THe peace of our Lorde Iesus Christ. &c. MarginaliaA worthie lesson for all ministers & prelates.My deare brother be diligent in preaching the Gospel, and do the worke of a good Euangelist: neglect not your vocation: labour like a blessed souldiour of Christ. First liue godly and holily. Secondly, teach faithfully and truely. Thirdly, be an example to other in well doing, that you be not reprehended in your sayings: correct vice and set foorth vertue. To euill liuers threaten eternall punishmēt: but to those that be faithfull and godly, set forth the comforts of eternall ioy. Preach cōtinually, but be short and fruitfull, prudētly vnderstanding, & discretly dispēsing the holy Scriptures. Neuer affirme or maintaine those things that be vncertaine and doubtfull, least that your aduersaries take holde vpon you, which reioyce in deprauing their brethren, whereby they may bring the ministers of God into contempt. Exhort men to the confession of their faith, and to the communion of both kindes, both of the body & bloud of Christ, wherby such as do repent earnestly of their sinnes, may the more often come to the holy communion. And I warne you that you enter into no tauernes with ghestes, & be not a cōmon cōpany keper. For the more a preacher keepeth him frō the company of men, the more he is regarded. All be it, deny not yet your helpe and diligence where soeuer you may profite other. Against fleshlye lust preache continuallye all that euer you can: For that is the raging beast, which deuoureth men, for whom the flesh of Christ did suffer. Wherfore my heartily beloued, I beseech you to flie fornication: for where as a man woulde most profite and doe good, there this vice vseth most to lurke. In any case flie the company of yong women, and beleeue not their deuotion: For S. Austen sayth, the more deuout she is, the more procliue to wantonnesse, and vnder the pretence of religion, the snare and venome of fornication lurketh.MarginaliaS. Augustin meaneth not here of all, but of the common sort of light persons. And this knowe my welbeloued, that the conuersation with them, subuerteth many, whome the conuersation of this worlde coulde neuer blemish nor beguile. Admit no womē into your house, for what cause, so euer it be, and haue not much talke with them otherwise, for auoiding of offence. Finally, howsoeuer you do, feare God and keepe his precepts: so shall you walke wisely, and shall not pearish: so shall you subdue the flesh, contemne the world, and ouercome the deuill: so shall you put on God, finde life, and confirme other, and shall crowne your selfe wyth the crowne of glory, the which the iust iudge shall geue you. Amen.

HEalth be to you from Iesus Christ. &c. My deare frend, knowe that PalletzMarginaliaThis Palletz was the chiefest enemy of I. Hus, & procurer of his death. came to me to perswade me that I shuld not feare the shame of abiuration, but to consider the good which thereof will come. To whome I sayd, that the shame of condemnation and burning is greater then to abiure: and why shuld I feare then that shame? But I pray you tel my plainly your minde. Presuppose that such articles were laid to you, which you knewe your selfe not to be true: what would you do in that case? would you abiure? Who aunswered. The case is sore, & began to weepe. Many other things wee spake which I did reprehende. Michael de Causis,MarginaliaMichael de Causis another bitter enemy of Iohn Hus. was some times before the prison with the deputies. And when I was wyth the deputies, thus I heard him speake vnto the keepers: Wee by the grace of God wil burne this hereticke shortly: for whose cause I haue spent many Florenes. MarginaliaIohn Hus prayeth for his enemies.But yet vnderstand that I wryte not this to the intent to reuenge mee of him, for that I haue committed to God, and pray to God for him with all my heart.

Yet I exhort you again, to be circumspect about our letters: for Michael hath taken suche order that none shall be suffered to come into the prisone: no nor yet the keepers wiues are permitted to come to me. O holy God, howe largely doth Antichrist extend his power and crueltie? MarginaliaA prophecy of Iohn HusBut I trust that hys power shall be shortned, and his iniquitie shalbe detected more & more amongst the faithfull people.

Almighty God shal confirme the hearts of his faithful, whom he has chosen before the cōstitution of the world, that they may receiue the eternall crowne of glory. And let Antichrist rage as much as he wil, yet he shal not preuaile against Christ, which shal destroy him with the spirite of his mouth, as the Apostle sayeth: And then shall the creature be deliuered out of seruitude of corruption, into the libertie of the glorye of the sonnes of God, as sayeth the Apostle in the wordes following: we also wythin oure selues, doe grone, waiting for the adoption of the sonnes of God, the redemption of our body.

I am greatly comforted in those wordes of our Sauiour: happy be you when men shall hate you and shall seperate you, and shall rebuke you, and shall cast out your name as execrable, forthe sonne of man. Reioyce and be glad, for beholde, great is your rewarde in heauen, Luke 6. O worthy, yea O most worthy consolation, which not to vnderstande, but to practise in time of tribulation, is a hard lesson.

