Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/516

 ^QQ BOHEMIA. had become convinced of his friend's errors and could not defend them.* This was not a strictly formal abjuration such as was custom- arily required of prisoners of the Inquisition, yet it might have sufficed. It was read before a private congregation of the coun- cil, and some more pubUc humihation was needed. At the next general session, therefore, September 23, Jerome Avas placed in the pulpit, where he repeated his recantation, with an explanation of an expression in it, adding a recantation of his theory of Uni- versals, and winding up by a solemn oath of abjuration in which he invoked an eternal anathema on aU who wandered from the • faith and on himself if he should do so. He had been told that he would not be allowed to return to Bohemia, but might select some Swabian monastery in which to reside, on condition that he should write home, over his hand and seal, that his teaching and that of Huss were false and not to be foUowed. This he promised to do, as, indeed, he had already done, but he was remanded to his prison, though his treatment was somewhat less harsh than bef ore.f Had the'^council been wise, it would have treated him as len- iently as possible. A dishonored apostate, his power of evil was gone, and generosity would have been policy. The canons, how- ever, prescribed harsh prison for converted heretics, whose con- version was always regarded as doubtful, and the assembled fa- thers Avere too bigoted to be wise. The zealots converted the apostate to a martyr, whose steadfast constancy redeemed his temporary weakness, and regained for him the forfeited influence over the imagination of his disciples. His remorse was not long in showing itself. Stephen Palecz, Michael de Causis, and his other enemies who were still hovering around his prison, soon got wind of his self-accusation. John - Richentals Cronik p. 79.— Theod.Vrie Hist. Concil. Constant. Lib. vi. Dist. 12.-Theod. a Niem de Vita Joann. PP. XXHI. Lib. iii. c. 8.-Palacky Docu- > menta, pp. 596-9. . t Von der Hardt IV. 501-7.— Richentals Cronik p. 79.-In the final ofticial articles drawn up against Jerome by the Promotor HmreticcB Pramtatis, his abso- lute refusal to write to Bohemia, after promising to do so, is made a special point of accusation. Yet his letter to that effect, of September 12, is still on rec- ord, and in his last defiant address to the council he speaks of liaving written it under fear of burning, and now desires to withdraw it (V. d. Hardt IV. 688, 761).