When the reading of the first series of articles had ended, the Cardinal of Cambray remarked that yet more heretical statements could have been found in the treatise De Ecclesia. The next articles, seven in number, referred to statements contained in Hus’s treatise entitled Responsio ad scripta Mag. Stephani Palec. The extracts, made, no doubt, by Palec himself, were in many cases falsified and distorted. Mladenovic, indeed, heads his account of these articles by the words: “Articles extracted from the treatise against Master Stephen Palec (but rarely faithfully).”[1] The accusations are very similar to the preceding ones, and indeed to all the accusations made against Hus at the council. It was repeated that he had attacked the authority of the pope and the church, that he had taught the doctrine of predestination, and that he had stated that unworthy priests could not validly administer the sacrament. As regards the last-named point, it is sufficient to state that Hus had frequently, both by word and in writing, expressed the contrary view. The first of these articles gave rise to a somewhat prolonged discussion. The article accused Hus of having stated that “if the pope, a bishop, or a prelate was in the state of mortal sin, he was not pope, bishop, or prelate.” Hus’s answer was certainly imprudent and devoid of worldly wisdom. He said: “Yes, and he who is in the state of mortal sin cannot either rightly be a king before God, as is shown by the Book of Kings, chap. iv. v. 16, where God, through Samuel, said to Saul: ‘As thou hast rejected my word, I reject thee from being king.’”[2] This statement did not remain unnoticed by the enemies of Hus. Von der Hardt and Mladenovic give almost identical accounts of the discussion that now ensued. Sigismund was looking out of a window of the refectory, having as his companions the Count Palatine
- ↑ “Articuli extracti ex tractatu facto contra M. Stephanum Palec (sed rarus (sic) vere).”
- ↑ The passage referred to, though not quoted verbally by Hus, is really in the book of 1 Samuel, chap. xiv. v. 26. Hus was not allowed the use of a Bible in prison, and though he was exceptionally well-read in Scripture, we sometimes meet with little mistakes.
