To this wardenship Wycliffe was elected by the Archbishop, but upon his demise he was
displaced by his successor Stephen Langham, Bishop of Ely.
As there was a degree of flagrant injustice in the affair, Wycliffe appealed
to the Pope, who subsequently gave it against him from the following cause.
Edward III, then King of England, had withdrawn the Tribune, which from the
time of King John had been paid to the Pope.
The Pope menaced, Edward called a Parliament.
The Parliament resolved that King John had done an illegal thing and given up the
rights of the nation, and advised the King not to submit whatever consequences might
follow.
The clergy now began to write in favour of the Pope, and a learned monk published a
spirited and plausible treatise, which had many advocates.
Wycliffe, irritated at seeing so bad a cause so well defended, opposed the monk,
and did it in so masterly a way that he was considered no longer as unanswerable.
His suit at Rome was immediately determined against him, and nobody doubted
but his opposition to the Pope at so critical a period was the true cause of
his being non-suited at Rome.
Wycliffe was afterwards elected to the chair of the Divinity Professor,
and now fully convinced of the errors of the Romish Church and the vileness of its
monastic agents, he determined to expose them.
In public lectures he lashed their vices and opposed their follies.
He unfolded a variety of abuses, covered by the darkness of superstition.
At first he began to loosen the prejudices of the vulgar, and proceeded by slow
advances.
With the metaphysical disquisitions of the age, he mingled opinions in divinity
apparently novel.
The usurpations of the court of Rome was a favourite topic.
On these he expatiated with all the keenness of argument joined to logical
reasoning.
This soon procured him the clamour of the clergy, who with the Archbishop of
Canterbury deprived him of his office.
At this time the administration of affairs was in the hands of the Duke of Lancaster,
well known by the name of John of Gaunt.
This prince had very free notions of religion, and was at enmity with the
clergy.
The exactions of the court of Rome having become very burdensome, he determined to
send the Bishop of Bangor and Wycliffe to remonstrate against these abuses,
and it was agreed that the Pope should no longer dispose of any benefices belonging
to the Church of England.
In this embassy Wycliffe's observant mind penetrated into the constitution and
policy of Rome, and he returned more strongly than ever determined to expose
its avarice and ambition.
Having recovered his former situation, he invaded in his lectures against the
Pope, his usurpation, his infallibility, his pride, his avarice and his tyranny.
He was the first who termed the Pope Antichrist.
From the Pope he would turn to the pomp, the luxury and trappings of the bishops,
and compare them with the simplicity of primitive bishops.
Their superstitions and deceptions were topics that he urged with energy of mind
and logical precision.
From the patronage of the Duke of Lancaster, Wycliffe received a good
benefice, but he was no sooner settled in his parish than his enemies and the
bishops began to persecute him with renewed vigour.
The Duke of Lancaster was his friend in this persecution, and by his presence and
that of Lord Percy, Earl Marshal of England, he so overawed the trial that the
whole ended in disorder.
After the death of Edward III, his grandson Richard II succeeded in the
eleventh year of his age.
The Duke of Lancaster not obtaining to be the sole regent, as he expected,
his power began to decline, and the enemies of Wycliffe, taking advantage of
the circumstance, renewed their articles of accusation against him.
Five bulls were dispatched in consequence by the Pope to the king and certain
bishops, but the regency and the people manifested a spirit of contempt at the
haughty proceedings of the pontiff, and the former, at that time wanting money
to oppose an expected invasion of the French, proposed to apply a large sum
collected for the use of the Pope to that purpose.
The question was submitted to the decision of Wycliffe.
The bishops, however, supported by the papal authority, insisted upon bringing
Wycliffe to trial, and he was actually undergoing examination at Lambeth,
when from the riotous behaviour of the populace without, and awed by the command
of Sir Lewis Clifford, a gentleman of the court, that they should not proceed to any
definitive sentence, they terminated the whole affair in a prohibition to Wycliffe
not to preach those doctrines which were obnoxious to the Pope, but this was
laughed at by our reformer, who going about barefoot and in a long frieze gown
preached more vehemently than before.
In the year 1378 a contest arose between two Popes, Urban VI and Clement VII,
which was the lawful Pope and true Vice-Regent of God.
This was a favourable period for the exertion of Wycliffe's talents.
He soon produced a tract against Popery, which was eagerly read by all sorts of
people.
About the end of the year, Wycliffe was seized with a violent disorder,
which it was feared might prove fatal.
The begging friars, accompanied by four of the most eminent citizens of Oxford,
gained admittance to his bedchamber and begged of him to retract for his soul's
sake the unjust things he had asserted of their order.
Wycliffe, surprised at the solemn message, raised himself in his bed and with a stern
countenance replied, I shall not die but live to declare the evil deeds of the
friars.
When Wycliffe recovered, he set about a most important work, the translation of
the Bible into English.
Before this work appeared, he published a tract wherein he showed the necessity of
it.
The zeal of the bishops to suppress the scriptures greatly promoted its sale,
and they who were not able to purchase copies procured transcripts of particular
gospels or epistles.
Afterward, when lolody increased and the flames kindled, it was a common practice
to fasten about the neck of the condemned heretic such of these scraps of scripture
as were found in his possession, which generally shared his fate.
Immediately after this transaction, Wycliffe ventured a step further and
affected the doctrine of transubstantiation.
This strange opinion was invented by Bascardet Radburt and asserted with
amazing boldness.
Wycliffe, in his lecture before the University of Oxford in 1381, attacked
this doctrine and published a treatise on the subject.
Dr Barton, at this time Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, calling together the heads of the
University, condemned Wycliffe's doctrines as heretical and threatened their author
with excommunication.
Wycliffe could now derive no support from the Duke of Lancaster, and being cited to
appear before his former adversary William Courtney, now made Archbishop of
Canterbury, he sheltered himself under the plea that, as a member of the University,
he was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction.
This plea was admitted, as the University were determined to support their member.
The court met at the appointed time, determined at least to sit in judgment
upon his opinions, and some they condemned as erroneous, others as heretical.
The publication on this subject was immediately answered by Wycliffe,
who had become a subject of the Archbishop's determined malice.
The King, solicited by the Archbishop, granted a licence to imprison the Teacher
of Heresy, but the Commons made the King revoke this act as illegal.
The Primate, however, obtained letters from the King directing the Head of the
University of Oxford to search for all heresies and books published by Wycliffe,
in consequence of which order the University became a scene of tumult.
Wycliffe is supposed to have retired from the storm into an obscure part of the
Kingdom.
The seeds, however, were scattered, and Wycliffe's opinions were so prevalent
that it was said if you met two persons upon the road you might be sure that one
was a Lollard.
At this period the disputes between the two Popes continued.
Urban published a bull in which he earnestly called upon all who had any
regard for religion to exert themselves in its cause, and to take up arms against
Clement and his adherents in defence of the Holy See.
A war, in which the name of religion was so vilely prostituted, roused Wycliffe's
inclination even in his declining years.
He took up his pen once more, and wrote against it with the greatest acrimony.
He expostulated with the Pope in a very free manner, and asks him boldly how he
durst make the token of Christ on the cross, which is the token of peace,
mercy and charity, a banner to lead us to slay Christian men for the love of two
false priests, and to oppress Christendom worse than Christ and his apostles were
oppressed by the Jews.
When, said he, will the proud priest of Rome grant indulgences to mankind to live
in peace and charity, as he now does to fight and slay one another?
This severe peace drew upon him the resentment of Urban, and was likely to
have involved him in greater troubles than he had before experienced, but
providentially he was delivered out of their hands.
He was struck with a palsy, and though he lived some time, yet it was in such a way
that his enemies considered him as a person below their resentment.
