František Lützow

“ When, on the other hand, the council demanded that he should recant heretical opinions which he had never held, he refused and calmly and unhesitatingly laid down his life. He well knew that had he himself admitted that he had been a heretic, his life-work for the church and the state of Bohemia would have been undone. Jerome, on the other hand, did not hesitate both at Vienna and at Constance to preserve his life by means that can hardly be called otherwise than dishonourable. ”

“ Palec is my friend; truth is my friend; both being friends, it is saintly to give preference to truth.
Archbishop Zbynek was far too shrewd a man to think that supporters such as Protiva, Palec, and Michael, surnamed de causis, a German priest of evil repute, notorious as an enemy of Hus, would avail him in his struggle with Venceslas. He knew that he had in the king a dangerous enemy. Venceslas was deeply impressed by the dangerously great power of the clergy, in whose hands a third part of the soil of Bohemia then was. Zbynek therefore decided to make his peace with the king. ”

“ He was impressed by the evils of his time, the corruption of the clergy, the dissolution of all social order in Germany and Italy. Anarchy caused by bands of freebooters, who pillaged Italy and afterwards Germany, produced so great and terrifying an impression on the public mind, that even the insane idea that the Emperor Charles encouraged these bands to continue their depredations found adherents. So hopelessly evil a state appeared to Milic to portend the approaching end of the world—an idea with which we meet frequently in the writings of all Bohemian reformers—Hus himself not excepted. ”

“ And truly I do not understand how a man can worthily be a master unless it be that he may have a better place to teach God’s truth, and that he may more bravely speak the truth and defend it. But I have already found that simple poor priests, poor laymen, and women defend the truth more bravely than doctors of the Holy Writ, who from fear flee from the truth and dare not speak it. ”

“ I am not, I hope, prejudiced as being a countryman of Hus if I venture to state that, according to my opinion, few sublimer words have ever been written by the pen of man.
To the year 1413 belongs also another of Hus’s most valuable Bohemian works. It may be stated generally that the treatise on Simony, the Postilla to which I shall now refer, and the Letters are the most precious of Hus’s works written in his own language. It is in them that we find the true Hus, not in the scholastic and sometimes sophistical controversies with Stokes, Palec, and others. ”

“ I beg you to love, praise, and honour those priests who lead a moral life, those in particular who work for the word of God. I beg you to beware of crafty people, particularly of unworthy priests of whom our Saviour has said that they are clothed like sheep, but are inwardly greedy wolves. I beg the nobles to treat the poor people kindly and rule them justly. I beg the burghers to conduct their business honestly. I beg the artisans to perform their duties conscientiously and joyfully. ”

“ When all the articles containing the accusations against Hus had been read out, Cardinal D’Ailly said, addressing Hus: “Thou hast heard how great is the heinousness of the accusations that have been brought against thee. It is thy duty to reflect now on what thou wilt do.” The cardinal then pointed out that two ways were open to him. He must submit himself humbly to the judgment and sentence of the council, which, in consideration of Sigismund and his brother the King of Bohemia, would treat him leniently. This no doubt referred to the plan of confining Hus for life in a distant monastery. ”

“ Already has the council, alleging custom, condemned the use of the chalice at the communion of laymen as a heresy, and he who practises it is to be punished as a heretic unless he comes to his right mind (conforms to the decree of the council) . What wickedness! Behold, they condemn Christ’s enactment as heresy! I therefore beg thee in the name of God no longer to oppose Jacobellus, lest dissension arise among the faithful—a thing over which the devil would rejoice. Be then, dearest, prepared to suffer when administering communion in the two kinds. ”

“ The pope and his party then proceeded to Feldkirch and from there by Reinegg to Constance, where the pope was received with great solemnity.
It was not, however, Baldassare Cossa who was to prove Hus’s most dangerous and bitterest enemy. These were found among his own countrymen. It is the fact that in all the most important moments the task of great Bohemians has been frustrated by the envy and malice of their own countrymen that renders the history of Bohemia one of the saddest in the annals of the world. Foremost among Hus’s enemies was John the iron, Bishop of Litomysl. ”

“ But already at the time of my judgment hast thou declared me to be a heretic, may God forgive thee thy sins. Then came the Bohemian nobles, knights of the Hungarian king, Lord Venceslas of Duba, otherwise of Lestno, and Lord John of Chlum, and they spoke saying: Listen but for a short time to that which we will say to thee. We are laymen and know not scripture (sufficiently) that we could counsel thee in accordance with it; but according to common sense we counsel thee: if thou art guilty of these errors and heresies, recant them and save thy life. ”

“ Pribram wrote: “We priests and preachers and other faithful Bohemians, both laymen and ecclesiastics, earnest and constant lovers of the Bohemian nation, cannot suffer any longer the many errors and diabolical imaginings of these Taborite priests, which they proclaim in a manner that is ever worse and worse, spreading thus hatred and fear throughout the wide Bohemian land. As we have against them neither judge nor champion, either secular or spiritual, we bring our complaints before the Almighty Lord God, and pray to Him fervently for help and justice. ”

“ It is almost pitiful to imagine the position of a simple, truthful, and honest man as was Hus when attacked by such unscrupulous and mendacious adversaries. He seems himself to have felt the necessity of obtaining legal advice, and begged to be allowed to employ a lawyer for his defence. In distinction from a large number of priests of his day who were better jurists than theologians, Hus had devoted his time to preaching and writing in favour of the cause of church-reform, as well as to theological study. ”

“ Oh accursed Judas, who hast deserted the peaceful ranks of this holy assembly, and hast gone out to join the ranks of the Jews, we take to-day from thee the chalice in which thou hast offered up the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and thy soul with thy lord devils [16] we send to damnation. Answering them, Master John Hus said: And I hope that I will to-day drink of the chalice in the heavenly kingdom with the martyrs and the Lord Christ. You commend my soul to the devil, but I commend it to the Lord Christ. ”

