Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/23

 correspondence with Hus, and invited him to appear personally at Constance, promising not only a safe-conduct, but also every assistance towards bringing matters to a satisfactory conclusion, and Hus engaged to appear.

On Nov. 28, Hus was arrested at Constance, in spite of the protest of the Bohemian nobles, to whom his safety had been entrusted. King Sigismund at first protested against the arrest as a violation of his safe-conduct, and was only with great difficulty induced to acquiesce in it. In March, 1415, Pope John fled from Constance, and on Palm-Sunday, March 24, the keys of Hus’s prison were given up to King Sigismund, who, instead of setting him at liberty, placed him in the hands of the Bishop of Constance, by whom he was imprisoned in chains at his castle of Gottlieben. On the 4th of April, Jerome of Prague, in spite of the warnings of Hus, came to Constance, challenged a trial, and demanded a safe-conduct. Finding that proceedings would be immediately taken against him, he fled, but was arrested at Hirschau, not far from the frontiers of Bohemia, and brought back to Constance. Hus was heard thrice, with a manifest determination to put him to death, and, in fact, a Bohemian who had, on the first hearing, got behind the clerk, who read the documents aloud, saw the sentence of condemnation all ready prepared among the other papers, and it was only prevented from being read by the urgent remonstrances of the king. But after the third hearing, on July 8, Sigismund, in a confidential conversation with a number of cardinals and prelates, warned them against placing any confidence either in Hus or in Jerome, even if they recanted, and urged them to make an end of the matter as quickly as possible, as he should himself soon be obliged to leave the council.

Endeavours were made to induce Hus to recant; but he uniformly refused to do so, unless proofs of his errors were