Wycliffe, returning within short space, either from his banishment, or from some
other place where he was secretly kept, repaired to his parish of Lutterworth,
where he was parson, and there, quietly departing this mortal life,
slept in peace in the Lord in the end of the year 1384 upon Sylvester's day.
It appeared that he was well aged before he departed, and that the same thing
pleased him in his old age which did please him being young.
Wycliffe had some cause to give them thanks, that they would at least spare him
until he was dead, and also give him so long respite after his death, forty-one
years, to rest in his sepulchre, before they ungraved him and turned him
from earth to ashes, which ashes they also took and threw into the river.
And so was he resolved into three elements, earth, fire, and water,
thinking thereby utterly to extinguish and abolish both the name and doctrine of
Wycliffe for ever.
Not much unlike the example of the old Pharisees and sepulchre knights,
who when they had brought the Lord unto the grave, thought to make him sure never
to rise again.
But these and all others must know, that as there is no counsel against the
Lord, so there is no keeping down of verity, but it will spring up,
and come out of dust and ashes, as appeared right well in this man.
For though they dug up his body, burned his bones, and drowned his ashes,
yet the word of God, and the truth of his doctrine, with the fruit and success
thereof, they could not burn.
CHAPTER VIII An Account of the Persecutions in Bohemia under the Papacy
The Roman pontiffs, having usurped a power over several churches, were particularly
severe on the Bohemians, which occasioned them to send two ministers and four
laybrothers to Rome in the year 977, to obtain redress of the Pope.
After some delay, their request was granted, and their grievances redressed.
Two things in particular they were permitted to do, namely, to have divine
service performed in their own language, and to give the cup to the laity in the
sacrament.
The disputes, however, soon broke out again, the succeeding Popes exerting their
whole power to impose on the minds of the Bohemians, and the latter, with great
spirit, aiming to preserve their religious liberties.
In A.D.
1375, some zealous friends of the Gospel applied to Charles, King of Bohemia,
to call an ecumenical council for an inquiry into the abuses that had crept
into the Church, and to make a full and thorough reformation.
The King, not knowing how to proceed, sent to the Pope for directions how to
act.
But the Pontiff was so incensed at this affair that his only reply was,
severely punish those rash and profane heretics.
The Monarch accordingly banished everyone who had been concerned in the application,
and, to oblige the Pope, laid a great number of additional restraints upon the
religious liberties of the people.
The victims of persecution, however, were not so numerous in Bohemia until
after the burning of John Hus and Jerome of Prague.
These two eminent reformers were condemned and executed at the instigation of the
Pope and his emissaries, as the reader will perceive by the following short
sketches of their lives.
Persecution of John Hus John Hus was born at Husenitz, a village in Bohemia,
about the year 1380.
His parents gave him the best education their circumstances would admit,
and having acquired a tolerable knowledge of the classics at a private school,
he was removed to the University of Prague, where he soon gave strong proofs
of his mental powers, and was remarkable for his diligence and application to
study.
In 1398 Hus commenced Bachelor of Divinity, and was after successively
chosen Pastor of the Church of Bethlehem in Prague, and Dean and Rector of the
University.
In these stations he discharged his duties with great fidelity, and became at length
so conspicuous for his preaching, which was in conformity with the doctrines
of Wycliffe, that it was not likely he could long escape the notice of the Pope
and his adherents, against whom he invaded with no small degree of asperity.
The English reformist Wycliffe had so kindled the light of Reformation that it
began to illumine the darkest corners of Popery and Ignorance.
His doctrines spread into Bohemia, and were well received by great numbers of
people, but by none so particularly as John Hus and his zealous friend and
fellow-martyr Jerome of Prague.
The Archbishop of Prague, finding the reformists' daily increasing, issued a
decree to suppress the further spreading of Wycliffe's writings, but this had an
effect quite different to what he expected, for it stimulated the friends of
those doctrines to greater zeal, and almost the whole university united to
propagate them.
Being strongly attached to the doctrines of Wycliffe, Hus opposed the decree of the
Archbishop, who, however, at length obtained a bull from the Pope,
giving him commission to prevent the publishing of Wycliffe's doctrines in his
province.
By virtue of this bull, the Archbishop condemned the writings of Wycliffe.
He also proceeded against four doctors, who had not delivered up the copies of
that divine, and prohibited them, notwithstanding their privileges,
to preach to any congregation.
Dr. Hus, with some other members of the university, protested against these
proceedings, and entered an appeal from the sentence of the Archbishop.
The affair being made known to the Pope, he granted a commission to Cardinal
Colonna to cite John Hus to appear personally at the Court of Rome,
to answer the accusations laid against him of preaching both errors and heresies.
Dr. Hus desired to be excused from a personal appearance, and was so greatly
favoured in Bohemia that King Wenceslaus, the Queen, the nobility and the
university, desired the Pope to dispense with such an appearance, as also that he
would not suffer the Kingdom of Bohemia to lie under the accusation of heresy,
but permit them to preach the Gospel with freedom in their places of worship.
Three proctors appeared for Dr. Hus before Cardinal Colonna.
They endeavoured to excuse his absence, and said they were ready to answer in his
behalf.
But the Cardinal declared Hus contumacious, and excommunicated him
accordingly.
The proctors appealed to the Pope, and appointed four cardinals to examine
the process.
These commissioners confirmed the former sentence, and extended the excommunication
not only to Hus, but to all his friends and followers.
From this unjust sentence, Hus appealed to a future council, but without success.
And notwithstanding so severe a decree, and an expulsion in consequence from his
church in Prague, he retired to Husnitz, his native place, where he continued to
promulgate his new doctrine, both from the pulpit and with the pen.
The letters which he wrote at this time were very numerous, and he compiled a
treatise in which he maintained that reading the books of Protestants could not
be absolutely forbidden.
He wrote in defence of Wycliffe's book on the Trinity, and boldly declared against
the vices of the Pope the cardinals and clergy of those corrupt times.
He wrote also many other books, all of which were penned with a strength
of argument that greatly facilitated the spreading of his doctrines.
In the month of November 1414, a general council was assembled at
Constance in Germany.
In order, as was pretended, for the sole purpose of determining a dispute then
pending between three persons who contended for the papacy, but the real
motive was to crush the progress of the Reformation.
John Hus was summoned to appear at this council, and to encourage him,
the Emperor sent him a safe conduct.
The civilities and even reverence which Hus met with on his journey were beyond
imagination.
The streets and sometimes the very roads were lined with people whom respect rather
than curiosity had brought together.
He was ushered into the town with great acclamations, and it may be said that he
passed through Germany in a kind of triumph.
He could not help expressing his surprise at the treatment he received.
I thought, said he, I had been an outcast.
I now see my worst friends are in Bohemia.
As soon as Hus arrived at Constance, he immediately took lodgings in a remote
part of the city.
A short time after his arrival came one Stephen Pulletts, who was employed by the
clergy at Prague to manage the intended prosecution against him.
Pulletts was afterwards joined by Michael de Cassis on the part of the Court of
Rome.
These two declared themselves his accusers and drew up a set of articles against him,
which they presented to the Pope and the prelates of the council.
When it was known that he was in the city, he was immediately arrested and committed
prisoner to a chamber in the palace.
This violation of common law and justice was particularly noticed by one of Hus's
friends, who urged the imperial safe conduct, but the Pope replied that he
never granted any safe conduct, nor was he bound by that of the Emperor.
While Hus was in confinement, the council acted the part of inquisitors.
They condemned the doctrines of Wycliffe and even ordered his remains to be dug up
and burned to ashes, which orders were strictly complied with.
In the meantime, the nobility of Bohemia and Poland strongly interceded for Hus,
and so far prevailed as to prevent his being condemned unheard, which had been
resolved on by the commissioners appointed to try him.
When he was brought before the council, the articles exhibited against him were
read.
