Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/313

 last accusation against Hus appeared so monstrous that even uneducated men felt the cruelty of preventing the accused from replying. Hus said, among other things: “Be it far from me that I should call myself the fourth person of the divinity; such a thought could find no place in my mind. But I consistently affirm that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one God and one entity and a trinity of persons.” It should be mentioned that almost all modern writers belonging to the Roman Church, Hefele in particular, have admitted the absolute falsehood of this infamous accusation. Hus was, lastly, accused of having appealed to God, a proceeding which was declared to be heretical. In a brief statement which Hus was allowed to make he declared that he firmly maintained that there could be no surer appeal than that to Jesus Christ, the Lord, who is not influenced by evil gifts, nor deceived by false witnesses, but who judges all according to their merits.

When all the articles derived from Wycliffe’s and from Hus’s own writings and the statements of the witnesses had been read out, it became certain that the council intended to terminate the trial of Hus without further delay. He was not allowed to reply to the vast amount of accusations that had been brought against him; it would indeed, as Hus pointed out, have been impossible to do so at one continuous sitting. A declaration that Hus had sent to the council on July 1 was, however, read out. He declared that, fearing to offend God and to commit perjury, he could not recant all the articles, nor indeed any of those that had been wrongly attributed to him by false witnesses, who had accused him—and he called on God as witness of this—of preaching, asserting, and defending views that he had never held. He further declared that if any statement which was really contained in his writings was heretical, he detested and abhorred it, and was ready to recant it.