Page:John Huss, his life, teachings and death, after five hundred years.pdf/211

 After all, Huss was an unprotected heretic, and heresy was the crime of crimes, the offense above all others in this world to be abhorred. The only refuge left was God, and to him Huss turned with all the tender piety of which he was capable. As God had delivered Jonah from the whale’s belly and Daniel from the lions’ den, and the three young men from the burning fiery furnace and Susanna from her false accusers, so, he wrote, He was able to deliver him provided such deliverance would be for His glory. In His mercy, He could release the Goose though locked up in vilest prison. With litanies and prayers he helped to fill out sleepless nights and, in suffering he kept the passion of the Lord constantly before his eyes. He looked forward with regret that he would not have the privilege of taking the communion at Easter. He called upon his friends in Bohemia to partake of it worthily. Consolation was afforded him by a visit paid him by Prachaticz in March. In the presence of this true friend and special benefactor, as he called him, he broke down in tears. At the instance of Michael de Causis. Prachaticz was afterward seized, but again released upon signing a profession of faith and by Sigismund’s interference.

In Huss’s opinion it was not safe for a Bohemian to venture near the council, and he warned his friends, especially Jesenicz and Jerome of Prague, under no circumstances to venture to come to Constance. On the 4th of April, Jerome actually dared to enter the city, and affixed a notice on the city gates affirming Huss’s orthodoxy. Again, in a few days, he returned and, in an announcement written in three languages, posted upon the doors of the cathedral and the Kauffhaus, he called upon the king to give him a letter of safe-conduct that he might appear before the council with safety and defend Huss. He then retired. On the 17th of April the council promised to protect him against violence, but, doubting its word, Jerome attempted to flee to Bohemia. Recog-