constance, he speaks
very freely on the subject, as follows :
" As I think, there will be a great persecution in the land of
Bohemia of those who serve God faithfully, if God doth not
apply his hands through the secular lords, whom He has

318 JOHN HUS.

enlightened in His law more than the spiritual ones. 0, what
madness ! To condemn, as an error, the Gospel of Christ, the
Epistle of Paul, which he says he received not from men, but
from Christ, and the act of Christ along with the acts of His
apostles, and other saints ! That is to say, as to the communion
of the sacrament of the cup, which was appointed for all adult
believers. Behold ! they call it an error, that faithful laymen
are allowed to drink of the cup of the Lord, and say that if any
presbyter thus gives them to drink, he is to be considered as in
error, and unless he desists, is to be condemned as a heretic ! 0
Saint Paul ! thou sayesfr to all believers : 'As oft as ye shall eat
this bread and drink this eup, ye will show forth the death of
the Lord until He come,' i.e. until the day of judgment in which
He will come ; and behold ! it is now said, that the custom of
Bome is in opposition thereto."
To the same effect he wrote to his second coadjutor
at Bethlehem, the priest Havlik (Gallus), urging
him, but in vain, not to oppose communion in both
kinds. He says :
" Most beloved brother Gallus, preacher of Christ's word !
do not oppose the sacrament of the cup of the Lord, which
Christ instituted by Himself and by His Apostles ; because no
Scripture is against it, but only custom, which, I think, estab
lished itself through negligence. Only we ought not to follow
custom, but Christ's example, and the truth. The council,
alleging custom, has already condemned the communion of the
cup, so far as the laity are concerned, as an error ; and he who
practises it, unless he repent, will be punished as a heretic. See
the wickedness ! They are already condemning Christ's institu
tion as an error ! I pray you, for God's sake, no more to impugn
Magister Jacobellus, lest there be a rent among the faithful,
whereat the devil will rejoice. Likewise, my dearest friend!
prepare yourself for suffering in the eating and in the communion
of the cup, and stand bravely in the truth of Christ, disregarding
unlawful fear, encouraging other brethren in the Gospel of the

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 319
Lord Jesus Christ. I suppose they will give you the reasons
for the communion of the cup, which I have written at Constance.
Salute Christ's faithful ones. Written in chains, on the vigil of
the 10,000 soldiers " (June 21st).
Among the friends to whom he bade farewell by
letter, Hus addressed himself with especial grati
tude to his two protectors at Constance, Lords John
of Chlum and Wenceslas of Duba, advising them
both to quit the slippery service of the court, and
serve God in the quiet of home and domestic life,
which to his great comfort they both promised to do.
And as John of Chlum was not a wealthy man, and
had by his long sojourn at Constance, on Hus's
account, incurred expenses far beyond his means,
Hus expressed earnest hopes, that wealthier friends
would unite to reimburse him.
Before his departure from Bohemia, Hus had
entrusted a sealed letter to his beloved pupil and
afterwards assistant at Bethlehem, Magister Martin
of Volyne, which was not to be opened till the fact
of his death was certain. In it he gave him tender
and kindly exhortations and rules of life, confessing
several weaknesses of his own, and urging him not
to imitate them. He also gave certain directions
as to the disposal of his little property. With
similar intent he wrote to him from prison on
June 16th, 1415, adding last messages for various
friends. To Magister Christian of Prachatitz he
wrote, exhorting him to persevere in the defence
of the truth, in his customary virtues, in goodness
to the poor and in purity. And, as Magister

320 JOHN HUS.

Christian had two years previously been thinking
of resigning his rectory of St. Michael's, he begged
him to do no such thing, " that the faithful might
betake themselves to him for refuge, as to an
affectionate father." He also requested him to
greet Magister Jacobellus "and all the friends of
the truth."
On June 27th he wrote a farewell letter to the uni
versity, to the magisters, bachelors, and students,
urging them to concord and steadfastness, and
giving them an account of his conduct in relation
to the recantation required of him by the council.
He specially recommended Peter Mladenovitz to
their love as his " most faithful and constant con
soler and comforter," expressing also a wish that
Havlik should succeed him at Bethlehem. Of
Magister Jerome of Prague, " the Whiskerandos
(Barbatus) who would not hearken to friendly
counsels," he made affectionate mention in several
letters, prophesying Jerome's death as well as his
own. Magister John of Jesenitz he strongly recom
mended to enter into the holy estate of matrimony.
With regard to his little property, Hus gave all
needful directions to Magister Martin of Volyne
and Peter Mladenovitz. To themselves he left
some of his books, while others he gave to other
friends in the university. Peter Mladenovitz was
to take some of his copies of Wycliffe's works and
a fur coat. He also made special mention of two
young clerics who had attended upon him at
Bethlehem, wishing it had been in his power to

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 321
do more for them. His brothers he commended
to Magister Martin, to whom he also entrusted his
brother's sons, suggesting that their attention
should be turned to trade or handicraft, as they
did not appear suited for the clerical profession.
He lamented that he was unable to satisfy all his
creditors, especially those who had lent him money
for his journey to Constance, recommending them
to the recompense of God, but withal expressing a
hope that the richer among them would contribute
together and reimburse the poorer. To Lord. John
of Chlum he bequeathed his horse and carriage, if
still remaining.
It is not known for certain whether King
Wenceslas actually took any steps on behalf of
Hus during his imprisonment at Constance or no.
There is, however, a note in the subsidy book of
the New Town of Prague, which makes it appear
probable that he did so. It is certain that the king
was much grieved at his fate. Hus requested his
friends to express his thanks to both King Wenceslas
and Queen Sophia for having been so gracious to
him and exerted themselves so much to obtain his
liberation. He even, in his Christian humility and
forgiveness, thanked Sigismund, who had lured
him to Constance and then condemned him before
his enemies had done so.
After the decided answer given by Hus to the
commissioners of the council on July 1st, it could
no longer be doubted what manner of end his case
must have. The council determined upon his
Y

322

JOHN HUS.

condemnation. Nevertheless, at the request of
Sigismund, on July 5th, Lords Wenceslas of Duba
and John of Chlum went with four bishops to the
Franciscan convent, where he was imprisoned,
to hear his final determination, authority thus
making a last effort to avoid embruing her hands
in blood. That noble and true-hearted man, John
of Chlum, said to Hus, when led out of his prison to
meet them : " See ! Magister John ! we are laymen
and cannot advise you ; look, therefore, if you feel
yourself guilty in any of the matters laid to your
charge, that you fear not to be instructed with
regard to them and to recant. If, however, your
conscience tells you that you are not guilty, do not
in any wise act against your conscience or lie in
the sight of God, but rather stand even unto death
in the truth which you have known." Hus replied
meekly with tears : " Lord John ! be assured that
if I knew myself to have written or preached aught
erroneous against the law and against Holy Mother
Church, I would humbly recant it ; God is my
witness. But I always desire that they would show
me better and more probable scriptures than are
the things which I have written and taught; and
if they be shown me, I will most readily recant."
On this one of the bishops replied : "Do you want
to be wiser than the whole council ? " Hus re
joined : " I do not want to be wiser than the whole
council ; but, I pray, give me one of the least in
the council to instruct me with better and stronger
scriptures, and I am ready to recant at once."

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 323
The bishops vouchsafed no further answer than the
words : " See ! how obstinate he is in his heresy ! "
ordered him to be conducted back to prison, and
took their departure.
The next day, July 6th, a scene never to be for
gotten took place in Constance. The council held
its fifteenth grand session, one of the most mag
nificent and important of all, in the cathedral.
The King of the Eomans, Sigismund, was present,
sitting upon his throne with the insignia of the
imperial dignity. At his side the Count Palatine,
Louis, held the imperial globe ; Frederic, Burgrave
of Nuremberg, the sceptre; Henry, Duke of Bavaria,
the crown ; and a Hungarian magnate the sword.
Cardinal di Brogni presided, and the 'other cardinals
and prelates sat together in full number. In the
midst of the cathedral rose a little platform, in
which was fixed a post, whereon hung the vestments
worn by a priest in celebrating mass. A solemn
mass was read by the Bishop of Gnesen, during
which the prisoner was detained at the door amidst
armed men. Nor was he admitted till the Bishop
of Lodi ascended the pulpit, when Hus came
forward and knelt in prayer beside the platform.
The bishop preached upon Eom. vi. 6 : " That the
body of sin may be destroyed : " and entered upon
the subject of heresy at large, dwelling particularly
on the heresy of simony, and urging the king, as
a part of his kingly duty, "to repair the rent
church, to remove inveterate schisms, to restrain
simonists, and to extirpate heretics." " Destroy,"

324 JOHN HUS.

he continued, " heresies and errors, and especially
this obstinate heretic, through whose malignity
many localities in the world are infected with the
plague of heresy and owing thereto destroyed ! "
As soon as business began, proclamation was
made in the name of the council, that, under pain
of excommunication and two months' imprisonment,
no one, whoever he might be, should venture to
interrupt the proceedings either by speaking or con
tradicting, or by exhibiting tokens of approbation
or disapprobation. Then were read some of the
260 erroneous articles extracted by the University
of Oxford from the writings of Wycliffe, and sen
tence was passed upon them. The case of Hus
came next in order. The papal auditor, Berchtold
of Wildungen, first read thirty " articles " extracted
from his writings, the accusations proved by
witnesses, and the whole course of the proceedings
taken against him. Hus endeavoured to justify
himself and to state the limitations with which he
had qualified the obnoxious passages, but was not
allowed to do so. Cardinal d'Ailly told him to hold
his tongue ; he would afterwards be able to answer
the articles all at once. " How can I do this," cried
Hus, "when I cannot even bear them all in mind?"
When he endeavoured to reply to other articles,
as they were read out, Cardinal Zabarella said :
" Hold your tongue ; we have already given you
a sufficient hearing ;" turned to the beadles and
bade them order him to be silent. Hus clasped
his hands and with a loud voice implored a hearing

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 325

for God's sake, that the bystanders might not believe
him to have held errors ; they might afterwards do
what they pleased with him. When forbidden to
speak or reply to the charges, he clasped his hands,
raised his eyes to heaven, and prayed devoutly.
The articles proved by the depositions of wit
nesses were dishonestly and unfairly read, the
offices and localities only, and not the names of
the deponents, being given. When charged with
holding, that material bread, or the substance of
bread, remained in the sacrament after consecra
tion, Hus rose again and endeavoured to reply,
but was shouted down by Cardinal Zabarella.
Nevertheless he cried out, " I pray you, for God's
sake, hear my meaning, and for the sake of those
present, that they may not believe me to have held
those errors. Wherefore I say that I have never
held, taught or preached, that in the sacrament of
the altar, material bread remains after consecra
tion." He gave similar replies to other long refuted
charges. They now proceeded to charge him with a
monstrous "article," which had never been men
tioned before. It was a most wicked and malicious
invention, simply intended to cover the slightne3S
of the genuine causes of complaint that they had
against him on the score of heresy. It runs accord
ing to the printed " Acta " of the council : —
"That Magister John Hus granted this proposition, that
John Hus was a person in the Godhead, and that there were
more persons than three in the Godhead ; proved to be true by

326 JOHN HUS.

one Doctor of Theology from common report and fame, by one
abbot from common fame, and by a vicar of the cathedral at
Prague, who said he had heard it from the mouth of John
Hus as articled."
No wonder that Hus exclaimed : " Let that
doctor be named who has given this evidence
against me ! " No wonder that he loudly stated
his honest faith in catholic doctrine, from which it
had never entered into his heart to vary !
When it was read that Magister John Hus had
appealed to God, and that such an appeal was con
demned as an error, he replied with a loud voice :
" 0 Lord God ! Lo ! this council now condemns
Thy actions and law as an error ! Who, when
Thou wast aggrieved and oppressed by Thine ene
mies, committedst Thy cause to God Thy Father,
the most righteous of Judges, giving herein an
example to us poor wretches, when aggrieved in
whatever way, to have recourse to Thee, the most
righteous of Judges, humbly asking Thine aid."
He added moreover : " And I affirm, that there is
no safer appeal than that to the Lord Jesus Christ,
Who is not bent by bribery nor deceived by false
witness, but assigns his deserts to each."
It was also read, that Hus had behaved contu
maciously under excommunication. He replied :
" I did not take the excommunication contuma
ciously, but preached and celebrated mass under
appeal. And though I sent two sets of procurators
to the Eoman Curia, alleging reasonable grounds
of non-appearance personally, I could never obtain

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 327
a hearing, but some of my procurators were im
prisoned and others maltreated." In proof of this
he referred to the official records of the case, and
then proceeded to repeat with emphasis a state
ment, which he had already several times made
before the council: "Moreover, I came here freely
to this council, with a safe-conduct from my lord
the king here present, with the wish to prove my
innocence and give an account of my belief." As
Hus said this, fixing his eyes on the king, a mani
fest blush overspread Sigismund's countenance, a
blush to which Sigismund's successor, Charles V.,
declined to render himself liable, when urged at
the Diet of Worms to violate the safe-conduct he
had given to Luther.
When all the charges had been read, the Bishop
of Concordia proceeded to read the final sentence (1)
against Hus's books, and (2) against Hus himself.
The books, whether in Latin or in Bohemian, were
condemned to the flames ; and Hus was proclaimed
a manifest heretic for preaching erroneous, scan
dalous, and seditious doctrines, leading a multitude
of people astray, injuring the honour of the Holy
See and the Church, and hardening himself in his
malice ; wherefore he was to be degraded from the
priesthood, deprived of the consecration which he
had received, and delivered over to the secular arm,
as the Church had nothing further to do with him.
When pronounced "obstinate in his error and
heresy," Hus dauntlessly cried with a loud voice :
"I never was nor am I obstinate, but have always

328 JOHN HUS.

desired and do this day desire more effectual in
struction from the scriptures. And this day I say,
that, if by one word I could destroy and confute all
errors, I would most gladly do so." When all his
books, whether written in Latin or in Bohemian, or
translated into any other language, were condemned
and ordered to be burnt as suspected of heresy, he
replied : " How do you condemn my books, when I
have always desired and asked for better scriptures
against the statements and positions in them, and
you have never up to this time brought a passage
of scripture against them, nor shown a single word
to be erroneous ? And how have you condemned
the books translated (sic) into the vulgar Bohemian
or any other language, which you have never
seen ? " But when the sentence against himself
was read, he knelt and listened, praying and look
ing upwards towards heaven. When the whole of
the sentence had been read, Hus knelt again and
prayed with a loud voice for all his enemies, saying :
" Lord Jesus Christ ! pardon all my enemies, I
pray Thee, for the sake of Thy great mercy. Thou
knowest that they have falsely accused me, brought
forward false witnesses, and concocted false articles
against me. Pardon them for the sake of Thy
infinite mercy ! " These affecting and truly Chris
tian prayers were received, especially by the "chief
of the priests," with anger and derision.
The Archbishop of Milan and six other bishops
were appointed to degrade and de-consecrate him.
By their orders he was dressed in the altar -vest-

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 329
ments of a celebrant. As he put on the alb, he
said, " My Lord Jesus Christ was mocked in a
white robe, when conducted from Herod to Pilate."
Being vested and exhorted by the bishops to abjure,
he stepped on the platform, turned sadly to the
assembly and said with tears : " See ! these bishops
exhort me to recant and abjure. I fear to do so,
lest I should be a liar in the sight of God ; lest I
should offend my conscience and God's truth, never
having held the articles which they falsely testify
against me, but rather having taught, written, and
preached the contrary ; and also lest I should
offend and scandalize the great multitude to whom
I have preached, and likewise others who are faith
fully preaching the Word of God." On his saying
this, the principal ecclesiastics sitting round and
other members of the council observed: "We now
see how hardened he is in his malice and how
obstinate in his heresy."
When he came down from the platform the seven
bishops aforesaid began the ceremony of his degra
dation, first taking the chalice from his hands and
repeating the following curse : " 0 cursed Judas !
since thou hast forsaken the counsel of peace and
taken counsel with the Jews, we take from thee
this cup of redemption." But Hus said with a
loud voice : " I trust in the Lord God Almighty,
for whose Name's sake I patiently suffer this blas
phemy, that He will not take from me the cup of
His Eedemption. And I steadfastly hope that I
shall drink it this day in His kingdom." Then

