Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/187

 number of soldiers had been gathered together in the town, and though he had always cherished loyal feelings toward Venceslas, he was too well acquainted with him not to know to what sudden movements of fury he was subject. An order of the king could, on the slightest provocation on the part of the citizens, cause a terribly murderous struggle in the streets, the responsibility for which Hus could not, and would not assume. One word of Hus from the Bethlehem pulpit would have brought on such a desperate struggle, particularly as many Germans and Romanists were still in the city. Through Hus’s silence such a catastrophe was averted. The Praguers also, following the example of their leader, behaved on this occasion with studious moderation. They indeed declared themselves ready to accept death as the three young men had done, but no attack was made on the German soldiery. We meet with this moderation on the part of the citizens of Prague generally during the earlier part of the Hussite struggle. If after the ruthless and treacherous execution of their revered leader they became revengeful and cruel, those only are entitled to blame them who practise truly the precept: “Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Thanks mainly to the energy of the notorious Michael de Causis the proceedings at the papal courts had meanwhile come to an end. In August, 1412, a papal bull, published under the authority of Hus’s new judge, Cardinal Peter of St. Angelo, reached Prague. It proclaimed the aggravation (aggravatio) of the sentence of excommunication which Cardinal Colonna had previously pronounced against Hus. The ban was to be proclaimed publicly, and all the faithful were forbidden to give him food or drink or to speak to him; then followed all the habitual clauses of a mediaeval bull of excommunication. Hus's reply was a step for which he has been frequently blamed, particularly perhaps by those who did not bear sufficiently in mind the spirit of the times in which Hus