delicate sensibility of his conscience. He departed from Prague on the 11th of October, 1414, in company with four others-the two knights who had it in charge to protect him from all injury, Wenzel, of Duba, and John, of Chlum, that zealous, noble friend of Huss, whom we shall often have occasion to mention hereafter; Chlum's secretary, the Bachelor Peter of Mladenowic, who also was sincerely attached to Huss, and his friend the delegate from Prague university, Priest John Cardinalis, of Reinstein.

Though it was more particularly with the party of the German theologians that Huss had thus far had to contend, yet the reception he met with in his journey through Germany was by no means such as he might have been led to expect in a country where the report of his heresies had been so industriously circulated by his enemies. A great longing for the reformation of the church had already spread wide among the German people; and this perhaps inclined many to look favourably on a man who had distinguished himself, as they may have heard in various ways, by his zeal against the corruption of the spiritual orders, and for the purification of the church. Their personal intercourse with Huss, the impression conveyed by his looks and his discourse, would tend to strengthen this inclination to regard him with favour. He nowhere avoided notice: in every town he showed himself openly in his carriage, travelling in the dress of a priest.† In all the places through which he passed, he posted up public notices in Bohemian, Latin, and German, offering to give any one who wished to speak with him, on the matter of his faith, an account of his religious convictions, and to prove that he was very far from cherishing anything like heresy. In the little town of Pernau, the parish priest with his vicars waited upon him in person at his quarters, drank to his health from a large tankard of wine, conversed with him on matters of Christian faith, avowed that he fully agreed with him, and declared that he had always been his friend. In Nurem

*Scis, quia (proh dolor) ante sacerdotum meum libenter et sæpe schacos lusi, tempus neglexi et sæpe alios et me ad iracundiam per illum ludum infeliciter provocavi.

† Mikowec, 2, Letter of the 16th of Nov., 1414. Opp. I. fol. 57, 2; Ep. 3.

VOL. IX.

2 H

burg, the ancient seat of the Friends of God, merchants, who arrived earlier than himself, had already spread the news that he was on his way and might soon be expected, and large bodies of the people came out to meet him. Before dinner he received a letter from a parish priest of the church of St. Sebaldus, requesting an interview with him, to which he cheerfully consented. During dinner a note was handed to him by one of his attendants, Wenzel, of Duba, purporting that, in consequence of the notice he had posted up, many citizens and masters wished to speak with him. This, too, was welcome tidings. He left his table for the purpose of conversing with them. The masters were for having a private interview, because they had scruples about the propriety of speaking on such matters before laymen. But Huss would listen to no such proposal of discussing matters of faith privately, declaring that he had always testified of gospel truth openly, and meant to do so still. In presence of the burgomaster and many citizens, he conversed about his doctrine till nightfall, and his hearers professed to be satisfied with him. If Huss sought to approve himself as a genuine witness of gospel truth, before all the world, we surely ought not to look upon this as an ambitious effort on his part to court the approbation of the many; unless we are disposed to raise the same objection against every zealous preacher of evangelical truth; which, to be sure, is often done. While Huss was disputing with certain persons in the little Suabian town of Bibrach, the noble Knight John, of Chlum, took so lively an interest in this disputation, and spoke with so much warmth in favour of the doctrines of Huss, that he was taken for a doctor of theology; hence Huss was wont afterwards, in his letters, playfully to call him the Doctor of Bibrach.* Well aware of the great ignorance of the people in the things of religion, Huss was accustomed wherever he lodged to leave for his hosts on departing a copy of the Ten Commandments, or even to write them in the meal, as he had written them on the walls of Bethlehem Chapel.

He reached Constance on the 3rd of November, some days after the arrival of pope John, whom he met on the way.

* Opp. I. fol. 71, 1; Ep. 45 in the marginal note.

During the first four weeks which Huss spent at Constance nothing was proposed or said with regard to his affair. He would have found no friends, he writes, in Constance, if his adversaries from Bohemia had not taken pains to make him hated.* Meantime his most violent enemies, the already-mentioned Michael de Causis, Paletz, and the prime author of all the last commotions in Prague, the man who as papal legate had brought to Bohemia the bull of indulgence and crusade, Wenzel Tiem, formerly dean, then provost of Passau, had also arrived.† These persons set everything in motion against him. Michael de Causis, on the next day after his arrival, caused a notice to be posted on all the churches, accusing him as the vilest heretic. His opponents brought with them the writings which he had composed during the last disputes and attempts at compromise; writings in which he had most freely expressed his opinions; and these they now put in circulation. These were especially to be used against him. The form of accusation, drawn up by Michael de Causis, was well calculated to arouse against Huss the anxious suspicions of the hierarchy. Assertions ascribed wrongly to Huss, and assertions which had really been made by him, were lumped together; and his accuser declares, that if he should be acquitted, the clergy in Bohemia must suffer grievous persecutions in their property and persons; everything would be turned to confusion, and the evil would spread through all Germany; and such a persecution of the clergy and the faithful would ensue, as had never been known since the days of Constantine. If he should in any way get safely out of the hands of the council, he and his adherents would have it to say, that his doctrines must have been approved by the council. The princes and laity generally would fall upon the clergy, as they had already done in Bohemia, and as they were generally inclined to do. The pope sent as his delegate, to Huss, the bishop of Constance, accompanied by his officials, and the Auditor sacri palatii, a high officer of the

* Mikowec, 2, Letter.

