MarginaliaA letter of Iohn Hus.THe lord God be with you. Many causes there were, welbeloued in God, my deare frendes, which moued me to thinke that those letters were the last, whiche before I sent vnto you, lokyng that same time for instante death. But now vnderstandyng the same to be differred, I take it for great cōforte vnto me, that I haue some leasure more to talke with you by letters: and therefore I wryte agayne to you, to declare and testifie at least, my gratitude and mindfull duety toward you. And, as touchyng death, God doth know why he doth differ it both to me and to my welbeloued brother maister Hierome, who, I trust, will dye holyly & without blame: and do know also that he doth & suffereth nowe more valiantly, then I my self a wretched sinner. God hath geuē vs a long tyme, that we might call to memory our sinnes the better, and repente for the same more feruently. He hath graūted vs tyme, that our long & great tentatiō should put away our greuous sinnes, and bryng the more cōsolation. He hath geuē vs tyme wherin we should remēber the horrible rebukes of our mercyfull kyng & Lord Iesus, and shoulde ponder his cruell death, and so more patientlye might learne to beare our afflictions. And moreouer that we myght kepe in remembraunce, howe that the ioyes of the lyfe to come, are not geuen after the ioyes of this worlde immediatly, but through many tribulations the saintes haue entred into the kyngdome of heauen. MarginaliaThe tormentes of the martirs vnder the old & new Testamēt.For some of them haue bene cut and chopt all to peeces, some theyr eyes bored through, some sodde, some rosted, some flayne aliue, some buried quicke, stonyd, crucified, grynded betwixt myll stones, drawen and hayled hether and thether vnto execution, drowned in waters, strangled & hanged, torne in peeces, vexed with rebukes before their death, pyned in prisons & afflicted in bādes. And who is hable to recite all the tormentes and sufferinges of the holy saintes, which they suffered vnder the old and newe Testament for the veritie of God: namely those whiche haue at any tyme rebuked the malice of the priestes, or haue preached against their wickednes? And it wilbe a maruell if any mā now also shall escape vnpunished, who so euer dare boldely resiste the wickednes & peruersitie, especially of those priestes, whiche can abyde no correctiō. And I am glad that they are cōpelled now to read my bookes, in the whiche, theyr malice is some what described: and I knowe they haue read the same more exactly and diligētly, then the holy Gospell, seking therin to finde out errours. Geuen at Constance vpon Thursday the xxviij. day of Iune. an M.CCCC.xv.

IF my Letter be not sent yet to Boheme, keepe it, and send it not, for hurt may come therof. &c. MarginaliaHe meaneth, belike, that he should moue the king in these matters contayned in thys epistle.

Item, if the Kyng do aske who ought to be my iudge, since that the Councell neither did call me, nor dyd cite me, neither was I euer accused before the Councell, and yet the Councell hath imprisoned me, and hath appoynted their proctor agaynst me.

Item I desire you, right noble and gracious Lorde Iohn, if audience shalbe geuen me, that the kyng whilbe there present hym selfe, and that I may haue a place appoynted nere vnto hym that he may here me well & vnderstād what I say: & that you also with the Lord Henry, and with Lord Wenselaus & other moe, if you may, wilbe present, and here what the Lord Iesus Christ my procurator & aduocate & most gracious Iudge, wil put in my mouth to speake, that whether I lyue or dye, you may bee true and vpright witnesses with me, least lyeng lyppes shall saye hereafter, that I swarued awaye from the truth which I haue preached.

Item, knowe you that before witnesses & notaries in the pryson, I desyred the Cōmissioners that they would depute vnto me a proctour & an aduocate, who promised so to do, & afterward would not performe it. Wherfore I haue cōmitted my selfe to the Lord Iesus Christ, that he will be my procuratour & aduocate & iudge of my cause.

