Jan Hus

“ At that time I was still ignorant of what had passed in the Council of Constance.
All that I could say would only add infinitely to the high character of John Huss. His adversaries render him a striking, though unintentional testimony; for if their clouded eyes could open to the light, they would blush at the remembrance of the things which they themselves narrate. The author of a collection of the acts of the council, written in German, and enriched with very many remarkable details, endeavours, with all his power, to cover with odium the cause of John Huss ”

“ The last two sermons of John Huss are those which he composed on arriving at Constance; the one on Faith, the other on Peace. They breathe the desire of a reconciliation, which his enemies repulsed, and he was not permitted to deliver them. The moral and theological treatises form the fourth part of John Huss’s works, and the most important of the whole, for they especially shew his doctrines, and were those which furnished his enemies and judges with arguments and arms against him. [6]
The principal of the treatises are:—The Treatise on the Church, publicly read in the city of Prague ”

“ The Hussites armies (made up largely of peasants) prevailed against their Catholic opponents for a number of years, thanks to the military genius of the partially blind Jan Žižka, and a compromise was funally reached in 1434. Bohemia’s nobility then chose its first and last Hussite king, George (or Jiři) of Podébrad (1458–1471) .
Ever since these conflicts, Jan Hus has been seen by many Czechs as a hero of Czech nationalism and the Hussites, rightly or wrongly, as heroic patriots defending “land and . . . ”

“ To understand it we must remember that Hus, when a priest in Prague, had adopted a novel method of advertising his creed. He had found a use for the great bare walls of the Bethlehem Chapel. On these, in addition to the customary pictures, he had painted up sundry theses, once even a long treatise, On the Six Errors. This idea Hus seems to have taken from the practice in the monastery at Königsaal, the burial-place of the Bohemian kings. His enemies did not fail to sneer at his twentieth-century methods of advertisement. ‘You paint,’ wrote Andrew Brod, ‘The Ten Commandments on your walls ”

“ LETTERS WRITTEN AT THE PERIOD OF THE INTERDICTION OF JOHN HUSS, AND OF HIS EXILE FROM PRAGUE IN 1411;—SOME OF THEM MAY HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN 1410.
The letters of this series contain the greater part of the admirable exhortations addressed by John Huss to the believers of his church. They are not distinguished either for the great diversity of incidents, or the dramatic interest of those in the second series, but they clearly evidence the great intrepidity, Christian piety, love for his brethren, and true greatness, that pervaded the mind of Huss. ”

“ When Hus received Sigismund’s call to Constance, he was staying at the castle of Krakowec. This castle, not far from Prague, belonged to a friend of Hus, Henry Lefl of Lazan and Bechyne, whose name we shall meet with more than once in the letters. From this retreat Hus set off on October 11, under the escort of John of Chlum, Wenzel Duba, and Henry Lacembok. With these also rides John Cardinalis of Reinstein. The whole escort consisted of thirty mounted men and two carts, in one of which Hus rode with his books. ”

“ They form one of the most curious monuments of this celebrated period, and present an irrefragable testimony in favour of John, Huss against his judges. We perceive in the early ones, by the eagerness of the populations to flock to him on his passage, how great was already the authority of his name and doctrines in Germany. In reading those which come after, we are present at the grand scenes of the Council ”

“ Huss was one of those spirits, more contemplative than practical, which, after having recognised an idea as true, admit of no medium or arrangement in propagating it, and concern themselves for the consequences not more for others than for themselves. ”

“ But when John Huss said the same things, they dragged him at once to the stake!
The door was (once more) [1] thrown open to similar events, by the indulgences which the Roman pontiff scattered with such profusion over the whole world, and by the jubilee which he instituted at Rome to build the church of St Peter: for the pope, amongst his other inventions, declared, and afterwards confirmed by his bulls, that the souls of such persons as, having undertaken a pilgrimage to Rome, should happen to die on the way, should at once take flight to heaven ”