† Words of Huss: Multi adversarii et fortes insurgunt contra me, quos præsertim concitat venditor indulgentiarum, Pathaviensis decanus. Opp. I. fol. 58, 2; Ep. 6.

Hist. Hussi, Opp. I. fol. 6, seq.

papal court. They informed him it had been with the pope a matter of much deliberation how to dispose of the interdict pronounced on the place where he resided. Finally, the pope had concluded to resort to the pope's plenitude of power, and to suspend the interdict and the ban for the present. It was only requested that, in order to avoid giving scandal, he would keep away from mass and other church solemnities; in all other respects, he should have liberty to go wherever he pleased. But Huss had never relinquished his right, as a priest, to hold mass; nor did he mean to do it now; a pertinacity which could not fail to give great offence to the hierarchical party.* When many

of the friends of Huss, protesting to his innocence, urged the pope to retract all that had hitherto been done in the matter, he gave an evasive answer, laying all the blame on the enemies of Huss in Bohemia, who refused to take back anything, but warmly persisted in their accusations against him. Yet many, no doubt, were anxious that the whole affair should be settled before it was brought up as a matter for public deliberation. And perhaps Huss, if he could have been prevailed upon to humble himself before the papal authority, and to give in a recantation of the heresies of which he had been accused, might have secured to himself this advantage. Two bishops and a doctor of theology actually made to him a proposition of this sort. But Huss would consent to nothing like it. He wanted a public hearing before the assembled council; before that council he felt impelled to give in the account of his faith, and bear witness of the truth, for which he contended. He hoped that nothing would be done in his affair until the emperor Sigismund should arrive, who had already caused him to be informed of his satisfaction at learning that he had started on his journey without waiting for the letter of safe-conduct, which had first reached him in Constance. When the

* Words of the Magister Joh. Cardinalis of Reinstein: Magister quotidie divina peragit et in tota via peregit hucusque. Opp. I. fol. 58, 1; Ep. 4.

+ Papa non vult tollere processus et dixit: Quid ego possum tamen? vestri faciunt. Ibid. fol. 58, 2; Ep. 6.

Sed locuti sunt duo episcopi et unus doctor cum Jo. Lepka, quod ego sub silentio con ordarem. Ibid.

emperor arrived he hoped by his intercession to obtain a public hearing.* Though he could not foresee what was to be the issue, and was far from amusing himself with any false hopes, yet trust in God and in his truth raised him even now above all fear; and regarding himself simply as an instrument of that truth, he confidently expected that it would come forth triumphant out of every conflict. "Assuredly," says he in a letter to Prague, "Christ is with me as a strong champion; therefore fear I not what the enemy may do to me.' He says, speaking of the plots of his enemies : "I fear nothing; for I hope that, after a great conflict, will ensue a great victory, and after the victory a still greater reward, and a still greater discomfiture of my enemies."t

Relying upon the expectation that he would be permitted to speak before the assembled council, he availed himself of his leisure at Constance in preparing several discourses which he meant to deliver on that occasion. Accordingly we find a discourse in which he designed to give an account of his faith. He testified in it his assent to the churchconfession of faith; appealing to the fact that the Apostles' Creed had been inscribed by him on the walls of Bethlehem Chapel. He declares, too, that it was not his design to teach anything contrary to the decisions of the general councils, or contrary to the ancient canon and the authority of the approved church teachers; always presupposing, however, that they asserted nothing but what was contained, implicite or explicite, in the sacred Scriptures. And since his disputes on the matter of indulgence had given occasion to the charge brought against him by some, that he did not acknowledge the common fund of the merits of

*Huss remarks of one of the knights: D. Latzembock injunxit mihi, quod ante adventum regis nihil attentem quoad actus. Et spero, quod respondebo in publica audientia. Ibid. Ep. 5. Observing that men feared his public answer, he adds: Quam spero de Dei gratia, quod sim eam consecuturus, dum rex Sigismundus adfuerit. Ibid. Ep. 6. + Ibid. De fidei suæ elucidatione.

§ Symbolum plebem docui, et ipsum in pariete capella, in qua prædicavi, describere præcepi vulgariter. Opp. I. fol. 51, 2.

|| Veneror etiam omnia concilia generalia et specialia, decreta et decretales, et omnes leges, canones et constitutiones: de quanto consonant explicite vel implicite legi Dei. Ibid. fol. 48, 2.