Item, knowe you, that they haue as I suppose, no other quarell agaynst me, but onely this, that I stoode agaynst the Popes Bull, which Pope Iohn sent downe to Boheme to sanctify warre with the signe of the crosseand full remission of sinnes, to all them whyche woulde take the holy crosse to fight for the patrimony of the Romish churche agaynste Ladislaus kyng of Naples, MarginaliaVide supra pag. 703. col 1.and they haue mine owne writing whiche was red agaynste me, and I do acknowledge it to be mine. Secondly they haue also agaynst me, that I haue continued so longe in excommunication and yet did take vpon me to minister in the church & say masse. Thirdly they haue agaynst me, because I did appeale from the Pope, to Christe. For they red my appeale before me, in the which with a willyng minde, smiling I cōfessed before thē al to be mine. Fourthly because I left a certain letter behind me which was red in the church of Bethlehem, the which letter my aduersaries haue very euill fauoredly translated & sinisterlye expounded, in the which I did write that I went out without a safeconduct. Whereunto you your selues can say and beare me record, that I in my going out, had no safeconduct of the Pope, neyther yet did knowe whether you shoulde goe out wyth me when I wrote that letter.

Item, if audience may bee geuen to me, and that after the same audience the kyng woulde suffer me not be returned agayne into prison, but that I may haue your counsels & others my frendes: and if it may please God that I may saye some thyng to my soueraigne Lorde the kynge, for the befalfe of Christianitie and for hys owne profyte. &c.

MarginaliaAn other letter of Iohn Hus.IHon Hus in hope þ^e seruant of God, to all the faithfull in Boheme, which loue the Lord, greting through the grace of God. It commeth in my minde, wherin I must needes admonish you, that be þ^e faithfull & beloued of the Lord, how that the councell of Constance beinge full of pride, auarice, and all abhomination, hath condemned my bokes writtē in the Boheme tongue, for hereticall, MarginaliaThe Councell condemne bookes which they vnderstand not.which bokes they neuer saw, nor neuer heard them red: And if they had hard them, yet they could not vnderstād the same, being some Italians, some Frenchemen, some Britains, some Spaniardes, Germans, with other people of other nations moe: vnlesse peraduenture Iohn Bishop of Litomishe vnderstode them, which was present in that councell, and certaine other Bohemians, and priestes which are againste me and laboure all they may how to depraue both the veritie of God, and the honesty of our countrey of Boheme: MarginaliaPrayse of Bohemia.Whiche I iudge in the hope of God, to be a godly land, right well geuen to the true knowledge of the fayth, for þ^t it doth so greatly desire the word of God, and honest maners. MarginaliaThe abhomination of the Councell of Constance described.And if you were here at Constance, ye should see the greuous abhomination of this Councell, whiche they call so holy, and such as cā not erre. Of the which Councell I haue heard it by the Swechers reported, that the Citie of Constance is not able in 30. yeares to be purged of those wicked abhominations in that Councel committed. And all be offended almost with that Councell, beyng sore greued to behold such execrable thyngs perpetrate in the same. When I stoode first to aunswere before myne aduersaries, seyng all thyngs there done with no order, and hearyng them all so outragiously crying out, I sayd plainly vnto them, that I loked for more honest behauiour, and better order and discipline, in that Councell. Then the chief Cardinal aunswered, sayst thou so? but in the tower thou spakest more modestlye. To whom, sayd I: in the Tower, no man cryed out agaynst me, where as nowe all do rage agaynst me. MarginaliaIohn Hus semeth here to prophesie of the Councell as it came to passe.My faithfull and beloued in Christ, be not afrayed with their sentence in condemnyng my bookes. They shall bee scatered hether and thether abroad, lyke light Butterfleys, & their statutes, shall endure as Spyderwebbes. They went about to shake my constancie from the veritie of Christe: but they could not ouercome the vertue of God in me. MarginaliaThe Councell afrayde to be tryed by the Scriptures.They would not reason with the Scriptures against me, as diuers honorable Lordes can witnes with me, whiche beyng ready to suffer contumely for the truth of God, tooke my part stoutly: namely Lord Wenceslaus de Duba, and Lord Iohn de Chlū: for they were let in by kyng Sigismund into the Councell. And when I sayd, that I was desirous to be instructed, if I did in any thyng erre, then they hard the chief Cardinall MarginaliaThis Cardinall was Cardinall Cambiensis.answere agayne: because thou wouldest be informed, there is no remedy, but thou must first reuoke thy doctrine, according to the determination of 50. bacchelers of Diuinitie appointed. O hygh instructiō. After