Jerome’s Defeat and Victory
By Stephen N. Haskell
JEROME was heavily ironed and imprisoned in the dungeon of a tower in the Cemetery of St. Paul. His chains were riveted to a lofty beam in such a way as to prevent his sitting down, while his arms were forced by fetters to cross on his neck behind, compelling him to incline his head forward and downward. For two days he was kept in this position, and his only food was bread and water. His strength gave way, and his life was in imminent danger. His enemies, fearing that he would die in prison, caused that some of his irons should be taken off. They desired that he should die a more public and striking death. The burning of Huss, and the treatment which he received at the hands of the council, had so exasperated the Bohemians that that body did not dare to at once burn Jerome. About two weeks after the death of Huss, and two months after his capture, Jerome was brought before the council, but without any definite result, after which he was taken back to prison, and every effort made to induce him to recant. It was hoped that the execution of Huss would have a salutary and mollifying influence upon the mind of his disciple. Two months longer he remained in chains, enduring the greatest harshness and severity of treatment. Prostrated by sickness in his noisome dungeon, his limbs painful from incurable ulcers, his energy exhausted, and his spirits depressed, he was again brought before the council, and called upon to abjure his errors and sanction the execution of Huss. Judging from outward appearances Jerome would have been more likely to meet this ordeal unmoved than Huss, but the latter possessed what the former did not, a true Christian self-distrust which led him to throw himself with prayerful humility into the arms of Omnipotence. Jerome, conscious of his own strength, was self-reliant. The hardships of his imprisonment had unnerved him, and made the bold man fear and quail. His active disposition, love of travel, and former mode of living amid the indulgence which wealth allows, combined to give a poignancy to his sufferings such as were not experienced by the more simple and abstemious Huss. Born to command, it was exceedingly hard for him to bear captivity. Human weakness prevailed, and he signed a paper by which he declared submission to the council, and approved the condemnation of the writings of Wycliffe and Huss. To this, however, he added conditions and explanations which under other circumstances would have been in no wise acceptable to the council. His recantation closed with the following solemn oath: “I moreover swear, by the holy trinity and by those most holy gospels, that I will abide undoubtedly in the truth of the Catholic Church, and I do pronounce all those who shall contravene this faith with their dogmas, worthy of eternal anathema. And if I myself shall ever presume to think or teach anything to the contrary, I will subject myself to the severity of the canons, and shall be found exposed to eternal punishment. This copy of my confession and profession before this holy general council I freely and voluntarily present, and have subscribed with my own hand.” But Jerome’s act of humiliation and surrender of principle did not secure his liberation. He was a prisoner still. The rigors of his confinement were softened, but that was all. After some months his enemies demanded severer measures, disclaiming all faith in the sincerity of his recantation. The men who had been successful in securing the condemnation of Huss by wicked misrepresentation now turned their attention to Jerome, and others, who, for various reasons, had become his personal enemies, brought charges against him. At the same time letters were received by the council from the nobles of Moravia and Bohemia, one of which was signed by not less than four hundred and fifty-two persons of distinction, protesting with earnest, indignant, and powerful language against the course pursued with Huss and Jerome. Thus the conflict went on. Meanwhile Jerome within prison walls was reviewing the past; his mind and conscience were active. The spirit of God wrought for him, and he became convinced of his error and heartily repented of it. His mind rose above the sophistry of the cardinals and his former horror of confinement and death. The new charges that were brought against him occupied twenty folio pages of the historian who put it on record, and in no instance is the name of a witness given. Jerome refused to answer to these charges before the commission, but demanded a public audience. Finally this demand was granted with the privilege, not afforded Huss, of pleading his own cause and answering his enemies. It is impossible to give in this article any just idea of the power of oratory and eloquence which he displayed in this defense. The vast audience, tumultuous, filled with hatred, breathing out cruelty, had not the power to withstand it. At one time burning with indignation and seemingly beyond control, at another moved to tears, and then again to laughter as he exposed the absurdity of the charges brought against him, and met them with ridicule. That distinguished assembly listened to him with astonishment and admiration. “O man worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance among men,” exclaimed Poggio, a celebrated Italian scholar who had held the office of papal secretary to no less than seven popes, and who was a careful observer and a man of critical judgment. In speaking of Jerome he says, “I do not praise him in any respect in which he was opposed to the institutions of the church. I admire his learning, his extensive knowledge, his eloquence and his skill in argument. It was wonderful to see with what language, what arguments, what oratory of face and gesture, what confidence, he answered his persecutors and summed up his own defense. It is sad that so noble, so superior an intellect should have been led off to heretical pursuits, if, indeed, the reports in regard to him are true.” He further says, “He adduced nothing that was not worthy of a good man; and if his real belief was what he professed, not only could no cause of death be found in him, but not even the slightest ground of accusation. His exposition of his own life and pursuits was admirable. It showed him great and virtuous. He stood before the council so fearless and intrepid, not only scorning to live, but welcoming death, that you would have called him a second Cato. When interrupted, as he often was, in his speech by clamorous and caviling persons, he left none of them unscathed. All the confusion did not break him down. He retained throughout his firmness and self-possession. How wonderful was his memory, that never failed him, notwithstanding his imprisonment of three hundred and forty days, most of the time in a dungeon so dark that he could not read. He quoted so many authorities of the highest wisdom and learning, so many doctors of the church, whose words testified in his behalf, that you might well have supposed the whole time of his imprisonment to have been devoted in undisturbed leisure to the study of wisdom.” What a contrast is this with his former appearance before the council! The weak man had become strong again with a strength that far exceeded that which he formerly possessed,—a strength not born of the outward circumstances, but of the power of God.