Page:John Huss, his life, teachings and death, after five hundred years.pdf/244

 approved by sixty doctors. 2. Swear never to preach or teach them again. 3. Make public renunciation. 4. Promise to uphold and preach the opposite.

With reference to the advice given by d’Ailly, drawn from the weighty sixty names, Huss wrote, under date of June 26: “What a wonderful piece of information! By this reasoning the virgin St. Catherine ought to have receded from the truth and the faith of Jesus Christ because fifty doctors opposed her! Truly this beloved virgin persisted unto death and won over the doctors, a thing which as a sinner I am not able to do.” Huss was referring to Catherine of Alexandria who, according to tradition, received the highest place in the liberal arts. Maximin promised the highest rewards to the philosopher who would win her back to paganism. But she overcame them all and was broken on the St. Catherine’s wheel. Her body was transported to Mt. Sinai, where the famous convent commemorates her memory.

In reply to d’Ailly, Huss affirmed that he was ready to yield to the council and be informed, but he asked, for God’s sake, that the snare of damnation should not be thrown about him and that he be not called upon to abjure articles that he had never held and renounce things which had never been in his heart, especially that, after the consecration, only the material bread remains. It was against his conscience to abjure articles he had never held and thus to tell a lie. When he called his conscience to witness, many cried out: “And did your conscience never intimate to you that you had erred?” At this point, the king called upon Huss to yield to the cardinal’s counsel and put aside his unwillingness to abjure all the erroneous articles. As for himself, he did not wish to hold a single error and would abjure all errors, even if he had not held a single one. To this Huss replied that the word abjure did not properly apply in such a case. Zaba-