ritings, was borrowed from Wyclif, from whom he
copied not only his main ideas but long passages verbatim and without
specific acknowledgment. Professors and students of his own race
supported him, but the Germans at the university took offence and a
long struggle ensued, culminating in the secession of the Germans in a
body in 1409 to found a new university at Leipsic. The quarrel, having
started over a philosophic question,--Wyclif and Huss being realists
and the Germans nominalists,--took a more serious turn when it came to
a definition of the church {39} and of the respective spheres of the
civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Defining the church as the body
of the predestinate, and starting a campaign against indulgences, Huss
soon fell under the ban of his superiors. After burning the bulls of
John XXIII Huss withdrew from Prague. Summoned to the Council of
Constance, he went thither, under safe-conduct from the Emperor
Sigismund, and was immediately cast into a noisome dungeon. [Sidenote:
1411, 1412]

[Sidenote: 1414]

The council proceeded to consider the opinions of Wyclif, condemning
260 of his errors and ordering his bones to be dug up and burnt, as was
done twelve years later. Every effort was then made to get Huss to
recant a list of propositions drawn up by the council and attributed to
him. Some of these charges were absurd, as that he was accused of
calling himself the fourth person of the Trinity. Other opinions, like
the denial of transubstantiation, he declared, and doubtless with
truth, that he had never held. Much was made of his saying that he
hoped his soul would be with the soul of Wyclif after death, and the
emperor was alarmed by his argument that neither priest nor king living
in mortal sin had a right to exercise his office. He was therefore
condemned to the stake.

His death was perfect. His last letters are full of calm resolution,
love to his friends, and forgiveness to his enemies. Haled to the
cathedral where the council sat on July 6, 1415, he was given one last
chance to recant and save his life. Refusing, he was stripped of his
vestments, and a paper crown with three demons painted on it put on his
head with the words, "We commit thy soul to the devil"; he was then led
to the public square and burnt alive. Sigismund, threatened by the
council, made no effort to redeem his safe-conduct, and in September
the reverend fathers passed a decree that no safe-conduct to a h