the language and gave it fixed rules of etymology, he also invented a new system of orthography.
Meanwhile the German Emperor, Sigismund, managed to induce the Church authorities to call a Council at Constance to settle the question of the Great Schism, and at the same time he re- solved to put an end to the movement of emancipation in Bohemia. Hus was summoned to appear before the Council to justify his conduct. Relying upon the Emperor's promise of a safe conduct, a fair hearing, and a free return to Bohemia, Hus answered the summons and appeared before the Council; but immediately upon his arrival in Constance he was cast into prison and ordered to make a general recantation of all heretical doctrines taught by him. This he indignantly refused, as to do so would have been been to act against his conscience. Whereupon he was solemnly excommunicated, and after a long weary trial was burnt at the stake on the 6th of July, 1415.
So much for the Emperor Sigismund's "safe conduct." It would thus appear that treating a written promise as merely "a scrap of paper" was by no means initiated by the present Emperor of Germany!
John Hus died as nobly as he lived. "The executioner's torch," says W. Schwarze," kindled a conflagration in Bohemia." The King died of rage, leaving no heir to the throne, his brother Sigismund being rejected for his known German sympathies and for the stain of having been privy to the murder of Hus.
