Cardinal of Florence, but to no purpose. He was condemned to suffer death as a heretic, and he heard his sentence without changing countenance; and when he came to the place of execution, advancing forwards, he embraced the stake, and kneeled down and kissed it, before he was bound to it for the fire. Then he arose, showing the utmost intrepidity, though he had been confined in a detestable dungeon for three hundred and forty days, which allowed him not to sit, lie, or stand. When the fire began to blaze, he commenced singing one of the psalms, and shortly was suffocated by the flames and smoke. The words of Poggio are, "All this I saw and heard for myself, and I could not wonder enough during the spectacle, and I can never think upon the martyred man without extreme admiration." The executioner wished to set fire to the pile by lighting it behind the back of this noble martyr; more humane than the judges, he who filled the shocking office of consuming Jerome, desired to spare his eyes the sight of the brand which he was to apply. Jerome then uttered these words, "Come forward hither, and light the fire before my sight; for if I had been afraid of being burnt, I never would have come at all to this place, and I could easily have escaped and avoided this doom." Such were the last moments of Jerome of Prague. Such was the bad faith kept with these two eminent Reformers! There was much pageantry and splendour during the session of this Council. Luther probably took this Council for his specimen, when he thus describes such assemblies in his Treatise of" Councils and Churches," -"Not that all the bishops, abbots, monks, doctors, and clergy, should attend; for then a whole year would be first wasted in contention, before anything could be settled. A second year would be consumed in geantry and feasting, in equestrian display and tilting; and the third year would be occupied in other business, perhaps in burning a John Huss or two; and all this pomp and pride would consume greater sums than are necessary to equip an expedition

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against the Turkish power." Never were truer words spoken.

The following statements are to be found in Kohlrausch's "German History," under the title of the Emperor Sigismund. 1410-1437. "Sigismund directed his next thoughts to the ruinous schism raging in the Church. In the year 1414, the memorable Church Council met at Constance, and never was there an assembly more grand and imposing." Then follows a list, consisting of one Pope, three patriarchs, twenty-two cardinals, twenty archbishops, ninetytwo bishops, 124 abbots, 1800 inferior clergy, &c. "One hundred and fifty thousand strangers were present at one period in the sessions. But its most memorable act was the condemnation of Huss, a learned divine, and rector of the University of Prague; who had embraced the views of Wycliffe, the English Reformer, who was thirty years his senior in the struggle against the Papacy;-but less fortunate in his escape from its fangs, John Huss expired at the stake, July 6th, 1415; about eleven months afterwards, his friend, Jerome, was publicly consumed at Constance." "They died," says this historian, "with constancy such as excited the admiration even of their enemies. Their remains were thrown into the Rhine, along with the ashes, to prevent their Bohemian brethren from obtaining a single relic for their veneration; but the Bohemians protested and were incensed with the unjust sentence; and, finally, furious outbreaks ensued, and most disastrous consequences attended this act of tyranny, perfidy, and persecution. However, the Hussites were beaten in battle, disarmed, and many perished on the scaffold; and in Prague the insurrection was at last suppressed, but not before much blood had been shed on both sides of the contending parties."

JOHN HUSS, MARTYR.

John Huss is always mentioned in terms of praise and admiration, by the great Reformer, who was about one hundred years later; and his book is called a profound work, and noble piece of Christianity. No such a treatise had appeared during the

space of 400 years according to Luther, who read it, and, yielding to advice, put it into print, as a testimony to the truth, and to silence the calumnies which the enemies of the Bohemian martyr had circulated against his writings. The book of John Huss, in his view, does not contain the articles only of that Christian witness, but the doctrines of Christ, of Paul, of Augustine, founded on the most irrefragable arguments, as every person must admit after a perusal; and the words following are Luther's on this head:-" Ah! I would to God I were worthy to be compared with such a man as Huss was! And, oh! that I were consumed to ashes in vindication of the same articles of faith! if it were to cost me a thousand necks, I would yield them up to death for these truths' sake! Not that I am now in this language canonizing John Huss, and proclaiming him for a martyr. For I am not so venturesome as to enrol new saints in the calendar in imitation of the Romanists; and I am persuaded that the Almighty is wonderful and terrible in his judgments, and so he may certainly enable any one to propagate true Christian tenets, and permit him to be destroyed for so teaching; and yet neither you nor I may possibly know, what judgment the Almighty may pronounce upon the man thus preaching and thus dying. I have said, that his enemies did not observe inviolable the safe conduct which was promised, and that it was broken, together with the oath which bound them to its observance, whatever the Papists may say to the contrary, in extenuation of their proceedings against Huss and his fellow-sufferer Jerome. This is the truth, and Eck knows not what he alleges in his citations from the Latin letters of safe conduct. The

Papists promised both to Huss and to Jerome, Christian and faithful inviolability, as is clearly expressed in these words, whick Eck longs very much to secrete, viz., Quantum in nobis est, et fides orthodoxa exigit. have therefore called it a Christian safe conduct, that is, such as the document itself contains." Luther now proceeds to condemn the burn

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ing of any heretics, or fining them, and asks these questions, viz.; "Why does not St. Augustine burn the heretics in Africa? Why does not Hilary and many other holy doctors bring them to the stake? Those fathers were opposed to such persecution, and would not have pecuniary punishment inflicted on any.

