§ 46. JEROME OF PR AG. 389
before his death,^ expressing the hope that he would die holy and blameless and be of a braver spirit in meeting pain than he was. Huss had misjudged himself. In the hour of grave crisis he proved constant and heroic, while his friend gave way.
On Sept. 11, 1415, Jerome solemiijj^XGllQlin^ced his admiration for Wyclif and professed accord with the Roman church and the Apostolic see and, twelve days later, solemnly repeated his abjuration in a formula prepared by the council.^
Release from prison did not follow. It was the council's intention that Jerome should sound forth his abjuration as loudly as possible in Bohemia, and write to Wenzel, the university and the Bohemian nobles ; but he disappointed his judges. Following Gerson's lead, the council again put the recusant heretic on trial. The sittings took place in the cathedral. May 23 and 26, 1416. The charge of denying transubstantiation Jerome repudiated, but he confessed to having done ill in pledging himself to abandon the writings and teachings of that good man John Wyclif, and Huss. Great injury had been done to Huss, who had come to the council with assurance of safe-conduct. Even Judas or a Saracen ought under such circumstances to be free to come and go and to speak his mind freely.
On May 30, Jerome was again led into the cathedral. The bishop of Lodi ascended the pulpit and preached a sermon, calling upon the council to punish the prisoner, and counselling that against other such heretics, if there should be any, any witnesses whatever should be allowed to testify, — ruffians, thieves and harlots. The sermon being over, Jerome mounted a bench — hancum ascendens — and made a defence whose eloquence is attested by Poggio and others who were present. Thereupon, the "holy synod " pronounced him a follower of Wyclif and Huss, and adjudged him to be cast off as a rotten and withered branch — palmitem putridum et aridum.^
Jerome went out from the cathedral wearing a cheerful countenance. A paper cap was put on his head, painted over
1 Workman : Letters, p. 266. 2 Mansi, XXVII. 794 sqq., 842-864.
s For the sentence, see Mansi, XXVII. 887-897. Foxe, in his Book of Martyrs, gives a translation and an excellent account of the proceedings against Jerome and his martyrdom.
390 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
with red devils. No sentence of deposition was necessary or ceremony of disrobing, for the condemned man was merely a laic.^ He died on the spot where Huss suffered. As the wood was being piled around him, he sang the Easter hymn, salva festa dies, Hail, festal day. The flames were slow in putting an end to his miseries as compared with Huss. His ashes were thrown into the Rhine. And many learned people wept, the chronicler Richental says, that he had to die, for he was almost more learned than Huss. After his death, the council joined his name with the names of Wyclif and Huss as leaders of heresy.
Poggio Bracciolini's description of Jerome's address in the cathedral runs thus : —
It was wonderful to see with what words, with what eloquence, with what arguments, with what countenance and with what composure, Jerome replied tohisadversaries,andhowfairlyheputhi8case. . . . He advanced nothing unworthy of a good man, as though he felt confident — as he also publicly asserted — that no just reason could be found for his death. . . . Many persons he touched with humor, many with satire, many very often he caused to laugh in spite of the sad affair, jesting at their reproaches, . . . He took them back to Socrates, unjustly condemned by his fellowcitizens. Then he mentioned the captivity of Plato, the flight of Anaxagoras, the torture of Zeno and the unjust condemnation of many other Pagans. . . . Thence he passed to the Hebrew examples, first instancing Moses, the liberator of his people, Joseph, sold by his brethren, Isaiah, Daniel, Susannah. . . . Afterwards, coming down to John the Baptist and then to the Saviour, he showed how, in each case, they were condemned by false witnesses and false judges. . . . Then proceeding to praise John Huss, who had been condemned to be burnt, he called him a good man, just and holy, unworthy of such a death, saying that he himself was prepared to go to any punisliment whatsoever. . . . He said that Huss had never held opinions hostile to the Church of God, l)ut only against the abuses of the clergy, against the pride, the arrogance and the pomp of prelates. . . . He displayed the greatest cleverness, — for, when his speech was often interrupted with various disturbances, he left no one unscathed but turned trenchantly upon his accusers and forced them to blush, or be still. . . . P'or ■MO days lie lay iu the bottom of a foul, dark tower. He himself did not complain at the harshness of this treatment, but expressed his wonder that such inlmmanity could be shown him. In the dungeon, he said, he had not only no facilities for reading, but none for seeing. . . . He stood there fearless and unterrified, not alone despising death but seeking it, so
1 Laicus, Mansi, XXVII. 894.