The Missionary by Stephen N. Haskell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 28, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 21.

The Missionary.

By Stephen N. Haskell

The Council at Constance.

THE city of Constance at the time of the trial of John Huss was one of the most prosperous inland cities of Germany. It contained a population of fifty thousand, and as many more assembled there during the council. It is situated seventy-three miles northeast of Bâle, Switzerland, on a lake by the same name. It is said that at one time thirty thousand horses might have been counted within the city limits. Never had any similar event in the history of the church excited so deep and general an interest throughout the Christian world. A few feet from the landing stands a market—a wide, low room supported with heavy wooden pillars—and this is the room where the council met, and where John Huss was condemned.

The Emperor Sigismund, who took a more active part than any other one man, was the emperor of Germany and the Romans. He was a man who had had many advantages and possessed a high appreciation of learning. But he was a person of worldly policy, devoid of that principle that makes men truly great. If his interest required it he could stoop to the darkest deeds of infamy and crime. Pope John, who was the only one of the contesting popes that came to the council, we have already described. No crime caused him to blush when he had an interest to serve.

Twenty of the bitterest enemies of John Huss in Bohemia went to the council having but one object, namely, to see this man of God brought to the stake. Their expenses were paid by the priests of Bohemia for the purpose of condemning Huss. They were close on his track, as he went to the city, and watched every movement. For a few days after Huss entered the city, he was allowed the privileges of visitors. He had services in his room each day and the privilege of conversing with those that called upon him. Among his enemies was Paletz, once the warm friend and joint advocate of the reform with Huss and others. These enemies placarded him on the church doors and in the public places as the vilest of heretics. They circulated the report that Huss was a mind reader, a sort of magician who could divine the thoughts of those who came within a certain distance. Huss’s lodging at Constance was with a poor widow in a humble dwelling. This woman Huss compares to the woman of Zarephath, with whom Elijah stopped. Here he found a welcome refuge, if not a secure asylum. In a short time the bishop of Constance sent his vicar to inform Huss that he must discontinue his services as it was not proper for him to officiate as a priest inasmuch as he had been excommunicated; but he paid no heed to the excommunication.

On the twenty-sixth day after his arrival, Huss was summoned to appear before the cardinals. This was not what he desired nor what the emperor had promised him. He had been promised an opportunity to publicly state his faith. This interview resulted in his being arrested in flagrant violation of his safe-conduct. For a week he remained under a strong guard in the house of the clerk of the cathedral of Constance. Thence he was conducted to the prison of the Dominicans on the banks of the Rhine. The sewerage of the monastery flowed close to the place where he was confined, and the damp and pestilential air of the prison brought on a raging fever which well-nigh terminated his life. His enemies feared that after all he would escape them, and the pope sent his own physician to care for his health. When the tidings of his imprisonment reached Bohemia, it kindled a flame that was not extinguished until nearly 100,000 lives were sacrificed on the battle-field. S. N. H.