PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
The Letters of John Huss were collected by his friend, Peter Maldoniewitz, the notary, and it was the great Reformer of the sixteenth century, Martin Luther, who first published them, rendering justice to the faith, doctrines, and noble character of their author. Luther at first translated into Latin four letters, written by Huss in Bohemia, and published them in 1536, together with those which the nobles of Bohemia and Moravia had addressed to the Council of Constance. Wittemberg was the place where he published them, on the occasion of a general council being convoked by Paul III.[1] He joined to these letters a preface, of which the following is an extract:—“My object in publishing these letters,” said Luther, “is, if God should permit the council to assemble, to warn such persons as might be present to beware of following the example of the Council of Constance, in which the truth was exposed to such lengthened and such vio-
- ↑ This council, which was first convoked at Mantua for the year 1537, then at Vicenza, did not open until 1542, in the city of Trent.