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But the actors on the scene at Constance waged war even against the dead, and consumed John Huss, whose ashes with the intermingled earth were dug up from a considerable depth and thrown into the Rhine. Would you know the reason why they acted thus insanely? Their consciences were alarmed at the appearance of things, and to stop the growth of religious investigation, they intimidated the poor multitude with this appalling spectacle. But their scheme was utterly frustrated. The truth could not be stifled; and with whatever clamour the voice of justice might be silenced, the stones, at least, would find one to out against the murder of Huss." After a description of John Huss's disputation over a corrupted version of the Bible, &c., the Reformer here and elsewhere speaks in terms of the strongest reprobation against the whole tragedy at Constance; he declares that that injured man was subdued, not by Scripture, but by main force and stratagem; and that through the length and breadth of Germany, low and deep murmurs ever afterwards arose, in vindication of Huss, and in anger against his inquisitors; "and I, for one, say also," (Luther writes,) "that not only some, but that all the articles confessed by John Huss, at Constance, and condemned by the Council, are scriptural; and I confess that the Pontiff and his party disposed of them like the true Antichrist in condemning the holy Gospel with John Huss; and that the Council set up instead of it the dogmas of the infernal dragon. I promise for myself, that I can make my own statement good, when I must do so; and I will prove my words by God's assistance to demonstration, But for uttering these truths, Jerome, as well as Huss, were dragged to the stake at Constance,

when the former in the very faces of the Papists, broke out as follows;— 'Ye slaughterers of Christians will, without fail, shed innocent blood; but you will never be able to still its cry. Abel, when alive, was no match for Cain, but after death he at once bore direct witness against him. I do hope that it will now happen to me, as once to Samson, that I shall do more detriment to your tyranny in my death than during my life.' John Huss prophesied of me, that I should arise 100 years after his martyrdom; and so I have, to the amazement of the Pontiff, cardinals, and all their calendar. Huss yet continues now, by God's grace, again awakened from the dead, more indomitable than his assassins-the Pope and Papal emissaries-- and makes them quail from his grave with greater terror than he did upon earth. When I think of those two precious men, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, I cannot refrain from being overwhelmed with astonishment at their dauntless courage and stedfastness, to see these two men daring to set themselves up against the judgment of the whole world, against the Pontiff, Emperor, bishops, princes, colleges, and all the schools in the whole empire. At that period, it seemed indeed, as though the Church were totally removed and destroyed; and nevertheless, the Almighty had filled both Huss and his companion Jerome with the Holy Spirit, so that these two solitary beings could reject the opinions of all the nations, the Germans, Bohemians, and Spaniards. Even one of these two opposed the Council and the whole world. And when John Huss was dragged to martyrdom, the following prayer was uttered from a heart incapable of dismay and despair; O Jesu! thou Son of God! who hast suffered for us; have thou compassion upon me.' This was spoken by the suggestion of the Holy Spirit. Thus was Huss by the Pontiff, with many other pious men, canonically murdered; they were with violence condemned; but the Almighty never forgot them yes, they must submit for ever to be published; the Pope himself must show up their names in the excom

munication thundered forth on Commination Thursday. And by what possible means could righteous Abel and holy Huss have effected in their own life-time, that they could become ubiquitous? And yet, now that they are no more, still they cannot fail to be present everywhere; to be preached in every pulpit; to be in every person's mouth; the subject of every book; in every corner of the world. Oh! this is a noble result; when every creature cannot fail to know, that Abel and John Huss were righteous men; that the very stars reverence them; and that the very men who destroyed them, will be compelled to fall at their feet, and yet have no thanks for their submission. John Huss has been laid low for a century and upwards; he has been pursued with an outcry, as though he were the worst of men. And why? Had he seized three kingdoms, or denied his God, and done worse things, he would not have given such unpardonable offence, as in attacking the triple crowned man. Everything would have been pardoned with ease. Yes; even in the high schools they must confess that Huss has the best of it in justice and right; and his enemies must allow, that Huss was not vanquished, but violently overpowered. And what injury is it to him now, that he was burnt? He stands yet in great estimation. The Almighty now comes forth, and asks, Where is John Huss?' Now must he come up again; he must be deemed a saint; it must prove a blow to all his enemies; and they who shortened his days must wear the brand of saint slaughterers."

The German nation is accused for having been the first to condemn the Gospel at Constance, and for shedding innocent blood in the martyrdom of Huss and Jerome; for persevering in the same persecuting system at Worms, at Heidelburg, and other cities; not omitting Mentz and Cologne, where the river Rhine was crimsoned with blood, and still continued to show the deep stain which was drawn from the veins of murdered and branded Christians. Luther says again :-"The Gospel was