DEATH OF HUS

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the representatives of the Council, and while I was with ' By the grace of God we them, said to my guardians, shall soon burn this heretic, and I have spent many florins for this purpose.' Be it known to you that in

writing this I do not desire vengeance of him ; that I leave to God. Indeed, I pray earnestly for him." All attempts to obtain a recantation from Hus having On failed, there was now no reason for further delay. July 6, Hus was brought for the last time before the Council. The various accusations against him, some founded entirely on falsehoods, were then read out to It was dehim, and he was informed of his sentence. creed that his books, both Latin and Bohemian, should be destroyed, and Hus, as " a manifest heretic," delivered to the secular authorities for punishment. After the ignominious ceremonies of degradation and deconsecration had been performed, Hus was immediately handed over to the authorities of the free town of Constance to receive the customary punishment of heresy. The horrible form of death applied by Nero to the early Christians, when his Palatine gardens were lighted with live torches, had unhappily in the Christian world been adopted as the recognised punishment of those whose religious views differed from those held by the majority of the community to which they belonged. Hus was therefore immediately led forth to the stake by the soldiers of the municipahty of Constance. The execution of Hus is an event of such world-wide importance that it is not surprising that legends concerning his last moment, founded on no contemporary Such are the words, " O evidence, soon sprang up. sancta simplicitas," attributed to Hus when he saw an old woman collecting fagots for his stake, and his