330 JOHN HUS.

they took from him the other vestments, pronounc
ing a curse at each " after their fashion," while he
replied that he humbly and willingly accepted those
blasphemies for the Name's sake of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The next proceeding was the destruction of his
tonsure. Here an altercation ensued amongst them,
some wishing to destroy it with a razor, while
others said that it was sufficient to "violate" it
with scissors. During this Hus turned to the king
and said : " See ! these bishops cannot agree in this
blasphemy." They eventually cut his tonsure with
scissors in four directions, to the right, to the left,
in front and behind, saying words to this effect :
" The Church has now deprived him of all rights,
she has now nothing more to do ; he must there
fore be delivered over to the secular arm."
Before they placed the paper crown of blasphemy
on his head, they said to him, amongst other
things: "We commit thy soul to the devil."
Hus clasped his hands together, raised his eyes
to heaven, and said: "And I commit it to the
righteous Lord Jesus Christ." When he espied
the crown, he said : " My Lord Jesus Christ, for
my sake, wretch that I am, deigned guiltless to
bear a much harder and more grievous crown of
thorns to a most shameful death ; therefore I,
wretch and sinner that I am, am willing humbly
to bear this much lighter, though blasphemous
one, for His Name and the truth's sake." It was
a circular sugar-loaf-shaped crown of paper, about

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 331
an ell high, on which were painted three terrible
devils, tearing a sinful soul, with the inscription :
" This is an Heresiarch." The crown being finally
placed on Hus's head, the king turned to the
Count Palatine with these words : " Go, take him."
The count immediately laid aside the imperial
globe, took the prisoner into his charge, and
delivered him to the magistrates of Constance,
saying : " Take John Hus, who, according to the
decree of our most gracious lord the king, and
by command of the council, is to be burned as a
heretic." No delay took place in the execution of these
orders. The council proceeded with its business,
while Hus was led out of the cathedral and out of
the city to the place of execution. He was escorted
by a body of about one thousand men-at-arms, and
followed by a vast throng of spectators. As he
issued from the cathedral, he saw his books blazing
in the churchyard, and smiled at the sight. He
walked to death with a firm and steady step, chant
ing or praying, without exhibiting the slightest
sign of fear or regret. So large a procession could
not move rapidly, and from time to time a stoppage
occurred, of which Hus took advantage to address
the bystanders, to explain his position, and to assure
them of his innocence. But the crowd of common
people was not allowed to follow him beyond the
city gates, grieving as it appeared to be at the
cruel death of an innocent man.
The place of execution was a meadow among

332 JOHN. HUS.

gardens, on the way from Constance to Gottlieben.
Some of the laity present said : " What and what
manner of things he hath done or said formerly,
we know not ; but now we see and hear that he
prayeth and speaketh holy words." Others cried,
that a confessor ought to be assigned him ; and a
priest on horseback, in a green frock lined with red
silk, replied : " Being a heretic, he ought not to be
heard, neither ought a confessor to be assigned him."
When he came up to the stake, he fell on his knees
and prayed, chanting the thirty-first and fifty-first
Psalms, and especially repeating the sixth verse
of the latter : " Into Thy hands I commend my
spirit ; for Thou hast redeemed me, 0 Lord, thou
God of truth." As he prayed, the cap of blasphemy
fell from his head, at which he smiled, and some of
the hirelings round about said it ought to be re
placed, that he might be burned along with the
devils that he had served. A confessor eventually
offered himself upon condition of his recantation,
but Hus declined his services on any such terms.
Eising from prayer, he said with a loud and
distinct voice : " 0 Lord Jesus Christ ! I am willing
patiently and humbly to endure this dreadful,
shameful, and cruel death for the sake of Thy
Gospel and the preaching of Thy Word." He was
then led round, as a spectacle, and made use of
the opportunity to beg the bystanders not to
believe that he had in any wise held, preached,
or taught the articles laid to his charge by false
witnesses. He was not allowed to address the by-

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 333
standers further, but permitted to take leave of his
prison-warders, which he did in German in very
friendly and affectionate terms. He was then
stripped of his clothes, with the exception of his
boots, which could not be removed, as his feet were
fettered together. At first his face was turned
towards the east, which displeased some of the by
standers, who cried out that such a heretic ought
not to be allowed to face the east, but ought to be
turned round towards the west, and the change was
accordingly made. When a foul and rusty chain
was placed round his neck, he looked at it, smiled,
and said to the executioners : " The Lord Jesus
Christ, my Bedeemer and Saviour, was bound with
a harder and heavier chain, and I, wretch that
I am, do not fear to be bound by and bear this for
His Name's sake." Two faggots of wood were
placed under his feet, and two cartloads of wood
mixed with straw were piled around him, concealing
his whole person up to the chin.
Before the fire was lighted, the marshal of the
empire, Haupt of Pappenheim, came up, and
invited him, in the presence of the Count Palatine,
to save his life and soul by abjuration and recanta
tion. Looking up to heaven, he replied in a loud
voice: "God is my witness, that I have never
taught or preached the things which are falsely
ascribed to me, and which have been laid to my
charge by false witnesses ; but the principal in
tention of my preaching and of all my other actions
and writings has simply been to draw men back from

334 JOHN HUS.

sin ; and in that truth of the Gospel, which I have
written, taught, and preached according to the
sayings and statements of the holy doctors, I am
willing joyfully this day to die." The marshal and
Count Palatine then struck their hands together
and retired.
The pile was now lighted, but the terrible death
endured not long. Twice did Hus chant with a
loud voice : "0 Christ, Son of the living God !
have mercy upon me ! " But when he endeavoured
to continue : " Who wast born of the Virgin Mary,"
a gust of wind drove the flame into his face and
stopped his voice. Then, apparently praying within
himself, moving his lips and head, he expired in
the Lord, within the time, as Mladenovitz narrates,
during wdiich two or three paternosters might be
rapidly recited.
When the Count Palatine saw Hus's clothes in
the hands of the executioners, he ordered them to
be thrown into the still burning pile, promising
the men compensation for the loss of then- per
quisites.* All his remains were carefully searched
for, reduced to ashes, and cast into the neighbour
ing Ehine, that nothing might remain which his
Bohemian friends could keep and carry home,
and there honour and venerate as the holy relics
of a martyr.
Such was the end of a spotless life, spent in the
* Two coats of good cloth, a girdle with a silver-gilt clasp, two
eide-knivee in a sheath, and a leather pouch, " in which there
might well be money," according to Reiohenthal.

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 335
service of God, and animated by a zeal, the honesty
of which none could deny, and with regard to which
the utmost that the most bitter enemy could allege
was, that it was not always sufficiently tempered
with discretion. The supremacy of conscience in
the soul, that of the scriptures in the Church, and
the necessity for a reform of life and manners
among the clergy, were the great ends to which
John Hus devoted his life, and being dead, still
speaketh to us from the place of his martyrdom at
Constance. Well might the Bohemians be angered
at the cruel murder of such a man, and well might
they ere long exchange defiances with the wicked
council. But it was not until cruel persecution
arose in their own land, that the flame actually
blazed forth, that crusade after crusade were driven
back with shame and slaughter, that about two-
thirds of Bohemia successfully withstood the whole
might of papacy and empire, and finally, passing
over to the offensive, triumphantly extorted that
freedom of conscience, which is now the glory of
the most civilized nations and countries of the
world. It is true that that freedom was narrowed
and diminished by force of circumstances, and that
persecution for religion again appeared on the
scene, even in free and constitutional Bohemia. It
reappeared and vanished again, to break out with
redoubled fury at the disastrous epoch of the
" Thirty Years War," when the religious and poli
tical liberties of the nation were simultaneously
destroyed, and Bohemia was brought back to the

336 JOHN HUS.

obedience of Eome by the simple reduction of its
inhabitants from four millions to less than eight
hundred thousand.
But the thing that hath been may be again ; and
the spectacle presented by the three diverse re
ligious bodies of Calixtines, Taborites, and Orphans
standing shoulder to shoulder in firm confedera
tion against Eome, their common foe, exhibited a
model to be imitated in future ages and in other
nationalities. Hus did not die in vain ; his argu
ments against religious persecution remain on
record unanswered and unanswerable for ever ; and
the more civilized and the more highly regarded
a nation is in the polity of the world, the more fully
will it be found to have accepted his two grand
principles of the supremacy of the conscience in
the individual life and soul, and of the scriptures
in the common life of the Church and in matters
of faith. Hus was himself no sectarian, and can
not even be termed a Wycliffite. He rose above all
distinctions of sect or party, and though he felt
that he must himself perish, as perish he did,
in the contest against the evil and corruption of
his day, yet he also felt that others would rise up
after him and carry on to completion the work
which " the poor Goose," as he styled himself, had
so nobly and dauntlessly begun. Morality, con
science, scripture, formed the threefold motto of
his life and work ; and well will it be for us, if we
have as keen and clear perception and appreciation
of these three grand regulative powers as he had.

JOHN HUS'S CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM. 337
Add to this the unselfishness which is a remarkable
and unfailing feature in his energetic life, and when
we make allowance for the human frailty which
exhibits itself in a tendency to over-subtilization,
in an apparent over-reliance on his own powers of
disputation, and in overflowings of righteous in
dignation insufficiently tempered by discretion, we
have before us one of the finest and purest
characters that ever came to the front against evil
and on the side of good, one of the best of those
good men and true, who from time to time stemmed
the torrent of iniquity, apparently in vain, and
seemed to be overwhelmed and swept away by it,
but who in reality won victory by condemnation
and death, whose work lived after them and lives
on still, a perpetual heritage and possession for
ever to the human race.

338 JOHN HUS.

CHAPTEE XI.
JOHN HUS AS A SCHOOL DTYIXE.
The writings of John Hus are essentially those of
a transition epoch. The form of his Latin writings
is purely scholastic, while anticipations of modern
thought and modern modes of dealing with prin
ciples from time to time exhibit themselves among
them. The scientific phraseology of his day en
velopes almost everything with a kind of artificial
husk, while in his Bohemian writings we see the
man as he walked and talked amongst his fellows,
not, as it were, disguised in plate or chain armour
for the intellectual or theological tournament. Still,
some of his Latin works, especially his greatest
work, the treatise "On the Church," " De Ecclesia,"
are products of deep thought and great dialectic
skill, and this one especially has a vast historical
value, as the first symbolical book that heralded
that insurrection against the mere authority of the
papal See, which caused the more or less complete
severance from Bome, first of the Bohemian

JOHN HUS AS A SCHOOL DIVINE. 339
Chm-ch, and secondly of the various Chm-ches of
the Beformation. Let me state as briefly as pos
sible the chief theoretical principles contained in
and underlying the twenty-three chapters of this
great Latin work, neglecting the form and attend
ing solely to the matter and language of the writer.
" The Holy, Universal, or Catholic Church is the society or
collective body (universitas) of all those who are predestined
to salvation, whether they be present, past, or to come. It is
therefore one and one only from the beginning to the end of the
world. It is Christ's immaculate spouse, whom we name as the
chief and highest created thing in the creed immediately after
the most holy uncreated Trinity. The heavenly angels also are
a part or members of it. It is divided into three, the Church
triumphant, the Church militant, and the Church dormant,
which are united together by the bond of love, and have an
uninterrupted reciprocal action upon each other.
" Christ is the head of the Catholic Church, and the Church
is His mystical body, i.e. governed by the power and operation
of Christ its head, and united and compacted by the bond of
predestination. Every predestined person is a member of this
mystical body, to which members Christ gives motion and
sensation. As in the human body, so also of course in the
Church, some members are more and others less noble ; but, as
the members of the body serve the soul, so do the members
of the Church serve Christ without any jealousy or endeavour
to exalt themselves above each other. And as there are in the
body accidental portions, which are in the body, but are not
parts of the body, which are therefore ejected again, so are there
in the Church persons foreknown to eternal perdition, who are
suffered in it for a time, but are not members of the Church,
although they designate themselves Christians. For no position,
no election by men, nor dignity constitutes any one a member
of the Catholic Church, but only God's predestination. And
thus without special revelation no one can know whether he is

340 JOHN HUS.

actually a member of the Church, neither can any one know
this with respect to another, but it is in hope only, that all
Christians are members of the Church of Christ.
"A fortiori there cannot be more heads of the Catholic
Church than Christ, who is very man, and who in His manhood
is exalted above all saints, and all celestial choirs. As Man
Christ is Head of the Church within it (caput intrinsecum), as
God, He is its Head without it (caput extrinsecum), so that in this
manner He is true Mediator between the Church and the Divine
Trinity. Besides Him no other Head of the Catholic Church is
conceivable, but only a terrestrial chief (capitaneus) or represent
ative of Christ (vicarius) over the Church militant, which is
not the Catholic Church save only in a partial sense ; and thus
the Church militant, the Church in this partial sense, has, in a
certain sense, three rulers — its earthly chief, Christ as man, and
Christ as God, the first being subordinate to the second, the
second to the third.
" The Holy Catholic Church is also called the Apostolic or
Roman Church ;' whence it does not follow, that every pope,
who is truly such, and the college of Eoman cardinals, constitute
the entire Catholic Church. For the Holy Apostolic Church is
that which has never departed from the true faith of Christ and
the Apostles, and which cannot err therein ; but that popes have
erred is proved by ecclesiastical history. But the Eoman
Church, i.e. the Church which has its seat at Eome, was from
the beginning a partial Church, the society of all Christians
living under the obedience of the Bishop of Rome, as the
Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch were the societies of
Christians living under the Bishops of Jerusalem and Antioch.
In the first instance the Church flourished at Jerusalem, then to a
greater extent at Antioch ; nevertheless, the Catholic Church took
its name from Eome for three reasons : (1) Because Christ knew
that, instead of the unbelieving Jews, pagan nations, living under
the dominion of Rome, would be instructed in His holy faith ;
(2) because a larger number of martyrs triumphed in that city
than in any other in the world ;. (3) likewise, that it might be
known that neither locality nor antiquity, but steadfast faith

JOHN HUS AS A SCHOOL DIVINE. 341
is the foundation of the Church of Christ. And thus the Eoman
Church and the Catholic Church are one only in name, and
Christ always remains the one Head of the Church, the only
true Pope. According to the nature of the Catholic Church the
Pope or Bishop of Eome is not and cannot be its head ; it is
possible that he may not be even a member of it ; but he is the
vicar or representative of Peter in the government of the Church
militant, if he follows the morals of Peter ; if not, he is rather
the representative of Judas.
"For salvation, and therefore for a given person to be a
member of the Church of Christ, faith is indispensably neces
sary, for the exisfence whereof two things are requisite ; (1)
the truth, which enlightens the reason, and (2) authority,
which strengthens the spirit. He who is to be saved must be
a believer ; a believer is one who wavers not in faith that has
been instilled by God, but holds firmly to the truth as given by
God, and is ready to give his life for it ; and in this way every
one is bound to believe all the truth, which the Holy Spirit has
placed in holy scripture. This is the highest' authority in the
faith ; not so the statements of holy doctors or the pope's bulls,
whereto it is proper to give credence only so far as they state
something out of holy scripture, or that is founded on scripture;
the Pope of Eome with his curia is fallible.
The case is similar with the power assigned to the vicars of
Christ upon earth, or with the keys of the Church. In the first
place, this power is not material or secular, but spiritual, and
therefore the keys of the Church are in the first place the
knowledge of the teaching of holy scripture and the science of
distinguishing ; secondly, a judicial power, whereby the spiritual
judge ought to receive the worthy into, and expel the unworthy
out of, the kingdom, i.e. the Church. In its proper sense, this
power over the Church can only be possessed by the Holy Trinity,
as predestining to salvation, and therefore internally only by
Christ, who is God and Man ; but the authorities of the Church
have this power instrumentally or ministerially. No one loses
grace except by sin ; and to obtain grace repentance is necessary,
whereunto God softens the heart, and confession, after which of

