§ 45. HUSS AT CONSTANCE. 383
ciless flames. The ashes were g^atliered up and cast into the Ehine.
While this scene was being enacted, the council was going on with the transaction of business as if the burning without the gates were only a common event. Three weeks later, it announced that it had done nothing more pleasing to God than to punish the Bohemian heretic. For this act it has been chiefly remembered by after generations.
Not one of the members of the Council of Constance, after its adjournment, so far as we know, uttered a word of protest against the sentence. No pope or oecumenical synod since has made any apology for it. Nor has any modern Catholic historian gone further than to indicate that in essential theological doctrines Husswas no heretic, though his sentence was strictly in accord with the principles of the canon law. So long as the dogmas of an infallible Church organization and an infallible pope continue to be strictly held, no apology can be expected. It is of the nature of Protestant Christianity to confess wrongs and, as far as is possible, make reparation for them. When the Massachusetts court discovered that it had erred in the case of the Salem witchcraft in 1G92, it made full confession, and offered reparation to the surviving descendants ; and Judge Sewall, one of the leaders in the prosecution, made a moving public apology for the mistake he had committed. The same court recalled the action against Roger Williams. In 1903, the Protestants of France reared a monument at Geneva in expiation of Calvin's part in passing sentence upon Servetus. Lutlier, in his Address to the Crerman Nghility, called upon the Roman Church to confess it had done wrong in burning Huss. That innocent man's blood still cries from tEa grounds "ITuss died for his advocacy of Wycliffism. The sentence passed \)y the council c()U[)1(m1 the two names together.* The
1 Buddenseig, Hus, Patriot and Reformer, p. 11, says, " The whole Hussite movement is mere Wycliffism." Loserth, Widif and Has, p. xvi, says, It was Wyclif's doctrine principally for which Has yielded up his life. Invectives flying about in Constance joined their names together. The M.s.sa Wiclefistarum ran, Credo in Wijkleph ducem iuferni patron nm Boemi(X et in IIus filium ejus unicum nequavi nostrum, qui conceptusest ex spiritu lAirifcri, natns mutre ejus et /actus incarnatus equalis Wikleph, secundum malam voluntatem
384 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1617.
25th_of_tha. 30 Arfiir.1ft.sjQon4efl»B«d-him for taking offence at _tlie reprobatbrLJDi the iAAi'tialeav-ascnbfijd-ta -Wyclif . _How much this article was intended to cover cannot be said. It is -eertaiii tliatlTassdrd not farmally deny the doctrine of transiibstantiatioii,alt]i()uo-]i he was cliarged with thatheresy. Nor was lie distinctly condemned for urging the distribution of the C11J3 to thejUiity, which he advocatgd-afterthg^council had positively forbidden it. His only offence was his definition of the Church and his denial of the infallibility of the-papaey and its necessity for the being of the Churoh- These charges constitute the content of all the 30 arlicles except the 25th. Luther said brusquely but truly, that PIuss committed no more atrocious sin than to declare that a Roman pontiff of impious life is not the head of the Church catholic. ^
John Huss struck at the foundations of the hierarchical system. He interpreted our Lord's words to Peter in a way that was fatal to the papal theory of Leo, Hildebrand and Innocent III. 2 His conception of the Church, which he drew f rom_Wyclif, contains^he kembl of an entirely new system of religious autnprity. He made tjie Scriptures the final source of appeal, and exalted the authority of the conscience <>'t)oye pope, council and canon law as an interpreter of truth. He carried out these
et major secnndtim ejus persecuti07iem, regnans tempore desnlationis stxulii Pragensis, tempore quo Boemia a fide apostotavit. Qui propter nos hcreticos descendit ad inferna et non resurget a mortuis nee habebit vitam eternam. Amen.
1 Note appended to Huss' writings, ed. 1537. See Huss' 0pp., Prelim. Statement, I. 4. It did not require the study of the modern historian to affirm the view taken above. John Foxe, in his Book of Martyrs, presented it clearly when he said, " By the life, acts and letters of Huss, it is plain that he was condemned not for any error of doctrine, for he neither denied their popish transubstantiation, neither spake against the authority of the church of Rome, if it were well governed, nor yet against the seven sacraments, but said mass himself and in almost all their popish opinions was a papist with them, but only through evil will was he accused because he spoke against tlie pomp, pride and avarice and other wicked enormities of the pope, cardinals and prelates of the church, etc.
2 Gerson declared that among the causes for which Huss was condemned was that he had affirmed that the Church could be ruled by priests dispersed throughout the world in the absence of one head as well as with one head. Schwab, p. 588.