“ There, one man, weakened by sickness and long imprisonment, isolated from a few friends dispersed and trembling, resisted, strong in the gospel and in his conscience, all that external authority could display to intimidate and subjugate souls. He yields not before the efforts of all the spiritual and temporal powers united. John Huss, lastly, by his example, still more than by his doctrines, reopened to the Christian world a path that had been long closed ”

“ Undoubtedly, God has sufficiently manifested in that council how he resists the proud, and confounds the haughty, by their own imaginations, without paying any consideration to outward dignity.” [2]
The following year, Luther published a complete edition of the letters of John Huss, and prefixed to it a preface which we subjoin, and in which he enumerates, with great power, the principal claims of Huss to the esteem and admiration of posterity. ”

“ Since they have only condemned the treatises, [9] please qualify my last Czech letter which I sent off to-day, [10] that God’s people may not suppose that all my books have been condemned, as I imagined when I wrote my letter of yesterday. I would like to be assured that no letter written in prison shall be made public to any one, because it is not yet finally settled what God will do with me! I am afraid that a letter of mine hath been forwarded by the hands of Ulrich. [11] For God’s sake I beg you to look well after the letters and also your words and doings. ”

“ Accordingly the people were standing in the streets looking about and asking, “Which is Master Hus?” Before dinner, the rector of St. Lawrence’s, Master John Helwel, sent me a letter saying that he had long wished to have a good talk with me. On the same sheet I wrote back a message to him to come, and he came. I had, more over, already written out my notice of appeal, [8] wishing to post it up; but in the meanwhile Baron Wenzel sent me word that the burghers and magistrates were assembled at the inn wishing to see me and to have a conference with me. ”

“ TO JOHN CARDINAL.
[John Huss replies to the Father, that is to say, to the Cardinal, [2] clearly establishing, that it is better to die for the truth than to depart from it, though only a nail’s breadth, even under the false pretext of the good of the Church,]
May the Almighty God, sovereignly good and wise, deign to bestow on my Father eternal life, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Reverend Father, I am most grateful for your benevolent and paternal interest. I dare not submit myself to the Council in the limits that you trace out to me ”

“ Though deserted by his former friends, Hus was not alone. ‘Women without number and powerful nobles’ rallied to his cause, while the people, under the lead of that stormy petrel of reform, Jerome of Prague, once more took matters into their own hands. ”

“ He spent the rest of his days in writing numerous bitter tractates against Wyclif and Hus. He died at Neuhaus, in Moravia, from abcesses, when on the point of setting out for his revenge at Constance. Hus and Palecz were destined to meet again.
This victory for Hus was followed by a political success. Hitherto in the Old Town of Prague the council consisted of sixteen Germans and two Czechs. The Germans were on the side of the papal party, and had attempted, as we have seen, the destruction of the Bethlehem. ”

“ If Hus’s first letter after the flight of John gives little indication of the excitement at Constance, his second letter, written three days later, throws a vivid side-light on the confusion. Hus himself ran some danger of starvation. Hitherto the Pope had paid ten florins a week for Hus’s support and the expenses of his imprisonment. Not only was this supply cut off, but, as
we learn from an anonymous letter of April 2, provisions in Constance ran very short (Doc. 543) . The country folk were too uncertain of the future to bring in, as hitherto, their stores. ”

“ Item, I desire you, right noble and gracious lord John! if audience shall be given me, that the king will be there present himself, and that I may have a place appointed near unto him, that he may hear me well, and understand what I say; and that you also, with the lord Henry, and with lord Wincelaus and other nobles, if you may, will be present, and hear what the Lord Jesus Christ, my procurator and advocate, and most gracious judge, will put in my mouth to speak ”

“ The next letter of Hus is remarkable for the boldness with which Hus asserted his position, and the strong sarcasms it contains upon the actions of the Council in their treatment of Pope John. The reader will remember that Hus had attempted a diversion on this matter at his trial (see p. 217) , and had been frustrated by Sigismund. Nor does Hus forget to expose the logical inconsistency of Palecz and Stanislaus. From first to last the letter contains no note of doubt or hesitation. Hus has faced the issues and decided. At one time he was willing to leave himself in the hands of the Council. ”