They were upwards of forty in number and chiefly extracted from his writings.
John Hus's answer was this.
I did appeal unto the Pope, who being dead, and the cause of my matter remaining
undetermined, I appealed likewise unto his successor, John XXIII, before whom,
when, by the space of two years I could not be admitted by my advocates to defend
my cause, I appealed unto the High Judge Christ.
When John Hus had spoken these words, it was demanded of him whether he had
received absolution of the Pope or no.
He answered, No.
Then again whether it was lawful for him to appeal unto Christ or no.
Whereunto John Hus answered, Verily I do affirm here before you all that there is
no more just or effectual appeal than that appeal which is made unto Christ.
For as much as the law doth determine that to appeal is no other thing than in a
cause of grief or wrong done by an inferior judge to implore and require aid
at a higher judge's hand, who is then a higher judge than Christ?
Who, I say, can know or judge the matter more justly or with more equity?
When in him there is found no deceit, neither can he be deceived, or who can
better help the miserable and oppressed than he?
While John Hus, with a devout and sober countenance, was speaking and pronouncing
those words, he was derided and mocked by all the whole council.
These excellent sentences were esteemed as so many expressions of treason intended to
inflame his adversaries.
Accordingly the bishops appointed by the council stripped him of his priestly
garments, degraded him, put a paper mitre on his head on which was painted DEVILS,
with this inscription, A RINGLEADER OF HERETICS.
Which when he saw, he said, My Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake did wear a crown of
thorns, why should not I then for his sake again wear this light crown, be it ever so
ignominious?
Truly I will do it, and that willingly.
When it was set upon his head, the bishop said, Now we commit thy soul
unto the devil.
But I, said John Hus, lifting his eyes towards the heaven, do commit into thy
hands, O Lord Jesus Christ, my spirit which thou hast redeemed.
When the chain was put about him at the stake, he said with a smiling countenance,
My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake,
and why then should I be ashamed of this rusty one?
When the faggots were piled up to his very neck, the Duke of Bavaria was so officious
as to desire him to abjure.
No, said Hus, I never preached any doctrine of an evil tendency, and what I
taught with my lips I now seal with my blood.
He then said to the executioner, You are now going to burn a goose,
hus, signifying goose in the Bohemian language, but in a century you will have a
swan which you can neither roast nor boil.
If he were prophetic, he must have met Martin Luther, who shone about a hundred
years after, and who had a swan for his arms.
The flames were now applied to the faggots, when our martyr sung a hymn with
so loud and cheerful a voice that he was heard through all the cracklings of the
combustibles and the noise of the multitude.
At length his voice was interrupted by the severity of the flames, which soon closed
his existence.
Then, with great diligence, gathering the ashes together, they cast them into the
river Rhine, that the least remnant of that man should not be left upon the
earth, whose memory, notwithstanding, cannot be abolished out of the minds of
the godly, neither by fire, neither by water, neither by any kind of torment.
Persecution of Jerome of Prague.
This reformer, who was the companion of Dr. Hus, and may be said to be a co-martyr
with him, was born at Prague and educated in that university, where he particularly
distinguished himself for his great abilities and learning.
He likewise visited several other learned seminaries in Europe, particularly the
universities of Paris, Heidelberg, Cologne, and Oxford.
At the latter place he became acquainted with the works of Wycliffe, and being a
person of uncommon application, he translated many of them into his native
language, having with great pains made himself master of the English tongue.
On his return to Prague he professed himself an open favourer of Wycliffe,
and finding that his doctrines had made considerable progress in Bohemia,
and that Hus was the principal promoter of them, he became an assistant to him in the
great work of reformation.
On the 4th of April, 1415, Jerome arrived at Constance about three months before the
death of Hus.
He entered the town privately, and consulting with some of the leaders of
his party, whom he found there, was easily convinced he could not be of
any service to his friends.
Finding that his arrival in Constance was publicly known, and that the council
intended to seize him, he thought it most prudent to retire.
Accordingly, the next day he went to Iberling, an imperial town about a mile
from Constance.
From this place he wrote to the Emperor, and proposed his readiness to appear
before the council if it would give him a safe conduct, but this was refused.
He then applied to the council, but met with an answer no less
unfavourable than that from the Emperor.
After this he set out on his return to Bohemia.
He had the precaution to take with him a certificate, signed by several of the
Bohemian nobility then at Constance, testifying that he had used all prudent
means in his power to procure a hearing.
Jerome, however, did not thus escape.
He was seized at Hirschau by an officer belonging to the Duke of Sulzbach,
who, though unauthorised so to act, made little doubt of obtaining thanks from
the council for so acceptable a service.
The Duke of Sulzbach, having Jerome now in his power, wrote to the council for
directions how to proceed.
The council, after expressing their obligations to the Duke, desired him to
send the prisoner immediately to Constance.
The Elector Palatine met him on the way, and conducted him into the city,
himself riding on horseback with a numerous retinue, who led Jerome in
fetters by a long chain, and immediately on his arrival he was committed to a
loathsome dungeon.
Jerome was treated nearly in the same manner as Hoos had been, only that he was
much longer confined and shifted from one prison to another.
At length, being brought before the council, he desired that he might plead
his own cause and exculpate himself, which, being refused, he broke out into
the following exclamation.
"'What barbarity is this?
For three hundred and forty days have I been confined in a variety of prisons.
There is not a misery, there is not a want, that I have not experienced.
To my enemies you have allowed the fullest scope of accusation, to me you deny the
least opportunity of defence.
Not an hour will you now indulge me in preparing for my trial.
You have swallowed the blackest calumnies against me.
You have represented me as a heretic, without knowing my doctrine, as an enemy
of the faith, before you knew what faith I professed, as a persecutor of priests,
before you could have an opportunity of understanding my sentiments on that head.
You are a general council.
In you centres all this world can communicate of gravity, wisdom and
sanctity.
But still you are men, and men are seducible by appearances.
The higher your character is for wisdom, the greater ought your care to be not to
deviate into folly.
The cause I now plead is not my own cause, it is the cause of men, it is the cause of
Christians.
It is a cause which is to affect the rights of posterity, however the
experiment is to be made in my person.' This speech had not the least effect.
Jerome was obliged to hear the charge read, which was reduced under the
following heads, 1.
That he was a derider of the papal dignity, 2.
An opposer of the Pope, 3.
An enemy to the cardinals, 4.
A persecutor of the prelates, and 5.
A hater of the Christian religion.
The trial of Jerome was brought on the third day after his accusation,
and witnesses were examined in support of the charge.
The prisoner was prepared for his defence, which appears almost incredible when we
consider he had been three hundred and forty days shut up in loathsome prisons,
deprived of daylight and almost starved for want of common necessaries.
But his spirit soared above these disadvantages, under which a man less
animated would have sunk, nor was he more at a loss of quotations from the fathers
and ancient authors than if he had been furnished with the finest library.
The most bigoted of the assembly were unwilling he should be heard, knowing what
effect eloquence is apt to have on the minds of the most prejudiced.
At length, however, it was carried by the majority that he should have the liberty
to proceed in his defence, which he began in such an exalted strain of moving
elocution that the heart of obdurate zeal was seen to melt, and the mind of
superstition seemed to admit a ray of conviction.
He made an admirable distinction between evidence as resting upon facts,
and as supported by malice and calumny.
He laid before the assembly the whole tenor of his life and conduct.
He observed that the greatest and most holy men had been known to differ in
points of speculation, with a view to distinguish truth, not to keep it
concealed.
He expressed a noble contempt of all his enemies, who would have induced him to
retract the cause of virtue and truth.
He entered upon a high encomium of hoose, and declared he was ready to follow him in
the glorious task of martyrdom.
