Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/162

 108 STATESMEN AND SAGES Sophia used her influence on his behalf. The king wrote to the Pope and the cardinal in his favor. He demanded liberty for Huss to preach, and insisted that aU actions against him should cease, so that for a while the persecution was stayed. But at last Huss was pronounced a heretic; and now he is one stage nearer to Constance and the funeral pile. On the way, however, he could exclaim, " Where I see anything at variance with the doctrines of Christ, I will not obey, though the stakes were staring me in the face." That was his maxim all through life ; and in such an age such heroism in such a cause was the harbinger of death. At one stage of these life and death struggles, Huss had to do battle against a whole theological faculty ; and that and similar contests trained him to a boldness and decision which was constantly growing. But he had now to separate, for the truth's sake, from friends whom he had prized through life. His pathway, indeed, is gradually becoming more narrow, as well as more rough he is one of those who must often walk alone. Indulgences were now attacked by him in public disputations. About this period some of his friends were condemned to death because they objected to indulgences, and Huss took up their cause. He hastened to the Senate House, and pleaded for the three condemned men. He made their danger his own, and declared that he, the teacher, not they, the disciples, should die. In spite of his efforts, and in violation of promises given that no blood should be shed, his three friends were hurried to execution ; and what could be the result of that step, but a more intense antagonism, a more resolute decision ? On a subsequent occasion, accordingly, Huss appeared before the king and his coun- cil, to defend what he reckoned the right. He offered, with characteristic ardor, to be bound to die at the stake if he did not make good his views, provided his eight opponents would do the same. But all other struggles were soon merged in the great conflict with Rome itself. The Pope had determined to put down Huss, and he was excommunicated with the most terrible of papal forms. If he did not submit in twenty days, the ban was to be proclaimed against him in all churches ; all who harbored him were to be laid under an interdict, and Huss himself was to be burned according to law. The King of Bohemia had urged Huss to leave Prague for a time, in the hope that peace might thus be restored. He complied, and, like Luther in the Wartburg, in the Castle of Kozi-hradek wrote some of his most important works. Never was more determined courage displayed by any man in similar circumstances than by Huss in that castle. From his hiding-place Huss often went abroad and preached to the crowds who flocked to hear him ; but the Council of Constance is now at hand, for we are referring to the year 1414, and he is to proceed thither under a safe-conduct from Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, with the assurance that if he could not submit to the decision of the Council, the emperor would send him back un- harmed to Bohemia. This was an opportunity for which Huss had longed. He would now, he thought, deliver his message and uphold the truth before as-