vnto thee agayne I do appeale: which when thou wast euill intreated of thine ennemies, diddest appeale vnto God thy father, committyng thy cause vnto a most iust Iudge, that by thy example wee also beyng oppressed with manifest wronges & iniuries, should flee vnto thee. MarginaliaContempt of the popes excommunicatiō layd to I. Hus.Last of all the article was rehearsed, as touching the cōtempt of the excommunication by Iohn Hus. Wherunto he answered as before, that he was excused by his aduocates in the court of Rome, wherefore hee did not appeare whē he was cited: and also that it may be proued by the actes, that the excommunicatiō was not ratified: and finally to the entent he might cleare himselfe of obstinacie, he was for that cause come vnto Constance vnder the Emperours safeconduict. When hee had spoken these wordes, one of thē which was appointed iudges, read the definitiue sentence against him, which followeth thus worde for worde.

MarginaliaThe sentence redde agaynst Iohn Hus.THe moste holy and sacred generall councell of Constance, being cōgregate and gathered together, representing the catholike church for a perpetuall memory of the thing, as the verity and truth doth witnesse, an euell tree bringeth forth euill fruit: hereupon it commeth that the man of most damnable memory Iohn Wickleffe thorow his pestiferous doctrine, not thorow Iesu Christ by the Gospell, as the holy fathers in times past, haue gotten faythfull children, but contrary vnto the holesome fayth of Iesus Christ, as a most venemous root, hath he gotten many pestelent and wicked children, whome hee hath left behind him, successors and followers of hys peruerse and wicked doctrine, against whom this sacred Sinode of Constance is forced to rise vp, as agaynst bastardes and vnlawfull childrē, and with diligent care, with the sharpe knife of the ecclesiasticall autority, to cut vppe theyr errors out of the Lordes fielde as moste hurtefull brambles and briers, least they should grow to the hurt and detriment of others.

For somuch then as in the holy generall councell latelye celebrated and holden at Rome, it was decreed that the doctryne of Iohn Wicklieffe of moste damnable memory should be condemned, and that his bookes whiche conteyned the same doctrine, should be burned as hereticall, & this decree was approued and confirmed by the sacred authority of the whole councell: neuertheles one Iohn Hus here personally present in thys sacred councell, not the disciple of Christe, but of Iohn Wicklieffe, an archeheretike, after, and contrary or against the condemnation and decree, hath taught, preached, & affirmed the articles of Wicklieffe, which were condemned by the church of God, and in times past by certayn most reuerend fathers in Christ, Lords, archebishoppes, and Byshops, of diuerse kingdomes and realmes, maysters of diuinitye of diuerse vniuersities: especiallye resisting in his open Sermons, and also with his adherents and cōplices in the scholes, the condemnation of the sayd artycles of Wicklieffes, oftentimes published in the sayde vniuersitye of Prage, & hath declared hym the sayd Wicklieffe for the fauour & cōmendation of his doctrin, before the whole multitude of the Clergye and people, to be a Catholike man and a true euangelicall doctour. He hath also published and affirmed, certain and many of his articles worthely condemned, to be catholike, the which are notoriously cōteined in the bokes of the said Iohn Hus.

Wherfore, after diligent deliberation and full information first had vpon the premisses by the reuerēd fathers and Lordes in Christ of the holy churche of Rome, Cardinals, Patriarkes, Archebyshops, Bishops and other Prelates, and Doctours of Diuinitie and of both lawes in great number assembled and gathered together, MarginaliaThey shall bryng you before their councells, they shall persecute you and cast you in prisons, and bryng you before kinges and presidentes for my name, &c. Luke. 21.this moste sacred and holy Councell of Constaunce declareth and determineth the articles aboue said (the which after due conference had, are found in his bookes writtē with his owne hand, the whiche also the said Ihon Hus in open audience before this holy Councell, hath cōfessed to be in his bokes) not to bee catholicke neither worthy to be taught, but that many of them are erroneous, some of them to be wicked, other some to be offensiue vnto godly eares, many of them to bee temerarious and seditious and the greater part of them to be notoriously hereticall, and euen now of late by the holy fathers and generall Councels, reproued & cōdemned. And for somuch as the sayd articles are expressely conteined in the bokes of the said I. Hus, therfore this sayd Marginalia* The sayd concilium malignantium.* sacred Coūcel doth condemne and reproue all those bokes, which he wrote, in what forme or phrase soeuer they be, or whether they be translated by others, and doth determine and decree, that they all shalbe solemnly & openly burned in the presence of the Clergy and people of the Citie of Constance, and els where: addyng moreouer for the premisses, that all his doctrine is worthy to bee despised and eschewed of all faithful Christians. And to the intent this most pernicious and wicked doctrine, may be vtterly excluded & shut out of the church, this sacred Sinode doth straightly commaunde, that diligent inquisition be made by the ordinaries of the places by the Ecclesiasticall censure, for such treatises and woorkes, and that such as are founde, be consumed and burned with fire. And if there bee any founde whiche shall contemne or despise this sentence or decree, this sacred Synode ordeyneth and decreeth that the ordynaries of the places and the inquisitours of heresies, shall procede agaynst euery such person as suspect of heresie.

