Furthermore, they state that though the rector excommunicates some of the doctors, they themselves are not involved in the excommunication, thereby defaming others and exalting themselves.[1]
Their judgment, therefore, inasmuch as it is disgraceful, should be rejected.
XXVI. To Master Christian of Prachaticz, Rector of the University of Prague.
(Without date: early 1413)
Worshipful rector, gracious master and father, I am greatly comforted by your letter, in which among other things you write: Whatever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad.[2] And again: All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.[3] From these words you infer that I am not broken, cast down, and saddened, but strengthened, uplifted, and gladdened by the tribulations of the moment and the absence of my friends. Very thankfully do I welcome this comfort, as I ponder the first sentence of the Scriptures you have quoted. For if I am just, nothing whatever shall make me so sad as to cause me to fall from the truth. But if I live godly in Christ and will so to do, then I must suffer persecution in Christ’s name. For if it behoved Christ to suffer and so to enter into His glory,[4] it must needs be that we poor creatures should bear a cross and so imitate Him in His sufferings.
I assure you, therefore, worshipful lord rector, that persecution would never make me weary, if only I