342 JOHN HUS.

His infinite mercy God releases from eternal perdition, which
release the priest announces ; and finally, giving of satisfac
tion and purification, which the priest imposes. Every priest,
therefore, or ecclesiastical authority, has the power of binding
and loosing, but nothing can be bound or loosed on earth which
would not be previously bound or loosed in heaven. On
reasonable grounds some things are committed to all authorities
alike, some are reserved to superior authorities only."
Such are the main theoretical outlines of this
remarkable work, a good deal of which is, however,
devoted to polemical controversy on the questions
of the day, and to the refutation of the positions of
Hus's opponents. Quotations are so ingeniously
dovetailed into the argument, that it is often diffi
cult to distinguish them from the words of the
author, who is careful to say as little as he
possibly can from himself, while he works as much
as he possibly can behind the shield of some
standard authority generally accepted or regarded
at the day. I take my first extract from the con
clusion of the fourth chapter. It contains a dis
tinction, on which Hus himself lays special stress : —
" It is hence manifest that there are two kinds of separation
from the Church. The first is irremovable (indeperdibilis),
even as all the 'foreknown' are separated from the Church.
The second is removable (deperdibilis), as some heretics are by
removable sin separated from the Holy Church, yet may by
God's grace come to the fold of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of such
He saith himself in the tenth of John : ' Other sheep have I,
which are not of this fold, and them I must bring.' Other
sheep He had according to predestination, which were not of
this fold and of His Church according to present righteousness,
but which He brought to life by His grace. And this distinction

JOHN HUS AS A SCHOOL DIVINE. 343
between predestination and present grace is much to be noticed.
For some are sheep according to predestination, and ravening
wolves according to present unrighteousness, as Augustine,
commenting on John, deduces. Similarly, some are sons ac
cording to predestination, but not yet according to present
grace." In chapter xv., after saying how certain it was
that the clergy of the Church " halted into two
parts" (claudieat in duas partes), i.e. the clergy of
Christ and the clergy of antichrist, wherefore the
laity, who were dependent upon them for support,
could not possibly help tottering, when the clergy
were so different in opinion and life, Hus proceeds : —
" These two parts may best be distinguished in this way,
that the clergy of antichrist exerts itself more energetically for
the defence of human traditions and privileges, which protect
the pride or lucre of the world, and desires to live vainglori-
ously, voluptuously, and unlike Christ, putting the imitation
of the Lord Jesus Christ in morals into the background ; but
the clergy of Christ labours diligently for Christ's laws and His
privileges, whereby spiritual good is acquired for manifestation,
eschews pride and the pleasure of the world, and seeks to live
conformably to Christ, attending most carefully to the following
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can a faithful believer disbelieve
that the latter part is true and the former in error. And
although a man on his pilgrimage cannot without a revelation
recognize for certain a true and holy shepherd, yet from his
works, which are conformable to Christ's law, he ought to
suppose that he is such."
In chapter xvi. Hus argues against the punish
ment of death for heresy : —
" As to what I conceive to be the principal intention of the
doctors, whereby they mean that the pope ought to be judge of

344 JOHN HUS.

all causes, and he who obeys him not ought to die the death of
the body, the doctors ought to be ashamed of their apish and
cruel parity of reasoning, especially as Christ Jesus our Lord
would neither judge as a civil judge, nor condemn a disobedient
person to the death of the body. For as to the first, He said in
Luke xii. : ' 0 man, why makest thou Me a judge or divider over
you ? ' And as to the second, He said to the woman taken in
adultery, who the Pharisees said was liable to death according to
the law (John viii.) : ' Neither shall I condemn thee, go and sin
no more.' But, because it might be said by the doctors, This
is not to the point, because the law saith, ' He who is proud
and refuseth to obey the command of the priest,' I will give a
case exactly in point. In Matt, xviii. Christ saith : ' If thy
brother sin against thee, go and reprove him between thee and
him alone ; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But
if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two, that in the
mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
But if he hear them not, tell it to the Church ; but if he hear
not the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican.'
To whom was it but to Peter, the future Eoman pontiff after
Himself, that the supreme Lord of law and Pontiff said, that he
should piously reprove by himself an erring person, should con
vict before witnesses a disobedient one, should publish one per
sisting in disobedience to the Church, that is, to the multitude ;
and should not put to death corporally, but avoid as a publican
and heathen, one obstinate and not obeying the Church ? What
pretence, then, is there for arguing by parity of reasoning (a
simili) : Under the old law a disobedient person ought to be
put to death, therefore he ought to be so also under the law of
grace ? Hence Christ's disciples were deceived by that subtlety
of arguing from parity of reasoning. For when, like the prophet
Elias, they wanted to destroy the Samaritans, who would not
receive Christ, with fire from heaven, saying, ' Lord, wilt Thou
that we bid fire come down from heaven and destroy them ?
the most pious of Pontiffs and best of Magisters reproved
them. For next comes : ' And He turned and rebuked them,
saying, Know ye not of what spirit ye are ? For the Son of Man
came not to destroy lives, but to save them,' Luke ix."

JOHN HUS AS A SCHOOL DIVINE. 345
It is interesting in the same chapter to find Hus
quoting Juvenal, and thus showing an acquaint
ance, not only with Aristotle and the philosophical
writers commonly studied by theologians, but also
with a wider range of classical authors. Quoting
Isaiah ix., " The prophet speaking falsehood, he is
the tail," Hus asserts that ; —
" The tail and the prophet speaking falsehood is the learned
clergy, teaching that the pope is neither a god nor a man, but
a mingled god or an earthly god ; teaching that the pope can
give me the property of another, and I shall be safe ; that the
pope can depose a bishop without cause ; that he can grant dis
pensation against an apostle, against an oath, against a vow,
against the law of nature, and that no one has a right to say to
him, "Why doest thou this ? because he can lawfully say : ' Sic
volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas ' (' Thus I will, thus I
command, let my will be in the stead of a reason '), and thus is
impeccable ; and that he cannot commit simony, because all
things are his, and therefore he can do as he pleases with them,
since he can even command angels and save men or damn
whom he will."
I will finish my extracts from the " De Ecclesia "
with a passage in which Hus argues very forcibly
against " Interdicts " in general ; —
" Hence I always want to know the foundation or reason of
a general interdict, whereby the righteous are without fault
deprived of the sacraments, as communion, confession, and the
rest, and sometimes little children of baptism. Likewise, why
God's ministry is diminished among righteous men by an inter
dict imposed on account of a single person. It would be very
marvellous if an earthly king were deprived of service on the
part of all his good servants on account of one servant of his
who was adverse to him. And altogether so, if on account of
one who was a good and faithful servant of the king, a vassal,

346 JOHN HUS.

wishing to bend that servant to his will, forbad all the king's
servants to perform their duties to the king himself. How is it,
then, that a pope or bishop so inconsiderately, without scripture
or a revelation, quite lightly forbids the exercise of the ministry
of Christ the King ? For when a general interdict is imposed
on a city or diocese, sin is not diminished but increased."
Passages from this work and from Hus's replies
to Stephen Palecz and Stanislas of Znaym were
brought against him at his trial, but the above will
be sufficient to exhibit the general style of his Latin
writings. Palecz's pamphlet, which has not come
down to us, appears to have rung the changes
pretty vigorously upon the words, " Quidam autenf
de clero in regno Bohemise," which are several
times repeated in the " counsel " of the Faculty of
Theology, dated February 6th, 1413, and hence to
have nicknamed Hus and his party " Quidamistas."
Hus retorts by terming Palecz, " Fictor Quidamis-
ta," "the Quidamist concoctor," from having con
cocted this nickname. Palecz rejoins by calling
Hus's answer " Quidasmon," i.e. " Quidam dsemon;"
for it must have been, he considered, an evil, not
a good, spirit that inspired Hus to waite it. The
controversy is lively enough, but, with the excep
tion of a limitation specially quoted and several
times referred to during Hus's trial, does not add
much to the matter of the greater work "De Eccie-
sia," which is really a symbolical book, both as
regards Hus himself and the subsequent Bohemian
Church. Palecz's change of mind after declaring
that Pope John's bull on Indulgences and the

JOHN HUS AS A SCHOOL DIVINE. 347
crusade contained many "palpable errors," "errores
nianu palpabiles," gives Hus abundant opportunity
of taunting him with inconsistency, servility, and
cowardice. I give one extract from the reply to Palecz, and
shall then leave the further consideration of Hus
as a school divine, a light in which we have already
seen a good deal of him during his trial at Con
stance : —
" Let then the Concoctor know" that the ascension of Christ
did not decapitate the Church militant and sever it from Christ
its Head, but that by the ascension the Church militant is in its
Head wondrously exalted above all angels, above every power
and virtue and dominion. Let the Concoctor also know that
the grace of predestination is the bond, whereby the body of the
Church and every member thereof is joined to Christ the Head,
— indissolubly joined, as the apostle saith in Eom. viii. : -' Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribulation, or straits,
or persecution ? ' And below : ' Nor can any other creature
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.'
Here there is no doubt that the apostle, a member of the
Church, speaks for all members of the Church who are united
with Christ the Head by the love of God, which is the grace of
predestination. Nay, the Head Himself saith in John x. :
' My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me, and I give them eternal life, and no one shall snatch them
out of My hand.' Let, then, the Concoctor understand that the
union of the Church, the body, and Christ, the head, is not a
corporeal one, but the spiritual grace of predestination, and
lastly the grace of present righteousness, by which Christ Him
self dwells in the Church and its members, guiding it with
its members towards obtaining a life of glory. And I should
like the Quidamist Concoctor to tell me who is the head
of the Church dormant? For if, by His ascension, Christ
ceased to be the Head of the Church militant, it appears

348 JOHN HUS.

with equal or greater manifestness that He ceased to be tho
Head of the Church dormant. But I know that He will
not be able to assign any other Head save the Lord Jesus
Christ. But when the Concoctor saith further that Christ gave
Peter and his successors to the Church militant to keep a
corporeal head upon the earth till the end of the world, I should
be glad to hear from him how Peter was the corporeal head of
the Church, when Peter himself was not united to the Church
by any corporeal bond. For the power of Christ, whereby Peter
ruled the Church, was not corporeal, but spiritual. Similarly
the grace of predestination, or even grace that does what is
pleasing according to present righteousness, whereby Peter, as
a member of the Church, was united to the Church, was not
corporeal. How, then, was Peter, or any other successor of his,
the corporeal head of the Church militant ? The Concoctor
must invent some mode, which, as I think, he will not make
good." How difficult it seems to have been for Hus, as
a school divine and writing in Latin, to keep for
any length of time aloof from his theory of pre
destination ! Yet how small a part does it play in
his Bohemian writings ! Over- subtlety and over-
refinement exhibit themselves also to a far greater
extent in Hus's Latin than in his Bohemian
works. And in reading the former, no one can
help observing the justice and good sense of Lord
Henry Lacembok's advice to him, as recorded by
himself in one of his Latin letters: " Dobry muzi,
nehlupaj ! " " Good man, don't subtilize ! " (Letter
50 in the Documenta.)

( 349 )

CHAPTEE XII.
JOHN HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE.
The collected Latin writings of John Hus have
been long before the world, although the collection
is by no means perfect, but errs both on the side
of excess and on that of defect. But his writings
in his native Bohemian tongue were collected and
many of them printed for the first time in three
volumes, edited by the late K. J. Erben, Archivarius
of the Old Town of Prague, and published in the
years 1865, 1866, and 1868. We can now know
this extraordinary man, not only as a school divine
and as a controversionalist among theologians, but
as a living and moving power in his own country,
addressing his brethren and speaking to then-
hearts in their own native tongue.
The first work that meets the eye in the first
volume consists of longer and shorter expositions
of the creed, the ten commandments, and the Lord's
prayer. Hus introduces the treatise and gives his
reasons for writing it in the following words : —
" Every Christian who possesses understanding, if he wishes
to be saved, must fulfil God's law and pray to God. With

350 JOHN HUS.

respect to the first, the Saviour said : ' He that believeth shall
be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.' With
respect to the second he says : ' If thou wilt enter into life
keep the commandments.' With respect to the third he
saith: 'Men ought to pray.' Since these things are thus
necessary to a man for eternal life, it is good that he should
become acquainted with them ; that, being acquainted with
them, he should understand them, and that, understanding
them, he should fulfil them in practice. And since without
faith it is impossible to please God, St. Paul saith: 'With
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation ; ' and a man can
not believe God and in God unless he hearkens to Him, and
how shall he hearken to Him unless some one instruct him ?
" Because I am a priest sent by God, in the hope that I
should teach the people to believe, to fulfil the commandments
of God, and to pray to God aright, I wish briefly to expound
these three things to simple people. And since to a person
desiring to draw near to God, the first thing necessary is faith,
as a first foundation in God ; the second, keeping of the com
mandments ; and the third, suitable prayer ; therefore I desire,
first, to make known the Great King to His courtier in the
creed ; secondly, His commandments ; and then prayer, that,
knowing his Lord and keeping His commandments, he may,
with propriety, venture to beseech his God, and He be pleased
to hearken to him. Therefore, thou that desirest to serve in
the court of the greatest of Kings, onghtest thus to know Him
with the heart, that is, to believe, and with the mouth, if it be
necessary, to confess Him before men unto death."
Then follows the Apostles' Creed, commented
upon article by article. The following is a striking
passage on the " foundation of faith " (zalozenie
viery), chapter v. : —
" Likewise also ought all Christians to believe what God hath
commanded to be believed ; even though every man may not

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 351
know all that ought to be believed, yet he is ready and ought
to be ready, when the truth is shown him out of the holy
scriptures, to receive it gladly, and should he hold anything
contrary to the scripture, to forsake it immediately. And it
is good for every man not to hold anything rashly ; but, when
he comes to know God's truth, to hold it firmly even unto
death, for the truth will eventually make him free ; for the
Lord Jesus saith : ' If ye continue in My word, then will ye be
My disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.' Therefore, faithful Christian !
seek the truth, hearken to the truth, learn the truth, hold
the truth, defend the truth, even unto death ; for the truth
will make thee free from sin, from the devil, from the death
of the soul, and finally from everlasting death, which is
everlasting separation from the favour of God, and from all
the bliss of salvation, which bliss he will obtain who believeth
in God and in Jesus Christ, who is Yery God and Very Man."
Hus gives his sentiments on the power of the
priesthood in causing the real presence in the
Eucharist in chapter ix. : —
" From those testimonies thou hast that the priests talk
foolishly and erroneously, when they say : ' We can, when wc
will, create God or the body of God.' As if they were creators
of their Creator, and that when, all together, they cannot create
a single fly! And thus speaking they howl like wolves,
desiring to exalt themselves above the laity and extend the
sphere of their covetousness. And in token thereof they preach
with respect to the new masses, that the priest is more worthy
than the Mother of God, and that he creates the body of God,
and they prove it thus : ' The Mother of God bore Him once,
but the priest creates Him often and when he pleases;
and thus by one error they prove another. But the humble
priest does not exalt himself above the Virgin Mary, or say that
he is the creator of Christ, the Son of God, but that the Lord
Christ by His power and word, through him, causes that which

