Page:The letters of John Hus.djvu/195

 at Constance did not at first point to a large attendance. It was not until after the arrival of Sigismund that the princes of Europe sent their embassies.

With the ‘seller of indulgences,’ Michael Tiem, now Dean of Passau, we have met before. The negotiations with John to which Hus and Cardinalis refer were characteristic of the Pope. John was too uncertain of the future to make up his mind, as yet, to a breach with Sigismund, while his future conduct shows that he was not sorry to find a subject which might possibly divert attention from himself, and embroil Sigismund in a conflict with the cardinals. So when, on the Sunday after their arrival, ‘Chlum and Lacembok waited on the Pope, informing him that they had brought Hus to Constance under the safe-conduct of Sigismund, and begging that the Pope would not allow violence to be done to him, the Pope replied that even if Hus had killed his own brother he should be safe’ (Mladenowic’s Relatio in Doc. 246).

That same night Hus wrote the to his friends in Bohemia:—

Greetings from Christ Jesus! We reached Constance the Saturday after All Saints’ Day, having escaped all hurt. As we passed through the various cities we posted up the notices of appeal in Latin and German. We are lodged in a street near the Pope’s quarters. We came without a safe-conduct. The day after our arrival Michael de Causis posted up writs against me in the Cathedral, and affixed his signature to them, with a long preamble to the effect that “the said writs are against that excommunicated and obstinate John Hus, who is also under the suspicion of heresy,” and much else besides. Nevertheless, with God’s help, I take no notice