Page:John Huss, his life, teachings and death, after five hundred years.pdf/162

 Ernest of Austria in the church of St. Mary the Virgin, inveighed against the five Wyclifite articles defended by Huss; and in St. Gallus, Palecz declared Huss to be a worse heretic than either Sabellius or Arius, for he dared to intrench himself behind the Scriptures. Palecz also used as an argument against the Hussites their alleged timidity and boasted of the confidence and boldness of the other party. We can go, he said, “with our faith wherever we choose, but they dare not travel abroad, for in Germany or before the Roman curia, if they did not renounce their faith, they would be burned.”

Still another bull was forthcoming, which ordered Huss seized and delivered up to the archbishop of Prague or the bishop of Leitomysl to be condemned and put to death. The Bethlehem chapel was ordered razed to the ground as a nest of heresy. A mob of German citizens who had taken sides against Huss, and of Czechs led by a Bohemian, Chotek, furnished themselves with swords and other weapons and proceeded to the Bethlehem chapel with the purpose of executing the papal order, but their attempt was foiled by the congregation, which at the time was assembled for service. At a formal meeting in the town hall, Germans and some Bohemians voted to execute the pope’s fulmination against the chapel, but the majority of the Bohemians present announced themselves against it. On the other hand, the Hussites were not to be easily subdued. They gained the victory at the university by the election of Christian of Prachaticz as rector. The election was carried through in the face of the combined resistance of the theological masters. Prachaticz was a devoted friend of Huss and so remained to the end. Some of Huss’s letters giving the deepest insight into his convictions were addressed to this noble man.

Sophia, the queen, also remained steadfast and continued to attend the services at the chapel. John of Jesenicz, who