This rule sainct Iames with the other Apostles, did well vnderstand, which saieth: count it exceeding ioy my brethren, when yee shall fall into diuers tentations, knowing that the probation of your faith woorketh patience: let patience haue her perfecte worke. For certainely it is a great matter for a man to reioyce in trouble, and to take it for ioy to be in diuers temptations. A light matter it is to speake it and to expounde it: but a great matter to fulfill it: MarginaliaThe example of Christ.For why, our most patient and most valiaunt champion him selfe, knowing that hee shoulde rise againe the thirde day, ouercomming his ennemies by his death, and redeeming from damnation his electe after his last Supper was troubled in spirite and sayde: My soule is heauie vnto death. Of whom also the Gospell sayeth, that hee began to feare, to be sadde and heauie. Who being then in an agonie, was confirmed of the Aungell, and his sweat was like the droppes of bloud falling vpon the ground. And yet he notwithstanding, being so troubled, sayde to his disciples: let not your hearts be troubled, neither feare the crueltie of them that persecute you: for you shall haue me with you alwaies, that you may ouercome the tyranny of your persecutours. Whereupon those his souldiours, looking vppon the Prince and king of glory, sustained great conflictes. They passed through fire and water and were saued, and receiued the crowne of the Lord God, of the which S. Iames in his canonicall Epistle, sayeth. Blessed is the man that suffereth temptation, for when he shall be proued, he shall receaue the crowne of life, which God hathe promised to them that loue him. Of this crowne I trust stedfastly the Lord wil make mee partaker also with you, which be the feruent sealers of the trueth, and with all them which stedfastly and constantly doe loue the Lord Iesus Christ, which suffred for vs, leauing to vs example that we should follow his steppes. It behooued him to suffer, as hee sayeth: and vs also it behooued to suffer, that the members may suffer together with the head. For he sayeth: If any man will come after mee, let him denie himselfe and take vp hys crosse and followe me.

MarginaliaThe prayer of I. Hus to Christ.O most mercyfull Chrst, draw vs weake creatures after thee, for except thou shouldst draw vs, we are not able to follow thee. Geue vs a strong spirite, that it may be ready, and although the flesh be feeble, yet let thy grace goe before vs, goe with vs, and follow vs: for without thee we can do nothyng, and much lesse enter into the cruell death for thy sake. Geue vs that prompt and ready spirite, a bold hart, an vpright fayth, a firme hope and perfect charitie, that we may geue our lyues paciently and ioyfully for thy names sake. Amen. Written in prison and in bondes in the Vigill of holy S. Iohn the Baptist, who beyng in prison and in bondes for the rebuking of wickednesse, was beheaded.

¶ Among diuers other letters of Iohn Hus, which he wrote to the great consolation of others: I thought also here to intermixt an other certaine godly letter writtē out of England, by a faythfull Scholler of Wickleffe, as appeareth, vnto Iohn Hus and the Bohemians, which for the zealous affectiō therein cōteined, seemeth not vnworthy to be read.

MarginaliaA zealous letter to I. Hus from London.GReetyng, and whatsoeuer can be deuised more sweete, in the bowels of Christ Iesu. My dearely beloued in the Lord, whom I loue in the trueth, and not I onely, but also all they that haue the knowledge of the trueth, whiche abydeth in you, and shall be with you through the grace of GOD for euermore: I reioysed aboue measure, when our beloued brethren came and gaue testimony vnto vs of your trueth, and how you walke in the trueth. I haue heard brethren, how sharpely Antichrist persecuteth you, in vexyng the faithfull seruauntes of Christ with diuers and straunge kyndes of afflictions. And surely no maruaile, if amongest you (since it is so almost all the world ouer) the law of Christ be too too greuously impugned, and that redde Dragon hauyng so many heades (of whom it is spoken in the Apocalyps) haue now vomited out of his mouth that great floud, by whiche he goeth about to swallow vp the woman: but the most gracious God will deliuer for euer his onely and most faythfull spouse. Let vs therfore cōfort our selues in the Lord our God, and in his vnmeasurable goodnes, hopyng strongly in him which will not suffer those that loue him, to be vnmercifully defrauded of any their purpose, if we according to our duety, shall loue him with all our hart: for aduersitie should by no meanes preuaile ouer vs, if there were no iniquitie raignyng in vs. Let therefore no tribulation or sorrow for Christs cause, discourage vs, knowing this for a surety, that whōsoeuer the Lord vouchsafeth to receaue to be his childrē, those he scourgeth: For so the mercifull father will haue them