them; he was there with other Bohemian malignants, as well as the Chapters of Prague and the "Wyschehrad,[1] from which have proceeded the insults heaped upon God’s truth and upon our fatherland, Bohemia. Yet, placing my trust in God, I judge it to be a land of the purest faith, as I bethink me of its zeal for the divine word and for morality. I would that ye might see this Council, which is called the Most Holy Council, and incapable of error; in sooth you would gaze on a scene of foulness;[2] for it is a common proverb among the Swiss,[3] that a generation will not suffice to cleanse Constance from the sins which the Council have committed in that city; they have said, moreover, that the Council was an offence to the world, albeit others rejected it with loathing at the mere sight of its foul deeds. I tell you that as soon as I took my stand in the Council and saw there was no proper discipline there, I shouted out with a loud voice, amid general silence, “I thought there would be more reverence, piety, and discipline in this Council.”[4] Then the presiding Cardinal[5] said, “What do you say? You spoke more humbly in the castle.”[6] “Yes,” I replied, “because there was no one there to shout me down; but here every one is crying out.” Therefore since the Council, owing to its irregular proceedings, hath done more harm than good,
- ↑ The Wyschehrad, or original citadel of Prague, was practically a separate city with walls of its own (destroyed during the Hussite wars). In the time of Hus there was a great monastery there.
- ↑ For curious details of the public women attracted to Constance by the Council—of whom Dacher counted up over seven hundred—see Hardt, v. 50–52.
- ↑ Suabis. German Switzerland was a part of High Suabia. Another reading is Suevis.
- ↑ See pp. 216, 218.
- ↑ P. 216, n. 1.
- ↑ Gottlieben; see pp. 216, 204.
