Heresy
Hus Is Summoned
The climax came in 1414. A new church council was meeting, this time at Constance. The Council of Pisa had accomplished nothing, except to create a third pope, and the sentiment at Constance was that a general reform of the Church must go hand in hand with a resolution to the Schism. On the one hand, this might mean that Hus could hope for a symapthetic hearing. On the other hand, though, the delegates to Constance were very worried that the times in general were out of joint and that in a hundred different ways the Council must help restore order. Clearly that meant stamping out heresy.
Hus knew it was risky. He had already refused to go to Rome. But this time, the Emperor Sigismund (King Wenceslaus' brother) gave Hus a letter of safe conduct. With the emperor to protect him, Hus went to Constance to present his case. In some of his writings, he speaks of the possibility of death; yet, in other writings from this year, he seems to think that not only might he defend himself but he might actually convert those at Constance to his way of thinking. He hoped for much, feared the worst, and went anyway.