Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/40

 be mistaken in that as well as many other things. Having then taken the great liberty of inculcating that the pope can err (a heresy then considered far more frightful than to deny Jesus Christ), he was constrained by violence to confirm what he had maintained in saying, that an impious pope was not a pious one. All then were in wild commotion, like so many wild boars, and they gnashed their teeth, knit their brows, bristled up their coat, and, at last, rushing precipitately on him, delivered him cruelly and wickedly to the flames.

One of the first articles that it was necessary to admit at that period was, that the Roman pontiff was infallible; and such was the opinion of the jurisconsults of the Roman court. It did not appear presumable that any error could emanate from so elevated a quarter; but when personal presumptions are formed, it often comes to pass too much is presumed.

The extraordinary mistake of these men on so important a point, and the manifest outrages which John Huss suffered from them, only served to animate him with greater courage. A conscience pure of all crime before God and before the world, affords a man a great consolation in his misfortunes; and if his suffering should be for the name and glory of God, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter of the afflicted, immediately comes to his aid, and lends him assistance against the world and against demons, as Christ has promised (Matt. x.) in these words: