Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/315

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THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF HUS

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on that very day. When these ceremonies had ended, the bishops said: “We commit thy soul to the devil.” Hus answered: “And I commit it to the most sacred Lord Jesus Christ.” A high paper cap was then as a sign of derision placed on the head of the martyr. On it were written the words: Hic est heresiarcha. Sigismund then requested Louis Count Palatine^[1] to hand over Hus to the beadles of the city of Constance. A large armed force, consisting of some of the townsmen of Constance, Sigismund’s Hungarian mercenaries, and troops in the service of the Count Palatine and other German princes—about 3000 men in all—accompanied Hus. A large crowd, including many Bohemians, among them Mladenovic, joined the mournful procession, though Sigismund, hoping as far as possible to exclude the Bohemians, had given orders that the city gates should be closed as soon as Hus had passed. From the cathedral Hus was led through the churchyard—where his books were just being burnt—along the street now known as the “Huss Strasse,” past the house of the widow Fida, and through the Schnetz gate to the place of execution. That spot,^[2] about a quarter of a mile from the Schnetz gate, is now marked by a stone with an inscription, and has become a favourite place of pilgrimage for Hus’s countrymen. The account of the last moments of the martyr can best be given in the words of Mladenovic,^[3] who was present. He writes: “When he (Hus) had arrived at the

↑ Lenfant (Histoire du Concile de Constance) relates that when the elector Palatine Otho Henry, the last of his line, died childless, he said that God punished the sins of the forefathers even in the third and fourth generations, and that he had been punished because his great-great-grandfather, the Count Palatine Louis, had, by order of the emperor, conducted Hus to the stake.
↑ Contrary to what has been often stated, the spot is not in the immediate vicinity of the Rhine.
↑ That indefatigable Bohemian scholar, Mr. Patera, some years ago discovered and published a previously unknown contemporary Bohemian account of the death of Hus. I had intended to compare it with the account of Mladenovic, but, finding that this would interfere with the course of the narrative, I have preferred to give as an appendix a translation of the whole of the account.

[1] Lenfant (Histoire du Concile de Constance) relates that when the elector Palatine Otho Henry, the last of his line, died childless, he said that God punished the sins of the forefathers even in the third and fourth generations, and that he had been punished because his great-great-grandfather, the Count Palatine Louis, had, by order of the emperor, conducted Hus to the stake.

[2] Contrary to what has been often stated, the spot is not in the immediate vicinity of the Rhine.

[3] That indefatigable Bohemian scholar, Mr. Patera, some years ago discovered and published a previously unknown contemporary Bohemian account of the death of Hus. I had intended to compare it with the account of Mladenovic, but, finding that this would interfere with the course of the narrative, I have preferred to give as an appendix a translation of the whole of the account.

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