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A great stone marks the spot where the two Bohemian saints ascended to heaven in chariots of fire. The words of Erasmus might well have been his epitaph "John Hus, burned, not convicted." Lechler says: "To inflict defeat by meeting defeat, that was his lot."
When Count Markof left Sweden, he carried with him an actress of the French theatre at Stockholm, Madame Hus, an Alsatian by birth, but who had quitted her country twelve years before the Revolution, and could, therefore, never be included among emigrants.
For anything he knew to the contrary, any Cardinal, Bishop or Priest in the Church might belong to the number of the damned; he might be a servant, not of Christ, but of Anti-Christ; and, therefore, said Hus, it was utterly absurd to look to men of such doubtful character as infallible spiritual guides. What right, asked Hus, had the Pope to claim the "power of the keys?"
Count Markof is reported to have said to Talleyrand on this grave subject, in the presence of two other foreign Ambassadors: "Apropos! what shall I do to prevent my poor Madame Hus from being shot as an emigrant, and my poor children from becoming prematurely orphans?"
"Let who will," he thundered, "proclaim the contrary; let the Pope, or a Bishop, or a Priest say, 'I forgive thee thy sins; I free thee from the pains of Hell. It is all vain, and helps thee nothing. God alone, I repeat, can forgive sins through Christ." The excitement in Prague was furious. From this moment onwards Hus became the leader of a national religious movement.
On Dec. 6, Hus was dragged to the Dominican convent on an island in Lake Constance, and stuck into a dark hole at the opening of a sewer, where he was struck down by a violent fever, so that his life was despaired of, and the Pope sent his own physician.
"Let that doctor be named," said Hus, "who has given this evidence against me." But the name of his false accuser was never given. He was now accused of a still more dangerous error. He had appealed to God instead of appealing to the Church. "O Lord God," he exclaimed, "this Council now condemns Thy action and law as an error!
They had now three votes out of four. John Hus was credited by the people with bringing about the change. He became more popular than ever. If Hus had only halted here, it is probable that he would have been allowed to die in peace in his bed in a good old age, and his name would be found enrolled to-day in the long list of Catholic saints.
After a stormy debate in the great hall of the Carolinum, a majority of the professors forbade the public and private teaching of these articles, forty-five in all. The decree produced no effect, and the opponents of Hus got Pope Innocent VII to order the Archbishop to root out the heresy of Wiclif, in 1405. Hus Offends the Clergy.
He mounted the scaffold. He breathed a prayer. The awful proceedings began. But why was John Hus there? What had he done to offend both Pope and Emperor? For the last twelve years John Hus had been the boldest reformer, the finest preacher, the most fiery patriot, the most powerful writer, and the most popular hero in Bohemia. At first he was nothing more than a child of his times.
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