recorde his wordes in a certayne treatise by hym written, De Sacerdotum & Monachorum carnalium Abhominatione, wherein the sayd Iohn Hus speaking prophetically of the reformation of the Church, hath these wordes following. Ex istis vlterius aduerte incidentaliter, quod Dei ecclesia nequit ad pristinam suam dignitatem reduci. &c. That is in english.

MarginaliaProphetia.Moreouer, hereupon note and marke by the way, that the church of God, cannot be reduced to his former dignitie, or be reformed, before all thinges first be made new. The truth whereof is playne by the Temple of Salomon Like as the Clergie and Priests, so also the people and laity: Or els vnlesse all such as now be addict to auarice, from the least to the most, be first conuerted and reclaymed, as wel þ^e people as the clergy and Priests. Albeit as my mind now geueth me, I beleue rather the first, that is, that then shall rise a new people, formed after the new man, whiche is created after God. Of the which people new Clerkes & Priestes shall come, and be taken: whiche all shall hate couetousnes, and glory of this life, hasting to an heauenly cōuersation. Notwithstanding all these thinges shall come to passe and be brought by little and little in order of times dispensed of God for the same purpose. And this God doth and will do for his owne goodnes and mercy, and for the riches of his great longanimity and pacience, geuing time and space of repētance to them þ^t haue lōg line in theyr sins to amend, and flye from the face of the Lordes fury, whyle that in like manner the carnall people, and carnal priestes successiuely and in time, shall fall awaye and be consumed as with the moth. &c.

MAister Martin my deare brother in Christ, I exhorte you in the Lord, that you feare God, keepe hys commaundementes and flee the company of women, and beware of hearing their confessions, least by the hipocrisie of women, Sathan deceiue you, trust not their deuotion.MarginaliaNote that then priestes were not maried, and therfore he willeth him to auoide all company of women. You know how I haue detested the auarice and the inordinate life of the Clergy, wherefore through the grace of God I suffer now persecution, which shortly shalbe consummate in me, neither doe I feare to haue my hart powred out for the name of Christ Iesus. I desire you hartely be not greedy in seeking after benefices. And yet if you shalbe called to anye cure in the country, let the honour of God, the saluation of soules, and the trauaile therof moue you therunto, and not the hauing of the lining or the commodities thereof. And if you shall be placed in any such benefice, beware you haue no yong womā for your cook or seruant, least you edifie and encrease more your house, then your soule. See that you be a builder of your spirituall house, being gentle to the poore, and humble of mind, and waste not your goodes in great fare. I feare also if you do not amend your life, ceasing from your costly and superfluous apparell, least you shalbe greuously chastised, as I also wretched mā shalbe punished, which haue vsed the like, being seduced by custome of euill men and wordly glory, wherby I haue bene wounded agaynst God wyth the spirite of pride.MarginaliaHe repenteth his gay garmentes. And because you haue notably knowne both my preaching and outward conuersation euen from my youth, I haue no neede to write many thinges vnto you, but to desire you for the mercy of Iesus Christ, that you do not followe me in anye such leuitie and lightnes, whiche you haue in seene in me. You knew how before my priesthoode, whiche greueth me nowe, MarginaliaHe repenteth his playing at the chesse.I haue delighted to playe oftentimes at chesse, and haue neglected my time, and thereby haue vnhappily prouoked both my self and other to anger many times by that play. Wherfore, besides other my innumerable faultes, for thys also I desire you to inuocate the mercy of the Lord, that he will pardon me, and so directe my life, that hauing ouercome the wickednes of this present life, the flesh the world and the deuill, I may finde place in the heauenly country, at the least in the day of iudgement. Fare ye well in Christ Iesus, with all them which keepe hys law. My gray coate if you will keepe to your selfe for my remembraunce, but I thinke you are ashamed to wear that gray colour: therfore you may geue it to whō you shall thinke good. MarginaliaIohn Hus from his gay garments cōmeth to his white coate.My white coate you shall geue the minister. N. my scholer. To George or els to Zuzikon. 60. groates, or els my gray coate: for he hath faythfully serued me.

I pray you that you doe not open this letter, before you be sure and certayne of my death.

MY maister, in those thinges which you haue both written hetherto and also preached after the law of God agaynst the pride, auarice, an other inordinate vices of the Priestes, goe forward, be constant and strong And if I shall know that you are op-pressed in the cause, and if neede shal so require, of myne own accorde, I will folow after to helpe you, as much as I can.

