Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/494

 ,»g BOHEMIA. Yet the hostility of those who testified against him was no- torious At the place of execution he declared that he was con- victed of errors which he did not entertain, on the evidence of false witnesses. The Bohemians in Constance, in their memorial of May 31, 1415, to the council, declared that the testimony affainst him was given by those who were his mortal enemies. At one time he or his friends thought of disabling them on this ac- count, but when he asked the commissioners to permit him to em- ploy an advocate who could take the necessary exceptions to the evidence, although they at first assented they finaUy refused, say- ing that it was against the law for any one to defend a suspected heretic This, as we have seen, was strictly true, and if the main- tenance of the rule may seem harsh, we must remember on the other hand that the friends of Huss were allowed unexampled liberty in working in his behalf. Their repeated memorials to the councU and their efforts with Sigismund made them guilty of the crime of fautorship, and if there had been any disposition to en- force the law they could have been reduced to instant silence and have been grievously punished.* It had not taken long to secure evidence more than ample tor Huss's conviction, and if his burning had been the object desired it might have been speedily acoomphshed. We have seen, how- ever, how much the Inquisition preferred a penitent convert to acre- mated heretic, and in this case, perhaps more than in any other on record, confession and submission were supremely desirable. Huss, as a self-confessed heresiarch, would be deprived of all importance, and his disciples might be expected to follow his example : as a martyr, there was no predicting whether the result would be ter- ror or exasperation. The milder customary methods of the In- quisition were therefore brought to bear to break down his stub- born obstinacv by procrastination, solitude, and despair. Had his judges desired to be harsh they could have had recourse to tort- ure, which was the ordinary mode of dealing with similar cases. • In this they would have been fully justified by law and custom. The less violent but equally efficient device of prolonged starva- tion could likewise have been employed, but was mercifully tor- « Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, pp. 253, 323).-Voii der Hardt IV. 188, 212, 289.— Epist. xlix. (Monument. I. T3 a).