Page:The letters of John Hus.djvu/214

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176
LETTERS WRITTEN DURING THE

book De Ecclesia by false omissions and additions shall be brought to light by God’s grace, and also the reply which I wrote in prison, though I had not a single book to help me.[1]

A harder comforter in time of sickness I have never found in my life than Palecz!

All the clerks of the Pope’s household[2] and all my goalers treat me with much kindness. The Lord delivered Jonah from the whale’s belly, David from the lions’ den, the three children from the fiery furnace, Susannah from the accusation of false witnesses:[3] and He can deliver me, if expedient, for the glory of His name and for the preaching of His word. But if a death precious in the Lord’s sight shall fall to me, the Lord’s name be blessed. If I could only see the King once more along with our Bohemian friends, I should be comforted.

I have been much rejoiced at the news.[4] Surely the Lord hath comforted me. I was glad to hear of Henry Skopek’s health.[5] It is good of you to send me a Bible.[6] Don’t be distressed about me. For what profit hath it? Written in prison at midnight. Please reward that faithful friend of mine to whom I am specially indebted.[7]

The letters written to Jakoubek to which Hus refers in the following letter are lost. Jakoubek (Jacobellus or Little
  1. This answer to Hus is preserved for us in Doc. 204–24. It is remarkable for its full quotations of Scripture. Its other quotations are familar to us already in the De Ecclesia itself, and prove that Hus had a good verbal memory of his own work. Probably Hus did not reckon his ‘Bible’ (see below) as ‘a book.’
  2. Cameræ.
  3. Cf. p. 197.
  4. Possibly the news of th growing dissensions between John and the Council.
  5. P. 169, n. 2.
  6. See n. 1 above.
  7. Gaoler Robert.