352 JOHN HUS.

is bread to be His body ; not that at that time it began to be
His, but that there on the altar begins to be saoramentally, in
the form of the bread, what previously was not there and
therein." The first mention of Wycliffe occurs in chapter
xx., in considering the question of the power of the
keys. After narrating the raising of Lazarus, Hus
proceeds : —
" In this fact thou hast, that God the Father and Christ and
Christ's call restored Lazarus to life, and the disciples looked
on in readiness, and then, at the word of command, loosed him
when living. So it is in the remission of mortal sins, when a
dead soul is to revive. God Himself cleanseth it by His power
from internal stain, remits its sin, and unbinds it through
Christ's merits from the debt of everlasting death ; but the
priest cannot do this, i.e. cannot thus cleanse and revive the
soul, but he has power to loose and to bind, that is, to declare
people bound and loosed. Therefore Christ first revived Lazarus,
and they afterwards loosed him, that he might see and walk
freely ; and also He first healed the lepers Himself, and after
ward sent them to tho priest, that they (the priests) might give
testimony to Christ, that He had healed them (the lepers), and
might also declare to them that they could with safety dwell
publicly in the congregation. And thus thou hast, that it is
impossible for the priest to remit the sins of any one unless
they are first remitted by God and by Christ, the Grand Priest,
and His merits. Therefore saith the magister of deep
thoughts, that God does not follow the judgment of the
priest, who often judges treacherously and ignorantly, but God
always judges according to truth."
There is a heaviness about the " Exposition of the
Ten Commandments," from which the " Exposition
of the Creed " is entirely free, and which does not
appear so decidedly in the "Exposition of the

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 353
Lord's Prayer." Still there are many remarkable
passages in it, of which the following is a specimen
from chapter xxxv. After quoting a passage from
the third decretal of Innocent III., Hus proceeds : —
" This is the great constitution of Innocent III., but, because
it is somewhat adverse to the purse or pocket of the priest, it
is not liked ; but, were it observed, they would perhaps exhibit
fewer teeth of St. Barbara and other things called relics by
them. And believe me, it is thus that the priests publicly
incite people to offer who are in the habit of giving them less
than formerly. And already even the peasants have a pro
verbial expression, ' That priest is a capital hand at bringing in
the silver conclusion,' when they hear him saying that people
are to approach the relic, and commend themselves to it and
open their hearts, that is, their purses. Nay, I once heard in a
sermon — God is my witness that it was said in a sermon at St.
Henry's in the New Town of Prague — ' Know, my children,
that three devils have come to this festival ; one to close the
heart, that people may not be sorry for their sins, and, children,
that is a wicked devil; a second to close their mouths, that they
may not pray and praise God. and, children, that is a worse ;
and a third to close their purses — ah ! children, that is the
worst ! Therefore, dear children, do not allow this worst devil to
close your purses ; approach the relic, opening your purses and
pockets.' "
In chapter xxxix., after speaking of the five senses
as the windows through which sin enters, Hus pro
ceeds in language which exhibits towards the end
of the passage what we may almost venture to call
the ne phis ultra of homely illustration : —
" These windows or doors ought to be closed in Jerusalem,
that is, in a man who desires the vision of the divine peace, and
especially on a Sunday or holy day, lest the doors should be
2 A

354 JOHN HUS.

opened to vanity, for Jeremiah saith : ' Take heed to yourselves
and bear no burthens on the Sabbath day, neither bring in any
burthen through the gates of Jerusalem.' Here he forbids the
burthen of sin, which is called the talent or hundredweight
of lead, as saith holy Zachariah the prophet; for sin imme
diately by its weight drew Lucifer from the highest place down
to the lowest hell. And therefore sin is termed grievous or
heavy, for, as a heavy thing always drops downwards, as far as
possible, as a stone, lead, or any other heavy thing, so likewise
does sin drag the soul downwards, but it does not feel the
weight unless it quits the body. For as a dog in a boat with a
large stone tied to his neck does not feel the weight unless he
is thrown out of the boat and drowned, so likewise the soul does
not feel the weight so long as it is in the body, but when once
it quits the body, then it begins to feel it, when it falls into the
depth of hell."
In chapter xli., Hus explains his views on the
subject of election. Strange to say, no word corre
sponding to predestination occurs in his Bohemian
words, the word " predvedeny," "foreknown," (prse-
scitus) being the nearest approach to it. The
passage runs : —
" Whoso doth actions that the devil commands, and loveth
not Christ and heareth not His word gladly, the same hath the
devil for his father, not by creation, but by wickedness ; and
he hath not Christ for a father in grace here below at that
time, although another, who is also wicked, is God's son, elected
from eternity. As St. Peter, when he swore falsely that he
knew not Christ, was at that time without grace ; yet neverthe
less he was a son of God by eternal election, although he was
at that time a son of the devil through mortal sin. In the
same way many are now sinful sons of the devil and also sons
of God ; sons of the devil through sin for a time, but sons of
God by election from eternity; and when they repent, like

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 355
Peter, they cast off devilry from themselves and become sons of
God only, as in process of time did St. Peter. But those who
are in mortal sins and remain in them, these are sons of the
devil through wickedness, and sons of God by creation, by pre
servation, and by nourishment, but not by grace unto sal
vation." In chapter lxii. occurs a remarkable and charac
teristic passage on slander or backbiting : —
" Alas ! how greatly have backbiting dogs increased in num
ber, and backbiting has already become such a habit that it is
not considered a sin. For priests, when just about to robe
themselves in the mass vestments for the mass, practise back
biting. God is my witness, that I have heard it myself ! And
after mass, when they meet at table, they devour living before
they eat cooked flesh. And what is a more grievous slander
than to call a neighbour a heretic? And thus they serve tho
devil more than the Lord God, as St. Augustine saith, on
account of their backbiting. Likewise lay people, monks and
nuns, practise backbiting a little less, or perhaps still more,
settle the whole world, the quick and the dead, but forget them
selves. Oh ! if they remembered what they repeat in the
hours, how the holy David saith : ' With him that slandereth
his neighbour, with him I have not eaten!' Oh! with whom
could a true man eat now, if he refused to eat with a backbiter,
when backbiting is everywhere a dish at table, especially at a
priest's table? At which they sit still and eat, putting one
piece into tho mouth and letting out ten calumnious words.
And they devour their neighbour with less compassion than
the cooked meat, for they do not gnash their teeth at the meat
as they do at their neighbour. Therefore saith the righteous
man through David : ' They gnashed upon me with their
teeth.'" Proceeding to the "Exposition of the Lord's
Prayer," it is not long before we meet (chapter

356 JOHN HUS.

Ixxxi.) with a passage on prayer, the language of
which is singularly homely and forcible : —
" Prayer has the fire of love, which raises it mightily towards
God, and two wings, that is to say, recognition of our own
wickedness and of God's mercy. These two good wings bear
prayer up to God along with love ; for, if there be not love,
prayer does not ascend to God, and if there be not holy thoughts
which clarify prayer, and devotion besides, then prayer smokes
fetidly. Therefore, dear brother, if thou hast not love and holy
thoughts and devotion, stink not and smoke not. 0 dear God !
how often do I, sinful man that I am, stink and smoke against
Thy holy love ! "
In chapter lxxxvii. we have a most exquisite and
eloquent piece of exegesis, which may well stand in
contrast with the rugged language just quoted :
" But since we know that God accepts not persons, therefore
we say not apart from others : ' My Father ! ' but humbly and
socially : ' Our Father?' For as dignity in the world neither
severs nor excepts any one from misery or death, so likewise
neither does it sever or except from equal participation in the
grace of God ; but in proportion as that dignity gives occasion
of pride to the elevated, so doth it immediately render them
more unworthy and rejected before the eyes of the most right
eous Judge. And hence I infer that proud, great men in the
world are still more rejected before God on account of their
non-humble prayer ; for since the Almighty Saviour is not
ashamed to call us wretches brethren, as St. Paul saith, and
since He saith: 'Whoso shall do the will of My heavenly
Father, the same is My mother, and sister, and brother,' how is
it that inflated wretches are ashamed to be called the brethren
of all Christians ? What is this but that they wish to be above
Christ, although they say it not with their lips ? But not thus
speak humble sons, who say lovingly and humbly, remember
ing their Father's instruction : ' Our Father, who art in heaven !
Our Father, powerful in might, who art our Creator! Our

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 357
Father, sweet in loving ! Our Father, rich in inheritance ! Our
Father, merciful in redemption ! Our Father, abie to protect !
Our Father, always ready to listen ! ' See what manner of
Father is ours, who is in heaven ! "
We now come to a very finished work, one that
would bear translation as a whole, and which is
interesting from its noble morality, loftiness of
tone and bearing upon matters discussed in our
own country in our own day. It is intituled, " 0
Svatokupectvi," " Of Traffic in Holy Things," i.e.
" Of Simony."
After proving simony to be a kind of heresy,
Hus proceeds to divide heresy into three stems —
apostacy, blasphemy, and simony — each of which
he explains by instances. He then divides those
guilty of simony into the followers of Simon,
Gehazi, Balaam, Jeroboam, and Judas, each of
which classes he examines separately. Then in
chapter iv. he raises the question whether the pope
can be guilty of simony, proves that he can be so
in three several ways, and disproves the various
excuses commonly brought forward in his defence.
In chapter v. he inquires how bishops can fall into
simony, and examines the excuses alleged in their
defence. From this chapter I extract a criticism
on the position of titular bishops, whose dioceses
are in partibus infidelium, and who thus are bishops
in little more than name, and whose conduct was
not always what it ought to be ; —
" Likewise wild bishops excuse themselves by saying that
they should not have the means of life and existence if they

358 JOHN HUS.

did not take money for consecrations. But the first answer is :
Since such a one is the representative or assistant of a bishop,
let the bishop give him what he requires, for he maintains
other gentlemen, and many of them, who do not appertain to
the episcopal office. The second answer is : Let the wild bishop
live in poverty, like Peter and Paul the apostles, and preach
the word of God. And the third answer is : Let him go and
preach to the people from which he has the title of bishop.
But, alas ! they have the title and do not, as they ought, do
good among the people, over which they have been created
bishops. Therefore the Bohemian who gave them the name
'wild bishops' (plant biskupove), did it, perhaps, because they
do little good amongst people, especially the people of their own
bishopric. And the fourth answer is : Let people ask him why
he got himself consecrated, knowing that he had no intention
of going to the people in question, and likewise being ignorant
of their language. And, perhaps, if he confessed the truth, he
would admit that he obtained the episcopal rank for worldly
dignity and for freedom's sake. And it is for this latter reason
that monks are wont to become these ' wild ' bishops and patri
archs, as is manifest ; for then they escape from obedience to
the authorities of their order."
The sixth and seventh chapters examine the
simoniacal practices of the regular and secular
clergy respectively, and some of the latter are
described in the following extract : —
" They likewise sell holy oil dearer than other oil, and that
for no other reason than that it is holy ; taking sometimes two
groschen, sometimes twelve pfennigs, and sometimes a groschen.
Then for thirty masses they generally take thirty groschen;
and this is perhaps a memorial of Judas, who sold the Saviour
for thirty silver pence. And some priests undertake so many
masses, that if one served five, six, or ten every day, he could
not complete them in fifteen years. But, say they, ' How am
I to do when a person comes to me, wanting thirty masses, and

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 359
entreats me ? ' And I reply that thou oughtest to say, ' Dear
brother ! all the masses in the world are thine, if thou art in
the grace of God. And I am ordained to serve the mass, when
ever I can by the grace of God, so that I ought not to serve
any more for money than I ought to serve from love ; there
fore I cannot engage myself to thee, neither is it proper that I
should do so. Go, and God be with thee ! ' "
In chapter viii. Hus examines the simony of lay
men ; in chapter ix. inquires into the guilt of those
who aid and abet or assent to simony ; and in chap
ter x. details the proper methods of avoiding and
getting rid of simony. And here we find the real
secret of the inveteracy with which he was pursued
by the higher Boman clergy, viz. his arguments
from the Old Testament for the supremacy of the
temporal over the spiritual power, and the duty of
the former to reform the abuses of the latter ; and,
finally, his proof of the principle from " the bull
of St. Peter (1 Pet. ii. 13), in which he commandeth
all men to submit to the king as supreme."
The conclusion of the work, which is dated
Candlemas, 1413, is very fine : —
" And in proof that we ought thus to measure nearness to
the Lord Christ, He saith : ' Whoso doeth the will of My
heavenly Father, the same is My brother, My mother, and
sister.' And again He saith : ' Ye are My friends, if ye do those
things which I command you.' See how He measures nearness
to Himself by the keeping of [His commandments ! . . . And
so with regard to other truths, which are laid before our eyes
that we may indeed press to them and follow our Saviour Jesus
Christ ; for we cannot have a better guide and teacher, nor any
other foundation or a purer mirror. Therefore after Him let us

360 JOHN HUS.

go, to Him let us listen, and on Him let us place faith, hope,
love, and all good works ; on Him, as into a mirror, let us gaze,
and to Him let us approach with all our might ! And let us
hear, in that He saith, ' I am the way, the truth, and the Hfe '
— the way in example, the truth in promise, and the life in
recompense. The way in example, wherein if a man goes he
erreth not ; the truth in promise, for what He hath promised
that He will fulfil ; and the life in recompense, for He will give
Himself to be enjoyed in everlasting bliss. He is also the
way, because He leads to salvation ; He is the truth, because
He shines in the understanding of the faithful ; and He is the
life everlasting, in which all the elect will live in bliss for ever.
To that life and by that way and truth I desire to go myself
and to draw others."
The second volume contains Hus's "Postilla,"
or sermons on the Gospels for every Sunday and
important holy day in the calendar. It might
have been expected that this would have been the
most interesting and remarkable work of so great
a preacher. But it is not so ; and though — over
and above simple and energetic expositions of the
Gospels — the Postilla abound in historical materials
and in vivid allusions to matters of the day,
yet we must seek for traces of Hus's vigorous elo
quence rather in his other works than in this.
The reason of this is given by himself in his pre
face to the book, in which he states that his inten
tion is, so far as he is able, to explain the Gospels
in the manner easiest to be understood, and " not
in his usual manner of preaching."
The following is a curious anecdote from the
sermon on the First Sunday in Lent, which is
interesting from its relation to the Faulfisch,

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 361
whose surname has been erroneously transferred to
Jerome of Prague : —
" I heard from Nicholas, surnamed Faulfisch, a faithful man
of good memory, that, when he was in England, he made the
acquaintance of a certain cook, with whom he boarded. When
a bishop asked this man why he read the scriptures in English
contrary to his prohibition, and the cook defended himself by
citing scripture, the bishop said to him, 'Knowest thou with whom
thou art speaking ? ' He replied, ' With a bishop, who is a man.'
The bishop said to him, ' Darest thou, miserable layman, talk
with me out of the scripture ? ' He answered, ' I know that
thou art not greater than Christ, and I hope I am not worse
than the devil ; and since the gracious Christ listened calmly
to scripture from the devil, why shouldest not thou, who art
inferior to Christ, hear it from me who am a man ? ' The
bishop became exasperated, and would not talk with him any
more ; so that the cook overcame the bishop with scripture, as
Christ did the devil."
A terrible description of the condition and con
duct of a large portion of the clergy is given in the
sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter, which
may be compared with the admissions of Andrew
of Brod, at the conclusion of the " Historical
Introduction," chapter i. It runs : —
" Antichrist has no mightier net than the putting a stop to
the service of God, whereby the priests obtain their will, what
ever it is. With this net they defend their covetousness and
riches ; with this net they have severed themselves from suffer
ing either in property or in person ; so that, whereas the primi
tive holy Christians, especially the priests, joyfully endured
it when people took their goods from them, or reviled, beat,
tortured, and slew them,— they never put a stop to divine
service, but prayed the more, offered Christ and preached the
more— the present backsliding priests, on the contrary, have so

