Page:John Huss, his life, teachings and death, after five hundred years.pdf/126

 As Thomas à Becket soon forgot his promise of assent to the Constitutions of Clarendon and repented of his act on returning to Canterbury, so Zbynek quickly receded from his oath to stand by the action of the royal commission, Even a pope, Pascal II, on the ground of coercion, had receded from a solemn agreement with the emperor Henry V over investiture so soon as the prince was well on the northern side of the Alps. Zbynek went so far as to address the promised letter to John XXIII. It is still extant, but it was never sent. In this communication he expressed the hope that his sanctity, “moved by his bowels of compassion, might dismiss and annul the excommunication and censures pronounced upon the honorable master, John Huss, and absolve him from personal appearance at Rome.”

The archbishop had determined to pursue a different course and now turned to Sigismund, hoping to win him to his side and, in view of the accession of influence which had accrued to Sigismund by his recent election as king of the Romans and heir of the empire, to break down the opposition of his brother Wenzel. - We would be offered a puzzling dilemma if these two princes were proposed for ruler and we were obliged to choose between them. If Wenzel was fickle and weak of will, he was at least under the powerful control of a devoted wife who had the respect of the court. Sigismund was as profligate as his brother, though his profligacy did not break out in such coarse debaucheries, and he was also am-