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The Great Controversy 1888
fidelity of Huss, and in contrast pondered upon his own denial of the
truth. He thought of the divine Master whom he had pledged himself
to serve, and who for his sake endured the death of the cross. Before
his retraction he had found comfort, amid all his sufferings, in the
assurance of God’s favor; but now remorse and doubt tortured his soul.
He knew that still other retractions must be made before he could be
at peace with Rome. The path upon which he was entering could end
only in complete apostasy. His resolution was taken: to escape a brief
period of suffering he would not deny his Lord.
[112]
Soon he was again brought before the council. His submission had
not satisfied his judges. Their thirst for blood, whetted by the death
of Huss, clamored for fresh victims. Only by an unreserved surrender
of the truth could Jerome preserve his life. But he had determined to
avow his faith, and follow his brother martyr to the flames.
He renounced his former recantation, and, as a dying man,
solemnly required an opportunity to make his defense. Fearing the
effect of his words, the prelates insisted that he should merely affirm
or deny the truth of the charges brought against him. Jerome protested
against such cruelty and injustice. “You have held me shut up three
hundred and forty days in a frightful prison,” he said, “in the midst
of filth, noisomeness, stench, and the utmost want of everything. You
then bring me out before you, and lending an ear to my mortal enemies,
you refuse to hear me. If you be really wise men, and the lights of
the world, take care not to sin against justice. As for me, I am only a
feeble mortal; my life is but of little importance; and when I exhort
you not to deliver an unjust sentence, I speak less for myself than for
you.”
His request was finally granted. In the presence of his judges,
Jerome kneeled down and prayed that the Divine Spirit might control
his thoughts and words, that he might speak nothing contrary to the
truth or unworthy of his Master. To him that day was fulfilled the
promise of God to the first disciples: “Ye shall be brought before
governors and kings for my sake; ... but when they deliver you up, take
no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that
same hour what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit
of your Father which speaketh in you.” [
Matthew 10:18-20
.] The words
of Jerome excited astonishment and admiration, even in his enemies.
For a whole year he had been immured in a dungeon, unable to read