Cossa had treated him with cordial, if contemptuous, kindness. It is certain that it was intended, according to the methods of the Inquisition, entirely to break his spirit by what was practically torture. It was hoped that he would thus be induced to confess anything and everything which it was desirable that he should confess. He had hitherto been allowed to write and to receive letters, but all this was stopped at Gottlieben. We know, therefore, little of what occurred there, and a veil has perhaps mercifully been thrown over Hus’s stay at Gottlieben.
The powers of the commissioners appointed by Pope John XXIII. were considered as having ended with the flight of that pontiff. The council, in which the party of the cardinals now had the upper hand, appointed Cardinals D’Ailly, Filastre, and Zabarella to act as commissioners, and continue the examination of Hus. Of these men D'Ailly was the most prominent, and his marked hostility to Hus has often been noted. The active part taken by the Cardinal of Cambray in the condemnation of Hus is indeed the best known part of his career. As Dr. Tschackert, the biographer of D’Ailly, writes: “D’Ailly now showed that historically memorable activity which throws on the not otherwise very bright record of his life a shadow that is all the darker, the brighter appears the memory of him whose death at the stake he helped to bring about.”[1] The reasons for D’Ailly’s hostility to Hus are numerous. The dispute between nominalists and realists no doubt played a part, but Hus’s repeated eulogy of the poverty of the clergy must have been particularly obnoxious to D’Ailly. This very important motive seems to have been kept in the background by many historians. D’Ailly was noted for his greed for money. His eager endeavours to secure benefices and to amass riches exposed him to the sometimes very severe comments of his contemporaries.[2]