He then touched upon the most defensible doctrines of Wycliffe, and concluded with
observing that it was far from his intention to advance anything against the
state of the Church of God, that it was only against the abuse of the clergy he
complained, and that he could not help saying it was certainly impious that the
patrimony of the Church, which was originally intended for the purpose of
charity and universal benevolence, should be prostituted to the pride of the
eye in feasts, foppish vestments, and other reproaches to the name and
profession of Christianity.
The trial being over, Jerome received the same sentence that had been passed upon
his martyred countrymen.
In consequence of this, he was, in the usual style of popish affectation,
delivered over to the civil power, but as he was a layman, he had not to
undergo the ceremony of degradation.
They had prepared a cap of paper painted with red devils, which being put upon his
head, he said, Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He suffered death for me a most
miserable sinner, did wear a crown of thorns upon His head, and for His sake
will I wear this cap.
Two days were allowed him in hopes that he would recant, in which time the Cardinal
of Florence used his utmost endeavours to bring him over, but they all proved
ineffectual, Jerome was resolved to seal the doctrine with his blood, and he
suffered death with the most distinguished magnanimity.
In going to the place of execution he sang several hymns, and when he came to the
spot, which was the same where Hoose had been burnt, he knelt down and prayed
fervently.
He embraced the stake with great cheerfulness, and when they went behind
him to set fire to the faggots, he said, Come here and kindle it before my
eyes, for if I had been afraid of it I had not come to this place.
The fire being kindled he sang a hymn, but was soon interrupted by the flames.
And the last words he was heard to say were these, This soul in flames,
I offer Christ to thee.
The elegant Poggio, a learned gentleman of Florence, secretary to two popes,
and a zealous but liberal Catholic, in a letter to Leonard Aroutine,
bore ample testimony of the extraordinary powers and virtues of Jerome, whom he
emphatically styles a prodigious man.
Persecution of Žižka The real name of this zealous servant of Christ was John de
Trotsnov, that of Žižka is a Bohemian word signifying one-eyed as he had lost an eye.
He was a native of Bohemia of a good family, and left the court of Wenceslaus
to enter into the service of the King of Poland against the Teutonic Knights.
Having obtained a badge of honour and a purse of ducats for his gallantry,
at the close of the war he returned to the court of Wenceslaus, to whom he boldly
avowed the deep interest he took in the bloody affront offered to His Majesty's
subjects at Constance in the affair of Hus.
Wenceslaus lamented it was not in his power to revenge it, and from this moment
Žižka is said to have formed the idea of asserting the religious liberties of his
country.
In the year 1418 the council was dissolved, having done more mischief than
good, and in the summer of that year a general meeting was held of the Friends of
Religious Reformation at the Castle of Vizgrad, who, conducted by Žižka,
repaired to the Emperor with arms in their hands, and offered to defend him against
his enemies.
The King bid them use their arms properly, and this stroke of policy first ensured to
Žižka the confidence of his party.
Wenceslaus was succeeded by Sigismund, his brother, who rendered himself odious
to the reformers, and removed all such as were obnoxious to his government.
Žižka and his friends upon this immediately flew to arms, declared war
against the Emperor and the Pope, and laid siege to Pilsen with forty
thousand men.
They soon became masters of the fortress, and in a short time all the southwest part
of Bohemia submitted, which greatly increased the army of the reformers.
The latter, having taken the pass of Moldavia, after a severe conflict of five
days and nights, the Emperor became alarmed and withdrew his troops from the
confines of Turkey to march them into Bohemia.
At Bern in Moravia he halted and sent dispatches to treat of peace, as a
preliminary to which Žižka gave up Pilsen and all the fortresses he had taken.
Sigismund, proceeding in a manner that clearly manifested he acted on the Roman
doctrine, that no faith was to be kept with heretics, and treating some of the
authors of the late disturbances with severity, the alarm bell of revolt was
sounded from one end of Bohemia to the other.
Žižka took the castle of Prague by the power of money, and on August 19,
1420, defeated the small army the Emperor had hastily got together to oppose him.
He next took Osea by assault, and destroyed the town with a barbarity that
disgraced the cause in which he fought.
Winter approaching, Žižka fortified his camp on a strong hill about forty miles
from Prague, which he called Mount Tabor, whence he surprised a body of horse at
midnight and made a thousand men prisoners.
Shortly after, the Emperor obtained possession of the strong fortress of
Prague by the same means Žižka had done before.
It was blockaded by the latter, and want began to threaten the Emperor who
saw the necessity of a retreat.
Determined to make a desperate effort, Zygismond attacked the fortified camp of
Žižka on Mount Tabor and carried it with great slaughter.
Many other fortresses also fell, and Žižka withdrew to a craggy hill which
he strongly fortified, and whence he so annoyed the Emperor in his approaches
against the town of Prague, that he found he must either abandon the siege or defeat
his enemy.
The Marquis of Mizna was deputed to effect this with a large body of troops,
but the event was fatal to the imperialists.
They were defeated, and the Emperor, having lost nearly one third of his army,
retreated from the siege of Prague, harassed in his rear by the enemy.
In the spring of 1421, Žižka commenced the campaign, as before, by destroying all the
monasteries in his way.
He laid siege to the castle of Vizgrada, and the Emperor coming to relieve it fell
into a snare and was defeated with dreadful slaughter, and this important
fortress was taken.
Our General had now leisure to attend to the work of reformation, but he was much
disgusted with the gross ignorance and superstition of the Bohemian clergy,
who rendered themselves contemptible in the eyes of the whole army.
When he saw any symptoms of uneasiness in the camp, he would spread alarm in order
to divert them and draw his men into action.
In one of these expeditions, he encamped before the town of Rubi, and while
pointing out the place for an assault, an arrow shot from the wall struck him in
the eye.
At Prague it was extracted, but being barbed, it tore the eye out with it.
A fever succeeded, and his life was with difficulty preserved.
He was now totally blind, but still desirous of attending the army.
The Emperor, having summoned the states of the Empire to assist him, resolved with
their assistance to attack Žižka in the winter, when many of his troops departed
until the return of spring.
The Confederate Princes undertook the siege of Soisin, but at the approach
merely of the Bohemian General they retreated.
Sigismund nevertheless advanced with his formidable army, consisting of 15,000
Hungarian horse and 25,000 infantry, well equipped for a winter campaign.
This army spread terror through all the east of Bohemia.
Wherever Sigismund marched, the magistrates laid their keys at his feet
and were treated with severity or favour according to their merits in his cause.
Žižka, however, with speedy marches, approached, and the Emperor resolved to
try his fortunes once more with that invincible chief.
On the 13th of January, 1422, the two armies met on a spacious plain near
Kremnica.
Žižka appeared in the centre of his front line, guarded, or rather conducted,
by a horseman on each side armed with a polax.
His troops, having sung a hymn, with a determined coolness, drew their
swords and waited for a signal.
When his officers had informed him that the ranks were all well closed,
he waved his sabre round his head, which was the sign of battle.
This battle is described as a most awful sight.
The extent of the plain was one continued scene of disorder.
The Imperial army fled towards the confines of Moravia, the Taborites,
without intermission, galling their rear.
The river Igla, then frozen, opposed their flight.
The enemy, pressing furiously, many of the infantry, and in a manner the
whole body of the cavalry, attempted the river.
The ice gave way and not fewer than two thousand were swallowed up in the water.
Zizka now returned to Tabor, laden with all the spoils and trophies which the most
complete victory could give.
Zizka now began again to pay attention to the Reformation.
He forbid all the prayers for the dead, images, sacerdotal vestments, fasts and
festivals.
Priests were to be preferred according to their merits, and no one to be persecuted
for religious opinions.
In everything Zizka consulted the liberal-minded, and did nothing without
general concurrence.
