Chlum), that true and noble knight, my benefactor, to incur any danger, I beg you in the name of God, dear Sir Peter the mintmaster and Lady Anna.[1] I beg you also to live well and obey God according to my teaching. To the queen,[2] my most gracious mistress, express my thanks for all the benefits which she has bestowed on me. Greet your household and the other faithful friends, whom I cannot all name. I beg you also to pray for me to the Lord God, within whose holy grace we shall by His help meet. Amen. I write this letter expecting my death-sentence in prison and in fetters, which, as I hope, I endure for the sake of God’s law. I beg you in the name of the Lord God not to allow the good priests[3] to be ill-treated.” A quaint postscript follows the letter; it runs thus:
“Peter,[4] dearest friend, keep my fur coat in memory of me.
“Lord Henry Lefl, live in good friendship with your wife. I thank you for your benefits; God will requite them to you.”
“Faithful friends, Sir Lider and Lady Margaret, also Master Skuocek,[5] Mikeska,[6] and others, may God grant you eternal reward for the trouble you have taken for me and the benefits you have conferred on me.
“Faithful and beloved Magister Christian,[7] may God be with thee.
“Magister Martin, my disciple, remember that which I have faithfully taught thee. Master Nicholas, Peter, priest of the queen,[8] and other magisters, be zealous for the word of
- ↑ This passage is not very clear. Peter of Svojsin, Bohemian mintmaster, and his wife, Lady Anna of Frimburg, were friends of Hus and of church-reform. They also had influence at the court of Venceslas. Hus begged them to be helpful to his protector, Lord John of Chlum.
- ↑ i.e., Queen Sophia.
- ↑ i.e., those priests who were opposed to simony.
- ↑ Probably Peter Mladenovic, “Petre amice carissime pellicium tibi serva in mei memoriam.” The words are in Latin in the Bohemian letter.
- ↑ Nothing is known of the persons mentioned here.
- ↑ Called also Marik Kacer, formerly vice-chancellor of the Bohemian kingdom.
- ↑ Master Christian (or Kristan) of Prachatice, one of the leading Bohemian church-reformers.
- ↑ Probably Hus’s successor as confessor of the queen.
