The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 113
which he was entering could end only in complete apostasy. His
resolution was taken: To escape a brief period of suffering he would
not deny his Lord.
Soon he was again brought before the council. His submission had
not satisfied his judges. Their thirst for blood, whetted by the death of
Huss, clamored for fresh victims. Only by an unreserved surrender of
the truth could Jerome preserve his life. But he had determined to avow
his faith and follow his brother martyr to the flames.
He renounced his former recantation and, as a dying man, solemnly
required an opportunity to make his defense. Fearing the effect of his
words, the prelates insisted that he should merely affirm or deny the
truth of the charges brought against him. Jerome protested against such
cruelty and injustice. “You have held me shut up three hundred and forty
days in a frightful prison,” he said, “in the midst of filth, noisomeness,
stench, and the utmost want of everything; you then bring me out before
you, and lending an ear to my mortal enemies, you refuse to hear me....
If you be really wise men, and the lights of the world, take care not to sin
against justice. As to me, I am only a feeble mortal; my life is but of little
importance; and when I exhort you not to deliver an unjust sentence, I
speak less for myself than for you.”—Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 146, 147.
His request was finally granted. In the presence of his judges,
Jerome kneeled down and prayed that the divine Spirit might control
his thoughts and words, that he might speak nothing contrary to the truth
or unworthy of his Master. To him that day was fulfilled the promise
of God to the first disciples: “Ye shall be brought before governors and
kings for My sake.... But when they deliver you up, take no thought how
or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what
ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you.” Matthew 10:18-20.
The words of Jerome excited astonishment and admiration, even in
his enemies. For a whole year he had been
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