All that I could say would only add infinitely to the
high character of John Huss. His adversaries render
him a striking, though unintentional testimony; for if
their clouded eyes could open to the light, they would
blush at the remembrance of the things which they them-
selves narrate. The author of a cpUection of the acts of
the council, written in German, and enriched with very
many remarkable details, endeavours, with all his power,
to cover with odium the cause of John Huss ; and yet
he declares, that when Huss beheld himself stripped of
all the dignities of his order, he smiled with intrepid
firmness. According to the same author, also, Huss,
when conducted to the funeral pile, constantly repeated —
" Jesus, Son of God, have pity on me !" At the sight of
the fatal stake to which he was to be fixed in order to be
burned, he fell on his knees and cried out — " Jesus, Son
of the living God, who suffered for us all, have pity on
me !" Beholding a peasant bringing some wood to feed
the flames, he again smiled with mildness, and uttered
these words of St Jerome — " holy simplicity !" * A
priest having drawn nigh, and demanded if he desired to

* Luther here confounds two events. The touching expression which
he mentions is erroneously attributed to John Huss ; it feU from the
lips of Jerome of Prague. — ( Vide " The Reformers before the Reformation"
Vol. U., Book III., Chap. XII.
