Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/151

 purpose of preparing the appeal which he now sent to Pope John XXIII. He protested against the bull of Alexander based on untrue statements made from personal motives by Bohemian ecclesiastics. He also protested against the intended burning of Wycliffe’s works, many of which were treatises on philosophy, logic, and other matters not connected with theology. He also claimed for the university the right of reading Wycliffe’s other works, as they had, according to the regulations, to read also the works of Aristotle, Averroes, and other “heathens whose works teemed with heresies.” Almost at the same moment the archbishop addressed to the “diavolo cardinale,” now Pope John XXIII., a letter in which he denounced Hus as the originator of all troubles in Bohemia and as a defender of Wycliffe’s. Zbynek then alluded to the sermon of Hus at the Bethlehem chapel on June 22, and begged the pope to order him to appear for judgment before the papal court.

Meanwhile the archbishop, as Margrave Jodocus did not arrive, determined to act without further delay. On July 16 he assembled the prelates and principal ecclesiastical dignitaries in the court of his palace, which was barricaded and guarded by a considerable armed force. A stake was erected in the middle of the court, and Wycliffe’s books were placed on it. The archbishop then himself lighted the pile, and all present sang the Te Deum while the books were burning.

King Venceslas was on that day absent from Prague; he would otherwise undoubtedly have opposed by force the work of the archbishop. Zbynek himself appears to have felt that he had taken on himself a grave responsibility. Not feeling safe in Prague, he left the city immediately after the burning of the books, and retired to his castle of Roudnice. He there pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Hus. The fears of Zbynek were not altogether unfounded. There had sprung up among the people of Prague an intense hatred of the archbishop and the clergy—particularly the parish