the truth as I understand it. Pray God to preserve me.
As to the sacrament of the cup, you have the statement I wrote out in Constance[1] giving reasons. I do not think I can add anything, except that the gospel and Paul’s epistle give plain evidence in my favour. It was the custom also in the early Church. If possible, arrange that at least permission be given by bull for the cup to be granted to those who demand it from feelings of devotion, the circumstances being taken into account.[2]
My friends ought not to trouble themselves over the private inquisition into my beliefs. I do not see how it could have been avoided, because it had been settled by the Council before my arrest. Moreover, a bull was published by the commissioners and read in my presence in which I am called “a heresiarch and a deceiver of the people.” But I hope that what I have spoken in secret shall be proclaimed on the housetops.[3]
The day before yesterday—it was the day on which I saw my brother John Barbatus[4]—I was again cross-examined with regard to the forty-five articles. By way of reply I repeated the declaration I gave before. They put the question to me about each article separately, whether I desired to defend it. I replied that I would accept the decision of the Council as I had before declared. To each of the articles I said, as I had previously done with regard to some of them, “This is true, if you take it in
