s resolution was
taken: to escape a brief period of suffering he would not deny his Lord.

Soon he was again brought before the council. His submission had not
satisfied his judges. Their thirst for blood, whetted by the death of
Huss, clamored for fresh victims. Only by an unreserved surrender of the
truth could Jerome preserve his life. But he had determined to avow his
faith, and follow his brother-martyr to the flames.

He renounced his former recantation, and as a dying man, solemnly required
an opportunity to make his defense. Fearing the effect of his words, the
prelates insisted that he should merely affirm or deny the truth of the
charges brought against him. Jerome protested against such cruelty and
injustice. "You have held me shut up three hundred and forty days in a
frightful prison," he said, "in the midst of filth, noisomeness, stench,
and the utmost want of everything; you then bring me out before you, and
lending an ear to my mortal enemies, you refuse to hear me.... If you be
really wise men, and the lights of the world, take care not to sin against
justice. As to me, I am only a feeble mortal; my life is but of little
importance; and when I exhort you not to deliver an unjust sentence, I
speak less for myself than for you."(147)

His request was finally granted. In the presence of his judges, Jerome
kneeled down and prayed that the divine Spirit might control his thoughts
and words, that he might speak nothing contrary to the truth or unworthy
of his Master. To him that day was fulfilled the promise of God to the
first disciples: "Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My
sake.... But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye
shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall
speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which
speaketh in you."(148)

The words of Jerome excited astonishment and admiration, even in his
enemies. For a whole year he had been immured in a dungeon, unable to read
or even to see, in great physical suffering and mental anxiety. Yet his
arguments were presented with as much clearness and power as if he had had
undisturbed opportunity for study. He pointed his hearers to the long line
of holy men who had been condemned by unjust judges. In almost every
generation have been those who, while seeking to elevate the people of
their time, have been reproached and cast out, but who in later times have
been shown t