John Huss: his life, teachings and death, after five hundred years/Appendix 2
APPENDIX II
A SPURIOUS ACCOUNT OF HUSS’S JOURNEY TO CONSTANCE AND TRIAL
Under the title, The Infallibility of the Pope at the Council of Constance and Huss’s Trial, Sentence, and Death at the Stake, written by a member of the council, Pogius, Prior of St. Niklasen,[1] an interesting but spurious description is given of incidents in Huss’s journey and his trial on July 6 in the cathedral of Constance, which differs materially from the accredited authorities. So far as it can be traced, the booklet appeared first at Reutlingen, Würtemberg, 1846. A reprint was issued in St. Louis, Mo., 1875, five years after the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility. The Reutlingen edition purported to be a reprint of an original edition said to have appeared at Constance, and contains on its title-page the statement, erstmals gedruckt 1523 zu Costnitz—originally printed at Constance, 1523. The volume contains two letters written in a most graphic style by Pogius, who represents himself as having accompanied Huss from Prague to Constance and as having undergone a change from an enemy of the heretic to a warm partisan. The route he represents Huss as having taken differs from the route as laid down in Huss’s letters and by Mladenowicz.
The description Pogius gives of the sitting of the council in the cathedral of Constance. July 6, when Huss was condemned, contains the startling statement that the verdict of heresy was not unanimous. On the contrary, according to Pogius, it was resisted by a number of bishops, whose addresses of dissent he professes to give. The most of these dissenting prelates were Germans, but Vincent Ferrer, the Spaniard, also voted with the minority.
The volume is evidently a forgery, and contradicts Huss’s letters, Mladenowicz’s account, the documents in Van der Hardt, and the statements of Gerson, d’Ailly, and other accredited sources. There is no evidence of the booklet’s having been in existence before the Reutlingen edition appeared. The term Costnitz, which is Slavic, was not used for Constance by the Germans. The name Pogius, the author, was evidently meant to conceal the forgery by its resemblance to “Poggius,” the Italian humanist, who wrote the brilliant account of Jerome’s trial and death at the stake. Poggius’s public career and personal habits are out of accord with what Pogius tells about himself.
The motive of the forgery is a matter of conjecture, whether it was by a Catholic to remove the odium from the church arising from the unanimous verdict against Huss, or by a Protestant to serve as a burlesque on the alleged sacredness of the council which voted down teachings of Scripture in condemning Huss and, at the same time, liberty of thought in religious matters.
The difficulty of burying a book after it has once been put into print is afforded by this booklet, which has recently been reprinted in Berlin to further the interest in the Huss anniversary of 1915, even as the story of Luther’s violent death is every now and then republished, lie though it is.
- ↑ Die Unfehlbarkeit des Papstes auf d. Concil zu Constanz und J. Huss’s Verhör, Verurtheilung und Feuertod (5. und 6. Juli, 1415) geschr. von dem Concils-Mitgliede, Pogius, Prior zu Niklasen. St. Louis. Mo., 1875. For an elaborate notice of the booklet and its contents, with letters from Loserth and Prof. Müller of Tübingen, see my article in Amer. Journal of Theology, Ap., 1915.