An alarming disagreement now arose at Prague between the magistrates,
who were Calixtons, or receivers of the sacraments in both kinds, and the
Taborites, nine of the chiefs of whom were privately arraigned and put to death.
The populace, enraged, sacrificed the magistrates, and the affair terminated
without any particular consequence, the Calixtons having sunk into contempt,
Zizka was solicited to assume the crown of Bohemia, but this he nobly refused,
and prepared for the next campaign, in which Sigismund resolved to make his
last effort.
While the Marquis of Misnia penetrated into Upper Saxony, the Emperor proposed to
enter Moravia, on the side of Hungary.
Before the Marquis had taken the field, Zizka sat down before the strong town of
Ausig, situated on the Elbe.
The Marquis flew to its relief with a superior army, and after an obstinate
engagement was totally defeated, and Ausig capitulated.
Zizka then went to the assistance of Prokop, a young general whom he had
appointed to keep Sigismund in check, and whom he compelled to abandon the siege
of Prunitz after laying eight weeks before it.
Zizka, willing to give his troops some respite from fatigue, now entered Prague,
hoping his presence would quell any uneasiness that might remain after the
late disturbance.
But he was suddenly attacked by the people, and he and his troop, having
beaten off the citizens, effected a retreat to his army, whom he acquainted
with the treacherous conduct of the Calixtons.
Every effort of address was necessary to appease their vengeful animosity,
and at night, in a private interview between Rokisan, an ecclesiastic of great
eminence in Prague, and Zizka, the latter became reconciled, and the
intended hostilities were done away.
Mutually tired of the war, Sigismund sent to Zizka, requesting him to sheathe his
sword and name his conditions.
A place of congress being appointed, Zizka, with his chief officers,
set out to meet the Emperor.
Compelled to pass through a part of the country where the plague raged,
he was seized with it at the castle of Briskau, and departed this life October 6,
1424.
Like Moses, he died in view of the completion of his labours, and was buried
in the great church of Chozlov, in Bohemia, where a monument is erected to
his memory with this inscription on it.
Here lies John Zizka, who, having defended his country against the encroachments of
papal tyranny, rests in this hallowed place in despite of the Pope.
After the death of Zizka, Prokop was defeated, and fell with the liberties of
his country.
After the death of Hus and Jerome, the Pope, in conjunction with the Council
of Constance, ordered the Roman clergy everywhere to excommunicate such as
adopted their opinions or commiserated their fate.
These orders occasioned great contention between the papists and reformed
Bohemians, which was the cause of a violent persecution against the latter.
At Prague, the persecution was extremely severe, until at length the reformed,
being driven to desperation, armed themselves, attacked the Senate House,
and threw twelve senators, with the Speaker, out of the Senate House windows,
whose bodies fell upon spears, which were held up by others of the
reformed in the street, to receive them.
Being informed of these proceedings, the Pope came to Florence and publicly
excommunicated the reformed Bohemians, exciting the Emperor of Germany,
and all kings, princes, dukes, etc., to take up arms in order to
extirpate the whole race, and promising by way of encouragement full remission of all
sins whatever to the most wicked person if he did but kill one Bohemian Protestant.
This occasioned a bloody war, for several Popish princes undertook the extirpation,
or at least expulsion, of the proscribed people, and the Bohemians, arming
themselves, prepared to repel force by force in the most vigorous and effectual
manner.
The Popish army, prevailing against the Protestant forces at the Battle of
Kuttenberg, the prisoners of the reformed were taken to three deep mines near that
town, and several hundreds were cruelly thrown into each, where they miserably
perished.
A merchant of Prague going to Breslau in Silesia happened to lodge in the same inn
with several priests.
Entering into conversation upon the subject of religious controversy,
he passed many encomiums upon the martyred John Hus and his doctrines.
The priests, taking umbrage at this, laid in information against him the next
morning, and he was committed to prison as a heretic.
Many endeavours were used to persuade him to embrace the Roman Catholic faith,
but he remained steadfast to the pure doctrines of the reformed church.
Soon after his imprisonment, a student of the university was committed to the same
jail.
When being permitted to converse with the merchant, they mutually comforted each
other.
On the day appointed for execution, when the jailer began to fasten ropes to
their feet, by which they were to be dragged through the streets, the student
appeared quite terrified and offered to abjure his faith and turn Roman Catholic
if he might be saved.
The offer was accepted, his abjuration was taken by a priest, and he was set at
liberty.
A priest applying to the merchant to follow the example of the student,
he nobly said, Lose no time in hopes of my recantation.
Your expectations will be vain.
I sincerely pity that poor wretch who has miserably sacrificed his soul for a few
more uncertain years of a troublesome life.
And so far from having the least idea of following his example, I glory in the very
thoughts of dying for the sake of Christ.
On hearing these words, the priest ordered the executioner to proceed, and the
merchant, being drawn through the city, was brought to the place of execution,
and there burnt.
Pichel, a bigoted, popish magistrate, apprehended twenty-four Protestants,
among whom was his daughter's husband.
As they all owned they were of the reformed religion, he indiscriminately
condemned them to be drowned in the river Abyss.
On the day appointed for the execution, a great concourse of people attended,
among whom was Pichel's daughter.
This worthy wife threw herself at her father's feet, bedewed them with tears,
and in the most pathetic manner implored him to commiserate her sorrow and pardon
her husband.
The obdurate magistrate sternly replied, Intercede not for him, child, he is a
heretic, a vile heretic.
To which she nobly answered, Whatever his faults may be, or however his opinions may
differ from yours, he is still my husband, a name which, at a time like this,
should alone employ my whole consideration.
Pichel flew into a violent passion, and said, You are mad!
Cannot you, after the death of this, have a much worthier husband?
No, sir, replied she, my affections are fixed upon this, and death itself shall
not dissolve my marriage vow.
Pichel, however, continued inflexible, and ordered the prisoners to be tied with
their hands and feet behind them, and in that manner be thrown into the
river.
As soon as this was put into execution, the young lady watched her opportunity,
leaped into the waves, and, embracing the body of her husband, both sank together
into one watery grave.
An uncommon instance of conjugal love in a wife, and of an inviolable attachment to
and personal affection for her husband.
The Emperor Ferdinand, whose hatred to the Bohemian Protestants was without bounds,
not thinking he had sufficiently oppressed them, instituted a high court of reformers
upon the plan of the Inquisition, with this difference, that the reformers
were to remove from place to place, and always to be attended by a body of
troops.
These reformers consisted chiefly of Jesuits, and from their decision there was
no appeal, by which it may be easily conjectured that it was a dreadful
tribunal indeed.
This bloody court, attended by a body of troops, made the tour of Bohemia,
in which they seldom examined or saw a prisoner, suffering the soldiers to murder
the Protestants as they pleased, and then to make a report of the matter to
them afterward.
The first victim of their cruelty was an aged minister, whom they killed as he lay
sick in his bed.
The next day they robbed and murdered another, and soon after shot a third as he
was preaching in his pulpit.
A nobleman and clergyman, who resided in a Protestant village, hearing of the
approach of the high court of reformers and the troops, fled from the place,
and secreted themselves.
The soldiers, however, on their arrival, seized upon a schoolmaster, asked him
where the lord of that place and the minister were concealed, and where they
had hidden their treasures.
The schoolmaster replied that he could not answer either of the questions.
They then stripped him naked, bound him with cords, and beat him most unmercifully
with cudgels.
This cruelty, not extorting any confession from him, they scorched him in various
parts of his body.
When to gain a respite from his torments, he promised to show them where the
treasures were hid.
The soldiers gave ear to this with pleasure, and the schoolmaster led them to
a ditch full of stones, saying, beneath these stones are the treasures ye
seek for.
Eager after money, they went to work, and soon removed those stones.
