Here was a sermon which arrested the attention of all classes . Crowds came to gaze upon the drawings . None could fail to read the moral , and many were deeply impressed by the contrast between the meekness and humility of Christ the Master and the pride and arrogance of the pope , His professed servant . There was great commotion in Prague , and the strangers after a time found it necessary , for their own safety , to depart . But the lesson they had taught was not forgotten . The pictures made a deep impression on the mind of Huss and led him to a closer study of the Bible and of Wycliffe ' s writings . Though he was not prepared , even yet , to accept all the reforms advocated 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
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