Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/49

 in his history, accompanied by the testimony of the Academy of Prague.]

I write with the humble submission and respect that is due to your commands, Reverend Fathers in Christ; you who are clothed with an apostolical character, who shine as great lights to enlighten the nation, and who are elevated to power in order to efface the sins of the world, to snatch souls from the snares of Satan, and to succour those who suffer in Christ’s name. I would humbly have recourse to your fatherly counsels, incapable as I am of supporting the burden which weighs me down. The evils that overwhelm me date from the time that a portion of the Church withdrew their obedience from Gregory XII. I then recommended with success, in my sermons before the Barons, Princes, Clergy, and People, their adhesion to the College of Cardinals, for the union of my holy mother Church. It comes to pass that the Reverend Father in Christ, Sbynko, Archbishop of Prague, an adversary of the Sacred College, caused a pastoral letter to be affixed to the doors of the churches, prohibiting all the masters of the University of Prague, and in particular myself, from exercising any functions of the sacred ministry, under the pretext that the masters of the University of Prague, who had adhered to the