lent attacks; nevertheless, it triumphs now, and, holding erect its victorious head, shews forth that guilty assembly in its true colours. Undoubtedly, God has sufficiently manifested in that council how he resists the proud, and confounds the haughty, by their own imaginations, without paying any consideration to outward dignity.”[1]
The following year, Luther published a complete edition of the letters of John Huss, and prefixed to it a preface which we subjoin, and in which he enumerates, with great power, the principal claims of Huss to the esteem and admiration of posterity. This preface also contains some interesting and curious details; and Luther even narrates in it the strong impression produced on himself in his youth, at first reading, by chance, some of the writings of that Christian whom he had been taught to execrate as a dreadful heretic. Luther is supposed to have drawn up the summary of contents which are found at the head of most of the letters of John Huss, in the collection of his works,[2] and we have most carefully preserved them.
The letters of John Huss are divided into two series, each of which refers to a different period of his life: the
- ↑ The several editions of this Preface, which will be found at the end of the volume (Note A), present numerous variations. We have considered it best to follow the first edition, which was most kindly communicated to us by M. Frederic Monod, one of the clergymen of the Reformed Church at Paris.
- ↑ Hist. et Monum. Johan. Hus, vol. i. Nuremberg, 1715.