362 JOHN HUS.

fenced themselves with antichrist's institution, that if any one
takes aught from a priest, even if justly, or if a priest is seized
in the commission of adultery or robbery, a stop is immediately
put to Divine service, if a priest, who is an adulterer or robber,
be imprisoned. IS, again, a box on the ear be given to a priest
in a quarrel in a tavern, when there is a dispute about dice, or
worse, citations and excommunications are issued. If, however,
a priest's blood be drawn, they put a stop to Divine service, and
compel the person who has done it to go to Eome, saying that
none, save the pope, can absolve a man who draws a priest's
blood. But if a priest cuts off anybody's foot or hand, or kills
a man who is guiltless, they do not excommunicate the priest,
or put a stop to Divine service. Why so ? Because one devil
does not pick out another devil's eyes."
I will take one more extract from the sermon on
the Sevententh Sunday after Trinity, and then
proceed to the third volume : —
" In this and in a still greater sin are the present prelates,
magisters, and lawyers, who value their cattle more than the
spiritual health of their neighbours. Therefore saith St. Bernard
to Pope Eugenius : 'An ass falls, and there is some one who lifts
it up; a soul perishes, and there is no one to regard it.' St.
Bernard knew that the pope's missionaries (apostles) were more
attentive to asses and mules than to souls, which were flounder
ing in the mire of sins. And, as they from avarice rescued the
ass from the pit, and said that they did not break the sabbath ;
but that, when a sick man was restored to health, the sabbath
was broken, so do those of the present day. What they do from
avarice they do not set down as a sin; but what is done from
compassion, that they put down as a sin. Lo ! those Jews drew
the ass out at once, when it fell into the pit, to prevent its
death ; and said to the sick man, ' It is not fitting to be healed
on the sabbath.' And those of the present day say, that it is
not fitting to preach the Word of God and draw sinners from
sin without their absolution ; and affirm that it is fitting for

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 363
them to sell benefices as they please, and that they ought to be
obeyed in whatever they command. But eventually, they will
be mute before Jesus, as they were mute of whom the scripture
saith: 'And they could not answer to those things;' for they
were overcome by the truth."
The third volume commences with a mystical
exposition of the Song of Solomon, which is of no
great interest. But next comes a charming little
work: "Of the knowledge of the true way of Sal
vation," commonly called "The Daughter " (Dcerka),
from the commencement of every chapter, which
runs: "Hear, 0 daughter! and see and incline
thine ear ! " The " daughter " is the human soul,
and the work itself contains practical advice of the
highest value. I select the following from the
second of its ten chapters : —
" Hear, 0 daughter, and see and incline thine ear, because it
is good that thou shouldest understand thy conscience. Know
that thou canst not finally conceal sins, for thou must acknow
ledge them in the judgment day to all people, to the angels and
to the devils. Hear, see, and incline thine ear, because, whither
soever thou turnest thyself, whatsoever thou placest in thy soul
and in thy conscience, be it evil or good, thy conscience pre
serves for thee so long as thou livest, and will return it to thee
when thou diest. For it is a warning voice placed in every
soul, in order that it may keep its promise to God : if it doth
evil, the conscience is immediately affected ; if, on the other
hand it doth good, and the soul is not proud thereof, a right
conscience doth not inflict chastisement ; but if a man doeth
evil, conscience is with him while alive, and dogs him after
death. And thus, whithersoever a man turneth himself, praise
or blame always attends him ; and thus in his own house, that
is in his own soul, he has adversaries of his own household.
Lo ! his conscience accuses him, his memory testifies against

364 JOHN HUS.

him, his understanding judges him, pleasure points out how he
ought to be tortured, fear or terror is the executioner, and
pleasures are the tortures ; for in proportion to the evil pleasures
that a man has had, so many and so great sufferings must he
have, as saith the Scripture. ' Hear this, 0 daughter, and see
and incline thine ear ! ' "
From a vivid controversial dialogue with the
devil in chapter iv. I extract the following, which
gives Hus's views on the subject of confession : —
" If thou sayest further : ' Cain and Saul are lost, as saith the
Scripture,' this we admit; but if thou sayest: ' These men sinned
less than I did,' this I deny ; for they sinned with the sin of final
impenitence, and that sin is greater than all other sins ; for,
though a man have all manner of other sins, if only he hath not
this, he is not lost and will not be lost, if he hath it not. And
this sin, 0 devil, is thy sin ! Thirdly, then, O devil, if thou
sayest to a man who is not conscious of mortal sin : 'In whatso
ever thou doest, thou doest evil,' this, 0 devil, we deny ; and
if thou endeavourest to prove it, saying: 'For thou art in
mortal sin,' 0 devil, thou liest ! thou canst not prove it, and in
what thou sayest afterwards, thou liest ; for I repent, I have
lamented my sin and confessed it, and always do confess it
to the Lord God, acknowledging myself guilty to Him, in what
soever manner I may have sinned. Neither, 0 devil, shalt thou
lead me to this, always to confess anew in sorrow and relate all
the causes and circumstances of my sins to a priest or mention
all my particular sins ; for I know that it is not necessary to
enumerate them to the Lord God, who knows them all, and
I acknowledge myself to Him guilty in them all, and lament
them. This, thou, 0 devil, dost not do, and therefore thou
sufferest everlasting perdition."
Then come various little pamphlets or treatises,
from one of which, written against a priest who
had become steward of the kitchen to a nobleman

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 365
named Ctibor, and who had said, and confirmed with
an oath, that Hus was worse than any devil, I
shaU extract the following passage in which Hus
plays upon his own name : —
" I might write about the curse with which thou reproachest
me, but it would be tedious, and I have inscribed a notice of
it on the walls in Bethlehem. Yet, I say briefly, that a curse
hurts no man, if priests curse him when he is free from mortal
sin and suffers it lovingly ; for St. Peter saith in his epistle :
' Who is he that shall harm you, if ye love that which is good.'
And St. Gregory speaks to that effect, and thou recitest in the
hours, that no adversity will hurt, if no wickedness be dominant.
And the Saviour himself saith : ' Blessed shall ye be when all
men shall curse you.' And thus people by the gift of God now
understand, that a curse pronounced against a man without
mortal sin tends to blessing and life eternal, and that by means
of that curse the priests first terrified and scared whom they
would, even as fowlers scare birds with a kite, and these, fancy
ing the wooden kite to be a living bird, do not dare to rise.
But because the goose, a domestic bird, recognized this dead
kite, he did not allow himself to be scared, but rose into the air
and gave an example to God's other birds to do the like."
I offer no extract from the three hymns as
cribed to Hus in the hymn book of the Bohemian
brethren (Kralitz, 1576), which I do not believe to
have proceeded from his pen in their present
condition. But the little fragment "On Faith''1
contains a passage too remarkable to be omitted:—
" Hence further infer, that we ought not to believe in the
Mother of God, but ought to believe that she is the most worthy
Mother of God, more worthy than any saint. Although there
is one Virgin, who is the bride of Christ, more worthy than the
Virgin Mary, and that is the Holy Church, the congregation of

366 JOHN HUS.

all saints, who will finally reign with Christ for ever. For the
Virgin Mary is a member of the Holy Church, and cannot be
of such worthiness ; and it was for that Church, His bride, that
Christ died and gave Himself up to death, as saith St. Paul, and
not for the Virgin Mary. Thus we believe of the Virgin Mary,
but not in her ; for we ought not to believe in any other person
or thing, save only in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy
Ghost, all in one Lord."
I now pass on to the letters, especially those in
the Bohemian language, and select first that
written on the road to Constance after September
28th, 1414, a pretended extract from which was
brought agamst Hus at his trial : —
" Magister John Hus, in hope a priest and servant of our
Lord Jesus Christ, to all faithful and beloved brethren and
sisters in the Lord Jesus, who have through me heard and re
ceived the Word of God, grace and peace from God our Father
and from the Holy Spirit, that they may abide without spot in
his truth !
" Faithful and beloved friends ! ye know that I have long
worked with you faithfully, preaching to you the Word of God
without heresy and without errors, as ye know, and my desire
hath been, and will be until death, your salvation. I had thought
to have preached to you before my journey, ere I departed to
the council at Constance, and especially to have rtade known
to you the false testimony and witnesses in writing with their
evidence ; and these shall be made known to you in order that,
if they condemn me, or sentence me to death, ye, knowing
this, may not be terrified, as if I were condemned for any
heresy that I held ; and, likewise, in order that ye may stand
without fear and without vacillation in the truth, to the
knowledge whereof the Lord God hath granted you to come
through faithful preachers and through me unworthy; and,
thirdly, that ye may be able to beware of hypocritical and
lying preachers. And now I have prepared myself for the

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 367
journey without safe conduct * among very great and very
numerous enemies, among whom my enemies from home are
the worst, as ye recognize from the evidence, and will learn
after the conclusion of the council ; of whom there will be
many bishops and magisters, secular priests and regulars. But
I hope to my gracious, wise, and mighty Saviour, that through
His promise and your faithful prayer He will grant me wisdom
and steadfastness of the Holy Ghost, that I may persevere, and
that they may not be able to make me take the wrong part ;
even if He gives me to suffer temptation, reviling, imprison
ment, or death, as He suffered Himself, and subjected His best
beloved servants to the same, and gave us an example that we
should suffer for Him and for our own salvation ; He being
God, and we His creatures ; He being the Lord, and we His
servants ; He being the King of the whole world, and we un
worthy mannikins ; He being without want, and we necessitous.
He, too, has suffered, and why should not we suffer ? Najr, our
suffering in grace is our purification from sin and our liberation
from everlasting torments, and death is our purification. Verily
it is impossible for His faithful servant to perish, if with His
help he abides steadfast ! Therefore, dear brethren ! dear
sisters ! pray earnestly, that He may be pleased to grant me
perseverance, and that He may be pleased to protect me from
stain ; and, if my death is to His glory and our profit, that
it may please Him to grant me to undergo it without evil
terror ; if, on the other hand, it is better for us that it should
be so, that it may please Him to cause me to return to you,
travelling thither and back again without stain, that we may
still instruct each other in common in His law, and destroy
* Bcz lcleitu. In the Latin translation (op. Hus. i. 72-6) this
stands : " Ego proficiscor nunc cum literis publicas fidei a Eege
milii datis." Palacky remarks, that the sixteenth century trans
lator of Hus's letters into Latin did his work exceedingly ill
and that his translation contains a great deal of nonsense, as well
as, now and then, just the contrary of what Hus intended to
express.

368 JOHN HUS.

some portion of the nets of antichrist, and set a good example
to future brethren after us. Perhaps ye will never see me more
in Prague before my death ! If, on the other hand, the mighty
God shall be pleased to bring me back, we shall see each other
with so much the greater pleasure, and that, at any rate, when
we meet together in the bliss of heaven. May the merciful God,
who gives secure peace to His own both here and after death,
who perfected the grand Shepherd by the shedding of His blood,
which is the everlasting evidence of our salvation, fashion you
in all that is good, that ye may fulfil His will in concord with
out dissension, that, having rest in virtues, ye may attain ever
lasting rest, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is eternal God
and very Man, born of the Virgin Mary, to whom glory is and
will be for ever with all the elect, with whom, if we persevere in
the truth, we shall abide for ever. Amen. Dated, a.d. 1414,
after the feast of St. Wenceslas, on the journey to Constance."
The following is a very striking letter, dated
June 24th, 1415 :—
"Magister John Hus, in hope a servant of God, declares to
all the faithful, who love God and His law, his desire that they
may abide in the truth, and make progress in the grace of God,
and stand steadfastly unto death. Dearly beloved ! I exhort
you not to be terrified nor to allow yourselves to be scared,
because they have condemned my books to the flames. Re
member that they burned the holy Jeremiah's prophecy, which
God commanded him to write ; yet did they not escape from that
which he prophesied ; for after it was burnt, the Lord God com
manded him to write the same words, adding thereto still more.
As was done; he dictated, sitting in prison, and the holy
Baruch, who was his scribe, wrote. This stands written in the
thirty-sixth chapter. Likewise is it written in the books of the
Maccabees, that the law of God was burnt, and those who
possessed it tortured. Afterwards, in the time of the new
law, the saints were burnt with the books of God's law. Like
wise the cardinals condemned and burned the books of St,

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 369
Gregory, and wished to burn them all, but the Lord God pre
vented it by means of a scholar of his, Peter. Likewise two
priestly councils condemned St. John Chrysostom as an heretic ;
yet the merciful Lord God showed their falsehood after St.
John's deatL Having these things before your eyes, do not
allow yourselves to be frightened into not reading what I have
written, or into giving them your books to be burned. Ee-
member what our merciful Saviour said, as a warning, in
Matthew xxiv: that before the judgment-day there would
be so great tribulation, as had not been since the world
began, neither would be afterwards, so great that, if it were
possible, even the elect would be led into error ; but those
days would be shortened for the elect's sake. Eemembering
this, dearly beloved, stand firmly ! for I hope to God the school
of antichrist will fear you, and leave you in peace, and the
council will not come from Constance into Bohemia ; for I am
sure many out of this council will die before they take the
books from you by conquest ; and from this council they will
fly in all directions about the world, like storks, and when the
winter comes, they will find out what they have done in the
summer. Observe that they have condemned their own head
as a heretic ! Now answer, ye preachers, who preach that the
pope is a terrestrial God, that he cannot sin, that he cannot
f-ommit simony, as say tho jurists ; that the pope is the head
of all the Holy Church, which he governs admirably ; that he
is the heart of the Holy Church, which he animates spiritually ;
that he is the fountain, whence all power and goodness flow ;
that he is the sun of the Holy Church ; that he is the all-
sufficient refuge, to which every Christian must flee. Lo ! now
has that head been cut off, and the terrestrial god bound ; now
has he been proclaimed guilty of sin ; now has the fountain
been dried up, the sun obscured, the heart torn out; and the
refuge has fled from Constance, and has now been cast away,
so that no one flees to him. The council has condemned him
as a heretic for selling remissions, and bishoprics, and other
things, and revenues; and those have condemned him, many
of whom have purchased from him, and others have purchased
2 R

370 JOHN HUS.

elsewhere. There was John, Bishop of Litomysl, who trafficked
twice for the archbishopric of Prague, but others outbid him.
Oh, why did they not first cast the beam out of their own eye ?
Yet the law saith of them: 'If there be any one who hath
obtained any dignity through money, let him be deprived of
it ! ' Yes, let the seller and the buyer, and the bargainer or
go-between, be put to open shame! Saint Peter reviled and
cursed Simon for wishing to purchase the gift of the Holy
Spirit : these men have reviled and cursed a seller, and have
remained purchasers and go-betweens themselves, and also act
as sellers at home ! In Constance, there is a bishop who pur
chased, and another who sold, and the pope received money for
his assent. Likewise is it in Bohemia, as is known to you. Oh,
if the Lord Jesus had said to the council : ' Let him that is
without the sin of simony among you condemn Pope John ! '
me seemeth they would have gone out one after the other.
And why did they kneel before him, kiss his feet, and address
him as ' most holy father ! ' knowing that he was a heretic, a
murderer, and a * * *, even as they proved these sins against
him ? Why did the cardinals elect him pope, knowing that he
was so wicked a murderer, that he slew the most holy father ?
Why did they permit him to practise simony when he became
pope, they being appointed councillors in order to give good
counsel ? Are they not also guilty who practised simony with
him themselves ? Why, until he fled from Constance, did no
one venture to say anything to him but ' most holy father ? '
No, they were still afraid ; but when, by God's permission or
will, the secular hand fell upon him, then they immediately
conspired, making a covenant that he might not be released.
Verily the wickedness, and abominableness, and shamefulness
of antichrist have now displayed themselves in the case both
of the pope and of others in the council ; now may the faithful
servants of God mark in our Saviour's discourse what He meant
by saying : ' When ye shall see the abomination in a desolate
place (sic), of which Daniel prophesied, let him that readeth
understand' ! The great abomination is pride, covetousness, and
simony, in a desolate place, that is, in dignity, which is void of

