§ 45. HUSS AT CONSTANCE. 373
it proved, in view of the thousands of animals that had to be cared for at Constance.^
Arrived at Constance, Huss took lodgings with a "second widow of Sarepta," who had kept the bakery to the White Pigeon. The house is still shown. His coming was a great sensation, and he entered the town, riding through a large crowd. The day after, John of Chlum and Baron Lacembok called upon pope John XXIIL,who promised that no violence should be done their friend, nay, even though he had killed the pope's own brother. He granted him leave to go about the city, but forbade him to attend high mass. Although he was under sentence of excommunication, Huss celebrated mass daily in his own lodgings. The cardinals were incensed that a man charged openly with heresy should have freedom, and whatever misgivings Huss had liadof unfair dealing were to be quickly justified. Individual liberty had no rights before the bar of an ecclesiastical court in the 15th century when a heretic was under accusation. Before the month had passed, Huss' imprisonment began, a pretext being found in an alleged attempt to escape from the city concealed in a hay-wagon. ^ On November 28, the two bishops of Trent and Augsburg entered his lodgings with a requisition for him to appear before the cardinals. The house was surrounded by soldiers. Huss, after some hesitation, yielded and left, with the hostess standing at the stairs in tears. It was the beginning of the end.
After a short audience with the cardinals, the prisoner was taken away by a guard of soldiers, and within a week he was securely immured in the dungeon of the Dominican convent. P reparations had been going on for several days to provide the place with locks, bolts and other strong furnishings.
1 Huss kept one for himself, thinking it might be necessary for him to ride and see Sigismund. Writing from Constance, Nov. 4th, he said that horses were cheap there. One, bought in Bohemia for 6 guineas, was given away for 7 florins, or one-third the original price. Workman : Letters, p. 158.
2 The charge is reported by Richental, p. 70 sq. His story is invalidated by the false date he gives and also by the testimony of Mladenowitz, who declared it wholly untrue. If there had been any attempt at escape, it would hardly have been allowed to go unnoticed in the trial. See Wylie, p. 139.
374 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
In this prison, Huss languished for three months. His cell was hard by the latrines. Fever and vomiting set in, and it seemed likely they would quickly do their dismal work. John XXIII. deserves some credit for having sent his physician, who applied clysters, as Huss himself wrote. To sickness was added the deprivation of books, including the Bible. For two months we have no letters from him. They begin again, with January, 1415, and give us a clear insight into the indignities to which he was exposed and the misery he suffered. These letters were sent by the gaoler.
What was Sigismund doing? He had issued the letter of safe-conduct, Oct. 18. On the day before his arrival in Constance, Dec. 24th, John of Chlum posted up a notice on the cathedral, protesting that the king's agreement had been treated with defiance by the cardinals. Sigismund professed to be greatly incensed, and blustered, but this was the end of it. He was a time-serving prince who was easily persuaded to yield to the arguments of such ecclesiastical figures as D'Ailly, who insisted that little matters like Huss' heresy should not impede the reformation of the church, the council's first concern, and that error unreproved was error countenanced.^ All good churchmen prayed his Majesty might not give way to the lies and subtleties of the Wycliffists. The king of Aragon wrote that Huss should be killed off at once, without having the formality of a hearing.
During his imprisonment in the Black Friars' convent, Huss wrote for his gaoler, Robert, tracts on the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, Mortal Sin and Marriage. Of the 13 letters preserved from this time, the larger part were addressed to John of Chlum, his trusty friend. Some of the letters were written at midnight, and some on tattered scraps of paper. ^ In this
1 In an audience with Sigismund, D'Ailly protested that factum J. Hus et alia minora nondehehantrcformationemeccles. et Rom. imperii impedire quod erat principale pro quo fuerat concilittm congregatum. Fillastre, in Finke, p. 263.
2 On reading a letter in the Bethlehem chapel, Hawlik exclaimed, " Alas, alas, Hus is running out of paper." And John of Chlum spoke of one of Huss' letters as being written "on a tattered, three-cornered bit of paper." Workman : Hus^ Letters, p. 196.