devil, to which the condemned man replied: “And I commend my soul to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
As the wood had been piled up to his chin, the smoke soon suffocated him, so that his agony did not last any longer than it would take to repeat two or three pater-nosters. His clothes were also thrown into the flames; and when everything was consumed, the ashes were carefully collected and cast into the Rhine, this precaution being taken lest they should be taken by his friends and carried home as sacred relics.
Thus perished one of Bohemia’s greatest sons, a man with a character so pure that even his bitterest enemies could bring no charges against him. He fell a victim to the fanatical rage of his enemies, and the treachery of Sigmund, who advised the cardinals not to spare his life, even though he should recant.
The sorrowing friends of Hus returned to Bohemia bearing the woeful tidings. The country was plunged into the most profound grief. Hus had been beloved as a preacher before; but now he became enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen as a martyr and a saint. The words, uttered by the voice forever hushed, became doubly precious. His writings were studied with utmost zeal, and as they were followed out, Bohemia was soon on the high-road to Protestantism. And yet Hus was no Protestant, but died as a good Catholic. He defended himself against the imputation of doubting the doctrine of substantiation; he believed in the mass; and it is known that, before his execution, a monk came to his cell, heard his confession, and granted him absolution. That his doctrines would ultimately have led him to Protestantism, can be proved by the following illustration. While at Constance, his followers in
