John Hus - Martyrdom

MARTYRDOM AND TESTIMONY

Following the declaration of the council's verdict, a ceremony of degradation was enacted to strip Hus of all ecclesiastical rights. It was performed by the Archbishop of Milan and six assisting bishops. Hus was clothed in the full garb of a Catholic priest, the sacramental cup was put into his hands, and he was led to the high altar, as if he were about to celebrate mass. The bishops then stripped Hus of the vestments, one by one, and took the cup from his hand. They had fashioned a paper crown bearing the image of three demons and the title “Heresiarch,” i.e., arch heretic. They placed the crown on Hus's head, saying, “We commit your soul to the devil.” Hus responded by lifting his eyes to heaven and saying, “And I commit it to the most merciful Lord Jesus Christ.” He also made this observation:

My Lord Jesus Christ on account of me, a miserable wretch, bore a much heavier and harsher crown of thorns. Being innocent, he was deemed deserving of the most shameful death. Therefore I, a miserable wretch and sinner, will humbly bear this much lighter, even though vilifying crown for His name and truth. [23]

As he was led away by the civil authorities, he saw his books being burned in the church cemetery. His friends heard him praying joyfully with a glad countenance.

Spinka and Miller record some of Hus's final utterances:

And rising at the order of the executioner from the place where he was praying, he said in a loud and clear voice, so that his [friends] could plainly hear him: “Lord Jesus Christ, I am willing to bear most patiently and humbly this dreadful, ignominious, and cruel death for Thy gospel and for the preaching of Thy Word.”...When he was bound by the neck with a sooty chain,

“What I have written and taught was in order to rescue souls from the power of the devil, and to deliver them from the tyranny of sin, and I do gladly seal what I have written and taught with my blood.”

he looked at it and, smiling said to the executioners: “The Lord Jesus Christ, my Redeemer and Savior, was bound by a harder and heavier chain. And I, a miserable wretch, am not ashamed to bear being bound for His name by this one.”... But he, looking up to heaven, replied in a loud voice: “God is my witness,” he exclaimed, “that those things that are falsely ascribed to me and of which the false witnesses accuse me, I have never taught or preached. But that the principal intention of my preaching and of all my other acts or writings was solely that I might turn men from sin. And in that truth of the Gospel that I wrote, taught, and preached,…I am willing gladly to die today.” [24]

Even after Huss had been tied to the stake, and the wood piled around him, the Elector asked him if he would not now recant and save his life. He nobly replied, “What I have written and taught was in order to rescue souls from the power of the devil, and to deliver them from the tyranny of sin, and I do gladly seal what I have written and taught with my blood.” The faggots were then lighted….With the last feeble accents of his voice he was heard singing the praise of Jesus who died to save him. [25]

It was in this manner that John Hus died a martyr. He stood firm for the truth even unto death. Throughout his life he had preached the truth of God's Word. He would not accept anything of tradition without having tested it with the Word of God directly. He continued in the same line and way as Wycliffe, carrying the Word into Eastern Europe as Wycliffe had in England. Hus was truly one who was faithful unto death.