Wherfore, after due inquisition made agaynst the sayd Iohn Hus, & full information had by the Cōmissaryes and Doctours of both lawes, and also by the sayings of the witnesses whiche were worthy of credite, and many other thynges openly read before the sayde Ihon Hus, and before the fathers and Prelates of this sacred councell (by the which allegations of the witnesses it appeareth that the sayd Ihon Hus hath taught many euil and offensiue, seditious, and perilous heresies, and hath preached the same by a longe tyme) this moste sacred and holy Synode lawfully cōgregate and gathered together in the holye Ghost, the name of Christ beyng inuocate and called vpon, MarginaliaMany shall come in my name and shall deceaue many. Mark. 13,by this their sentence whiche here is set forth in writyng, determineth, pronounceth, declareth, and decreeth, that Ihon Hus was and is a true & manifest hereticke, and that he hath preached openly errours and heresies lately condempned by the churche of God, and many other seditious, temerarious, and offensiue thinges to no small offence of the Diuine maiestie, and of the vniuersall Churche, and detriment of the catholicke faith and church, neglecting and despising the keyes of the Church and Ecclesiasticall censures. In the whiche his errours he continued with a mynde altogether indurate and hardned by the space of many yeares, much offendyng the faythfull Christians by his obstinacie & stubburnesse, whē as he made his appeale vnto the Lord Iesu Christ, MarginaliaTo appeale to Christ is derogatory to the popes holynes.as the most high iudge, omittyng and leauing all Ecclesiasticall meanes. In the which hys appeale he alledged many false, iniurious, & offensiue matters, in contempt of the Apostolicke sea, and the Ecclesiasticall censures and keyes.

Whereupon bothe for the premisses and many other thynges, the said Synode pronounceth Ihon Hus to be an hereticke, and iudgeth him by these presentes to be cōdemned and iudged as an hereticke, and reproueth the said appeale as iniurious, offensiue, and done in derision vnto the ecclesiasticall iurisdiction, MarginaliaVeritie cōdemned for heresie.and iudgeth the sayd Hus, not onely to haue seduced the Christian people by his writyngs and preachings, and specially in the kingdome of Boheme, neyther to haue ben a true preacher of the Gospell of Christ vnto the sayd people, accordyng to the exposition of the holy Doctors: but also to haue bene a seducer of thē and also an obstinate and stifnecked person, yea and such a one as doth not desire to retourne agayne to the lappe of our holy mother the Churche, neither to abiure the errours and heresies whiche he hath openly preached and defended. Wherfore this most sacred Councell decreeth and declareth that the said Iohn Hus, shalbe famouslye deposed and disgraded from his priestly orders and dignitie. &c.

Whylest these thinges were thus read, Iohn Hus, albeit he were forbidden to speake, notwithstanding he did often interrupt them, and specially when he was reproued of obstinacie, he sayd w^t a loude voice: MarginaliaIohn Hus cleareth hymself of obstinacie.I was neuer obstinate, but as alwaies heretofore, euē so now againe I desire to be taught by the holye scriptures, and I do professe my selfe to be so desirous of the truth, that if I might by one onely word subuert the errours of all heretickes, I would not refuse to enter into what peryll or daunger soeuer it were. When as his bookes were