The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 114

immured in a dungeon, unable to read or even to see, in great physical
suffering and mental anxiety. Yet his arguments were presented with
as much clearness and power as if he had had undisturbed opportunity
for study. He pointed his hearers to the long line of holy men who had
been condemned by unjust judges. In almost every generation have been
those who, while seeking to elevate the people of their time, have been
reproached and cast out, but who in later times have been shown to be
deserving of honor. Christ Himself was condemned as a malefactor at
an unrighteous tribunal.
At his retraction, Jerome had assented to the justice of the sentence
condemning Huss; he now declared his repentance and bore witness
to the innocence and holiness of the martyr. “I knew him from his
childhood,” he said. “He was a most excellent man, just and holy; he
was condemned, notwithstanding his innocence.... I also—I am ready
to die: I will not recoil before the torments that are prepared for me
by my enemies and false witnesses, who will one day have to render
an account of their impostures before the great God, whom nothing can
deceive.”—Bonnechose, vol. 2, p. 151.
In self-reproach for his own denial of the truth, Jerome continued:
“Of all the sins that I have committed since my youth, none weigh
so heavily on my mind, and cause me such poignant remorse, as that
which I committed in this fatal place, when I approved of the iniquitous
sentence rendered against Wycliffe, and against the holy martyr, John
Huss, my master and my friend. Yes! I confess it from my heart,
and declare with horror that I disgracefully quailed when, through a
dread of death, I condemned their doctrines. I therefore supplicate ...
Almighty God to deign to pardon me my sins, and this one in particular,
the most heinous of all.” Pointing to his judges, he said firmly: “You
condemned Wycliffe and John Huss, not for having shaken the doctrine
of the church, but simply because they branded with reprobation the
scandals proceeding from the clergy—their pomp, their pride, and all
the vices of the prelates and priests.

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