[206] The Greeks thought it of much consequence that any momentous business should be undertaken under favourable omens. Sounds of lamentation were ill–omened; even the direct mention of death was avoided when a periphrasis would serve. The tragic poets abound in instances of this sort of _euphemism_. [207] Taylor’s translation of Plato. Some slight alterations have been made where the translator seemed to have gone unnecessarily far from the language of the original. [208] “Socrates, though it was the common practice for criminals at the bar to address the passions, and to flatter and entreat their judges, and by such means often to obtain acquittals, would, on no account, do any of those things which, contrary to law, were continually done in the courts; but though he might readily have gained his acquittal from his judges if he had done such things even in a moderate degree, chose rather to die, abiding by the laws, than to live by transgressing them.”—(Xen. Mem., c. iv., p. 4.) [209] Hist. of Greece, chap. xxii., § 3. [210] Hist. of Church, p. 587. [211] L’Enfant. Hist. de Concile de Constance, liv. 1. [212] He caused this document to be published at Nuremberg: “Master John Huss goes to Constance, there to declare the faith which he has always held, holds now, and, by God’s grace, will hold unto death. As he has given public notice throughout the kingdom of Bohemia that he was willing before his departure to give account of his faith at a general synod of the Archbishopric of Prague, to answer all the objections which could be made to it, so he notifies in this imperial city of Nuremberg, that if any one has any error or heresy to object to him, such person has only to repair to the Council of Constance, since it is there that he is ready to give account of his faith” (L’Enfant. liv. i. p. 39). [213] Hist. Bohemica, c. xxxv. [214] L’Enfant, liv. i. pp. 36, 37. [215] L’Enfant, liv. i. p. 40. [216] Sigismond is said to have blushed when Huss fixed his eyes on him; as he declared to the Council that he had come willingly under the pledged protection of the Emperor there present. Charles V., when pressed to arrest Luther at the Diet of Worms, is said, in allusion to this circumstance, to have used the following expression; “I do not mean to blush with my predecessor Sigismond.” The conduct of the two emperors towards Huss and Luther is well contrasted throughout; and Charles was not a less zealous Catholic than his predecessor. [217] Hist. of Church, p. 594. [218] Animam tuam devovemus infernis diabolis. Æn. Sylv. [219] Æneas Sylvius, Hist. Bohemica, c. xxxvi.