Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/169

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JOHN HUSS’S RECEPTION BY THE COUNCIL.
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cil. And the Council mocked when, in the public audience, I quoted the words of Christ and the holy doctors; at one time they reproached me with misunderstanding them, and, at another, the doctors insulted me.[1]. . . .

An English doctor, who had already said to me in private, that Wycliffe had wished to annihilate all science, and had filled his books and his logic with errors, began to discourse on the multiplication of the body of Christ in the consecrated host, and, as his arguments were weak, he was told to be silent; then he cried out: “This man deceives the Council; take care that the Council be not led into error as it was by Berenger.” When he was silent, another discussed noisily concerning the created and common essence. All began to clamour against him. I then demanded that he might be heard, and said to him, “You argue well; I will answer you most willingly.” He also broke down, and he added in a sullen voice: “This man is a heretic.” The Seignior Wenceslaus Duba,

  1. John Huss alludes here to a discussion, not very intelligible, on the community of the essence in the Divine Persons. We give it in the original: Quidam autem cardinalis supremus concilii, et a concilio deputatus in publica audientia, accepta una charta, dixit: Ecce unus magister sacræ theologiæ præsentavit mihi argumentum istud, dicatis ad illud. Erat autem argumentum de essentia communi, quam concessi esse in divinis. Postea ipso deficiente, quamvis reputaretur doctor theologiæ valentissimus, dixi sibi de essentia communi creata, quæ est primum esse creatum communicatum singulis creaturis: ex qua ipse volebat probare remanentiam panis materialis, sed notabiliter ad metam nescientiæ argumenti reductus obmutuit.