the church, the Council
of Constance was professedly convened. That synod was summoned
nominally by Pope John XXIII, but in reality by the united voice (p. 047)
of the sovereigns of Europe, especially at the instance of the Emperor
Sigismund himself. It falls not within the province of these Memoirs
to record the proceedings of that council, either in extinguishing the
flame of discord within the pale of the church, or in kindling the
sadder flame of persecution[42] against all who dared to think for
themselves in a matter peculiarly their own, or in its lamentable
forgetfulness of the abuses for the correction of which it was mainly
convened. The records of the Council of Constance, however, abound in
matters of interest in connection with the immediate and professed
object of this work. We infer from them that Henry V. was then taking
a lead in religious matters, and, whilst he was anxious to resist the
overbearing tyranny of Rome, he was at the same time bent on making
the religious establishment within his own kingdom an efficient means
of conveying to all his subjects the blessings of the Gospel; he was
an honest reformer of abuses, but, at the same time, the conscientious
and uncompromising supporter of the religion of his fathers.

[Footnote 42: It is very painful to reflect on the
intolerant spirit of this very Sigismund, who was
so anxious to reform the abuses of the church; but
it is forced upon us whilst we are inquiring into
the times of Henry. Sigismund had paid (as we shall
see) a visit to Henry, and he meditated another.
But he never put that design into execution. A
letter from Heretong Van Clux, Henry's minister,
informed his master that he must not expect to see
the Emperor, for he had employment at home in
putting down the followers of Huss. "Now I know
well he might not come, for this cause, that many
of the great lords of Bohemia have required him for
to let them hold the same belief that they are in.
And thereupon he sent them word, that rather he
would be dead than he would sustain them in their
malice. And they have answered him again, that they
will rather d