Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/251



Of these four Letters, written by John Huss in the Bohemian tongue, I have procured a Latin translation, with the view of publishing them forthwith, in the same year fixed for a General Council, at the earnest request of our illustrious Emperor Charles. I have not taken this trouble with the view of calling down indignation and contempt upon the Council of Constance. This, on account of its culpable acts, I have done elsewhere, and will always be ready to do, in defence of the interests of the whole Church. My motive in publishing these Letters, is, if God permits the said Council to assemble, to warn the members to take care not to follow the example of the Council of Constance, in which the Truth was exposed to such lengthened and violent attacks; and yet, nevertheless, now triumphs, and, raising its victorious head, shews this unworthy assembly in its naked aspect, and stripped of its tyrannical authority. In this Council, indeed, the cardinals and most distinguished men aimed principally at extinguishing schism; they abandoned the cause of religion as below their notice, and left it to the perverse race of monks and sophists; from whence has sprung, as formerly from Babylon, all the evil which has produced, in Germany and in Bohemia, so many calamities, wars, massacres, and inextinguishable hatreds. The Papacy, freed from schism, did not afterwards behave less cruelly towards the world, filling the churches with false doctrines, indulgences, mercenary masses, and all sorts of inventions of priests and monks. Such are the fruits of this sacred Council; it would, therefore, be dangerous to trust again, at this time, the 4em