“ His friend Nicholas of Lobkowitz had sent a messenger to him with a copy of the decree of Kutna Hora. Hus, Dr. Flajshans writes, eagerly seized with his hands that still trembled from fever this magna charta of the liberty of the Bohemian nation in the university. Almost immediately afterwards Hus was visited by two friends, who found him still in a state of joyful excitement. “Would it be just,” he asked them, “if we had three votes?” Standing near the bed of Hus they both answered as with one voice, “Would that God did but grant it! We shall never attain to such a power.” ”

“ May the omnipotent God forgive them, for they know not what they do. I pray for these men with a sincere heart, that God may spare them. Meanwhile, beloved in Jesus Christ, stand by the acknowledged truth, which conquers all and grows ever stronger unto all eternity. Be it also known to you that I have recanted no article nor abjured one. The council also wished that I should declare false all the articles, and any one, which they might extract from my writings. ”

“ The great mass of the Bohemian people, with that instinctive intuition that sometimes characterises the masses, always distrusted Sigismund, to whom they rightly attributed the responsibility for the death of the revered master Hus. The eloquent priest John of Zelivo, who had at that time great influence over the people of Prague, denounced Sigismund in apocalyptic language, calling him the fiery seven-headed dragon of the revelation. ”

“ It is uncertain whether Nicholas of Hus, as stated by Brezova, intended to seize the crown of Bohemia, but it is certain that in the last months of his life Venceslas lost all his previous popularity with the Bohemian people. A weak, though well-meaning man, he had now definitely to decide whether he would throw in his lot with his people and resolutely face Sigismund and his numerous allies, or whether he would aid his treacherous younger brother in crushing the national movement and reconquering Bohemia. ”

“ With the articles derived from Wycliffe’s works, which Hus was, rightly or wrongly, stated to have accepted in their entirety, and the ludicrously untrue and wicked statement that Hus had declared that he was one of the persons of the divinity, the appeal was the document by which the council was mostly influenced when it pronounced sentence on Hus. This is a striking proof of the unacknowledged and perhaps unconscious scepticism which prevailed among the rich prelates whose influence directed the deliberations at Constance. Hus’s profound piety is evident in every line of his appeal. ”

“ Hus was too holy and too saintly a man to be a good judge of character. Jerome at first indeed displayed great fortitude, but after the martyrdom of Hus his courage entirely failed him. Hoping to save his life and regain his liberty, he solemnly recanted all his former so-called heretical views. He did not even hesitate to blame severely his master Hus. He expressed his altered views in a memorable letter addressed to the Bohemian nobleman, Lacko of Kravar. ”

“ We hear the voice of the church, which moans because the gold has been obscured and the finest of colours changed; for the priesthood formerly, as gold made brilliant by fire and whitened by virtue, has now become polluted and obscured, as saith St. Bernard. Fulfilled is the word of our Saviour: Iniquity will abound and love will wax cold among the people. ”

“ If we endeavour to ascertain how great our knowledge of the events of the life of Hus is, we meet with a great contrast. While we have numerous and varied accounts of his later life—the events during his imprisonment can be traced almost day by day—very little is known of the early life of the great Bohemian church-reformer. The almost entirely absent contemporary records are replaced by later legends which are mostly attributable to members of the community of the Bohemian brethren, who believed themselves to have most purely preserved the teaching of Hus. ”

“ Like all Bohemian church-reformers, he strove rather to denounce the immorality, avarice, luxury, haughtiness of the Bohemian people, and ecclesiastics in particular, to inculcate the study of Scripture, to help the poor, humble, and oppressed, than to excel in scholastic definitions and theological sophistry. Milic, indeed, after his return from Rome became even more stringent in his ascetism and more enthusiastic in his attempts to aid the poor and suffering. ”

“ Informed of this, the citizens of Prague, though they were the most moderate of all utraquists, knew that war to the knife was inevitable, and immediately began to strengthen the fortifications of their city. They also, understanding the folly of internal dissensions in face of a powerful enemy, sent messengers to Tabor begging the Taborites “if they wished verily to obey God’s word, to march to their aid without delay, and with as many men as they could muster.” ”

“ To quote words I wrote more than ten years ago: [85] “If neglecting for a moment the minutiae of mediæval theological controversy, we consider as a martyr that man who willingly sacrifices his individual life for what he firmly believes to be the good of humanity at large, who ‘takes the world’s life on him and his own lays down,’ then assuredly there is no truer martyr in the world’s annals than John of Husinec.”
Very different from the judgment which should be passed on the attitude of the council with regard to Hus is that which we must pass on Sigismund. ”

“ An intensely pious and rigidly virtuous priest, he viewed with what to worldly men may appear a puerile feeling of horror and indignation the unspeakable degradation of the Bohemian clergy. It has been necessary in this book, destined for the general public, to withhold much evidence on this point. The fact that the ruling powers of the Roman Church made no attempt to discountenance the vices of its clergy, together with the study of Wycliffe’s works, then led Hus to adverse criticism of the ecclesiastical organisation of the church, and of papacy in particular. ”

“ Therefore should a Bohemian rule his own subordinates, and a German German (subordinates) . But of what use would it be if a Bohemian, not knowing German, became a priest or a bishop in Germany? He assuredly would be as useful as a dumb dog who cannot bark is to a herd! And equally useless to us Bohemians is a German; and knowing that this (i.e. the rule of Germans over Bohemians) is against God’s law and the regulations, I declare it to be illegal.” The great talents of Hus as a preacher appear to have been from the beginning recognised by his countrymen. ”