against Zybnek. Both appealed to the pope. In re- sijonse, Alexander V conferred extraordinary powers on the archbisliop to root out heresies from his diocese. Accordingly, the latter prohibited preaching in private chapels; caused more than 200 volumes of Wicklifle's writings to be committed to the flames, amidst the chanting of the Te Deian ; and excommunicated Muss (July 18, 1410). In this emergency kingWeuzel came to tlie rescue, commanding Zybnek to reimburse tlie owners for the loss of their books, and annulling the ban against Huss. Nor was the prohibition touching cliap- els carried out. Meantime Alexander died, and was suc- ceeded by John XXIII, an atrocious wretch, formerly a pirate, and now the embodiment of vice. To him,\Ven- zel, the queen, many nobles, and Huss himself appealed for redress. But the new pope adhered to the policy of his predecessor, confirmed the acts of Zybnek, and cited Huss before his tribunal in person. The king, however, sent two advocates' to Bologna, where the pa])al court had its seat, to plead Huss's cause, and they were join- ed bj' three more delegated by Huss himself. But they effected only a transfer of the suit to other hands ; while an attempt on the part of Zj^bnek, at Prague, to lay an interdict upon the city, caused an open rupture between him and the king, who coerced him by violent means. At last, in the summer of 1411, the archbishop yielded, and a pacification, including Huss, was brought about. But in September of the same year Zybnek died, and was succeeded by Albicus, a weak and miserly old man, who received, in the following spring (1412), a papal bull commanding a crusade against Ladislaus, king of Naples, an adherent of the anti-pope, and offering ple- nary indulgence to all who would take part in it, or con- tribute money towards its prosecution. The pubhcatiou of this bull put a sudden end to the peace which had been patched up in the Church of Bohemia. Huss re- garded the bull as an infamous document, contrary to all the principles of the Holy Scriptures, and at once publicly took this stand. A number of his friends, on the contrary, maintained that the will of the pope must be obeyed under all circumstances: they accordingly broke with him, and went over to the anti-reform party. Several of them afterwards became his most embittered foes; and one of them, Stephen de Palec, was the chief instigator of his subsequent condemnation at Constance, In nothing terrified by his adversaries, however, Huss continued to preach against the bull, and held a public disputation upon it in the aula of the university; on which occasion his friend and coadjutor, Jerome of Prague, delivered an address of such fervid eloquence that the students formed a fantastical procession the next day, bearing as many copies of the document as they could find to the outskirts of the city, where they were heaped up and burned. Huss took no part in these proceedings. King A\'enzel now became alarmed. He had a reputation to support in Romish Christendom, and issued a decree making any further revilemcnt of the l)ope or the papal bull i«niishable with death. In con- sequence, three young men were executed, who, on the following Sunday, pulilicly gave the lie to a priest while advocating the plenary iiululgeucc offered by the pope. Huss buried them in" the Bethlehem Chapel, with all the rites of the Church, and extolled them as martyrs. When John XXIII wns informed of these events, he ex- communicated the Reformer a second time, ordered his arrest, commanded his chajKl to be razed to the ground, and laid an interdict ui)on the whole city of Prague. Wenzel again interfered, saved Huss from arrest, and prevented the chapel from being destroyed : but, a.s the ban was every where published, and the interdict rigid- ly enforced, he advised Huss to leave the city for a time. Huss obeyed, and. after having affixed a protest to the walls of his chapel, appealing from the corrupt Romish tribunal to the only incorruiitiblc and infallible Judge, Jesus Christ, he retired to the Castle of Kozi Hradek (December, 14121 There, and subsequently at the Castle of Krakowec, he remauied mitil August, 1414, engaged
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in literary labors, which resulted in some of the most im- portant both of his Latm and Boliemian works, carrying on a voluminous correspondence, and preaching to the people of the neighboring villages. . Meanwhile a general council of the Church had been called to meet at Constance on the 1st of November, 1414, under the auspices of Sigismimd, a brother of Wen- zel, and designated emperor. This monarch invited Huss to attend, that his cause might be examined and peace given to the Bohemian Chiu-ch. He pledged him- self to grant him a safe-conduct, and to send him back unharmed, even in the event of his not submitting to the coimcil. Modern Eomish historians try to disprove the reality of such a promise. But it is incontroverti- ble. The instrument which Sigismund actually fimiish- ed says : " Ut ei transire, stare, morari, redire Ubere per- mittatis." Huss joyfully obeyed the summons, for it was the great wish of his heart to defend his doctrines in the presence of the assembled representatives of Latin Christendom, and to unite with them in reforming the Church, for which purpose the Council had been special- ly convened. Leaving Prague on the 11th of October, with testimonials of orthodoxy from the papal inquisi- tor and the archbishop, and accompanied by an escort of nobles whom the king appointed to defend him, he traveled through Bohemia and Germany, held disputa- tions upon his doctrines in aU the towns where he pass- ed a night, and arrived at Constance on the 3d of No- vember. The next three weeks he spent in strict seclu- sion. Sigismund had not yet come, and the pope had temporarily suspended the sentence of excommunication, besides giving him the most solemn pledges for his per- sonal safety. But Stephen de Palec and others among his Bohemian enemies began so persistently to incite the ecclesiastics against him, that he was arrested on the 28th of November, and on the 6th of December he was cast into the dungeon of the Dominican monastery. When Sigismund reached the city, Huss's escort vainly at- tempted to secure liis release. The emperor was per- suaded by the priests that it would be wrong to keep faith with a heretic. Huss not onlj^ remained a prisoner, but, after the lapse of three months, was conveyed to the Castle of Gottlieben, where a mere hole, so low that he coidd not stand upright in it, was assigned him as his cell, and where his feet were fastened to a block with heavy irons, and at night his right arm was chained to the wall. In this miserable plight he remained from the end of March to the beginning of June, in spite of the unceasing efforts of his friends, and the solemn protest of the whole Bohemian nation.