The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 109

In the gloom of his dungeon he foresaw the triumph of the true faith.
Returning in his dreams to the chapel at Prague where he had preached
the gospel, he saw the pope and his bishops effacing the pictures of
Christ which he had painted on its walls. “This vision distressed him:
but on the next day he saw many painters occupied in restoring these
figures in greater number and in brighter colors. As soon as their task
was ended, the painters, who were surrounded by an immense crowd,
exclaimed, ‘Now let the popes and bishops come; they shall never efface
them more!”’ Said the Reformer, as he related his dream: “I maintain
this for certain, that the image of Christ will never be effaced. They have
wished to destroy it, but it shall be painted afresh in all hearts by much
better preachers than myself.”—D’Aubigne, b. 1, ch. 6.
For the last time, Huss was brought before the council. It was a
vast and brilliant assembly—the emperor, the princes of the empire,
the royal deputies, the cardinals, bishops, and priests, and an immense
crowd who had come as spectators of the events of the day. From all
parts of Christendom had been gathered the witnesses of this first great
sacrifice in the long struggle by which liberty of conscience was to be
secured.
Being called upon for his final decision, Huss declared his refusal
to abjure, and, fixing his penetrating glance upon the monarch whose
plighted word had been so shamelessly violated, he declared: “I
determined, of my own free will, to appear before this council, under the
public protection and faith of the emperor here present.”—Bonnechose,
vol. 2, p. 84. A deep flush crimsoned the face of Sigismund as the eyes
of all in the assembly turned upon him.
Sentence having been pronounced, the ceremony of degradation
began. The bishops clothed their prisoner in the sacerdotal habit, and as
he took the priestly robe, he said: “Our Lord Jesus Christ was covered
with a white robe, by way of

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