council can convict me of an error, I will gladly do all that the council requires of me." "Mark," said the bishops at this, "how obstinately he clings to his errors!" And so they returned back to the emperor with this final declaration of Huss.

tion.

On the 6th of July, Huss appeared before the assembled council, at which the emperor also was present, seated upon his throne, surrounded by the princes, and with the insignia of the empire. In the middle of the hall where the council met, stood a sort of table, and near it a wooden frame or stand, upon which were hung the priestly vestments which Huss was to put on previous to his degradaAfter an introductory discourse the process was read, together with all the articles of complaint, and from the whole the conclusion was drawn that Huss was a follower of Wickliff, and had disseminated Wickliffite doctrines. Various errors and heresies were ascribed also to Huss himself, with various qualifications, and he was pronounced an obstinate, incorrigible heretic. One of the points here specified was the appeal of Huss to Jesus Christ, which was characterised as an overleaping of the constituted instances of ecclesiastical courts, as an act of infatuation, and a contempt of church jurisdiction.* Huss attempted, more than once, to interpose a word in defence of himself against the allegations; but he was not permitted to proceed. He pleaded once more for liberty to vindicate himself, lest those present might suppose that the things alleged against him were true. But when he found that all was of no avail, falling upon his knees, he commended in prayer his whole cause to God and to Christ. Though commanded to be silent, he felt impelled, during the reading of the process against him and the pronouncing of his sentence, occasionally to utter a word in vindication of himself. He ex

pressed himself with great presence of mind, uniting confidence with humility. When his appeal to Christ was, for the reasons above stated, condemned as heretical, he said: "O Christ! whose word is, by this council, publicly condemned, I appeal to thee anew, thou who, when thou

*Cum appellationem ad Dominum Jesum Christum, tanquam supremum judicem omissis ecclesiasticis mediis interposuit. Histor. Hussi, Opp. I. fol. 27, 2.

wast ill intreated by thine enemies, didst appeal to thy Father, thy cause thou didst commit to that most righteous judge, that we, following thy example, might, when oppressed by injustice, take refuge in thee." When it was objected to Huss that he had remained for so long a time under the ban, and yet held mass, he told what he had done to obtain his acquittal and the removal of the ban, and concluded by stating how he had come to the council of his own accord with a safe-conduct from the emperor. In saying this, he turned and looked the emperor full in the face. The latter is said to have blushed.* When Huss was pronounced an obstinate heretic, he said: "I never was obstinate; but as I have always demanded, up to this hour, so now I ask only to be informed of what is better from holy Scripture; and I confess that so earnestly do I strive after the truth, that if with a word I could destroy the errors of all heretics, there is no peril I would not willingly incur for that end." When his books were condemned, he said: "Wherefore condemn ye them, when you have not offered a single argument to prove that they are at variance with the holy Scriptures and with the articles of faith? And what injustice is this, that ye condemn, with the rest of my books written in the Bohemian tongue, books that ye have never seen, much less read!" At times he prayed with his eyes fixed heavenward. When his sentence had been read to the end, falling upon his knees, he said: "Lord Jesus! forgive my enemies; as thou knowest that I have been falsely accused by them, and that they have used against me false testimony and calumnies. Forgive them for the sake of thy great mercy!" These words were received with laughter by many. Next followed his degradation from the spiritual order, which was performed by seven bishops selected for this purpose. First, he was clad with the priestly vestments. Through the whole of this transaction, the example of Christ stood distinctly before Huss, whose steps he was conscious of following in all the insults he had to endure. In this sense he interpreted many parts of the proceeding. Invested with the

*This is so stated by V. d. Hardt, IV. p. 393: Hæc cum loqueretur, oculos in imperatorem defixos habuit. Ille vero statim vehementer erubuit, atque ejus verecundus tinxerat ora rubor.

priestly robes, he was called upon once more by the bishops to show some regard for his honour and his soul's salvation, and recant. Addressing himself with tears to the people who stood around, he said: "These worshipful bishops require it of me to confess before you all that I have erred. If this thing were of such a nature that it could be done so as to involve only the disgrace of a single individual, they would more easily persuade me to it. But I now stand before the eyes of my God, without dishonouring whom, as well as meeting the condemnation of my own conscience, I cannot do this. For I know that I have never taught anything of the kind that I have been falsely accused of teaching; but have always thought, written, and taught the contrary. With what face could I look to heaven, with what brow could I meet those who have heard my teaching, of whom the number is great, if by my fault it should happen that what hitherto they were most certainly assured of through me, should be made uncertain to them? Should I by my example destroy the peace of so many souls whom I have made familiar with the most settled testimonies of Scripture, and with the purest doctrines of the gospel, and thereby fortified against all the assaults of Satan? Far be it from me that I should value this my mortal body more highly than the salvation of those souls." This too, which was now spoken by him, was construed as a proof of his obstinacy in his heresies. The several articles of his dress were then removed, piece by piece, with set forms of expression. When the cup of the eucharist was taken from his hands, with the words: "We take from thee, condemned Judas, the cup of salvation," he answered: "But I trust in God, my Father, the Almighty, and my Lord Jesus Christ, for whose name I bear this, that he will not take from me the cup of his salvation; and I have a firm hope that I shall yet drink of it to-day in his kingdom." A dispute having arisen about the mode of removing his tonsure, Huss said to the emperor: I am surprised when all are alike cruel, they cannot agree among themselves about the mode of cruelty." A cap painted over with devils was then placed on his head, with the inscription: "Arch-heretic." But he said: "My Lord Jesus Christ wore, on my account, a crown of thorns; why

