Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/500

 AOA BOHEMIA 484 he maintained that he only agreed to do so on such points as he could be proved to have taught erroneously. At last he was brought to Constance in chains and confined in the Franciscan ''"the routine of the inquisitorial process there was no neces- sity for further parley with the accused. The articles of heresy w/re proved against him, and if he continued obstinately to deny them delivery to the secular arm was a matter of course. There had been no' intention of permitting such an innovation on the regular procedure as a public audience, but Sigismund could see, if the council could not, that its denial would have a most unfor- tunate influence on public opinion in Bohemia where in the p,-^ vailing i<.norance as to the inquisitorial rules, it would be claimed that the^council was afraid to face their champion and was forced to condemn him unheard. It could, m -hty, ^ave - influence on the result, for the case was already virtually decided, but Huss s friends could not recognize this, and an attempt was made without success, to speculate on their eagerness, by a demand for two thou- sand fl;rins to defray the alleged expenses. The audie"-^J^ J followed were thus whoUy irregular, and may be briefly dismissed as in no sense entitled to the importance which has commonly been ascribed to them.f „ On June 6 a congregation of the council was held in the Fran- ciscan convent. At first the intention was to carry out the^rdi- nary inquisitorial procedure by considering, in the absence of Huss the artfcles proved against him, but Peter Mladenowic hastened to John of Chlumanlwenceslasof Duba, who forthwith appealed to Sigismund. The latter at once sent the Palsgrave Louis and Frederic Burggrave of Nuremberg to the councd, with orders that nSing should be done until Huss was present and his books were before them for verification. At length therefore, he had the lon-dosired opportunity of meeting his adversaries and de- f^d^n^himself in pubhc debate. The books from which his e^ro. . had been extracted were laid before him-his treatise Be Eccle Martene Thesaur. II. 1635.-Harduin. VIII. 280.-Mlaaenowic Relatio (Palacky, '%TpiItt;xliii., .ivii. (Monument. I. 71, 72).-Von der Hardt IV. 291, 306-7.
 * Von der Hardt lY. 100, 118, 136, 158, 189, 200, 212-13. .^^S-» W «OO^-