fruitful branch to be cast out and left to wither. It was based on the violation of his abjuration by Jerome, and his approval of Wickliffe and Huss. “He has turned like a dog to his vomit," said the sentence, "and therefore the sacred council orders that he shall be torn from the vine as a barren and rotten branch." It declared him heretical, backsliding, and excommunicated. It condemned him as such, and cursed him. It finally abandoned him to the secular arm, in order to receive the just punishment due to so great a crime; and, although this punishment was capital, the council expressed its confident assurance that it was not too great. Then it was, if some accounts are to be received, that the emperor's chancellor, Caspar Schlick, advanced into the midst of the assembly, and protested in his master's name against the condemnation of Jerome, threatening all the persons engaged in it with the anger of Sigismund. This tardy interposition was not attended to, and "the chancellor retired without gaining anything."1 Jerome was now given over into the hands of the civil magistrates. It was still an early hour of the morning; and on this Sabbath, while the crowds should have been gathering to the churches, the outraged victim of the council's bigotry was on his way to pass through the gates of flame, as he believed, to the communion of the church triumphant in heaven. Before he left the council, a high paper crown, like the one which Huss in similar circumstances had worn, was brought in; upon it were Van der Hardt, iv. 765. 2 2 Mon. Hus., ii. 357. CH. VIII.] JEROME AT THE STAKE. 255 pictures of demons surrounded by the flames. Jerome saw it, and throwing down his own hat on the floor, in the midst of the prelates, placed this on his head with his own hands, repeating the words which Huss had used before him on the like occasion,-"Jesus Christ, who died for me, a sinner, wore a crown of thorns. I will cheerfully wear this for Him." The soldiers then took charge of him, and led him away to execution. As he turned to leave the cathedral, he chanted the creed in a firm voice, with eyes uplifted to heaven, and a face radiant with joy.1 On his way to the stake he chanted, first, the Litany, and then, as he passed outside the Gottlieben gate of the city, a hymn in honor of the Virgin. The last commenced with the words, "Blessed art thou among women. As he reached the place of execution-the same where Huss had been burned-he knelt down, with his face to the stake, and spent some time in prayer. The executioners raised him up while still engaged in his devotions, and stripped him of his garments. They then bound him to the stake, first about the loins with a linen bandage, after which other parts of the body were made fast with cords and chains. As they piled the wood around the stake, mingling bundles of straw to kindle the conflagration, Jerome sang the hymn, "Hail, Festal Day"—"Salve, feste dies.” He then, in a loud voice that all might hear him, chanted the Nicene creed. When this was done, he turned and addressed the crowd in the German language: "Beloved youth, as I have now chanted, so, 1 Mon. Hus., ii. 354–357. and not otherwise, do I believe. This is the symbol of my faith. Yet for this I die, because I would not assent to and approve the decision of the council, and hold and assert with them that John Huss was holily and justly condemned by the council. For I knew him well, and I knew him as a true preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ." He saw among his executioners a poor man, bringing a fagot to heap upon the pile. It did not excite him to anger. He smiled and said, "O holy simplicity! a thousand times more guilty is he who abuses thee." When the fagots had been piled to a level with his head, his garments were thrown upon them, and fire was applied by a lighted torch. But the executioner who bore the torch approached from behind, unwilling to be seen. "Come forward boldly," said Jerome; "apply the fire before my face. Had I been afraid, I should not have been here." As the flames began to spread, he exclaimed aloud, "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit." When the fire began to penetrate to his flesh, he prayed again, "O Lord God, Almighty Father, have compassion on me, and forgive my sins. Thou knowest that I have ever delighted in thy truth." His voice was now lost, for the smoke and flame had become suffocating; but though no words were heard, all could see by the motion of the lips that he was still engaged in prayer. The agony of his martyrdom was protracted; it was unusually long before life was extinct. Blisters of water of the size of an egg might be seen over his whole body. "One might have gone," says a spec CH. VIII.] THE CLOSING SCENE. 257 tator, "from the St. Clement Church at Prague to the bridge over the Moldau, before he ceased to breathe." 1 At last, all that belonged to him,-his bed, cap, clothing, shoes, and whatever he had had with him in prison,—was brought and thrown upon the blazing pile, to be consumed with him. His ashes, like those of Huss, were carefully gathered up, borne away, and cast into the Rhine. The council were apprehensive lest some fragment or relic of their victim should find its way back to Prague, and be cherished as the memorial of a condemned heretic. The least particle that could be associated with the names of either of the sufferers was sought out and carefully burned, lest it should become an object of veneration. But all their precautions were vain. The soil which their dying feet had pressed-in lack of other objects--became the prized memorial, and was borne to Prague to be guarded with religious care. But more than the portraits even of the departed, was the image of themselves which these men had enstamped upon the minds and hearts of their countrymen. When the last surviving member of the council that sentenced them to execution should have been laid in his grave, the memory of these two Bohemian martyrs would still bloom fresh and green upon their natal soil. 1 Mon. Hus., ii. 354. VOL. II. 2 Æneas Sylvius. 17 2 CHAPTER IX. INEFFICIENCY AND TUMULTS OF THE COUNCIL. ILL-SUCCESS ABSENT MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL SUMMONED. THE CITATION OF THE BOHEMIANS CONSIDERED. THE KNIGHT DE LATZEMBOCK.-JOHN CREITH OF LIEGE. — DILATORY PROCEEDINGS AND TUMULTS OF THE COUNCIL. — THE CARDINAL OF CAMBRAY ON ECCLESIASTICAL POWER. THE ENGLISH NATION IN THE COUNCIL. — NEW MEMBERS. — Gerson and "THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION." THE COUNCIL'S LETTER TO SIGISMUND IN REGard to BOHEMIA. - ACCUSATIONS AGAINST WENZEL. SIGISMUND'S METHOD FOR QUIETING BOHEMIA. ILL-SUCCESS OF HIS PLAN.-SERMONS IN THE COUNCIL.-VICES OF THE CLERGY CLASSIFIED. SIGISMUND'S DEFEATED PROJECTS. HIS RECEPTION AND TREATMENT IN ENgland. COUNCIL'S PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BENEDICT. - STIPILTZ AND PLANCHA CITE HIM. SCENE OF THEIR RECEPTION. LUDICROUS INCIDENTS. SIGISMUND'S RETURN TO CONSTANCE. -HIS RECEPTION. MAY 31, 1416-JAN. 27, 1417. THE execution of Jerome, amid the clashing schemes and conflicting interests which marked the progress of the council, was passed lightly by. A gallant ship had gone down upon a stormy sea, and the wild waves of passion rolled on as madly and fiercely as if there had been no human victim of their murderous play. No expression of regret or remorse bubbles up visibly to the surface, to speak, in the actors, any bitter memory of the deed. No doubt it was remembered, no doubt, in later doubt, in later years, minds like Gerson's recurred to it sadly,-but the death of Jerome, at the time, produced scarcely a pause in the struggle of conflicting parties and interests. |