Page:John Huss, his life, teachings and death, after five hundred years.pdf/344

 hands. He was remanded to prison and, at his trial in the Franciscan refectory, was recognized by Gerson and teachers of Heidelberg and Cologne as one of their former students and inclined to heretical looseness. The proceedings against him were delayed by Huss’s execution. On June 6, in a letter written to John of Chlum, Huss referred to Jerome as his beloved brother, to whom he hoped dying constancy would be given, as also to himself. He had heard from commissioners of the council that Jerome would suffer death. Writing to his friends in Bohemia on June 27, Huss said, to quote the letter again, that God only knew why his own death and the death of his dear brother Jerome were being delayed. He hoped that Jerome would die without incurring guilt and show a firmer spirit in the hour of the ordeal than he himself, a weak sinner, possessed.

Huss’s case being disposed of, the council exerted itself to turn Jerome from his errors and its attempt was crowned with success. Converted from his perfidy, the prisoner made his recantation in the presence of the four nations and later, September 23, before the council in its nineteenth session. Being at the time, as he declared, under no compulsion he repudiated the articles of Wyclif and of Huss, approved the condemnation of the two men and promised to communicate to the Bohemian people a statement of his act and the reasons leading him to it. The rigor of his imprisonment was relaxed, but a difference of opinion prevailed as to the wisdom of his release. D’Ailly, Zabarella and other influential councillors favored it, while Gerson took the other side. The moderate party yielded.

Jerome continued to languish in prison for nearly six months, when a new trial was inaugurated, apparently at the