should not I be willing, for his sake, to wear this easier though shameful badge? I will do it, and gladly." When this was done, the bishops said: "Now we give over thy soul to the devil." "But I," said Huss, raising his eyes to heaven, "commend into thy hands, Jesus Christ, my soul, by thee redeemed." Huss, cast forth from the church, was now delivered over to the secular arm. The emperor then commanded duke Louis of Bavaria to consign Huss to the executioners of justice. When, on being led away by them, he beheld his books burning before the doors of the church, he smiled. He bade all whom he passed not to believe that he was about to die for the sake of some erroneous doctrine, but that it was only through the hatred and malice of his adversaries, who had brought against him false accusations. On arriving at the place of execution, Huss fell upon his knees and prayed, in the words of a few psalms, particularly the fifty-first and thirty first. He was heard often to repeat the words: “ Into thy hands, Lord, I commit my spirit." When laymen, standing by, heard this, they said: "What he may have done before, we know not; but now we see and hear him pray and speak most devoutly!" When compelled to rise from his knees, he said: "Lord Jesus Christ! stand by me, that by thy help I may be enabled, with a strong and stedfast soul, to endure this cruel and shameful death, to which I have been condemned on account of the preaching of the holy gospel and thy word." Huss then permitted his first prison-keepers to come near him, and said to them in the German language: I thank you, my dearest brethren, for all the kind attentions you have shown me, for you waited upon me like dearest brothers, to say nothing of your being my keepers. And be assured that I have a firm trust in my Saviour, in whose name I will, with good courage, suffer this kind of death, believing that I shall to-day reign with him.”* He then explained, as he had done before, the cause of his death to the people. When he was placed upon the faggots, bound fast to the stake, and chained to it by the neck, he said: "I willingly wear these chains for Christ's sake, who wore still more grievous ones." Before the pile was

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* V. d. Hardt, IV. p. 447.

lighted, the marshal of the empire, Von Pappenheim, rode up to him and called upon him once more to recant. But he said: "What error should I recant, when I am conscious of no error? for I know that what has been falsely brought against me, I never thought, much less have I ever preached. But the chief aim of my preaching was to teach men repentance and the forgiveness of sins according to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the expositions of the holy fathers; therefore am I prepared to die with a joyful soul." The fire being kindled, Huss commenced singing, with a loud voice: "Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy upon me!" As he was beginning to repeat this for the third time, his voice was stifled by the flames, which the wind drove towards him; yet his lips were seen for a long time to move, as in prayer. The ashes of his body, when burned, were cast into the Rhine, so that nothing might remain of him to pollute the earth, precisely as the ashes of Polycarp were disposed of by the pagans.

We have still to speak of the fellow-combatant of Huss, Jerome of Prague. This person, who appeared sometimes in the character of a philosopher and theologian, sometimes in that of a knight and man of the world, had created a still greater and more general stir than Huss. He had laboured in countries the most diverse to promote the cause of reform, and had displayed far greater zeal than the more practical Huss in diffusing the doctrines of Wickliff. In Bohemia and Moravia, he had extended his influence among all classes.* Then again he had produced great commotions at several universities by his zeal in defending the doc

*To this there is doubtless special allusion in what the abbot of Dola says, when speaking of persons, who, after wandering through many countries, laboured to disseminate Wickliffite doctrines in Bohemia and Moravia, at the courts of princes, in cathedral churches, in convents, even among the Carthusians, and among people of both sexes, and among students at the universities: Quidam insani magistri Wiclefitici ordinis et schismatis non solum post discursum peregrinarum nobis terrarum et districtuum etiam in terris nostris, Bohemiæ et Moraviæ, aulas principum, collegia et cathedras sacerdotum, scholas studentium, promiscui sexus popularem tumultum fidelium, antra deserti claustralium, sed etiam segregatas in partem et pacem silentii Cartusiensium cellulas cum terrore valido (repleverunt) vehementer. Antiwikleffus, in Pez, IV, 2, pp. 157 et 158.