Such does +John Huss+ appear in the edifying Letters of which we here present the translation; and it is impossible to peruse them without repeating, with Luther,--“If this man was not a generous and intrepid martyr and confessor of Christ, certainly it will be difficult for any man to be saved.”[11] We have penetrated in every direction into this mind so eminently Christian; we have shewn in all its aspects this soul so marked with candour and so powerful; and it now remains to us to assign to John Huss his place among the men who have agitated the world, and to determine the work which is personal to him, what, in fact, he has left behind him that is durable. To succeed in such an endeavour, we must take into account a prejudice which still prevailed at that period. False notions had for centuries been in circulation, and had taken root in Christendom, relative to the authority of individual convictions, judgment, and conscience. It was denied that man, sustained by Divine grace, could find in himself any assistance; it was believed to be a meritorious act of Christian virtue to seek for no direction in one’s own internal feeling, and to trample reason under foot; an opinion was adopted, not because in itself it had been found conformable to the Scriptures or to truth, but because it was considered to agree with the decisions of some great doctor, pope, or council, or because it was found in Augustin, Origen, or Jerome. Tradition alone was listened to; and it was altogether forgotten that the first Christians, who had sprung from the Jews and Gentiles, were accustomed to consult their conscience before all, in face of the altars of Paganism, or of the temple still standing at Jerusalem, and that they took for their only guide this secret and inflexible monitor. A few eloquent men--a few great minds--had, it is true, consulted their individual opinions, rather than yield to clerical and traditional authority. Abelard and Berenger, in France, had given proof of boldness and independence in proclaiming their doctrines; but they grew timid when it was necessary to defend them; their voices died away, and their heads were bowed low, before the menaces of popes and councils. In Italy, Armand de Bresse had ventured openly to resist the pontifical power; but the revolution, of which he gave the signal, was a civil rather than a religious one. Numerous sects and whole populations had, in different countries, emancipated themselves from the yoke, by depending on that irresistible force which the sympathy of the masses and the association with a whole nation creates, in order to think, believe, and suffer. England, in fine, had witnessed a powerful mind,--that of Wycliffe, nourished by the Scriptures,--bring to light a body of doctrine, from which, at a later period, sprang the code of the Reformation;[12] but Wycliffe escaped alive the solemn sentence of an œcumenical council;[13] and many doubt whether he could have passed triumphantly through that