After lIuss had remained more than six months in prison, he was, for the first time, allowed a public hearing, in a general congregation, in which, however, the proceedings were so irregular and tumultuous, that lie found it impossi ble to speak. In the following audience, du ee points of accusation were read ; to which Huss answered in a man ner so satisfactory, that no charge of heresy could he fixed upon him, and every impartial judge must have acquitted him. In the third diet, thirty-nine articles were read to him, which had been drawn up by his enemies, and were alleged to have been extracted from his writings. Huss acknowledged such of these as contained opinions which he had really held ; but with regard to the greater num ber, he utterly denied them, declaring that they were either garbled and distorted, or altogether forged by his enemies. Some of the prelates, and even the emperor himself, now urged him to retract and abjure the whole of these articles ; but Huss required that he should first be convicted of er ror ; for so long as this was not done, it was impossible for him to retract any of his opinions. And to this determina tion he adhered, with immoveable firmness, as often as the council endeavoured to induce him to retract, and even threatened to bring him to the stake.
At length, in the 15th session, which Sigismund attended in person, the final sentence was pronounced, that the writings of Huss should be publicly burnt ; and that he himself, as a manifest heretic, who openly taught, and refused to retract doctrines which had long been condemned as dangerous to the Catholic faith, should be deprived of his ecclesiastical dignity, and delivered over for punishment, to the temporal arm. Huss, who was obliged to listen on his knees while this sentence was publicly read, repeatedly attempted to complain, and to vindicate himself in regard to several of fences which were falsely laid to his charge ; but he was always interrupted, and compelled to keep silence. The unfortunate victim was now forced to submit to the pun ishment of degradation, which was performed with several absurd ceremonies, by seven bishops commissioned for that purpose. He was then delivered over, by the emperor, to the elector palatine, who was commanded to execute upon him the usual punishment of heretics.
Immediately after the termination of the session, Huss was conducted under a strong escort, to the square in front of the episcopal palace, where he was compelled to wit ness the public burning of his writings ; and from thence to the place of execution before the city gate. While he was preparing for the stake, several fruitless attempts were made to extort from him a recantation ; but his fortitude remained unshaken to the last. When he was fastened to the stake, and fire Was laid to the faggots around him, he continued his devotional exercises until the vital spark be- came extinct within him. His ashes were gathered up and • thrown into the Rhine.
Such was the fate of John Huss, who fell a victim to the most abominable persecution. His talents and acquire
ments, although not of the first order, were highly respecta We ; and his moral character was universally acknow ledged to be irreproachable. In his manners he was gen tle and condescending. Strict in his principles, and vir tuous in his conduct, he looked inure to the practice than to the opinions of others. His piety was calm, rational, and manly ; and his zeal in the cause of Christianity was un tainted with fanaticism. The events of his life sufficiently prove, that his fortitude was not to be shaken by any human power.
It is difficult to conceive how such a character as that of Huss should have been exposed to such unrelenting ani mosity and furious persecution. His creed, it is true, did not exactly square with the tenets of the established ortho dox faith ; yet several of his persecutors had publicly main tained almost all the offensive doctrines which he was charged with disseminating. It seems most probable, ac cording to the opinion of some authors, that the violent ani mosity excited against him, is to be ascribed chiefly to the zeal with which he declaimed against the dissolute morals of the ecclesiastics, the usurpations of the Roman court, and the temporalities of the clergy. These principles were naturally considered as dangerous to the power and influ ence of the priesthood ; and his brethren, who dreaded the effects of his eloquence and example, were glad to have re course to an accusation of heresy, as the best and least un popular means of destroying the enemy of their corrup tions, and of crushing those principles which appeared sub versive of their privileges and pretensions.
Jerome of Prague, the friend and pupil of I Iuss, under went the same fate with his companion. He, indeed, was at first terrified into a temporary submission ; but he after wards resumed his fortitude ; and, at length, on the 30th of May, 1416, sealed by martyrdom, his belief in the prin ciples he professed.
The memory of John Huss was long cherished by his countrymen, the Bohemians ; the sixth of July was for ma ny years held sacred, es the anniversary of his martyrdom, and medals were struck in honour of the martyr. The Bo hemian and Moravian nobles addressed a spirited protest to the council of Constance, in answer to the intimation of his sentence and execution ; and the zeal of his indignant disciples afterwards broke out into an open war against the emperor, which was conducted, on both sides, with a savage spirit of barbarity, and gave- rise to acts of atrocity at which humanity shudders. These troubles were at length for tunately terminated by the interference of the council of Basil, in the year 1433. See Zitte Lebens beschreibung des Mas. Johan. Huss, Prague, 1799 ; lEn. Sylvii Hist. Bohm. in Freheri Script. rer. Bohem. ; Seyfried De Johannis Hussi martyris vita, fatis et seriphs, Jena, 1743 ; Pelzel's Geschichte der Bblimen, Prague, 1782 ; Mosheim's Eccle siast. Hist. vol. iii. ; Gilpin's Lives, Life of John Huss ; and the Gen. Biog. Dict. (z)