were called upon to arrest and deliver him up; neither did King Wenzel offer any impediment to the publication of this excommunication.
The king appointed a commission for the purpose of healing the breaches in the national church, and was so offended by the conduct of the papal party that he deposed and banished the four theological professors of the university. Hus, during these proceedings, spent most of his time in a castle built on the spot where afterwards rose the town of Tabor. Here he wrote his Tractatus de Ecclesiâ, his Bohemian Postilla,[1] and many other works, besides carrying on a considerable correspondence with his friends. He also invented the system of Bohemian orthography, which is now almost entirely dominant; but his Latin treatise on the subject has not yet been printed. While in the country, Hus took every opportunity of preaching to the people on marketdays and similar occasions, and thus made his exile contribute to the promulgation of his doctrines.
In the beginning of 1413, Pope John XXIII, held a small council at Rome, at which the forty-five articles selected from Wycliffe’s works were again condemned by a bull, dated Feb. 2, which was subjected in Bohemia to brief but very biting criticism. This criticism is found in manuscripts under the name of Hus, who, however, always disowned its authorship, and ascribed it to his friend Magister Jesenetz. On Dec. 9, 1413, the bull was issued which appointed a General Council to meet at Constance, on the 1st of Nov. 1414. Sigismund, the brother of King Wenzel, had succeeded the deposed Bohemian monarch as King of the Romans, had been formally reconciled to him, and was now exerting himself in every possible way to forward the great work of the Council. Sigismund entered into direct
- ↑ Reflections on the Sunday Epistles and Gospels.
