Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/455

 Further, where Cope saith, that the general council was above the emperor, and hath power in case of heresy to break public leagues and grants: to that I say, that this safe conduct stood not only upon the emperor, but also upon the consent of the pope himself. Vide infra.

And admit that to be true, that the council had power to make this decree, to break promise with heretics; yet this cannot be denied, but that John Huss was condemned and judged before that decree in the nineteenth session was made. Finally, when Cope hath proved by what Scripture the councils have power to defeat the authority of their emperors in such secular causes touching safe conducts and outward safety, then will I answer him more fully herein. But to the purpose again of the story.

John Huss seeing so many fair promises, and the assurance which the emperor had given to him, sent answer unto the emperor, that he would come unto the council. But before he departed out of the realm of Bohemia, and especially out of the town of Prague, he did safe write certain bills long enough before, as well in Latin as in the Bohemian language and Almain, and caused them to be set and fastened upon the gates of the cathedral churches and parish churches, cloisters and abbeys, signifying unto them all, that he would go to the general council at Constance; whereof, if any man have any suspicion of his doctrine, that he should declare it before the lord Conrad, archbishop of Prague; or, if he had rather, at the general council, for there he would render and give up unto every one, and before them all, an account and reason of his faith. The example of his letters and intimations set up, were these, the copy whereof :

Master John Huss, bachelor of divinity, will appear before the most reverend father the lord Conrad, archbishop of Prague, and legate of the apostolic seat, in their next convocation of all the prelates and clergy of the kingdom of Bohemia; being ready always to satisfy all men who shall reqiure him to give a reason of his faith and hope that he holdeth, and to hear and see all such as will lay unto his charge either any stubbornness of error or heresy, that they should write in their names there, as is required both by God's law and man's. And if so be that they could not lawfully prove any stubbornness of error or heresy against him, that then they should suffer the like punishments that he should have had; unto whom all together he will answer at the next general council at Constance, before the archbishop and the prelates, and, according to the decrees and canons of the holy fathers, show forth his innocency in the name of Christ.—Dated the Sunday next after the feast of St. Bartholomew.

I, Master John Husnetz, do signify unto all men, that I am ready to come and stand before the face of my lord the archbishop, and to answer to all things