BY the lyfe, actes and letters of Iohn Hus hetherto rehearsed, it is euident and playne, that he was condemned, not for any errour of doctrine, which they coulde well proue in hym, who neyther denyed their popishe transubstantiation, neither spake against the authoritie of þ^e church of Rome, if it were well gouerned, nor yet the 7. Sacraments, & also sayd masse himself, and almost in al their popish opinions was a papist w^t them:MarginaliaIohn Hus condemned for no erroneous doctrine wherein he was culpable but onely of euil wil was accused of his malicious aduersaries, because he spake agaynst the pompe, pride, and auarice, & other wicked enormities of the pope, Cardinals, & Prelates of þ^e Church, and because he could not abide the high dignities & liuings of the Churche, and thought the doinges of the pope to be Antichristlike. For this cause he procured so many enemies & false witnesses agaynst him. Who strayning and picking matter out of hys bookes and writinges, hauing no one iust article of doctrine to lay vnto him, yet they made hym an hereticke, whether he would or no, and brought him to hys condemnation. This can hatred and malice do, where the charitie of Christ hath no place. Whiche being so, as thy charitie (good reader) may easely vnderstand, in perusing the whol course of hys story: I beseech thee thē, what cause had Iohn Cochleus to write his 12. bookes agaynst Iohn Hus and Hussites?MarginaliaCochleu raileth against Iohn Hus without cause. In which bookes how bitterly & intēperately he misuseth hys penne, by these few words in hys second booke thou mayst take a little tast: which wordes I thought here briefly to place in English to the ende that all English men may iudge thereby, with what spirite and truth these Catholickes he caryed. Hys wordes be these. Lib. 2. Hist. Dico igitur Ioan Huss neque sanctum neque beatum habendum esse, sed impium potius. &c.MarginaliaEx Chocleo. Lib. 2. Hist. Hussitarum. pag. 88. That is, I say therfore Iohn Husse is neither to be counted holy nor blessed: but rather wicked and eternally wretched: insomuche that in þ^t day of iudgement, it shalbe more easie, not onely with the infidell Pagans, Turks, Tartarians, and Iewes, but also w^t the most sinfull Sodomites, & the abhominable Persians, which most filthily doe lye with their daughters, sisters or mothers, yea & also with most impious Cain killer of hys owne brother, with Thyestes killer of hys own mother, and þ^e Lestrygones & other Andropophagi, which deuour mans flesh, yea more easie w^t those infamous murderers of infants, Pharao, & Herode,then w^t him &c. These be the words of Cochleus. Whose rayling books although they deserue neyther to be read, nor aunswered, yet if it pleased God, it were to be wished that the Lord would stir vp some towardly yong man, that hath so much leasure, to defend the simplicitie of thys Iohn Hus, whiche cannot now aunswere for himselfe. In the meane tyme, something to satisife or stay the readers mynde agaynst thys immoderate, hyperbole of Cochleus, in like fewe wordes I wyll bryng out Iohn Hus to speake and to cleare hymselfe agaynst this slaunder: whose wordes in hys booke De sacerdotum & Monachorum abhominatione desolationis. pag. 84. &c. I beseech the reader to note. Nam & ista scribens fateor, ф nihil aliud me in illis perurget, nisi dilectio Dom. Nostri Iesu crusifixi. &c. That is. For in writing these things, I confesse nothinge els to haue moued me hereunto, but onely the loue of our Lorde Iesus crucified, whose printes and stripes, (according to the measure of my weakenes and vilenes) I couet to beare in my selfe, beseeching hym so to geue me grace, that I neuer seek to glory in my selfe or in any thing els, but onely in his crosse, and the inestimable ignominy of his passion which he suffered for me. And therefore I write and speake these thinges, which I do not doubt will like all such as vnfaynedly do loue the Lord Christ crucified: and contrary will mislike not a little all suche as be of Antichrist. Also agayne, I confesse before the most merciful Lord Iesus Christ crucified, that these thinges which I do now write, and those that I haue written before, neither I could haue writtē, nor knew how, nor durst so haue written, vnlesse he by hys inward vnction had so commaunded me. Neither yet do I write these thinges as of authority, to get me fame and name: For as S. Augustine & Hierome do say, that is onely to be geuen to the scriptures and writinges of the Apostles, Euangelistes and Prophetes, and to the Canonicall Scriptures, which doe abounde in the fulnes of the spirite of Iesus. And whatsoeuer is there sayd, is full of veritie and wholesome vtilitie. &c. And here place also would require something to say to Æneas Siluius to Antoninus, and to Laziardus, which falsly impute articles to him, whiche he neuer mayntayned. But because tyme suffereth not, I wil proceed to the story of maister Hierom of Prage.