St. Gregory, which are named Moralia,[1] and they would have burnt them all, had not God, through his (Gregory’s) one disciple, Peter, saved them. Also St. John Chrysostomus was condemned as a heretic by two councils of priests, but the gracious Lord God, after the death of St. John, revealed their falsehood. Having these things before your eyes, let not fear prevent you from reading my books, nor induce you to give them up to be burnt. Remember what our gracious Saviour said as a warning (Matthew, chapter xxiv.), that before the day of judgment there will be great tribulation such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, so that, were it possible, even the elect would be lead into error, but because of the elect these days will be shortened.[2] Bearing this in your minds, dearest, persevere bravely, for I hope to God that the following[3] of Antichrist will fear you and leave you in peace, and that the Council of Constance will not come to Bohemia; for I believe that many who are at this council will die before they have extorted these books from you; many members of this council also will disperse like storks throughout the lands, and only when winter comes will they know what evil deeds they did in summer. Consider that they (the members of the council) branded their chief as a heretic. Answer now, ye preachers who preach that the pope is an earthly God, that he cannot sin, that he cannot commit simony, that, as the jurists[4] affirm, the pope is the head of the entire holy church, which he rules very wisely, that he is the heart of the holy church, which he spiritually nourishes, the fountain from which all power and goodness flow, the sun of the holy church and the faultless refuge to which all Christians should fly. But now, behold, this head has been struck off.
