Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/543

Rh gates of the churches and monasteries, and of the houses of the cardinals and other nobles and prelates; the tenor whereof  word for word in this manner.

Unto the most noble prince and lord, the lord Sigismund, by the grace of God king of the Romans, always Augustus, and of Hungary, &c. I Jerome of Prague, master of arts of the general universities of Paris, Cologne, Heidelberg, and Prague, by these my present letters do notify to the king, together with the whole reverend council, and, as much as in me lieth, do all men to understand and know, that because of the crafty slanderers, backbiters, and accusers, I am ready freely and of mine own will, to come to Constance, there to declare openly before the council, the purity and sincerity of my true faith, and mine innocency; and not secretly in corners before any private or particular person. Wherefore, if there be any of my slanderers, of what nation or estate soever they be, who will object against me any crime of error or heresy, let them come forth openly before me in the presence of the whole council, and in their own names object against me; and I will be ready, as I have written, to answer openly and publicly, before the whole council, of mine innocency, and to declare the purity and sincerity of my true faith. And if so be that I shall be found culpable in error or heresy, then I will not refuse openly to suffer such punishment as shall be meet and worthy for an erroneous person, or a heretic.

Wherefore I most humbly beseech my lord the king, and the whole sacred council, that I may have to this end and purpose aforesaid, safe and sure access. And if it happen that I, offering such equity and right as I do, before any fault be proved against me, be arrested, imprisoned, or have any violence done unto me; that then it may be manifest unto the whole world, that this general council doth not proceed according to equity and justice, if they would by any means put me back from this profound and strait justice, being come hither freely of mine own mind and accord; which thing I suppose to be far from so sacred and holy a council of wise men.

When as yet Master Jerome, through such intimations copied out in the Bohemian, Latin, and German tongue, being set up as is aforesaid, could not get any safe conduct, then the nobles, lords, and knights, especially of the Bohemian nation, present in Constance, gave unto him their letters patent, confirmed with their seals for a testimony and witness of the premises; with which letters, the said Master Jerome returned again into Bohemia: but, by the treason and conspiracy of his enemies he was taken in Hirschau by the officers of duke John, and in Zultzbach was brought back again to the presence of the duke. In the mean time such as were the setters-forward of the council against Master John Huss and Master Jerome; that is to say, Michael de Causis and Master Paletz, and others their accomplices, required that the said Master Jerome should be cited by reason of his intimations; and, certain days after, the citation here under-written was set upon the gates and porches of the city and churches, which in this manner:

This most sacred and holy synod and general council of Constance, faithfully congregated and gathered together in the Holy Ghost, representing the unversal militant church, unto Jerome of Prague, who writeth himself to be a master of arts of so many universities, and pretendeth those things which are only pertaining unto sobriety and modesty, and that he knoweth no more than Rh