But not finding what they sought after, they beat the schoolmaster to death,
buried him in the ditch, and covered him with the very stones he had made them
remove.
Some of the soldiers ravished the daughters of a worthy Protestant before
his face, and then tortured him to death.
A minister and his wife they tied back to back and burned.
Another minister they hung upon a crossbeam, and making a fire under him,
broiled him to death.
A gentleman they hacked into small pieces, and they filled a young man's mouth with
gunpowder, and setting fire to it, blew his head to pieces.
As their principal rage was directed against the clergy, they took a pious
Protestant minister and tormented him daily for a month together in the
following manner, making their cruelty regular, systematic, and progressive.
They placed him amidst them, and made him the subject of their division and mockery
during a whole day's entertainment, trying to exhaust his patience,
but in vain, for he bore the whole with true Christian fortitude.
They spit in his face, pulled his nose, and pinched him in most parts of his body.
He was hunted like a wild beast until ready to expire with fatigue.
They made him run the gauntlet between two ranks of them, each striking him with a
twig.
He was beat with their fists, he was beat with ropes, they scourged him with wires,
he was beat with cudgels.
They tied him up by the heels with his head downwards until the blood started out
of his nose, mouth, etc.
They hung him by the right arm until it was dislocated, and then had it set again.
The same was repeated with his left arm.
Burning papers dipped in oil were placed between his fingers and toes.
His flesh was torn with red-hot pincers.
He was put to the rack, they pulled off the nails of his right hand, the same
repeated with his left hand.
He was bastinadoed on his feet.
A slit was made in his right ear, the same repeated on his left ear.
His nose was slit, they whipped him through the town upon an ass.
They made several incisions in his flesh, they pulled off the toenails of his right
foot, the same they repeated with his left foot.
He was tied up by the loins and suspended for a considerable time.
The teeth of his upper jaw were pulled out, the same was repeated with his lower
jaw.
Boiling lead was poured upon his fingers, the same was repeated with his toes.
A knotted cord was twisted about his forehead in such a manner as to force out
his eyes.
During the whole of these horrid cruelties, particular care was taken that
his wound should not mortify and not to injure him mortally until the last day,
when the forcing out of his eyes proved his death.
Innumerable were the other murders and depredations committed by those unfeeling
brutes, and shocking to humanity were the cruelties which they inflicted on the poor
Bohemian Protestants.
The winter being far advanced, however, the High Court of Reformers,
with their infernal band of military ruffians, thought proper to return to
Prague.
But on their way, meeting with a Protestant pastor, they could not resist
the temptation of feasting their barbarous eyes with a new kind of cruelty which had
just suggested itself to the diabolical imagination of one of the soldiers.
This was to strip the minister naked, and alternately to cover him with ice and
burning coals.
This novel mode of tormenting a fellow creature was immediately put into
practice, and the unhappy victim expired beneath the torments which seemed to
delight his inhuman persecutors.
A secret order was soon after issued by the Emperor for apprehending all noble men
and gentlemen who had been principally concerned in supporting the Protestant
cause, and in nominating Frederick Elector Palatine of the Rhine to be King of
Bohemia.
These, to the number of fifty, were apprehended in one night and at one
hour, and brought from the places where they were taken to the castle of Prague,
and the estates of those who were absent from the kingdom were confiscated,
themselves were made outlaws, and their names fixed upon a gallows as marks of
public ignominy.
The High Court of Reformers then proceeded to try the fifty who had been apprehended,
and two apostate Protestants were appointed to examine them.
These examinants asked a great number of unnecessary and impertinent questions,
which so exasperated one of the noble men, who was naturally of a warm temper,
that he exclaimed, opening his breast at the same time, Cut here, search my heart,
and you shall find nothing but the love of religion and liberty.
Those were the motives for which I drew my sword, and for those I am willing to
suffer death.
As none of the prisoners would change their religion or acknowledge they had
been in error, they were all pronounced guilty, but the sentence was referred to
the Emperor.
When that monarch had read their names and an account of the respective accusations
against them, he passed judgment on all but in a different manner, as his
sentences were of four kinds, namely death, banishment, imprisonment for life,
and imprisonment during pleasure.
Twenty, being ordered for execution, were informed they might send for Jesuits,
monks, or friars to prepare for the awful change they were to undergo, but that no
Protestant should be permitted to come near them.
This proposal they rejected, and strove all they could to comfort and cheer each
other upon the solemn occasion.
On the morning of the day appointed for the execution, a cannon was fired as a
signal to bring the prisoners from the castle to the principal marketplace,
in which scaffolds were erected and a body of troops were drawn up to attend the
tragic scene.
The prisoners left the castle with as much cheerfulness as if they had been going to
an agreeable entertainment, instead of a violent death.
Exclusive of soldiers, Jesuits, priests, executioners, attendants,
etc., a prodigious concourse of people attended to see the exit of these devoted
martyrs, who were executed in the following order.
Lord Schillick was about fifty years of age, and was possessed of great natural
and acquired abilities.
When he was told he was to be quartered, and his parts scattered in different
places, he smiled with great serenity, saying, The loss of a sepulcher is but a
trifling consideration.
A gentleman who stood by, crying, Courage, my lord, he replied, I have God's
favour, which is sufficient to inspire anyone with courage.
The fear of death does not trouble me.
Formerly I have faced him in fields of battle to oppose Antichrist, and now dare
face him on a scaffold for the sake of Christ.
Having said a short prayer, he told the executioner he was ready.
He cut off his right hand and his head, and then quartered him.
His hand and his head were placed upon the high tower of Prague, and his quarters
distributed in different parts of the city.
Lord Viscount Wenceslaus, who had attained the age of seventy years, was equally
respectable for learning, piety, and hospitality.
His temper was so remarkably patient that when his house was broken open,
his property seized, and his estates confiscated, he only said with great
composure, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away.
Being asked why he could engage in so dangerous a cause as that of attempting to
support the elect of Palatine, Frederick, against the power of the
Emperor, he replied, I acted strictly according to the dictates of my
conscience, and to this day deem him my king.
I am now full of years, and wish to lay down life, that I may not be a witness of
the further evils which are to attend my country.
You have long thirsted for my blood.
Take it, for God will be my avenger.
Then, approaching the block, he stroked his long grey beard, and said,
Venerable Hares, the greater honour now attends ye.
A crown of martyrdom is your portion.
Then, laying down his head, it was severed from his body at one stroke, and placed
upon a pole in a conspicuous part of the city.
Lord Harrant was a man of good sense, great piety, and much experience gained by
travel, as he had visited the principal places in Europe, Asia, and Africa,
hence he was free from national prejudices, and had collected much
knowledge.
The accusations against this nobleman were his being a Protestant, and having taken a
note of allegiance to Frederick, Elector Palatine of the Rhine,
as King of Bohemia.
When he came upon the scaffold, he said, I have travelled through many
countries, and traversed various barbarous nations, yet never found so much cruelty
as at home.
I have escaped innumerable perils, both by sea and land, and surmounted
inconceivable difficulties, to suffer innocently in my native place.
My blood is likewise sought by those for whom I and my forefathers have hazarded
our estates, but Almighty God forgive them, for they know not what they do.
He then went to the block, kneeled down, and exclaimed with great energy,
Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.
In thee have I always trusted.
Receive me, therefore, my blessed Redeemer.
The fatal stroke was then given, and a period put to the temporary pains of
this life.
Lord Frederick de Beale suffered as a Protestant and a promoter of the late war.
He met his fate with serenity, and only said he wished well to the
friends whom he left behind, forgave the enemies who caused his death, denied the
authority of their Emperor in that country.
Acknowledged Frederick to be the only true King of Bohemia, and hoped for salvation
in the merits of his blessed Redeemer.
