Archbishop Arundel procured “a law for ever,” A.D. 1410, “that whosoever they were that should read the Scriptures in the mother tongue,” which was then denounced as “Wycliffe’s learning,” should “forfeit lands, cattle, body, life, and goods, from their heirs for ever, and so be condemned for heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and most arrant traitors to the land.”
Bale says, “Anon after, that Act was proclaimed throughout the realm, and then the bishops, the priests, and the monks, had a world somewhat to their minds. For then were many taken in divers quarters, and suffered most cruel deaths. And many fled out of the land into Germany, Bohemia, France, Spain, Portugal, and into Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, working there many marvels against the false kingdom, too long to write. In the Christmas following was Sir Roger Acton, knight, Master John Browne, and Sir John Beverly, a learned preacher, and divers others, imprisoned for quarrelling with certain priests. In January following, A.D. 1413, was the before-named Sir Roger Acton, Master John Browne, Sir John Beverly, and thirty-six more, of whom the more part were gentlemen of birth, convicted of heresy by the bishops, and condemned of treason by the temporality, and, according to the Act, were first hanged and then burned in the Giles-field. In the same year, also, one John Claydon, a skinner, and one Richard Turning, a baker, were both hanged and burned in Smithfield by that Act, besides what was done in all other quarters of England; which was no small number, if it were thoroughly known.” Fox calls Sir Roger Acton “this worthy, noble, virtuous knight,” in giving an account of the dreadful persecutions of these faithful martyrs of Christ.
Wycliffe’s ashes were not allowed to rest in quiet: for, A.D. 1415, by the council of Constance, forty-four conclusions, drawn from his writings, were declared to be heretical, and their author condemned as an obstinate heretic. Inquisitors sought his bones, which were ordered to be dug up and cast upon a dunghill; but the sentence was not executed till A.D. 1428, when Pope Martin V. sent order to Fleming, bishop of Lincoln, once a professed favourer of the reformed doctrine. The inquisitors obeyed the order of the bishop—the bones were burnt, and the ashes were cast into the adjoining rivulet, Swift. From Lutterworth, as Dr. Fuller beautifully remarks, “this brook conveyed his ashes into the Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; they into the ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are emblems of his doctrine, which is now dispersed all over the world!”
Wycliffe’s writings were copied and circulated among studious inquirers after the Gospel in several nations; and, as the sister of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, had become the queen of Richard II., learned Bohemians frequented England. One of these, Jerome of Prague, on his return from study at Oxford, A.D. 1400, carried with him some of Wycliffe’s books, which became the means of enlightening John Huss, a famous divine of Prague university. He laboured to promote a reformation, opposing the false miracles, and impostures, and evil lives of the priests. But the archbishop being incensed against him, accused him before the Inquisition, from which he appealed by proctors to Cardinal Colonna, who declared him contumacious, and excommunicated him. He then appealed to the Pope, who confirmed the sentence, and excommunicated his followers. But he continued his labours in teaching and writing, until he was summoned before the council of Constance. The Emperor Sigismund pledged his honour for his protection, and John, Count of Chlum, interposed on his behalf; but that holy synod violated the solemn engagement of the emperor, seizing his person, and requiring him to plead guilty of heresy in thirty propositions extracted from his writings. With this requisition of the inquisitors Huss could not comply; yet he protested his readiness to yield to the testimony of Holy Scripture. Being then presented before the council, in the presence of the emperor, the princes of the empire, and an immense assemblage of prelates, he was condemned to the stake, and his writings to be burned.
Dignified priests endeavoured in vain to induce him to recant. The bishops stripped him of his priestly robes, and put on his head a mitre of paper, on which devils were painted, with the inscription, “Ringleader of Heretics.” They then delivered him to the unworthy emperor, and he to the duke of Bavaria. His books were burnt at the church gate, and he was led to the stake at the suburbs of the city. He manifested the true spirit of a martyr for Christ. Multitudes attended his execution, and were astonished at his piety, saying, “What this man has done before, we know not; but we hear him now offer up most excellent prayers to God.”
Huss wished to address the people; but the elector palatine prevented him, ordering that he should immediately be burnt. The martyr then cried with a loud voice, “Lord Jesus, I humbly suffer this cruel death for thy sake; I pray thee forgive all my enemies.” Thus suffered Dr. John Huss, as a faithful martyr of Jesus, A.D. 1415; leaving a most instructive example to the church of God, and the fame, as Luther testifies, of being “a most rational expounder of Scripture.”
Jerome also was sacrificed to papal bigotry. For, having translated the works of Wycliffe into his native language, and professed himself a reformer of Christian doctrine and worship in connexion with Dr. Huss, when he heard of his friend’s danger at Constance, he repaired thither in hope of rendering him some assistance. Jerome found that the inquisitors had caused him also to be cited before the council, and that his own destruction had been determined. He returned, therefore, to Bohemia, after writing to the emperor in favour of his friend; but he was arrested, and imprisoned for nearly a year. By the tortures and entreaties of the inquisitors he was induced to sign a recantation. His conscience, however, would not allow him to suffer this to stand; and he was brought again before the inquisitors. He defended the principles of his martyred friend, and made a solemn appeal to his persecutors:—“How unjust is it, that ye will not hear me! Ye confined me three hundred and forty days in several prisons, where I have been cramped with irons, almost poisoned with filth and stench, and pinched with the want of all necessaries. During this time, ye always gave to my enemies a hearing, but refused to hear me so much as a single hour. I came to Constance to defend John Huss, because I advised him to go thither, and had promised to come to his assistance, in case he should be oppressed. Nor am I ashamed to make here a public confession of my own cowardice. I confess, and tremble while I think of it, that, through fear of punishment by fire, I basely consented against my conscience to the condemnation of Wycliffe and Huss. I appeal to the Sovereign Judge of all the earth, in whose presence ye must shortly answer me!”
Jerome’s judges were implacable, and he was murdered at the stake, singing a hymn in the flames, while he yielded up his spirit to his Divine Redeemer, A.D. 1416.
Many of the nobles of Bohemia regarded the murder of these two excellent men as an outrage against their nation, and they meditated revenge. This passion was inflamed by the policy of Pope Martin, who promoted the organisation of the Inquisition in their country, and excited the Catholics in Moravia to unite in the destruction of the Hussites. King Wenceslaus inclined to support the Pope, but through terror of being opposed in the bloody work, he died, A.D. 1419, when the crown of Bohemia falling to the emperor, Sigismund sent an army on a crusade against the heretics. Multitudes fell victims to their cruel bigotry, and perished in the mines of Kuttenburgh, and by drowning, as well as at the stake. It is said there were thrown into one mine 1,701 persons; into another, 1,038; and into a third, 1,334, A.D. 1420.
The chief magistrate of Litomerici, a cruel bigot, to gratify the inquisitors, caused twenty-four of the principal citizens to be arrested and accused of heresy. One of these was the husband of his own daughter. They were imprisoned in a lofty tower; and, when perishing with hunger and cold, they were brought out and sentenced to immediate death by drowning in the river Albis. The magistrate himself had to pronounce the sentence upon them, which he performed, regardless of the tears and entreaties of his daughter; and the whole were conveyed in carts, bound hand and foot, to the river, into which they were plunged, while officers were employed, armed with iron forks and poles, to watch that none might escape, and to stab those who should make the attempt. The young lady, being unable to move her cruel father to pity, plunged into the river, in hope of aiding her husband to escape—but she failed; and the next day the bodies of both were found in the water, her arms clasped around the body of her husband! Other instances of murderous cruelty, equally shocking, are recorded of the bloody operations of the Inquisition.