“ Huss affirmed that it is one thing to compel and quite another to exterminate or kill. The death penalty for heretics was never expressly recommended by Augustine, and it is probable that Huss more nearly represented the views and spirit of the African Father than did the Schoolmen and the council of Constance. The armor of the church, Huss insisted, is not carnal but spiritual as set forth in the last chapter of the Ephesians, a passage he frequently expounded. ”

“ I, Master John Hus, in chains and in prison, now standing on the shore of this present life and expecting on the morrow a dreadful death, which will, I hope, purge away my sins, find no heresy in myself, and accept with all my heart any truth whatsoever that is worthy of belief. ”

“ The excommunication and attendant interdict soon produced its effect in Prague. ‘The people,’ complained Hus, ‘did not show sufficient courage to bury their dead in unconsecrated ground, and baptise their children themselves.’ Riots broke out on every hand. On September 30 Jerome and others ‘ducked friar Nicholas’ in the Moldau. On October 2 a counter-attack was made on the Bethlehem Chapel, chiefly, says Hus, by the Germans, at that moment the dominant party in the Town Council: ‘What madness! . . . what German audacity! . . . they are not allowed to pull down a bakehouse. ”

“ The holy church is compared to a net cast into the sea because she is committed to fishers and because every one is drawn up through her from the waves of this present world to the eternal kingdom lest they sink in the depths of eternal death. ”

“ I render thanks to all those Nobles of Bohemia and Poland who have shewn themselves firm in defending the truth, and in endeavouring to break my chains; I desire the salvation of all, here below in grace, and afterwards in a glorious eternity.
May the God of all goodness bring you back into Bohemia with perfect health of body and soul, that, serving in this world, Christ, our Sovereign, you may attain eternal life! ”

“ Then, coming to the condemnation of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, he rises into his fine strain of dignified eloquence. The book will be found an invaluable preparative for the reading of D’Aubigné’s History of the Reformation, with which it is worthy to rank,—no mean praise.”—Derbyshire Courier, January 25. 1845.
“It is impossible for us here to give any thing like an analysis of M. De Bonnechose’s book; to learn its merits, it must be read ”

“ Hus kneeled and prayed ‘with a joyful countenance.’ The paper crown fell off, and he smiled. ‘Put it on again wrong way up,’ cried the mob, ‘that he may be burnt with the devils he has served.’ His hands were tied behind his back, and Hus fastened to the stake which had been driven into the ground over the spot where a dead mule belonging to one of the cardinals had been recently buried. ‘Turn him round towards the West,’ cried the crowd, ‘he is a heretic ”

“ John Huss, in hope, servant of God.
P.S.—Peter, [3] my very dear friend, keep, in remembrance of me, my fur cloak. Seignior Henry, may you live in health with your wife. I thank you for your kindness: may God heap his riches upon you. ”

“ The following letter of Hus was written in the summer of 1412. ‘To which writing,’ Stephen tells us, ‘when the purport had been told me, and I had seen and ascertained it for myself, I composed the following brief answer’—to wit, that he would reply at length when a suitable opportunity arose. A few months later (autumn 1412) Stephen fulfilled his promise by bringing out his Antihussus, dedicated to Stanislaus of Znaim, in the preface of which he incorporated this letter of Hus. The work ends with a prayer and a curse: ‘Holy Mary and all saints pray for us that the truth may be confirmed. ”

“ In the ordinary course of events nothing further would have been heard of the prisoner at Gottlieben. Hus would have been left to rot in his dungeon, until his spirit was broken, or the time convenient for an auto da fé. But the friends of Hus were resolved to give publicity to the trial and secure the public hearing that Sigismund had promised. A week after the Commission had brought in its report, the Czechs and Poles showed how little they understood the procedure of the Inquisition by handing in a protest, drawn up by Peter Mladenowic, against the imprisonment of Hus without proper trial. ”