by Wycliffe , he saw more clearly the true character of the papacy , and with greater zeal denounced the pride , the ambition , and the corruption of the hierarchy .
From Bohemia the light extended to Germany , for disturbances in the University of Prague caused the withdrawal of hundreds of German students . Many of them had received from Huss their first knowledge of the Bible , and on their return they spread the gospel in their fatherland . Tidings of the work at Prague were carried to Rome , and Huss was soon summoned to appear before the pope . To obey would be to expose himself to certain death . The king and queen of Bohemia , the university , members of the nobility , and officers of the government united in an appeal to the pontiff that Huss be permitted to remain at Prague and to answer at Rome by deputy . Instead of granting this request , the pope proceeded to the trial and condemnation of Huss , and then declared the city of Prague to be under interdict .
In that age this sentence , whenever pronounced , created widespread alarm . The ceremonies by which it was accompanied were well adapted to strike terror to a people who looked upon the pope as the representative of God Himself , holding the keys of heaven and hell , and possessing power to invoke temporal as well as spiritual judgments . It was believed that the gates of heaven were closed against the region smitten with interdict ; that until it should please the pope to remove the ban , the dead were shut out from the abodes of bliss . In token of this terrible calamity , all the services of religion were suspended . The churches were closed . Marriages were solemnized in the churchyard . The dead , denied burial in consecrated ground , were interred , without the rites of sepulture , in the ditches or the fields . Thus by measures which appealed to the imagination , Rome essayed to control the consciences of men .
The city of Prague was filled with tumult . A large class denounced Huss as the cause of all their calamities and demanded that he be given up to the vengeance of Rome . To quiet the storm , the Reformer withdrew for a time to his native village . Writing to the friends whom he had left at Prague , he said : " If I have withdrawn from the midst of you , it is to follow the precept and example of Jesus Christ , in order not to give room to the ill-minded to draw on themselves eternal condemnation , and in order not to be to the pious a cause of affliction and persecution . I have retired also through an apprehension that impious priests might continue for a longer time to prohibit the preaching of the word of God amongst you ; but I have not quitted you to deny the divine truth , for which , with God ' s assistance , I am willing to die ." --Bonnechose , The Reformers Before the Reformation , vol . 1 , p . 87 . Huss did not cease his labours , but traveled through the surrounding country , preaching to eager crowds . Thus the measures to which the pope resorted to suppress the gospel were causing it to be the more widely extended . " We can do nothing against the truth , but for the truth ." 2 Corinthians 13:8 .
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