Page:John Huss by Hastings Rashdall (1879).pdf/20

 Gregory XII. The Archbishop immediately suspended all the Masters of the University who recognised the new Pope from the exercise of priestly functions within his diocese; and with many of his clergy fled the country. The confiscation of the property of the exiles, and the almost universal acknowledgment of Alexander V., soon brought the Archbishop to reason. A sort of concordat was arranged. Zbynek and his obedient clergy abandoned Gregory XII., and were restored to their benefices. The suspension of the Masters was removed, and the disobedience of Huss and some others overlooked. In July, a Diocesan Synod gave further effect to the wishes of the King, who was anxious for the removal of suspicions which might be injurious to the success of his political schemes, by determining that no heresy existed in Bohemia. The reconciliation of the spiritual and temporal powers was solemnly proclaimed at a great assembly of the spiritual and temporal lords of the realm.

No sooner was Zbynek restored to his temporalities than he transferred his complaints against Huss to the court of the new Pontiff. It appears that an order for the surrender of Wyclif’s books for examination had already been promulgated, and that certain students of the University had appealed against the order on the ground that it was contrary to the privileges of the University. Zbynek now, in the year following that in which he had solemnly pronounced the realm free from heresy, procured a bull from Alexander V., by which the heresies of Wyclif, particularly his denial of Transubstantiation, were declared to be on the increase. It was, therefore, ordered that all the heresiarch’s writings should be surrendered for examination by a Commission of four Doctors of Divinity and two of Canon Law, to be appointed by the Archbishop, who, after receiving the report of the Commission, was to proceed to a definitive sentence upon the matter, all appeals to the Apostolical See then pending or hereafter to be made being referred absolutely to his decision. Moreover, all preaching in private Chapels was to cease.

The Archbishop proceeded to execute the bull, and on the 16th of June, 1410, all the writings of Wyclif which had been surrendered to the Commission, many of them works of a purely philosophical character, were condemned to the flames. On the 21st the University solemnly declared its dissen from the Archbishop’s judgment. Indignant at an order which violated their privileges and destroyed their property, the Masters solicited and obtained the interference of the King. Zbynek promised that the sentence should not be executed without the royal permission: but on