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 371
humility, love, and the other virtues, as we see manifestly in
those who are holding office and dignity. Oh, if it were
possible to describe the wickednesses, that the faithful servants
of God might beware of them, I would gladly do so ; but I hope
to God that He will send others more worthy after me, who will
better expose the wickedness of antichrist, and will hazard
their lives unto death for the sake of the truth of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who will give you and me everlasting bliss.
Amen. Written on the festival of St. John the Baptist, in
a dungeon and in fetters, in the recollection that John was
likewise beheaded in a dungeon and in fetters for the sake of
God's truth."
The next letter, dated June 26th, is equally
worthy of perusal : —
" Magister John Hus, in hope a servant of God, makes known
to all faithful Bohemians who love and shall love God, his desire
and unworthy prayer, that they may abide in the grace of God,
may end therein, and may abide with God for ever and ever.
Faithful and beloved friends and beloved in God ! it hath
furthermore occurred to me to write, that ye may know how
the council, proud, covetous, and full of all abomination, hath
condemned my books in the Bohemian language, which it hath
neither heard nor seen, nor if it had heard them, would it have
understood them. For in the council were Frenchmen, Italians,
Englishmen, Spaniards, Germans, and others of other languages,
save that John, Bishop of Litomysl, who was there, may have
understood them somewhat, as well as other Bohemians, the
instigators thereof, from the chapters of Prague and the Vysse
grad, from whom has proceeded the shaming of God's truth and
of our Bohemian land, which I hope is a land of most excellent
faith, observing its earnest desire with regard to the Word of
God and to the customs. Oh, were you to see this council,
which calls itself the 'most holy' council, and asserts that it
cannot err, verily ye would espy abomination exceeding great,
of which I have heard commonly from the Swabians, that

372 JOHN HUS.

Constance, or 'Kostnice,' their city, will not within thirty
years be rid of the sins which this council has committed in
their city; and I say furthermore, that all men have been
offended through this council, and some have spit, because they
saw abominable things. And I say unto you, that when I
stood before the council, seeing how little order there was, I
said aloud, when all were silent, ' I thought there would have
been greater reverence and goodness and better order in this
council than there is.' Then said the chief cardinal, ' How
speakest thou? In the castle thou spakest more humbly.'
And I answered, saying, ' Yes, for in the castle no man
clamoured against me, but here all clamour.' And since this
council, which hath done more evil than good, hath proceeded
with such disorder, faithful Christians and beloved in God ! do
not allow yourselves to be frightened by their decree, which I
hope to God will not profit them ; they will fly different ways,
like moths, and their ordinance will stand like a spider's web.
They wanted to terrify me, but through God's good help they
have been unable to prevail over me. They have not thought
fit to proceed against me in writing, as heard the gracious lords,
who stood up steadfastly for the truth of God, braving all
shame, Bohemians, Moravians, and Poles, and especially Lord
Wenceslas of Duba and Lord John of Chlum ; for, being ad
mitted by King Sigismund into the council, they stood and
heard that, when I said, ' I desire instruction ! if I have written
anything ill, I wish to be instructed ! ' then said the chief
cardinal : ' Since thou wishest to be instructed, this is the in
struction : thou hast to recant, as fifty magisters of holy scrip
ture have found.' See ! a pretty instruction ! Thus St. Cathe
rine, a young damsel, ought to have apostatized from the truth
and faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, because fifty magisters were
against her. But the dear damsel stood even to death, and
brought over to the Lord God the magisters, whom I, sinful
man, am not able to bring over. This I write unto you, that
ye may know that they have not overcome me by any scripture
or any arguments, but have assailed me with cunning and
threats, in order to lead me to recantation and renunciation.

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 373
But the gracious Lord God, whose law I have magnified, hath
been, and is, and I hope will be with me to the end, and will
keep me in His grace, even unto death. Written on the
Wednesday after St. John Baptist, in prison and in fetters, in
expectation of death : still, on account of the divine secrecy, I
dare not say that this will be my last letter, for even yet the
Omnipotent God can set me free."
It was not by any means his last letter, but his
pen was permitted to be occupied several times
after it. I conclude my selection from his writings
with what was actually his last letter, in which
Hus "thanks the underwritten for their kindness,"
and writes to them (June 29th) ; —
" God be with you ! and may it please Him to give you an
everlasting recompense for having done me much good ! For
my sake, although perhaps dead in the body, do not allow any
harm to happen to Lord John, the faithful and worthy knight
and my good benefactor, I entreat you for the Lord God's sake,
dear Lord Peter, master of the mint, and Lady Anna ! Like
wise I entreat you to live well and obey God, even as ye have
heard. Thank the queen, my gracious lady, from me for all
the good that she has done me. Salute her household and
other faithful friends, whose names I cannot write at length.
I also entreat all to entreat the Lord God and His holy grace
for me: we shall ere long meet together by His holy help.
Amen. Written in expectation of sentence of death, in prison
and in fetters, which I hope I am suffering for the sake of God's
law. For the Lord God's sake do not suffer good priests to be
destroyed.— Magister Hus, in hope a servant of God.
" Peter, dearest friend ! keep the fur coat in remembrance of
me. " Lord Henry Left, mayest thou live happily with thy wife,
and I thank thee for thy kindness ; God be thy recompense t
" Faithful friend, Lord Lidher, with Lady Margaret, Lord
Skuoczek, with Mikeska and others ! the Lord God give you an

374 JOHN HUS.

everlasting recompense for the trouble ye have taken, and the
other kindnesses which ye have shown me !
" Faithful and dear Magister Christian ! the Lord God be
with thee !
" Magister Martin, my scholar ! remember what I have faith
fully taught thee. Magister Nicholas, priest Peter, the king's
chaplain, and other magisters and priests! be diligent in the
Word of God ! Priest Havlik ! preach the Word of God. And
I entreat all to be steadfast in God's truth."
The British reader is now for the first time
enabled to attain full knowledge of one of the most
extraordinary men and martyrs that have suffered
for truth and righteousness since life and immor
tality were brought to light by the Son of God.
Without a knowledge of Hus's Bohemian works it
is impossible fully to realize either his power or
his character, nor could the mighty events that
eventually followed his martyrdom have come to
pass without those works. As a school divine, his
influence would have been limited to the learned ;
as a writer in his own tongue, he spoke to the
hearts and souls of the whole people of what was
then the best educated nation in Europe. Every
effort was made after the destruction of the liber
ties of Bohemia in 1620, to destroy its literature ;
for a hundred and fifty years Jesuit " missionaries "
committed every Bohemian book that they could
lay their hands on to the flames. But with the
abolition of the Austrian censorship of the press in
the year of revolutions, 1848, a new era dawned,
and Bohemians like Palacky, Erben, Tomek, and
others have been able to search and publish freely.

HUS AS A WRITER IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. 375
Of their labours I have availed myself to the fullest
extent, and my only fear is that I have myself
failed in exhibiting this great and good Bohemian
and the movement of which he was the head in all
their dignity and in all their fulness.

376 JOHN HUS.

CHAPTEE XHI.
JEROME OP PRAGUE.
Jerome of Prague, the friend and disciple of John
Hus, has hitherto held the position of a mere
shadow of his greater master, until, after that
master's martyrdom, he passes once for all across
the stage in a blaze of light in the eloquent letter
of Poggio Bracciolini. Of himself, comparatively
speaking, little has been known, and, in fact, such
precautions were taken in the dominions of the
House of Hapsburg, from and after the commence
ment of the Thirty Years' War, to prevent any
thing that might tell against the Church of Bome
or in. favour of the detested heretics of Bohemia
from coming to light, that neither original histo
rical research nor correction of errors was possible.
Some relaxation of this intellectual bondage began
contemporaneously with the movements that in
augurated the great French Eevolution, but it was
not till 1848, the year of revolutions, that the
Austrian censorship of the press was aboHshed,
and its evil head has not since been raised for the

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 377
suppression of inquiry and the mutilation of truth.
Now the historian is free in Austria, and even in
the much- suspected Bohemia, where the great
moral, intellectual, and religious movement, known
under the name of the Hussite movement, origi
nated, worked, lasted two centuries, and eventually
came to a violent end.
Very welcome, therefore, is the republication of
a manuscript in the Bohemian language, existing
in the library of the gymnasium at Freiburg in
Saxony, which appeared in 1878 at Prague under
the careful editorship of Dr. Jaroslaw Goll, giving
an account of the arrest, trial, and martyrdom of
Jerome of Prague, well worthy of comparison with
the celebrated letter of Poggio Bracciolini, and
evidently from the same source as, though adding
interesting matter to, the Latin account given in
the Nuremburg edition of Hus's Latin works (vol.
ii. pp. 522-528), which professes to have been
sent to Prague by an eyewitness. This manuscript
is beheved to be very nearly contemporary with the
events that it records, and appears to have been
twice printed with the language modernized at the
beginning of the seventeenth century ; yet, in the
general destruction of Bohemian literature, only
two copies, one of each edition, are known to have
survived, one of which is at Vienna and the other
at Prague. And, strange to say, this valuable
record, whether in print or in MS., has — to use
the words of Dr. Goll—" remained almost entirely
unnoticed and unknown to our own times."

378 JOHN HUS.

Jerome of Prague, Hieronymus de Praga, was
born about the year 1379, of a well-to-do, but not
a noble family in the New Town of Prague. The
surname of Faulfisch is commonly given to him
in this country, but merely from a confusion be
tween him and a certain Nicholas Faulfisch, one
of two students who in 1410 brought to Prague a
piece of stone from Wychffe's tomb, and a forged
document from Oxford, sealed with the seal of
the university, and dated October 5th, 1406, in
which the University of Oxford was made to give
the highest commendation to the orthodoxy and
moral conduct of Wycliffe. It being commonly
said that Jerome was the bringer of Wychffe's
books to Bohemia, a confusion between him and
this Faulfisch, in times when historical evidence
was sealed up in Austria, was not unnatural. But
Jerome's family name is entirely unknown, which
would scarcely have been the case, had he been
a scion of a noble family in however indigent cir
cumstances. He was educated entirely at Prague, in the uni
versity itself, and previously in the schools connected
with it. He became Bachelor of Arts in 1398, and
in February, 1399, Hus obtained for him a dispen
sation from the performance of the duties of a
schoolmaster, which were usually required from
every Bohemian bachelor during the first two years
of his baccalaureate. He then travelled abroad,
and in 1401 returned to Prague. The next year he
appears to have visited England, and particularly

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 379
Oxford, where he copied out Wycliffe's "Dialogus "
and " Trialogus " with his own hand. In 1403
he visited Palestme, and two years later we find
him in Paris, where he obtained the degree of
Master of Arts at the Sorbonne. Here it was that
he for the first time became involved in theological
difficulties. In a public disputation he took upon
himself to maintain that " God cannot annihilate
anything." The celebrated chancellor Gerson was
anxious to force him to recant his error, but Jerome,
finding that arrangements, were being made for
his arrest, beat a timely retreat and escaped in
safety. Thence (1406) he betook himself to the
universities of Cologne on the Ehine and Heidel
berg, at each of which he took the degree of
Master of Arts, and from each of which he was
compelled to make his escape owing to diffi
culties similar to those in which he had been
involved at Paris. Here, however, we must bear
in mind that philosophy may have had quite as
much to do with his troubles as theology or religion.
For Jerome was a " Eealist " in philosophy; and
was thus always more or less in danger of persecu
tion from the then dominant sect of " Nominalists,"
especially if, as appears to have been the case, he
got the better of his opponents in argument. In
1407, he took the degree of Master of Arts at
Prague, after which he undertook another journey
to Oxford, whither his evil reputation had arrived
before him. Preparations were made to arrest
him on suspicion of heresy, and it was only by the

380 JOHN HUS.

exertions of some important personage, who inter
ested himself in him " as if he were his own son,"
that he was enabled to extricate himself from
danger. The following two years he seems to have
spent at Prague, where he took part in the agita
tion which resulted in the inversion of the very
peculiar constitution of the university, and the
transference of the majority of votes from foreigners
to Bohemians, a consequence whereof was the emi
gration of the great mass of German magisters
and students from Prague.
In 1410, early in January, the so-called annual
disputation "de quolibet," "about what you please,"
took place at Prague according to custom, in which
all magisters were bound to take part and answer
one, who was elected "Magister Quodlibetarius,"
and maintained certain theses against all comers.
The office of " Quodlibetarius " was declined by all
the older magisters and fell to a young magister,
Matthew of Knin, who had been cited a year and a
half previously by the archbishop on suspicion of
Wycliffism. The audience was large and distin
guished, and Jerome delivered a laudatory oration
respecting the young and gifted Quodlibetarius, in
which he deplored the uneasiness to which he had
been subjected, rejected emphatically the general
custom of speaking of the Bohemians as a nation
of heretics, declared the calumnies uttered against
the nation by unpatriotic and corrupt priests to be
false, and in particular urged the magistrates of
Prague, who were present, to defend the Bohemian

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 381
community of their city against such lying slanders
with all their might. He moreover enunciated in
general terms his opinion of the books of Wycliffe,
saying that he had read and studied them like those
of any other doctor, and had learnt much that was
good from them ; but that he was far from holding
as matters of faith everything that he read in
them, for that was due to holy scripture only.
He therefore counselled students to read those
books frequently and study them diligently, espe
cially such of them as bore upon the Faculty of
Arts ; but if they found therein anything that they
could not understand, to put it aside till a riper
age, for there were some things in them that
appeared to be contrary to the faith. These things,
therefore, they should neither hold nor defend, but
submit to the faith ; and they should also refrain
from lending the books to people who were incap
able of understanding them. This speech in favour
of Wycliffe's writings was afterwards one of the
articles of accusation against Jerome at Constance.
The bull of Pope Alexander V. in condemnation
of Wycliffe's books arrived two months later, i.e.
about the middle of March, and ere long commenced
the grand struggle between Hus and Archbishop
Zbynek, in which Hus appealed first to Pope Alex
ander and then to his successor, the wicked John
XXIIL Jerome had travelled into Hungary, and
on " Green Thursday," our " Maunday Thursday,"
delivered such an oration at King Sigismund's
court on the condition of ecclesiastical affairs, that

382 JOHN HUS.

the clergy felt actual terror lest the temporal lords
should be excited to rise up against them. Just at
this time arrived a letter from the Archbishop of
Prague directed against Jerome, in consequence of
which he was imprisoned but set at liberty again
in a fortnight's time.
But when, later in the same year, he exhibited
himself at Vienna, Andrew Grillenberg, the official
of the Bishop of Passau, ordered him at once to be
arrested and brought before his tribunal on the
charge of holding and disseminating Wycliffite
heresy. At his first hearing Jerome denied all the
charges, which were brought against him in writing,
whereupon the official appointed the procurator of
the treasury to conduct the process agamst him, and
fixed a time for the production of witnesses against
the accused. These witnesses testified with one
voice against Jerome, and in his presence took their
corporal oaths in confirmation of then- statements.
Hereupon, it is said, he altered his tone and pro
mised amendment and recantation of his errors.
The official, seeing the alteration that had taken
place in him, administered an oath to him in the
presence of many Doctors of Theology and Law and
other members of the university, that, under penalty
of excommunication, he (Jerome) had no intention
of quitting Vienna, until the process agamst him
was concluded, but would be always in readiness to
obey the citation of the official and appear before
his tribunal. Upon taking this oath he was set at
liberty, whereupon the official kindly proposed to

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 383
him, both for better security against his enemies
and also to lessen his expenses, to come and live at
his (the official's) own house, where he would be
provided with board and lodging gratis during the
continuance of the process. Jerome declined the
offer with thanks, saying that for the time he had
no need of any such assistance. Meanwhile he
made known his difficulties to his friends at Prague
by letter, and they lost not a moment in employing
all possible means of assisting him. The University
of Prague itself wrote an angry letter to that of
Vienna, bitterly reproaching it with the wrong done
to one of its magisters. The rector and magisters
also wrote an intercessory letter to the burgomaster
and magistrates of Vienna on behalf of their distin
guished associate, complaining of the grievous
wrong done to him through the malice and envy of
certain magisters and students in their town, and
requesting their aid against such oppressive conduct
on the part of his private enemies. In another
letter they bore testimony to the official himself
respecting the good behaviour of Magister Jerome,
thanked him for the kindness showed towards him,
and requested him to add a suitable ending to a
good beginning, and not to act according to the
will of insensates, who in blind fury were endeavour
ing to give Jerome over to death.
Jerome, meanwhile, regardless of his oath, took
advantage of the first opportunity that presented
itself, and before the time for his appearance in
court to bring forward his defence against the

