Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/28

xviii, were accustomed to consult their conscience before all, in face of the altars of Paganism, or of the temple still standing at Jerusalem, and that they took for their only guide this secret and inflexible monitor. A few eloquent men—a few great minds—had, it is true, consulted their individual opinions, rather than yield to clerical and traditional authority. Abelard and Berenger, in France, had given proof of boldness and independence in proclaiming their doctrines; but they grew timid when it was necessary to defend them; their voices died away, and their heads were bowed low, before the menaces of popes and councils. In Italy, Armand de Bresse had ventured openly to resist the pontifical power; but the revolution, of which he gave the signal, was a civil rather than a religious one. Numerous sects and whole populations had, in different countries, emancipated themselves from the yoke, by depending on that irresistible force which the sympathy of the masses and the association with a whole nation creates, in order to think, believe,