of Christ’s faithful ones. Be kind to the poor, as you have ever been. You have, I hope, kept your chastity and fled avarice; continue to flee it, and for your own sake do not be a pluralist. Ever hold fast the Church, that the faithful may flock to you as to a kind father. Greet affectionately Master Jakoubek and all friends of the truth. Written in chains, in expectation of being burnt.
Luther’s comment on the following beautiful letter will be, we think, the verdict of all its readers. ‘Read this,’ he wrote, ‘and you will rejoice.’ In no letter does Hus rise to serener heights of resignation and conviction. The last paragraph is especially beautiful, and in the copy which I have used of the Epistolæ Piissimæ they have been underlined by one who, long ago, gained comfort from them.
The Council evidently had not yet given up all hopes of procuring a recantation. Palecz, we note, is somewhat softening towards his old friend, but Michael is as relentless as ever. But the issue had passed from their hands.
LXXIII. To his Friends at Constance
(June 23, 1415)
Dear friends, I must tell you of what Palecz said when urging me not to trouble about the confusion of abjuring, but to consider the good that would come of it. I replied, “It is a greater confusion to be condemned and burnt than to abjure; how, then, can I be afraid of the confusion? But give me your own ideas; how would you act if you knew as a fact that you did not hold the errors ascribed to you? Would you be willing to abjure?” He replied, “It is a difficulty,” and began to weep. We discussed many other plans which I objected to. Michael, poor
