CHAPTER VII
HUS AT CONSTANCE
Hus and his companions, who had left Prague on October 11, 1414, were joined on their journey at Plzen (Pilsen) by Lord Henry of Chlum, surnamed Lacembok, who appears to have been sent by King Venceslas as a protector of Hus, and by John of Rejnstein, surnamed “Kardinal.” John of Rejnstein, a parish priest of Prague and a great friend of Hus, had, with Lord John of Chlum, undertaken to represent at the council the University of Prague. Mainly through the influence of Gerson and Cardinal d'Ailly they obtained no hearing, and the University of Prague was, like King Venceslas, unrepresented at Constance. The Bohemians passed the frontier of their country at Barnau and arrived at the free imperial city of Nuremberg on October 19. On their way through German territory they were everywhere well received by the people, who saw in Hus the champion of church-reform, which all thoughtful men and the worthier members of the clergy also desired. The difference of nationality proved no barrier, and it may here be mentioned that nothing can be less true than the ancient statement which accuses Hus of having been an enemy of the Germans generally. It is certain that Hus disliked the Germans in Bohemia who had taken possession of most of the ecclesiastical benefices and other important appointments in his country, while they—not only at the time of Hus—looked down on the Bohemians as intellectually their inferiors. Hus’s views on this question have already been mentioned, and I shall again have to refer to them. The feelings of the Bohemians of this period were somewhat similar to those which the Italians of the earlier
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