Lord Henry Otto, when he first came upon the scaffold, seemed greatly confounded,
and said with some asperity, as if addressing himself to the Emperor,
Thou tyrant Ferdinand, your throne is established in blood, but if you will kill
my body and disperse my members, they shall still rise up in judgment
against you.
He then was silent, and having walked about for some time, seemed to recover his
fortitude, and growing calm, said to a gentleman who stood near, I was a few
minutes since greatly discomposed, but now I feel my spirit revive.
God be praised for affording me such comfort.
Death no longer appears as the King of terrors, but seems to invite me to
participate of some unknown joys.
Kneeling before the block, he said, Almighty God, to thee I commend my soul.
Receive it for the sake of Christ, and admit it to the glory of thy presence.
The executioner put this nobleman to considerable pain by making several
strokes before he severed the head from the body.
The Earl of Rugenia was distinguished for his superior abilities and unaffected
piety.
On the scaffold he said, We who drew our swords fought only to preserve the
liberties of the people and to keep our consciences sacred.
As we were overcome, I am better pleased at the sentence of death than if the
Emperor had given me life, for I find that it pleases God to have his truth defended,
not by our swords, but by our blood.
He then went boldly to the block, saying, I shall now be speedily with
Christ, and receive the crown of martyrdom with great courage.
Sir Gaspar Kaplitz was eighty-six years of age.
When he came to the place of execution, he addressed the principal officer thus,
Behold, a miserable ancient man, who hath often entreated God to take him
out of this wicked world, but could not until now obtain his desire, for God
reserved me until these years to be a spectacle to the world and a sacrifice to
himself.
Therefore God's will be done.
One of the officers told him, in consideration of his great age,
that if he would only ask pardon, he would immediately receive it.
Ask pardon!
exclaimed he, I will ask pardon of God, whom I frequently offended, but not of the
Emperor, to whom I never gave any offence.
Should I sue for pardon, it might be justly suspected I had committed some
crime for which I deserved this condemnation.
No, no, as I die innocent and with a clear conscience, I would not be separated from
this noble company of martyrs.
So saying, he cheerfully resigned his neck to the block.
Procopius d'Orsecchi, on the scaffold, said, We are now under the Emperor's
judgment, but in time he shall be judged, and we shall appear as witnesses against
him.
Then, taking a gold medal from his neck, which was struck when the Elector
Frederick was crowned King of Bohemia, he presented it to one of the officers,
at the same time uttering these words, As a dying man, I request if ever King
Frederick is restored to the throne of Bohemia, that you will give him this
medal, tell him for his sake I wore it until death, and that now I willingly lay
down my life for God and my King.
He then cheerfully lay down his head and submitted to the fatal blow.
Dionysius Servius was brought up a Roman Catholic, but had embraced the reformed
religion for some years.
When upon the scaffold, the Jesuits used their utmost endeavours to make him recant
and return to his former faith, but he paid not the least attention to
their exhortations.
Kneeling down, he said, They may destroy my body, but cannot injure my soul,
that I commend to my Redeemer, and then patiently submitted to martyrdom,
being at that time fifty-six years of age.
Valentine Cochran was a person of considerable fortune and eminence,
perfectly pious and honest, but of trifling abilities.
Yet his imagination seemed to grow bright, and his faculties to improve on death's
approach, as if the impending danger refined the understanding.
Just before he was beheaded, he expressed himself with such eloquence, energy,
and precision, as greatly amazed those who knew his former deficiency and point of
capacity.
Tobias Stefik was remarkable for his affability and serenity of temper.
He was perfectly resigned to his fate, and a few minutes before his death spoke
in this singular manner, I have received during the whole course of my life many
favours from God.
Ought I not therefore cheerfully to take one bitter cup, when he thinks proper to
present it?
Or rather, ought I not to rejoice that it is his will I should give up a corrupted
life for that of immortality?
Dr. Jesenius, an able student of physic, was accused of having spoken disrespectful
words of the Emperor, of treason in swearing allegiance to the Elector
Frederick, and of heresy in being a Protestant.
For the first accusation he had his tongue cut out, for the second he was beheaded,
and for the third and last he was quartered and the respective parts exposed
on poles.
Christopher Coba, as soon as he stepped upon the scaffold, said, I come in the
name of God to die for his glory.
I fought the good fight and finished my course, so Executioner, do your office.
The Executioner obeyed, and he instantly received the crown of martyrdom.
No person ever lived more respected or died more lamented than John Schultes.
The only words he spoke before receiving the fatal stroke were, The righteous seem
to die in the eyes of fools, but they only go to rest.
Lord Jesus, thou hast promised that those who come to thee shall not be cast off.
Behold, I am come, look on me, pity me, pardon my sins, and receive my
soul.
Maximilian Hostelik was famed for his learning piety and humanity.
When he first came on the scaffold, he seemed exceedingly terrified at the
approach of death.
The officer taking notice of his agitation, Hostelik said, Ah, sir,
now the sins of my youth crowd upon my mind, but I hope God will enlighten me,
lest I sleep the sleep of death, unless mine enemies say we have prevailed.
Soon after he said, I hope my repentance is sincere and will be accepted,
in which case the blood of Christ will wash me from my crimes.
He then told the officer he should repeat the Song of Simeon, at the conclusion of
which the executioner might do his duty.
He accordingly said, Lord, let us now thou thy servant depart in peace according to
thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, at which words his head was
struck off at one blow.
When John Kutnow came to the place of execution, a Jesuit said to him,
Embrace the Roman Catholic faith which alone can save and arm you against the
terrors of death, to which he replied, Your superstitious faith I abhor,
it leads to perdition, and I wish for no other arms against the terrors of death
than a good conscience.
The Jesuit turned away, saying sarcastically, The Protestants are
impenetrable rocks.
You're mistaken, said Kutnow.
It is Christ that is the rock, and we are firmly fixed upon him.
This person, not being born independent, but having acquired a fortune by a
mechanical employment, was ordered to be hanged.
Just before he was turned off, he said, I die not for having committed
any crime, but for following the dictates of my own conscience and defending my
country and religion.
Simeon Susicki was father-in-law to Kutnow, and like him was ordered to be
executed on a gallows.
He went cheerfully to death and appeared impatient to be executed, saying,
Every moment delays me from entering into the kingdom of Christ.
Nathaniel Wodnianski was hanged for having supported the Protestant cause and the
election of Frederick to the crown of Bohemia.
At the gallows, the Jesuits did all in their power to induce him to renounce his
faith.
Finding their endeavours ineffectual, one of them said, If you will not adjure
your heresy, at least repent of your rebellion.
To which Wodnianski replied, You take away our lives under a pretended charge of
rebellion, and not content with that, seek to destroy our souls.
Glut yourselves with blood and be satisfied, but tamper not with our
consciences.
Wodnianski's own son then approached the gallows and said to his father,
Sir, if life should be offered to you on condition of apostasy, I entreat you to
remember Christ and reject such pernicious overtures.
To this the father replied, It is very acceptable, my son, to be exhorted to
constancy by you, but suspect me not, rather endeavour to confirm in their faith
your brothers, sisters, and children, and teach them to imitate that constancy
of which I shall leave them an example.
He had no sooner concluded these words than he was turned off, receiving the
crown of martyrdom with great fortitude.
Wenceslas Gizbitski, during his whole confinement, had great hopes of life given
him, which made his friends fear for the safety of his soul.
He, however, continued steadfast in his faith, prayed fervently at the gallows,
and met his fate with singular resignation.
Martin Foster was an ancient cripple, the accusations against whom were being
charitable to heretics and lending money to the Elector Frederick.
His great wealth, however, seemed to have been his principal crime, and that he
might be plundered of his treasures was the occasion of his being ranked in this
illustrious list of martyrs.
