Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/538

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VISION AND PROPHESIES OF JOHN HUSS.

him. I have always had this in my heart: 'Trust not in princes,' &c. And again: 'Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh to be his arm.' For God's sake be you circumspect how you stand and how you return. Carry no letters with you. Direct your books not all by one, but diversely by divers friends.

The visions of John Huss by dreams.Know this for certain, that I have had great conflicts by dreams, in such sort, as I had much ado to refrain from crying out. For I dreamed of the pope's escape before he went. And after the lord John had told me thereof, immediately in the night it was told me, that the pope should return to you again. And afterwards also I dreamed of the apprehending of Master Jerome, although not in full manner as it was done. All the imprisonments, whither and how I am carried, were opened to me before, although not fully after the same form and circumstance. Many serpents oftentimes appeared unto me, having heads also in their tail; but none of them could bite me, and many other things more.

These things I write, not esteeming myself as a prophet, or that I extol myself, but only to signify unto you what temptations I had in body, and also in mind, and what great fear I had, lest I should transgress the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ. A prophecy of Master Jerome of Prague.Now I remember with myself the words of Master Jerome, who said, that if I should come to the council, he thought I should never return home again. In like manner there was a good and godly man, a tailor,[1] who, taking his leave of me at Prague, spake to me in these words: 'God be with you,' said he, 'for I think verily, my dear and good Master John, that you shall not return again to us with your life. The King, not of Hungary, but of Heaven, reward you with all goodness, for the faithful doctrine which I at your hands received,' &c.

And shortly after the writing hereof, he sendeth also unto them another prophetical vision of his, to be expounded, touching the reformation of the church, written in his forty-fourth epistle, the contents whereof be these.

Letter of John Huss, sent to the Lord John de Clum.

I pray you expound to me the dream of this night. I saw how that in my church of Bethlehem they came to rase and put out all the images of Christ, and did put them out. The next day after, I arose and saw many painters, who painted and made more fair images, and many more than I had done before, which images I was very glad and joyful to behold. And the painters, with much people about them, said: 'Let the bishops and priests come now, and put us out these pictures.' Which being done, much people seemed to me in Bethlehem to rejoice, and I with them. And I awaking therewith, felt myself to laugh, &c.
Prophetia.This vision lord John de Clum, and John Huss himself, in his book of Epistles, in the forth-fifth epistle, seem to expound, and apply the images of Christ unto the preaching of Christ and of his life; which preaching and doctrine of Christ, though the pope and his cardinals should extinguish in him, yet did he foresee and declare, that the time should come, wherein the same doctrine should be revived again by others so plenteously, that the pope with all his power should not be able to prevail against it. Thus much as concerning this vision of John Huss, whereunto doth well accord the prophecy of Jerome of Prague, printed in the coin called 'Moneta Hussi;' of which coin I have myself one of the plates, having this superscription following printed about it; "Centum revolutis annis Deo respondebitis et mihi," that is, after a hundred years come and
  1. This tailor's name was Andrew, a Polonian.