XXXVIII. To the Same
(Constance, November 6, 1414)
Greetings from Christ Jesus! Dear friends, I am quite well through it all. I came without the Pope’s[1] safe-conduct to Constance; pray God then that He may grant me constancy, because many powerful adversaries have risen up against me, stirred up in particular by that seller of indulgences, the Dean of Passau, now the head of the chapter there,[2] and Michael de Causis, who is always posting up writs against me. But I fear none of these things, nor am I affrighted, for I hope that a great victory is to follow a great fight, and after the victory a greater reward, and the greater confusion of my persecutors. The Pope is unwilling to quash the writs. He said, “What can I do? your side are the aggressors.” But two bishops and a doctor had some talk with Baron John Kepka [Chlum] to the effect that I should come to terms under a pledge of silence. By which I apprehend that they are afraid of my public reply and sermon,[3] which I hope by the grace of God to deliver when Sigismund comes. Of the latter Baron Wenzel de Leštna[4] has sent news that he expressed
- ↑ This version differs from that which Hus gives elsewhere, and glosses over the fact that actually Hus had set off without Sigismund’s promised safe-conduct. In reality the Pope’s safe-conduct could alone have guaranteed his immunity from the Inquisition. Sigismund’s safe-conduct did not reach the spiritual sphere. See p. 144 n. and p. 146, and cf. p. 180.
- ↑ Jam præpositus. See Ducange.
- ↑ The sermons which Hus expected to give are still preserved for us in Mon. i. 44–57. They are chiefly from Wyclif, and in reality cut at the root of the mediæval system.
- ↑ i.e., Wenzel de Duba, who had ridden from Nuremberg to the King. See p. 155.
