much further resistance. He remained in the country for some time, extorting money by all manner of illegal methods, until an insurrection in his own kingdom compelled him to leave the country.
After some months of imprisonment, Václav succeeded in making his escape, and returned to Bohemia. He was hailed as a deliverer, and many, of the lords, who had formerly been his enemies, gladly took up arms to help to reinstate him in the government. The adherents of Sigmund were driven out of the country, and Václav, reorganizing the government after his own heart, began to rule with considerable energy.
The rest of the reign of King Václav is mostly taken with the attempts to settle the difficulty between the rival Popes, and the troubles at home that arose out of the abuses in the Church. These will be related in the chapter on John Hus.
JOHN HUS.
There is no name in the history of Bohemia that, even at the present time, rouses on the one hand so much admiration and enthusiasm, and on the other so much hatred and fanaticism, as that of John Hus, the martyr of Constance. Hus, without question, is one of the most illustrious characters in history. In his perception of religious truth, he was as far in advance of the clergy of his day as the enlightened men of the present day are ahead of those of the fifteenth century. Yet he does not commend himself to our notice so much on account of his intellectual ability, but rather on account of his life-work as a reformer.
As has been related, there were several men before the time of Hus who had raised their voices against
