Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/473



John Huss, did first procure and get his safe conduct, fifteen days after his imprisonment.

The lords of Bohemia, and especially the lord John de Clum here present, whom this matter doth chiefly touch, doth answer, that not only the fifteenth day after, but even the very same day that John Huss was apprehended and taken, when our reverend father the pope, in the presence of all his cardinals, demanded of Master John de Clum, whether Master John Huss had any safe conduct from the king his son, he answered, 'Most holy father and cardinals! know ye that he hath a safe-conduct; and when he was asked the question again the second time, he answered in like manner.

Yet, notwithstanding, none of them required to have the safe-conduct showed unto them: and again, the third day following, the lord John de Clum complained unto our lord the pope, how, notwithstanding the safe-conduct of our sovereign lord the king, he detained and kept Master John Huss as prisoner, showing the safe-conduct unto many. And for the further truth herein, he referreth himself unto the testimonies and witnesses of divers earls, bishops, knights, gentlemen, and famous citizens of the city of Constance, who, all together at this present, did see the said safe-conduct, and heard it read; whereupon the said John de Clum is ready to bind himself under what penalty shall be required, evidently to prove and confirm that which he hath promised, whosoever say to the contrary.

Moreover, the lords of Bohemia refer themselves unto the knowledge of certain princes electors, and other princes, bishops, and many other noblemen, who were present before the king's majesty, where and when the said safe-conduct was granted and given out by the special commandment of our said lord the king.

Hereby your fatherly reverences may understand and perceive that the said lords of Bohemia are not evil-informed as touching the said safe-conduct; but bishops rather they, who by such reports have falsely and untruly informed your reverences. And first of all, they have offended against the lord our king and his falsely chancellors. Secondly, against the lords and nobles of Bohemia, as though we had privily and by stealth, purchased the said safe-conduct. Wherefore the lords aforesaid most humbly require and desire your reverences, that you will not so lightly believe such as be not worthy of credit; but rather, hearing the contrary part, to labour and discuss, that the truth may the more evidently appear.

Secondly, Whereas the lords aforesaid, alleging how Master John Huss, coming unto Constance of his own free will, being neither condemned nor heard, was imprisoned, your reverences have made answers thereunto, that he, the said Master John Huss, in the time of Alexander V., was infamed and slandered upon certain heresies, and thereupon cited personally to appear in the court of Rome, and there was heard by his procurers.

And forasmuch as he refused obstinately to appear, he was excommunicated; in which excommunication he continued, as you affirm, by the space of five years: for which he was judged, and counted not only a simple and plain heretic, but a heresiarch, that is to say, an inventor and sower of new and strange heresies; and that he, coming towards Constance, did preach by the way openly. To this the lords aforesaid do answer, that, as touching his slander and citation, they can affirm nothing but by report. But, as touching that he did not personally appear, they say they have heard both himself and divers other credible persons say, yea even the most famous prince Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, and almost all the whole nobility are witness, that he would willingly have appeared at Rome, or elsewhere, if he might safely have come thither, and deadly enmity had not letted: and, morover [sic], his procurers which he sent unto the court of Rome, alleging reasonable causes for his non-appearance, some of them were cast into prison, and others were evil entreated.

As for the excommunication which he hath so long sustained, they have heard him often say, that he hath not resisted against the same by contumacy, or stubbornness, but under evident appellation, and thereupon referreth himself unto the acts of his causes which were pleaded in the court of Rome, wherein all this is more largely contained; which your reverences may evidently perceive and see in this our present public transumpt, which we have offered unto you upon certain points aforesaid.

As concerning his preaching, wherewithal his enemies do report and charge, that Master John Huss did preach openly in the city of Constance; the lords