those Bohemian followers of the Morning Star of the Reformation,
Huss and Jerome of Prague, to be burnt alive, according to general
belief, with their clothes and everything about them, even to
their purses and the money in them, and their ashes to be thrown
into the Rhine; but, as will be immediately seen, from the account
of an eye-witness, in a state of perfect nudity.

V. Bracciolini, who witnessed the burning of Jerome of Prague,
gives a description of it in one of his Epistles, in a manner
equal to anything that may be found in the Annals;--indeed, many
of his contemporaries thought that his Epistles reflected the
style and spirit of antiquity,--Beccadelli of Bologna, for
example, who says, writing to Bracciolini: "Your Epistles, which,
in my opinion, reflect the very spirit of the ancients, and,
especially, the antique style of Roman expression":--"Epistolae
tuae, quae veterum sane, et antiquum illum eloquentiae Romanae
morem, prae ceteris, mea sententia exprimunt" (at the end of Lusus
ad Vencrem, p. 47). The style is simpler, more unambitious, and
more flowing and smooth than is usually found in the Annals; but,
(as in the descriptive passages in that work), free play is given
to the fancy which works unclogged by verboseness; and judgment
marks the circumstances in a description which progresses,
apparently without art, to the close of the beautiful climax, and
strongly moves the compassion of the reader:--"When he persisted
with increased contumacy in his errors, he was condemned of heresy
by the Council, and sentenced to be burnt alive. With an unruffled
brow and cheerful countenance he went to his end; he was unawed by
fire, or any kind of torture, or death. Never did any Stoic suffer
death with a soul of so much fortitude and courage, as he seemed
to meet it. When he came to the place of death, he stripped