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Two Heroes Face Death
63
ought we to be astonished that He has left us His example? ...
Therefore, beloved, if my death ought to contribute to His glory,
pray that it may come quickly, and that He may enable me to support
all my calamities with constancy. ... Let us pray to God ... that I may
not suppress one tittle of the truth of the gospel, in order to leave my
brethren an excellent example to follow.
In another letter, Huss spoke with humility of his own errors,
accusing himself “of having felt pleasure in wearing rich apparel and
of having wasted hours in frivolous occupations.” He then added,
“May the glory of God and the salvation of souls occupy thy mind,
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and not the possession of benefices and estates. Beware of adorning
thy house more than thy soul; and, above all, give thy care to the
spiritual edifice. Be pious and humble with the poor, and consume
not thy substance in feasting.
At Constance, Huss was granted full liberty. To the emperor’s
safe-conduct was added a personal assurance of protection by the
pope. But, in violation of these repeated declarations, the Reformer
was in a short time arrested by order of the pope and cardinals and
thrust into a loathsome dungeon. Later he was transferred to a strong
castle across the Rhine and there kept a prisoner. The pope was soon
after committed to the same prison
He had been proved guilty of
the basest crimes, besides murder, simony, and adultery, “sins not fit
to be named.” He was finally deprived of the tiara. The antipopes
also were deposed, and a new pontiff chosen.
Though the pope himself had been guilty of greater crimes than
Huss had charged upon the priests, yet the same council which
degraded the pontiff proceeded to crush the Reformer. The impris-
onment of Huss excited great indignation in Bohemia. The emperor,
loath to violate a safe-conduct, opposed the proceedings against
him. But the enemies of the Reformer brought forward arguments
to prove that “faith ought not to be kept with heretics, nor persons
suspected of heresy, though they are furnished with safe-conducts
from the emperor and kings.
3
Bonnechose, vol. 1, pp. 147, 148.
4
Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 148, 149.
5
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 247.
6
Jacques Lenfant, History of the Council of Constance, vol. 1, p. 516.