had a rare gift of persuasion, and wherever he preached, in city or
country, everybody became his follower; he was the pastor of his people;
his immense popularity clings to his memory to the present day.

Besides much preaching, the exile did much writing. He revised a
Bohemian translation of the Bible of the fourteenth century and thereby
greatly improved the popular language, much like Luther with his German
Bible. He guarded the purity of his Bohemian language against the
foreign, disfiguring influences. He labored to establish fixed rules of
grammar and invented a new system of spelling, which is in general use
today! He wrote letters, tracts, poems, and hymns. His chief work was
"On the Church," based on Wiclif, often to the word and letter.

[Illustration: CONSTANCE ON THE RHINE]

The excitement in Prag continued. The King convened the Estates of the
realm for Christmas, 1412. These called for a Synod, which met Feb. 2,
in the Archbishop's palace at Prag; it was a failure. The King had a
Commission continue the work of peace in April, 1414. The papists held
the Pope the Head of the Church, the Cardinals the body of the Church,
and all commands of this Church are to be obeyed. Of course, Hus and his
followers could not accept such monstrously wicked teaching. On the
contrary, Hus held it the duty of kings to restrain the wickedness of
the clergy and root out simony.

X.

The Council of Constance is Called to Convene.

King Sigismund and Pope John XXIII, the two vilest men then living on
the face of the earth, were the rulers of the Christian world, and
they agreed to call a General Council at Constance, in Baden, near
Switzerland, for Nov. 1, 1414, in order to end the Schism, to begin the
sorely needed reform of the Church, and to settle the heresies of Wiclif
and Hus.

[Illustration: THE EMPEROR SIGISMUND]

Heir to his childless brother Wenzel's Bohemian crown, King Sigismund of
Hungary was naturally anxious to have the stain of heresy removed from
the fair land that was now the talk of the world, and he ordered three
Bohemian noblemen to protect Hus on his way to Constance, during his
stay at the Council, and on his return to Bohemia.

Even Divucek, one of Sigismund's envoys, warned Hus, "Master, be sure
that thou wilt be condemned."

Thinking he was going to his death, Hus put his house in order, got a
certificate of orthodoxy from his bishop, and bade farewell to his
people--"Beloved, if m