CHAPTER NINE AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND PERSECUTIONS OF MARTIN LUTHER This
illustrious German divine and reformer of the Church was the son of John Luther and
Margaret Ziegler, and born at Eisleben, a town of Saxony, in the county of
Mansfield, November 10, 1483.
His father's extraction and condition were originally but mean, and his occupation
that of a miner.
It is probable, however, that by his application and industry he improved the
fortunes of his family, as he afterward became a magistrate of rank and dignity.
Luther was early initiated into letters, and at the age of thirteen was sent to
school at Magdeburg, and thence to Eisenach in Thuringia, where he remained
four years, producing the early indications of his future eminence.
In 1501 he was sent to the University of Erfurt, where he went through the usual
courses of logic and philosophy.
When twenty, he took a master's degree, and then lectured on Aristotle's physics,
ethics, and other parts of philosophy.
Afterward, at the instigation of his parents, he turned himself to the civil
law, with a view of advancing himself to the bar, but was diverted from this
pursuit by the following accident.
Walking out into the fields one day, he was struck by lightning, so as to fall
to the ground, while a companion was killed by his side, and this affected him
so sensibly, that without communicating his purpose to any of his friends,
he withdrew himself from the world and retired into the order of the hermits of
St. Augustine.
Here he employed himself in reading St. Augustine and the schoolmen, but in
turning over the leaves of the library, he accidentally found a copy of the Latin
Bible, which he had never seen before.
This raised his curiosity to a high degree.
He read it over very greedily, and was amazed to find what a small
portion of the scriptures was rehearsed to the people.
He made his profession in the monastery of Erfurt after he had been a novice one
year, and he took priest orders and celebrated his first Mass in 1507.
Thereafter, he was removed from the convent of Erfurt to the University of
Wittenberg, for this university being just founded, nothing was thought more likely
to bring it into immediate repute and credit than the authority and presence of
a man so celebrated for his great parts and learning as Luther.
In this University of Erfurt there was a certain aged man in the convent of the
Augustines, with whom Luther, being then of the same order, a friar Augustine,
had conference upon divers things, especially touching remission of sins,
which article the said aged father opened unto Luther, declaring that God's express
commandment is that every man should particularly believe his sins to be
forgiven him in Christ, and further said that this interpretation was confirmed by
St. Bernard, this is the testimony that the Holy Ghost giveth thee in thy heart,
saying thy sins are forgiven thee, for this is the opinion of the Apostle,
that man is freely justified by faith.
By these words Luther was not only strengthened, but was also instructed of
the full meaning of St. Paul, who repeateth so many times this sentence,
we are justified by faith.
And having read the expositions of many upon this place, he then perceived,
as well by the discourse of the old man as by the comfort he received in his spirit,
the vanity of those interpretations which he had read before of the schoolmen.
And so, by little and little, reading and comparing the sayings and examples of the
prophets and apostles, with continual invocation of God, and the excitation of
faith by force of prayer, he perceived that doctrine most evidently.
Thus continued he his study at Erfurt the space of four years in the convent of the
Augustines.
In 1512, seven convents of his order having a quarrel with their vicar general,
Luther was chosen to go to Rome to maintain their cause.
At Rome he saw the pope and the court, and had an opportunity of observing also
the manners of the clergy, whose hasty, superficial, and impious way of
celebrating mass he has severely noted.
As soon as he had adjusted the dispute, which was the business of his journey,
he returned to Wittenberg, and was created Doctor of Divinity at the expense of
Frederick, Elector of Saxony, who had often heard him preach, was perfectly
acquainted with his merit, and reverenced him highly.
He continued in the University of Wittenberg, where as Professor of Divinity
he employed himself in the business of his calling.
Here then he began in the most earnest manner to read lectures upon the sacred
books.
He explained the Epistle to the Romans and the Psalms, which he cleared up and
illustrated in a manner so entirely new, and so different from what had been
pursued by former commentators, that there seemed after a long and dark
night a new day to arise in the judgment of all pious and prudent men.
Luther diligently reduced the minds of men to the Son of God.
As John the Baptist demonstrated the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the
world, even so Luther, shining in the church as the bright daylight after a long
and dark night, expressly showed that sins are freely remitted for the love of the
Son of God, and that we ought faithfully to embrace this bountiful gift.
His life was correspondent to his profession, and it plainly appeared that
his words were no lip-labor but proceeded from the very heart.
This admiration of his holy life much allured the hearts of his auditors.
The better to qualify himself for the task he had undertaken, he had applied himself
attentively to the Greek and Hebrew languages, and in this manner was he
employed when the General Indulgences were published in 1517.
Leo X, who succeeded Julius II in March 1513, formed a design of building the
magnificent church of St. Peter's at Rome, which was indeed begun by Julius,
but still required very large sums to be finished.
Leo therefore, in 1517, published General Indulgences throughout all Europe in
favour of those who contribute any sum to the building of St. Peter's, and appointed
persons in different countries to preach up these indulgences and to receive money
for them.
These strange proceedings gave vast offence at Wittenberg, and particularly
inflamed the pious zeal of Luther, who being naturally warm and active,
and in the present case unable to contain himself, was determined to declare against
them at all adventures.
Upon the eve of All Saints, therefore, in 1517, he publicly fixed up at the
church next to the castle of that town a thesis upon the indulgences, in the
beginning of which he challenged anyone to oppose it either by writing or
disputation.
Luther's propositions about indulgences were no sooner published than Tetzel,
the Dominican friar and commissioner for selling them, maintained and published at
Frankfurt a thesis containing a set of propositions directly contrary to them.
He did more.
He stirred up the clergy of his order against Luther, anathematised him from the
pulpit as a most damnable heretic, and burnt his thesis publicly at
Frankfurt.
Tetzel's thesis was also burnt in return by the Lutherans at Wittenberg,
but Luther himself disowned having had any hand in that procedure.
In 1518, Luther, though dissuaded from it by his friends, yet to show obedience to
authority, went to the monastery of St. Augustine at Heidelberg, while the chapter
was held, and here maintained, April 26, a dispute concerning
justification by faith, which Butzer, who was present at, took down in writing,
and afterward communicated to Beatus Renanus, not without the highest
commendations.
In the meantime, the zeal of his adversaries grew every day more and more
active against him, and he was at length accused to Leo X as a heretic.
As soon as he returned, therefore, from Heidelberg, he wrote a letter to that
pope in the most submissive terms, and sent him at the same time an
explication of his propositions about indulgences.
This letter is dated on Trinity Sunday, 1518, and was accompanied with a
protestation, wherein he declared that he did not pretend to advance or defend
anything contrary to the Holy Scriptures, or to the doctrine of the Fathers,
received and observed by the Church of Rome, or to the canons and decretals of
the popes.
Nevertheless, he thought he had the liberty either to approve or disapprove
the opinions of St. Thomas, Bonaventure, and other schoolmen and canonists,
which are not grounded upon any text.
The Emperor Maximilian was equally solicitous with the Pope about putting a
stop to the propagation of Luther's opinions in Saxony, troublesome both to
the Church and Empire.
Maximilian therefore replied to Leo, in a letter dated August 5, 1518,
and begged him to forbid by his authority these useless, rash, and dangerous
disputes, assuring him also that he would strictly execute in the Empire whatever
his holiness should enjoin.
In the meantime, Luther, as soon as he understood what was transacting about him
at Rome, used all imaginable means to prevent his being carried thither and to
obtain a hearing of his cause in Germany.
The elector was also against Luther's going to Rome, and desired of Cardinal
Cajetan that he might be heard before him as the Pope's legate in Germany.
Upon these addresses, the Pope consented that the cause should be tried before
Cardinal Cajetan, to whom he had given power to decide it.
Luther therefore set off immediately for Augsburg, and carried with him letters
from the elector.