384 JOHN HUS

witnesses had come, departed secretly from Vienna
and escaped into Moravia. From the castle of
Bitow there he greeted the official with a jeering
letter, in which he informed him that he was merry
and well among kind friends at Bitow, and re
quested him to forgive him for not keeping his pro
mise, it having been extorted from him by force.
He had no intention (he said) of eluding justice,
but, perhaps, the official himself, if he really loved
him, would not advise him to stand alone amongst
so many hundred enemies. For the time the cord
was broken and he himself at liberty; but the
official could send his adversaries and their
witnesses to Prague, and proceed at law with him
there, or else before the Boman chair, where both
parties were equally known. Furthermore, he
wished him to know that on his way he had been
in his church at Laa (where the official was rector
or "plebanus"), and being not unmindful of his
kindness, had given an invitation to the school
master and town clerk, and that he was in other
respects at his service.
This uncourteous epistle naturally irritated the
worthy official, who issued one more citation
against Jerome, which he caused to be affixed to
the door of St. Stephen's church at Vienna, allow
ing him the term of eight days to appear before
his tribunal, and answer for the violation of his
oath and his flight. As of course Jerome did not
appear, the official proceeded to excommunicate
him, and gave notice thereof by letter to Archbishop

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 385
Zbynek (September 30th), by whom Jerome was
consequently excommunicated, as he was also at
Grillenberg's request by the Bishop of Cracow.
The next appearance of Jerome in public was
in 1412, on the arrival of the bulls which had
been issued by John XXIIL, denouncing as
heretics the antipope Gregory XII. and his ally
Ladislaw, King of Naples, proclaiming a crusade
agamst Ladislaw, and offering plenary indulgences
to all who shou" either take part in the war
personally or furnish the pope with pecuniary
assistance towards it. In May the papal legates
or commissioners arrived and commenced the sale
of the indulgences. Hus preached publicly against
them, and, eventually, a public meeting was held in
the great hall of the Carolinum on the 7th of June.
Here Hus delivered his opinion against the indul
gences, his most zealous partisan being Jerome,
who supported his views in a long and eloquent
speech, and at length, becoming excited, sprang
from his seat and declared that he would go that
instant to the town hall and maintain before the
magistrates that the indulgences were illegal. Up"
rose a number of students desirous to go with
him, nor was it without difficulty that the rector
of the university succeeded by friendly argument
in diverting Jerome from his purpose. " Hearest
thou, Magister Marek ! " replied Jerome ; " anyhow
thou wilt not give thy head for me ; I shall give
my own neck for myself." Eventually, however,
he allowed himself to be calmed down, and the
2c

386 JOHN HUS.

disputation ended in the ordinary manner. But
the students, excited to enthusiasm by Jerome's
powerful speech, accompanied him to his abode
in greater numbers than accompanied Hus
himself. On the 20th of June Prague was entertained
with an unusual spectacle, got up by one of King
Wenceslas's favourites, Lord Woksa of Waldstein,
who is said to have been assisted therein by
Jerome. A satirical procession came forth on the
Kleinseite of Prague, in which a student stood in
a handsome carriage dressed up as a professional
harlot. On his neck and wrists he wore silver
bells according to the fashion of the day, which
he kept constantly ringing ; and suspended to him
in front were documents prepared in imitation of
those which issued from the papal chancery, with
bulls, i.e. papal seals, appended to them. Before
and behind him went a number of rioters, partly
students, armed with swords or staves, to the
number of some hundreds, while others, dressed
as executioners, cried out that they were conduct
ing the bulls and writings of a ruffian and heretic
to be publicly burnt as erroneous and heretical.
After traversing the Kleinseite, the procession
crossed the bridge into the Old Town, and thence
into the New Town, stopping finally at what is now
the " Karlsplatz," where the documents were burnt
under the pillory, amidst a large and noisy crowd
of spectators. Afterwards, a good many young
men, instigated, it is said, by Jerome, went about

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 387
the town from church to church at sermon time,
and wherever the preachers were recommending
the indulgences, contradicted them loudly, calling
them liars and impostors; for the indulgences
(said they) were utterly null and void.
About September, 1412, Hus was obliged to leave
Prague, whither he was never able to return for
long, but occupied himself with writing and with
preaching in the country. But Jerome had already
accepted an invitation from Witold, Grand Prince
of Lithuania, who wished to consult some one of
the more distinguished magisters of Prague — most
probably on the subject of the relations between
the Latin and Eastern Churches in the Eussian
and Lithuanian lands, which formed part of his
dominions — and who so suitable as the travelled
and accomplished Jerome ? By the end of March,
1412, Jerome was already at Cracow, where he had
full access to the court of King Wenceslas of
Poland. The first day he wore his long hanging
whiskers, but on the morrow he exhibited himself
as a perfect Polish gentleman — to use the words
of Albert, Bishop of Cracow, in a letter to Prague —
" without whiskers, in a red coat and a cap bor
dered with miniver, haughtily before the king the
queen, the princes, lords, and nobles." From the
same letter we learn that " though he stayed there
but a few days, he yet excited more sensation
among the clergy and people than had been excited
in that diocese within the memory of man." In
April he went on to Witold and travelled with him

388 JOHN HUS.

as far as Witebsk and Pskov, and then returned
to Wilna. Being asked whether people in those
districts who had come over from the Bussian to
the Latin Church ought to be rebaptised, he
answered in the negative, and recommended that
they should merely be instructed in the ordinances
of the Church which they had joined. At Witebsk
and Pskov the Latin clergy were offended at the
recognition he accorded to the faithful of the
Bussian Church, at his visiting their churches
and taking part in their processions.
Eeports were spread that he had visited the
King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania for
the purpose of perverting them from the faith,
and it was even rumoured that he had himself
joined the Bussian Church. At Cracow he was
questioned by the archbishop in presence of the
pope's legate and many other dignitaries, as to
the forty-five articles selected for condemnation
from the writings of Wycliffe, but bis simple reply
was that he rejected the tenour of the said articles.
When Hus — in violation of King Sigismund's
safe-conduct — was on November 23rd, 1414, taken
from his lodgings at Constance and cruelly im
prisoned, several of his friends contemplated going
thither to assist and stand by him. But as soon
a3 he received intelligence of their intention, he
wrote to warn them against any such thing. How
ever, Magister Christian of Prachatitz went and
obtained an interview with Hus in his prison some
time before the 4th of Maa-oh, 1415. And before

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 389
Magister Christian could have returned, Jerome of
Prague had also entered upon his journey thither,
moved no doubt by a kind of chivalrous feeling and
honourable obligation, as he had himself urged
Hus to go to the council and even promised to
follow him thither, that they might both publicly
prove their orthodoxy and purify the reputation of
their country. On April 4th, 1415, Jerome exhibited
himself unexpectedly to Hus's friends at Constance,
who earnestly entreated him to go back before he
was recognized. He was persuaded indeed to with
draw to a neighbouring town, probably Ueberlingen,
whence, on April 7th, he sent letters to Constance,
which he caused to be affixed to the city gates, to
the church doors, and to the cardinal's houses,
wherein he requested King Sigismund and the
council to grant him a safe-conduct to appear freely
before the council and answer everybody publicly,
who desired to accuse him of any error or heresy.
Beceiving no answer for two days, he obtained
written testimony of the fact from the Bohemian
lords then staying at Constance, waited five days
longer, and then commenced his return journey to
Bohemia with the document in his possession.
It was not till April 17th, that the council deter
mined to issue a citation against him, which was
placarded the next day in various places in Con
stance, giving him notice that he could have a safe-
conduct from the council against violence, but not
against due course of law. In all probability in
entire ignorance of this citation, Jerome arrived on

390 JOHN HUS.

April 20th at the town of Hirschau, about twenty-
five English miles from the Bohemian frontier, be
longing to the dominions of the Count Palatine,
John, son of Euprecht, the late rival of Wenceslas
of Bohemia as King of the Eomans. Here he was
recognized by the clergy, arrested by the Burgrave
of the Castle, and conducted back to Sulzbach, the
residence of Count John. By him intelligence was
sent at once to the council, which requested the
prince to send the prisoner at once to Constance.
On May 23rd, Magister Jerome was conducted
to Constance and dehvered in the first place to the
Count Palatine Louis, John's brother. Louis led
him in a kind of triumphal procession from his
residence to the place where the council was
assembled, marching himself before the carriage on
which was Jerome, bound with heavy fetters and
surrounded by armed men. To the manacle which
the prisoner had on his hand was attached a long
chain, held by his guards, and by it they led him
into the hall where the council was sitting.
When he was there set, fettered with chains,
before the bishops, his citation was read, which had
been placarded in various places over against his
own notifications. And forthwith one of the
bishops said to Magister Jerome : " Jerome, why
didst thou flee ? and when cited, why didst thou
not appear?" He replied : "Because I could not
have a safe-conduct from you or the king, as is
proved by those letters of the lords, which ye have.
Neither after the letters, which I published openly

JEROME OF PRAGUE. SOI
in the towns, could I obtain such safe-conduct.
Observing therefore the devices of my enemies, I
departed, that I might not be the cause of mine
own death. But had I known aught of your
citation, even if I had been in Bohemia, I should
have come to Constance." Hereupon arose a great
multitude against Magister Jerome, testifying and
accusing him with great outcry. And when they
wore silent, an old doctor, the chancellor of Paris
(Gerson), said : " Jerome, when thou wast in Paris,
thou didst imagine thyself an angel in thine
eloquence, and didst set the whole University of
Paris in an uproar, making many erroneous and
scandalous speeches." To him Magister Jerome
answered very gently: "Beverend magister, as to
all those speeches and theses, which I made and
laid down argunientatively at Paris in the general
school, according to the course and order of
magisters, answering the oppositions and objections
of magisters according to my magisterhood, I was
not then accused thereof, but was accepted as a
magister of the University of Paris. And as to
what I said formerly in my thesis, if ye allow me,
I will lay down the selfsame position before all the
council; and if it be proved that there is aught
erroneous therein, I will gladly amend it and also
humbly receive better instruction."
Thereat another magister of the University of
Cologne on the Ehine, who was sitting there, arose
and said : " Jerome, with us at Cologne thou didst
lay down many errors in thy thesis, and that is

392 JOHN HUS.

remembered to this day." To him Magister Jerome
said thus : " Prithee, tell me openly one error."
Somewhat ashamed, he said : " I do not remember
now, but hereafter they will be brought against
thee." Then a third from Heidelberg arose and said:
" When thou wast with us, thou didst lay down
various errors, in particular respecting the Holy
Trinity, when thou didst paint a shield, likening
the Holy Trinity to water, snow and ice." To this
speech Magister Jerome replied thus : " What I
then said, wrote, and painted, I am willing to say,
write, and paint here also ; and if it be proved that
there is aught erroneous therein, I will gladly,
gently, and humbly recant and give place to better
instruction." After this speech others standing by cried out :
"Burn him! Burn him!" He answered: "If ye
desire my execution and death, God's will be done ! "
Then said the " English Archbishop ; " * " No ;
Jerome ; for it is written : ' I will not the death of
a sinner, but rather that he should be converted
and live.' "
When this preliminary hearing was over, Jerome
was placed under the surveillance of John Wallen-
rode, Bishop of Eiga, and conducted by the beadles
of the city of Constance to a house, the site of
which is unknown. A certain Bohemian, getting
to know of this house, came to the window and
said thus to Magister Jerome : " Dear magister,
* It was the Bishop of Salisbury, Robert Hallam.

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 393

cheer up and be steadfast, and fear not to undergo
death for the truth's sake. Yea, thou didst dis
course much of death, when thou wast at liberty."
Jerome replied : " Dear brother, I thank thee for thy
visit, and be assured that I do not fear death. We
have formerly talked much of it, now we must make
trial indeed of what it can do." * The guards over
hearing, though probably not understanding the
conversation, drove the Bohemian from the window,
and Jerome was then removed into a tower near St.
Paul's churchyard, where he was put into the
stocks, fettered hand and foot, and given nothing
but bread and water till he became seriously ill.
In his illness he asked for a confessor, a request
which was eventually granted, and his imprison
ment rendered less cruel.
Soon after the burning of Hus on July 6th, 1415,
further steps were taken by the council in the
matter of Jerome. On the 19th, an inquiry was
held in his prison as to certain articles of the
accusations which had been framed against him.
The severity of his imprisonment and physical
weakness from illness so far overcame him, that he
eventually allowed himself to be induced to promise
recantation, a promise which he performed in two
public sittings of the council on the 11th and 23rd
of September. He renounced the doctrines of Wy
cliffe and Hus, which he was accused of holding, as
heretical, erroneous, and scandalous, acknowledged
* A treatise on death is ascribed to Jerome by Blahoslaw. It is
not, however, extant.

394 JOHN HUS.

the rightfulness of Hus's condemnation, submitted
in all respects to the decision of the council, and
promised to write to that effect himself to the King
and Queen of Bohemia, to the University of Prague,
and to other persons. In fact, he did write such a
letter in the Bohemian language, which is still ex
tant, to Lord Laczko of Krawary, one of the three
chiefs of the "union" of the Bohemian lords. As
it is the only relic of his writings in his own tongue,
I give it in extenso. It is to a great extent couched
in the very words of his recantation : —
" In the first place, my service, dear and noble lord, and my
especial benefactor ! I give thy grace to know that I am alive
and well at Constance. I hear that there has been a great
storm, both in Bohemia and in Moravia, since the death of
Magister Hus, as if he had been wrongfully condemned and
violently burned. Therefore I write this of good will, as to my
lord, that thou mayest know what course to take ; therefore by
this letter I beg thee, take not up his cause, to maintain that
wrong hath been done him. Of my knowledge that hath been
done with him which ought to have been done with him. And
think not, my lord, that I have written this under compulsion,
or have fallen away from him for any terror. I was kept strictly
in prison, and many great magisters laboured with me and
could not bring me from this idea. And I thought that wrong
had been done him. But when those passages of his, for
which he was condemned, were given me to look over, I looked
them over very carefully, and weighing them in my mind with
several magisters, I saw fully that some of those passages were
heretical, some erroneous, and others tending to produce scandal
and mischievous. But I still doubted somewhat, not being
satisfied that the passages were by that unhappy man, but I
hoped they were extracts from his discourses and fragments which
altered his meaning. And I began to ask seriously for his

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 395

own books, and the council gave me them for perusal, written
with his own hand. Thus, with celebrated magisters of holy
writ, I verified the passages for which he was burnt, and com
pared them with books written with his own hand, and found
all those passages standing fully in those senses in his books.
And therefore I cannot honestly say otherwise, than that that
unhappy man wrote many erroneous and mischievous passages ;
and I, who was his friend and the defender of his honour with
mine own lips on all sides, having ascertained this, will not be a
defender of those errors, as I have also voluntarily acknowledged
before the council at greater length. And now I have too much
to do to write at such length, but I expect I shall soon, please
God, write what has happened to me at length and send it to thy
grace. And herewith I commend myself to thy love. Written
with mine own hand at Constance the Thursday immediately
after the Nativity of the Mother of God " (September 12th).
Full confidence, however, was not placed in his
recantation, partly, perhaps, owing to his escape
from Vienna in 1410, as above related, partly, no
doubt, owing to a conversation which King Sigis
mund had held with a number of the prelates and
cardinals after Hus's hearing on June 8th, 1415,
in which he had advised them to place no faith in
any recantations, but to make short work with
both Hus and his disciples, "especially with the
fellow who is detained here." They said : "With
Jerome?" The king replied: "Yes, Jerome.
We will finish with him in less than a day ; it will
be easier work ; for the other is the master, and
that Jerome is his disciple." However, Jerome's
imprisonment in the tower was now rendered much
less severe, although the fetters were still on his
legs, and careful watch was kept by guards,

