Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/253

 to order, faith, and the royal safe-conduct. There is much talk here and elsewhere,” they continued, “among the princes and lords, the poor and rich, concerning the holy father’s having acted contrary to order, faith, and the royal letter of safe-conduct, and his having imprisoned a just and innocent man. Therefore, may your majesty graciously deign as king and lord, and eventual heir to the Bohemian throne, to take measures that Master John Hus be delivered from this illegal imprisonment.” The question whether the Bohemian crown was elective or hereditary was then and continued for many years afterwards to be uncertain. These words have, therefore, a somewhat menacing note, which is yet more accentuated in a later passage of the letter: “It would indeed,” the nobles wrote, “be an offence to the Bohemian crown should anything befall a just man, holding such a safe-conduct. God knows that we should hear with great displeasure that your Majesty’s good name suffered through such an event. It would indeed be a reason why many would distrust your Majesty’s safe-conduct, and there has already been talk of this.”

Sigismund does not appear to have heeded this warning. There is little doubt that he thought that, Hus once removed, the Hussite movement would collapse. Of course, events proved the contrary, but Sigismund’s conjecture was not devoid of plausibility. No less a historian than Palacky has written that, had not the exceptional military genius of Zizka enabled the Bohemians to defend their country and their faith, Hus would appear in history as an isolated enthusiast like Savonarola. The admirable organisation of the Bohemian armies and the wisdom which the magisters of the university, particularly the learned Jacobellus, displayed as spiritual leaders of the people, enabled Bohemia to retain for two centuries a national and independent church.

While Hus’s friends were endeavouring to help him, his enemies strove with equal energy and greater success to bring