Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/514

 ,.,o BOHEMIA. doors addressed to Sigismund and the council. It staced that he had come of his own free will to answer all accusations of heresy and if convicted he was ready to endure the penalty, but he asked a safe-conduct in coming and going, and if incarcerated or treated with violence during his stay the council would be committing m- iustice of which he could not suspect so many learned and wise inen This senseless bravado is only to be explained by his er- ratic temperament, and it did not prevent him from taking pre- cautions as to his safety. He suddenly changed his mind, and on April 9, after obtaining from the Bohemians at Constance testi- monial letters, he escaped from the city, none too soon, for the officials were in search of his lodgings, which they discovered a few days after at the Gutjar, in St. Paul Street, where m h^ haste he had left behind him the significant memento of a sword. This time he no longer trifled with fate, but travelled rapidly tow- ards Bohemia. At Hirsau, however, his impetuous temper led liim into a discussion in which he stigmatized the council as a svnaeo-ue of Satan. He was seized April 24, and the papers found upon him betrayed him. John of Bavaria threw him mto the castle of Sulzbach, notified the council of his capture, and in obedience to its commands he was forthwith carried thither in chains."*, . , , „i Meanwhile the council had responded to his appeal by pub- lishing April 18, a formal inquisitorial citation summoning him, as a suspected and defamed heretic, the suppression of ^^hom was its chief duty, to appear for trial within fifteen days, in default of which he would be proceeded against in contumacy. A sate-con- duct was offered him, but it was expressly declared subject to the exigencies of the faith. Unaware of his capture, on May 2 a new citation was pubhshed and his trial as contumacious was ordered and this was repeated on the 4th. On May 24 his captors brought him to the city loaded with chains, and took him to the Francis- can convent, where a tumultuous congregation of the councU ■ greeted his arrival. Here Gerson gratified his rancor against hi old opponent, loudly berating him for having taugl^t false y at Paris, Heidelberg, and Cologne, and the rectors of the two latter • Von der Hardt IV. 108-5, 134fck-Palacky Documenta, p. 541-2.-Richen- tals Ci-onik, p. 78.-Lau.-. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. anu. 1415 (Ludew,g VI. 132).