John Hus - Imprisonment

THE IMPRISONMENT OF HUS

Hus wrote the following letter to Prague to inform his friends of his condition:

Salvation from Christ Jesus! Dearly Beloved! be assured that I fare well in every respect. I came to Constance without the pope's safe conduct. Pray God, therefore, that He may grant me constancy, for many and powerful adversaries have risen against me, incited particularly by that indulgence vendor...who ever keeps on posting the proceedings against me. But I fear none of them, nor am I terrified, trusting that after the great battle there will be a great victory, and after the victory a greater reward and the greater confounding of the persecutors. [15 ]

Through the trickery and deceit of several bishops, Hus was taken from his private quarters, arrested, and locked up in a dungeon. Since the German emperor had guaranteed safe conduct to and from Constance, the emperor of Bohemia reacted with great indignation when he heard of this turn of events. He threatened to break open the prison himself. When he arrived, though, he succumbed to arguments that promises made to heretics need not be honored and that the sin thus incurred would be absolved. Overcome by this religious and superstitious stupor, the emperor did nothing to free Hus, who was left to the devices of the priests and monks.
The dungeon was murky and dark. It was located where

The Lord stood with him in the dungeon

the sewers entered the lake. There Hus lay or sat for almost three months. Within a few weeks he fell ill with a very high fever. He was bothered by rheumatism, gallstones, and constant vomiting. He despaired of life. The misery of the environment was compounded by the presence of hostile priests who came to mock and torment him. Later, Hus was moved to the castle of the Bishop of Constance where he remained bound in chains night and day for seventy-three days. But though his body was in a state of collapse, Hus's resistance remained unbroken. The Lord stood with him in the dungeon.

Miller assesses the situation this way:

The Master will not forget to own in that day His identification with His servant, and that in the most touching way—“Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” But if such be the guilt of the emperor, what must be the guilt of the pope and the prelates? We must leave the answer to the great white throne. [16]

The dependence upon the Lord and upon the prayers of the brothers and sisters exhibited by Hus in the following letter to the saints is reminiscent of the Apostle Paul during his imprisonment:

Dearly beloved! I entreat you, lying in prison, of which I am not ashamed, for I suffer in hope for the Lord God's sake, to beseech the Lord God for me that He may remain with me. He has mercifully visited me with a grave illness and again healed me. He has permitted my very determined enemies [to attack me], men to whom I had done much good and whom I had loved sincerely. In Him alone I hope and in your prayer, that He will grant me to remain steadfast in His grace unto death. Should He be pleased to take me to Himself now, let His holy will be done; but should He be pleased to return me, likewise let His holy will be done. [17]

TRIAL AND JUDGMENT

The council condemned Wycliffe, who had been dead for over thirty years. His writings were to be burned, and his body was exhumed, burned, and his ashes sprinkled into the river. Such was their hatred of Wycliffe.
Hus was brought before the council for what was purported to be a public hearing. It lasted for a whole month, from June 5 to July 5. Much was said about the similarity of the teachings of Hus and of Wycliffe. Hus defended Wycliffe, whose teachings had been greatly distorted and misrepresented by the council:

…he argued in connection with the condemnation of the forty-five articles of Wycliffe that not all of these were “heretical, erroneous, or offensive to pious ears” but that some could be interpreted in an acceptable and orthodox sense. Actually, he regarded many of the theses as having been incorrectly excerpted and given a warped sense not intended by Wycliffe. [18]

Hus did not deny the similarity of his teaching and Wycliffe's. Instead he pointed out the source of that similarity:

I indeed confess that I hold the true opinions propounded by Master John Wycliffe, professor of sacred theology, not because he taught them but because the Scriptures taught them. [19]

The same devices used by the council on Wycliffe's writings—misquotes, text taken out of context, misrepresentations, distortion of meaning, etc.—were used on Hus's writings:

What the Council, therefore, condemned were not actually Hus's own tenets, but charges drawn up by his enemies.

Hus repeatedly declared his readiness to submit to the Council's “instruction and correction,” provided he were shown by Scriptural proof that he had been wrong

...Hus repeatedly declared his readiness to submit to the Council's “instruction and correction,” provided he were shown by Scriptural proof that he had been wrong.…His standards of Christian conduct were higher than those of the Council. Its claims to be directly under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit were contradicted by its own conduct.

…The trial was conducted by men committed to principles based on canon law and scholastic or nominalist theology, which regarded the Church mainly as a legal corporation, while Hus based himself on the Scriptures…. [20]

Hus was presented about forty-four articles supposedly drawn from his books. The articles were the work of Palec, the chief prosecutor. His quotations of Hus's writings were false and inaccurate, some sections being his own total fabrication. One article accused Hus of claiming to be the fourth person of the Godhead. The accusation was based upon the supposed testimony of a doctor who was neither named nor produced. Hus responded as follows:

Be it far from me,

I unswervingly assert that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, one essence

a miserable wretch, that I should want to name myself the fourth person of the Godhead, for that has never entered my heart; but I unswervingly assert that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, one essence.... [21]

The decision of the council was that all the writings of Hus were suspect of heresy and were to be burned. Hus himself was condemned to be put to death. When the verdict was read, Hus knelt and prayed the following prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, I implore Thee, forgive all my enemies for Thy great mercy's sake; and Thou knowest that they have falsely accused me and have produced false witnesses and concocted false articles against me! Forgive them for Thy boundless mercy's sake!” [22]