Hus Condemned.
On Saturday, July 6, the Council had great scruples in condemning the
Duke of Burgundy, a self-confessed would-be assassin, but it had
absolutely no scruples in condemning the blameless patriot reformer of
Bohemia.
"Dressed in black with a handsome silver girdle, and wore his robes as a
Magister"--Hus was led after Mass before the whole Council in the
cathedral. He kneeled and prayed fervently for several minutes. James
Arigoni, Bishop of Lodi, preached from Rom. 6:6--"That the body of sin
might be destroyed." Henry de Piro proposed that Hus be delivered to the
civil power for burning.
Sixteen charges from Wiclif's writings were read. When Hus tried to
explain, he was brutally refused. Thirty articles from Hus' own works
were then read. He attempted to speak, but was stopped by loud cries,
despite the admonition of the Bishop of Constance.
Hus knelt down and cried: "I beg you, in the name of God, to grant me a
hearing, that those who are present may not think I am a heretic. After
that deal with me as you see fit."
They threatened to silence him forcibly by the soldiers. He continued to
kneel and pray with uplifted face to God, the just Judge.
Hus was next charged with saying, "that he was and would be a Fourth
Person in the Trinity."
Even the Roman Catholic Hefele admits the absolute falsehood of this
infamous accusation.
When his appeal to Christ was condemned as a damnable heresy, Hus cried
out: "O God and Lord, now the Council condemns even Thine own act and
Thy law as heresy, for Thou Thyself didst commend Thy case into the
hands of Thy Father as the righteous judge."
Charged with treating the papal excommunication with contempt, Hus
replied he had three times sent representatives to the papal court and
had never had a hearing. "For this reason I came freely to this Council,
relying upon the public faith of the Emperor, who is here present,
assuring me that I should be safe from all violence, so that I might
attest my innocence and give a reason of my faith to the whole Council."
As he spoke of the safe-conduct, the prisoner looked straight at the
Emperor; the Emperor blushed. That blush was never forgotten. Urged to
betray Luther at Worms, the Emperor Charles V said: "I should not like
to blush like Sigismund."
"A bald and old Italian priest" then read the two decrees of the Council
that all the writings of Hus, both Latin and Bohemian, should be
destroyed, and that Hus as a true and manifest heretic was to be burned.
Hus loudly protested: "Up to now you have not proved that my books
contain any heresies. As to my Bohemian writings, which you have never
seen, why do you condemn them?"
Hus again knelt and prayed with a loud voice: "Lord Jesus Christ,
forgive all my enemies, I entreat Thee, because of Thy great mercy. Thou
knowest that they have falsely accused me, brought forth false witnesses
against me, devised false articles against me. Forgive them because of
Thy boundless mercy."
This touching prayer was greeted with derisive laughter by the foremost
ecclesiastical dignitaries.