396 JOHN HUS.

The cardinals who had been appointed judges
in his case, Peter d'Ailly of Cambray and Fran
cesco Zabarella of Florence, were inclined to allow
of his being released from prison. But some of
Jerome's personal enemies, especially Michael de
Causis and Stephen Palecz, " faithless renegades,"
as the Bohemian MS. calls them, opposed it
vigorously, in which they were aided by the cele
brated John Gerson, chancellor of the University
of Paris, who had in September, 1415, composed a
treatise on the thesis, that even after recantation a
man must always remain under suspicion of heresy.
Uncircumspect words spoken by Jerome were wel
comed in confirmation of these views, and that the
more when he deferred sending the promised letters
to the King and Queen of Bohemia and to the
University of Prague, and finally altogether refused
to write them.
The matter came before the council on February
24th, and when the two cardinals expressed them
selves in favour of Jerome's liberation, Dr. Naz,
whose acquaintance we have already made during
Hus's trial, went so far as to insinuate that they
had [been bribed by the heretics or by the King of
Bohemia. Offended at this, they resigned their
office as judges, and two others were appointed in
their stead, John, Patriarch of Constantinople, and
Nicholas of Dinkensbiihl, a Doctor of Theology.
These men commenced a new investigation, but
Jerome refused to answer their questions in a satis
factory manner, demanding a public hearing in

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 397
the council, and promising to state and disclose his
final sentiments. Such a hearing he obtained on
the 23rd and 26th of May, one day being insuffi
cient for dealing with all the articles of accusation,
which were one hundred and seven in number.
It will perhaps be most interesting if I follow
rather the simple narrative of the hitherto unused
Bohemian MS. than the eloquent rhetoric of Poggio
Bracciolini's well-known letter, merely using the
latter occasionally to supplement the former.
On the Saturday before Ascension-day, Magister
Jerome was brought into the great church for a
pubhc hearing, when one hundred and seven articles
were brought forward against him, and it was
stated that he was convicted by witnesses with
regard to them and condemned. But since he had
demanded a public hearing it was allowed him.
Then Magister Jerome, with good thought and
very cleverly — sufficiently so, had he never been in
prison — replied to some of the articles until noon
day, declaring with regard to those articles, which
had been invented against him, that he was not
guilty of them, rejecting all the witnesses, and
affirming that they had witnessed and testified
against him maliciously and falsely as his enemies.
Likewise on the Tuesday afterwards he replied
to the remainder of the articles, ascribing untruth
fulness to his accusers and answering each of them
calmly when they testified agamst him, so that he
brought some of them to shame and some to silence
by his answers. Yea, when asked by one what he

398 JOHN HUS.

held as to the sacrament of the altar, he answered
thus: "Before consecration it is bread and wine,
after consecration the true body of Christ and His
holy blood ; " adding more thereto that is proper
according to the true faith.
Then another arose and said: "But, Jerome,
there is a very great rumour concerning thee, that
thou also holdest that it is bread upon the altar."
He replied : " I hold that it is bread only with the
baker, but not in the sacrament of the altar."
Against this a monk all in white very uncourteously
said thus : " Why deniest thou this ? Anyhow,
it is a manifest thing." He shouted, " Silence,
hypocritical monk ! "
When this one held his peace, another cried with
great outcry and said : " I swear on my conscience,
as to that which thou deniest, that it is so." To
him he answered : " Thus to swear on one's con
science is oft the easiest way to deceive."
And when no hold could be obtained either
therein or in aught else, nor anything had worthy
of condemnation — for he replied calmly to all and
brought them to silence — then and not till then
did he ask and obtain a quiet hearing, and spoke
before them till past noon of various learning and
the writings of philosophers and the scriptures, of
God's law and the doctors, and that very deeply
and masterly, so that all had whereat to marvel,
citing by name various philosophers, apostles, pro
phets, and martyrs, how they had for the truth's
sake been without guilt persecuted, condemned,

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 399
held for disturbers of peace, convicted as blasphe
mers of God, and had therefore been sentenced to
death and murdered in various ways. " And for
sooth," said he, " if it is unrighteousness when
this is done by foreigners or natives to an ordinary
person, it is a greater unrighteousness when one
priest suffers from another, and the greatest un
righteousness when a priest is given up to death by
a council of priests from malice and hatred." In
all this Magister Jerome spake very steadfastly and
manfully, so that he spake nought unworthy that
would not become a good man.
Afterwards Magister Jerome proceeded to himself,
giving an account of his life and his sins, and his
adventures in various lands, till he touched upon
this, how he had laboured under King Wenceslas
for this end, that Bohemians should have a superior
right to everything above all other nations, espe
cially above the Germans, and possess the chief
authority in the University of Prague.
Afterwards he applied himself to speaking of
Magister John Hus, whom he had known from his
youth, how he was a man neither licentious, nor
covetous, nor a drunkard, nor defiled with other
open sins, but that he was humble, honourable,
sober, diligent in teaching and reading, a righteous,
faithful, and holy preacher, and whatsoever
Magister John Hus and Magister John Wycliffe
had preached against the wickedness, pride, malice,
ruffianism, and avarice of the priesthood, all this
he held and would hold unto death. As regarded

400 JOHN HUS.

the other articles of the Christian faith, he held and
believed them all according to the Holy Catholic
Church of Christ, assenting to no error or heresy.
Finally, he said this also, that although he had
incurred guilt against the good Lord God, yet were
there no sins so grievous on his conscience, as that
sin which he had committed in that villainous
and accursed pulpit, wherein in his recantation for
fear of death he had assented to the unrighteous
condemnation of Magister John Hus, a holy man,
speaking against him unjustly to please them.
Now that the Lord God had aided him to enter the
self-same pulpit again, he cancelled, annulled, and
revoked that recantation, asserting that wrong and
injury had been done to Magister John Hus by the
council, asserting, too, that what he had said
against Magister John Hus to please them, he had
said unjustly, and was heartily sorry for it.
During these speeches of Magister Jerome, which
he spoke at the beginning, many felt themselves
inclined towards his liberation, but on account of
the end they were exasperated at him, saying:
" Now hath he sentenced himself." He was, there
fore, immediately led back to prison, where he
was fettered very heavily with chains — feet, hands,
and waist.
Two days were given him for change of mind,
during which he was visited and reasoned with by
the most learned magisters, especially Cardinal
Zabarella of Florence, but in vain.
Then, on the Saturday before Ascension (May

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 401

30th), Magister Jerome was brought into the great
church, where a multitude of prelates, monks, and
other priestly persons had assembled for his final
condemnation, together with a large number of
armed men. He was then bidden to abide by what
he had done at his first recantation, and give up
his laudation of Magister Wycliffe and Magister
John Hus. To this Magister Jerome answered
very forcibly and courageously, without any fear,
rebuked them for their disorders, and said thus :
" I take to witness the Lord my God, and declare
before you, that I hold nought heretical and nought
erroneous, but that I hold and believe all the
articles of the Christian faith, as the Holy Catholic
Church holds and believes. But to the condemna
tion of the good magisters aforesaid, whom ye have
unrighteously and maliciously condemned, because
they taught and wrote of your disorderly life to
your reproof and correction, I will not assent,
although I am therefore to be now sentenced by
you to death. God's will be done ! but I will not
act against my conscience; for I know, that in
what they have written against the disorders and
unrighteousness of the priesthood, they have set
down the truth."
After this the Bishop of Lodi ascended the
pulpit, and urged the whole council to the con
demnation of Jerome, founding his discourse on
the words of the Gospel of St. Mark (xiv. 14) :
"The Lord Christ upbraided their unbelief and
hardness of heart."
2d

402 JOHN HUS.

"Let the holy council, as it punished the unbelief of the
faithless heretics, John Wycliffe and John Hus, condemning
their doctrines as erroneous, heretical, and injurious to the
Holy Church — let it punish Magister Jerome, their follower, who
is stiffnecked, wilful, audacious, and obstinate in his malice, and
let it take vengeance upon him, that others, who might wish to
take up the same, seeing that he was not forgiven, may not
spring up. But, if any such should appear, who should thus
defile the Holy Church, any witnesses whatever, even of evil
repute, as ruffians, thieves, harlots, ought to be received against
them ; yea, if that were not enough, they ought to be tortured
with various tortures until they acknowledged their errors, and
afterwards rooted out and destroyed, unless they were willing to
give way and recant, that mercy might be shown them. But to
thee, Jerome, it will not be granted, since thou hast taken
again into thy throat, what thou hadst first recanted, doing
this to great scandal and to the insult of the holy council, and
returning like a dog to thy heretical vomit. Therefore, in its
sentence against thee, whatever the holy council doth, it doth
properly and rightfully."
After the conclusion of this and many other dis
courses, Magister Jerome spoke to them exceedingly
intelligently and cleverly, with a good memory and
boldness, declaring that what was being done to
him was being done lawlessly and unrighteously.
" I hold," said he, "no erroneous or heretical
articles contrary to the Christian faith, neither
have I imagined or brought forward aught against
the estate or order of the Catholic Christian
Church, save what is against a wicked, proud, and
disorderly priesthood; and I have often com
plained, and that with sorrow, that they thus
behave contrary to their consecration and order."
And he declared that neither therein nor in aught

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 403

else had they any fit cause for sentencing him to
death. If, then, they relied on witnesses over and
above this his faithful and honest confession, he
declared expressly that such witnesses were false
witnesses, neither ought credence to be given them,
for all that they had brought against him they had
not brought honestly, but from anger, malice, and
hatred.
i Then some of them, hearing this language of
his, advised him to make, as had been offered him,
a recantation like unto his first one; else, if he
did not so do, it would go hard with him. Then,
seeing that it was drawing nigh to death for him,
he said thus : "Ye wish to condemn me wrongfully
and miserably, without any certain charge. I
leave you as a legacy after my death a sting and
gnawing to pierce your consciences, and I cite you
before the Most High and Eighteous Judge, the
Lord God Almighty, to answer me before Him at
the end of a hundred years."
This they turned into ridicule, and forthwith
ordered the sentence, which they held ready framed
in many words against him, to be read to this
effect : That the holy council of Constance now
cuts off Jerome of Prague from the root, as a
rotten and withered branch, for his errors, auda
city, and obstinacy, and because he hath con
demned his first recantation, contrary to the honour
of the holy council, as a damned and accursed
heretic, and finally delivers him over to the secular
power, that it may take him, and execute worthy
vengeance upon him for his great wickedness.

404 JOHN HUS.

After this sentence they brought before Magister
Jerome a great and tall crown, painted round
about with red devils, that he might go in it to
death. On espying it, he took off his cap, threw
it among the prelates, and taking the crown on his
hand, said: "My Lord Jesus Christ, when dying
for me, miserable man that I am, had on his head
a more grievous crown of thorns. I, too, for His
grace and love will gladly bear this blasphemous
crown upon me to death."
Forthwith the beadles took hold of him and led
him out of the church. On the way, going cheer
fully on, he chanted the Catholic creed, as it is
chanted in church, from beginning to end, with a
loud voice, raising his eyes to heaven. On finishing
this he commenced other hymns, both of the
mother of God and of other saints. And thus con
tinuously singing he came to the place where they
had previously burned Magister John Hus. Here
he knelt on his knees at the stake, which had been
prepared for his burning, and prayed within himself
very meekly for a good while. Then the exe
cutioners raised him, stripped him or made him
strip himself of his garments, and put a foul cloth
on his loins. They then cruelly bound him stand
ing to the stake, which was fixed in the ground,
with ropes and chains. And when they began to
place the wood around him, miughng straw with it,
he chanted with a clear voice the Easter hymn:
" Salve, festa dies!" singing it to the end. He finished
with the Catholic creed, and thereupon raised his

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 405

voice to the people standing by, saying thus in
German: "Dear people, know that I believe even
as I have just chanted. Likewise, as to the other
articles of the faith, I believe as every Christian
ought to believe. But I am now dying, because I
would not assent to the priestly council's sentence
and condemnation of Magister John Hus, as just
and rightful ; for I knew the magister from my
youth up, that he was an honourable and noble
man, and a preacher of the faith of God's law and
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
The executioners having now surrounded him
with wood up to the crown of the head behind and
up to the breast in front, and placed his garments
on the logs, were about to light the fire behind his
back, that he might not see it. " Come here," said
he, " and light the fire in my sight ; if I had feared
it, I should never have come to this place." He
then chanted with a loud voice : " Into thy hands,
Lord God, I commit my soul." After this, when
the violence of the fire caught him, he cried out in
the Bohemian tongue : " Lord God Almighty, have
mercy on me ! Forgive me my sins ! For Thou
knowest that I have loved Thy holy truth." When
the flame struck him, he prayed within himself a
good while, until thus doing he died.
Afterwards they brought his bed-clothes and other
things, burned them all to dust, placed them on a
cart, and cast them into the Bhine.
Such was the end of the most brilliant — I do not
say, able — man and scholar of his day. It is

406 JOHN HUS.

manifest that he could never have excited such
storms in foreign universities had he not been an
overmatch for his opponents in eloquence, learning,
and disputation. Various circumstances above
related throw more or less light upon his extra
ordinary powers. But it is to Poggio Bracciolini
that we must look for the fullest testimony to his
ability as an orator and disputer. Poggio was well
used to the society of the great, the learned and the
eloquent ; yet his admiration of Jerome transcends
all ordinary limits, and is expressed in terms of real
and genuine and not merely of rhetorical and
affected feeling.
" I own," says he, " that I never saw any one, who in plead
ing a cause, especially one for life and death, approached more
nearly to the eloquence of the ancients, whom we admire so
much. It is marvellous to have seen, with what words, what
eloquence, what arguments, what expression of countenance,
what visage, what confidence, he answered his adversaries and
finally concluded the pleading of his cause. . . . Many he
smote with jests, many with invectives; many he frequently
compelled to laugh in what was no laughing matter, by jeering
at the reproaches made to him by his adversaries. . , . This,
however, was a token of the greatest intellectual power, that,
when his discourse was frequently interrupted and he was assailed
with various outcries by some who carped at his sentiments, not
one of them did he leave unscathed, and chastising them all
alike, compelled them either to blush or to hold their peace. . . .
His voice was sweet, clear, and sonorous, with a certain dignified
oratorical gesticulation, either to express indignation, or to move
compassion, which, however, he neither asked for nor wished to
obtain. He stood fearless and dauntless, not merely despising
but even desiring death, so that you would have said he was
another Cato."

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 407

With his tall stature and powerful build, his long
black whiskers, his handsome dress, his eloquent
tongue, his graceful carriage, his travelled experience
of men and manners, there must have been, as
Baron Helfert says, something "heroic" in Jerome's
appearance, which could not fail to be extremely
fascinating. In one respect he appears not to have
been above bis day, and that is in the double deal
ing of his escape from Vienna, when he con
descended to meet those who held the maxim, that
"no faith need be kept with heretics," by the
application of the counter principle, that, con
versely, no faith need be kept with them. With
this exception no flaw can be found in his moral
character, and he stands forth as one of the best
men, as well as the most brilliant layman of his
day. It is strange, too, that the condemnation and
death of both his master and himself were founded
on side issues, and not on direct and genuine un-
orthodoxy according to the orthodoxy of the times.
Hus was put to death because, although willing
enough to submit to the instruction, correction, and
definition of the council, yet he steadfastly refused
to recant doctrines and opinions which he had
never held and which he abhorred ; Jerome, be
cause he refused to acknowledge that the burning of
Hus was just and righteous. Hus was the symbol of
the dawn of a moral and religious, Jerome of that
of a moral and intellectual insurrection agamst the
corruptions and disorders of the clergy in what was

408 JOHN HUS.

perhaps the most corrupt and wicked age that the
ecclesiastical body has ever known. And the- very
enormity and almost incredible vastness of the evil,
agamst which their honest voices were raised, is
one of the principal things that now stand in the
way of the due appreciation of their services to the
human race. They and their nation ripened before
others, and both they and their nation have paid
the penalty which falls upon those who are before
their time ; they have been denied the recognition
and appreciation which they have deserved. The
word Czech is probably derived from the verb
Cziti, " to begin ; " let Hus and Jerome in par
ticular and the Czeskish or Bohemian nation in
general receive the credit due to those who have
opened a new path, into which others entered and
walked successfully therein. Honour to those who
followed their footsteps and carried the sacred
banner further and further onwards ! But honour,
too, to the men and the little Slavonic nation that
made the first beginning !

THE END.

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