tie: now when the kyng and the Lordes temporall began to mearse them and berieue them of their tēporalties for their transgressions, the sayd Doctours did keepe silence, & durst speake neuer a word. Agayne where the foresayd doctours,MarginaliaThe popishe doctours & priestes overthrowen in their owne reason.before could not abyde in Iohn Hus, that tithes were to be coūted for pure almose, now commyng to þ^e Guildhall, were faine to entreat, for their temporall goodes, not to be taken from them, pleadyng the same temporalties to be mere almose and deuotion of good men, geuen vnto the Church. Ex Cochleo.

And thus now did they themselues graunt the thyng, which before they did condemne. The more that the Popes clergy was pinched, the more grudge and hatred redounded to Iohn Hus, although he was in no cause therof, but onely their owne wicked deseruinges, MarginaliaSteuen Paletz, Andr. Broda write against Iohn Hus.for the which cause Steuen Paletz, and Andreas de Broda, being the chief champions of that faction, though they could not remedy the case, yet to ease their myndes, wrote sharpe and cruell letters to Maister Hus. And to helpe the matter forward, the Pope also here must helpe at a pinche, who likewise writeth his letters to Wenceslaus kyng of Bohemia, whiche was brother to Sigismund Emperour, for the suppressing of Iohn Hus & of his doctrine. Which was in the fifth and last yeare of his Popedome, an. 1414. The tenour of whose letters to kyng Wenceslaus in this wise procedeth.

MarginaliaThe letter of pope Iohn to K. Wenceslaus.IOhn bishop seruant of Gods seruantes, to his welbeloued sonne in Christ Wenceslaus, King of Romanes and of Boheme, greeting and apostolicall benediction. Among other desires and delites of our hart: who although vnworthy represent the roome of Christ here in earth: this doth chieflye redound to our singular comfort, so often as we do heare of the brotherly entreaty of peace and of concorde (by which concord kingdoms do encrease, as contrary by discord they are diminished) which is betwene your honor, and our welbeloued in the Lord Sigismund your brother germane and cosin, for the noble kyng of the Romanes. &c. And further-more it foloweth in these words: And as we haue cause to ioy at the premisses: so likewise agayne the heuy rumours which are here, do trouble and dampe our myndes. For we heare that in diuers places vnder your dominiō, there be certain which do folow and leane to the errors of that archhereticke Wickliffe, whose bookes haue bene long since cōdēned in the general Romain coūcel to be erroneous, hereticall, & swaruing frō the catholike fayth. And furthermore which is worst of all, the sayd persons cleauing to the opinions of the heretikes (lest they should be corrected of their superior powers for their excesse, to couer their naughtines & stubburnnes in despising the commaundementes of the Apostolicall seat) do openly teach disobedience and contempt of the keyes and ecclesiasticall censure, to the subuersiō of the Apostolical dignity, settyng at nought the decrees of the holy fathers and canōs. Wherefore we do exhort your worship for the mercy of our God, as hartely as we may or can, that it would please you as we desire and hope you will so effectuously to shew foorth your regall power, both for the glory of God, and defence of the catholike faith (which you go about to defend) and for the conseruation of your kingly name, state and honour, for the prosperous and safe gouernment of your kyngdome and dominions, as it becommeth a catholike prince, whereby this blot of heresie (which doth so lamentably and miserably spring and crepe in those parts, and doth so infect the mynds of mortall men, to the destruction of their soules, and doth sequester them from the congregation of the pure and catholike faith and truth) may be rooted out. &c. Geuen at Bononia in the Ides of Iune, in the v. yeare of our popedome. &c.

In this epistle of Pope Iohn aboue prefixed, for so much as mention is made of a certayne councell before holden at Rome (which was. iiij. yeares before) agaynst the articles & bookes of Iohn Wicliefe: it shall not be impertinent nor out of purpose to repeate a certain mery story, & worthy otherwise to be noted at, writtē by Nicolas Clermangis of a certaine spirite, whiche ruled the Popish Coūcels, his wordes are these.

Commentary on the Woodcuts     Close

The Council of Constance, designed to end the papal schism and to repress heresy, condemned Hus and Jerome of Prague, both of whom were burned, and did its best to see Wyclif given the same treatment by ordering that his bones should be exhumed and burned. Foxe, who anticipated his narrative of the council in order to include the subsequent burning of the heresiarch's bones in his life story, naturally found congenial the story narrated by Nicholas of Clamanges of the synod called in Rome in 1412 by the anti-pope John XXIII. According to this tale ('the merry story of an owl'), a dreadful owl (represented in Foxe's illustration as formidable in size) was said to have appeared and disrupted the proceedings by fixing its gaze on the presiding pontiff -- something that was inevitably taken as an evil omen. The summons of the Council of Constance and the deposition of the pope fulfilled this prediction. The illustrator, picturing a scene of utter dismay in which all eyes are fastened on the presiding bird, did his best to portray a building of Roman character. CUL copy: in this copy, as with the image of the Lollards, the faces have been detailed in black ink, to highlight eyebrows, lashes and profiles. Lips are frequently detailed with a rosy red. The cardinals wear orange; the pope's pallium is in orange, his cassock is in yellow with purple shading. The bishops surrounding him wear variously white or shades of purple and there is one monk, dressed in black. The owl has a white chest and face, with the rest of its body and wings in a light brown. Taking into account the average height of those depicted in this image, the owl stands at around 3 feet tall, perched and poised on a beam up above those gathered, making one rather wonder what tactics it is about to use 'to the utter defacing' of those below. The tyrian purple pillars are detailed in white, to indicate the marbling. One straight white line is added centrally to each pillar to indicate a reflection in the glossy exterior of the columns. WREN copy: note that the painting in this copy is more finely executed. See, in particular the marbling effect added to the pillars in the background. There is, however, no gold detail to this picture in the Wren copy.