Hus in Prison.
Despite the royal safe-conduct and the promised papal protection, Hus
was flung into prison in a prelate's palace on Nov. 28.
John of Chlum forced his way into the papal apartments and charged the
holy ex-pirate Pope John XXIII to his infallible face with having broken
his sacred papal promise, and then fixed on the doors of the Cathedral a
solemn protest against the papal perfidy and the shameless violation of
the royal safe-conduct.
[Illustration: HUS TOWER]
On Dec. 6, Hus was dragged to the Dominican convent on an island in
Lake Constance, and stuck into a dark hole at the opening of a sewer,
where he was struck down by a violent fever, so that his life was
despaired of, and the Pope sent his own physician.
Crowned in Aachen on Nov. 8, as Emperor of Germany, Sigismund arrived in
Constance on Christmas and seated himself in his imperial robes on his
throne in the cathedral during the imposing religious service.
The Emperor read the Gospel for the day from Luke 2:1--"There went out
a decree from Caesar Augustus." The Pope trembled as he saw before him
the successor to the throne and power of Caesar.
Near the Emperor sat the Empress; beside him stood the Markgraf of
Brandenburg with the scepter; the Duke of Saxony, as marshal of the
realm, held aloft a drawn sword; between the Pope and the Emperor stood
his father-in-law, Count Cilley, holding the golden globe; the Pope
handed the Emperor a sword with the charge to use it in defence of the
Church, which Sigismund promised to do.
When the Emperor heard his safe-conduct had been disgracefully broken,
he blustered. The Pope insisted the Emperor had no right to interfere in
the treatment of a pestilent heretic. The Emperor broke his sacred word
and sacrificed Hus to his enemies.
This treachery cost him the kingdom of Bohemia. The Holy Synod defended
Sigismund, declaring "no faith whatever, either by natural, human or
divine right, ought to be observed toward a heretic."
On the same day, New Year, 1415, the Emperor also sacrificed the Holy
Father, John XXIII.
About the first of March Hus was taken to the Franciscan convent near
the Pope's dwelling and fed from the Pope's kitchen, that is, he was
almost starved; on March 20, the Pope fled, and Hus had to go without
food for three days.
[Illustration: CASTLE OF GOTTLIEBEN ON THE RHINE]
Did the Emperor release Hus, now that the Pope was fled? On March 25,
the Emperor turned Hus over to the Bishop of Constance, who imprisoned
him in his Castle of Gottlieben in a chamber so low Hus could not stand
upright. He was handcuffed by day and chained to the wall by night,
poorly fed, and separated from his friends; and this went on for
seventy-three days!
"The holy and infallible Council," as the Pope called it, brought
against the infallible Pope seventy-two charges--the murder of Pope
Alexander V, rape, adultery, sodomy, incest, simony, corruption,
poisoning, denying the resurrection and eternal life, etc., etc.
Though hostile to the Pope personally, the Patriarch of Antioch quoted
Gratian that if a Pope, by his misconduct and negligence, should lead
crowds of men into hell, no one but God would be entitled to find fault
with him.
The Pope promised to resign, and the Emperor joyfully kissed the toe of
John XXIII and thanked him in the name of the Council.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO POPE JOHN XXIII]
The Council considered the charges proved and on May 25, 1415, deposed
him as "the supporter of iniquity, the defender of simonists, the enemy
of all virtue, the slave of lasciviousness, a devil incarnate." The
Bishop of Salisbury thought he ought to be burnt at the stake. And yet
this precious prelate was made a cardinal and after his death at
Florence on Nov. 23, 1419, an exquisite monument by Donatello was
erected in 1427 to his saintly memory.
When the Council deposed John XXIII, Hus wrote: "Courage, friends! You
can now give answer to those who declare that the Pope is God on earth;
that he is the head and heart of the Church; that he is the fountain
from which all virtue and excellence issue; that he is the sun, the sure
asylum where all Christians ought to find refuge. Behold this earthly
god bound in chains!"
On June 3, Pope John XXIII was a prisoner in the same prison with Hus!
On May 4, Wiclif's writings were ordered to be burnt as heretical; his
memory was condemned, and it was decreed to dig out his bones and cast
them out of consecrated ground. It does not need a prophet to foretell
the end of Hus. It needed only to show Hus was a follower of Wiclif, and
he would be burned also.