and, threatening him with death, being instant upon him, they forced him to abjure and recant, and consent unto the death of Master John Huss, that he was justly and truly condemned and put to death by them. He, what for fear of death, and hoping thereby to escape out of their hands, according to their will and pleasure, and according to the tenor which was exhibited unto him, did make abjuration, and that in the cathedral church and open session; the draft whereof, penned for him by the papists, here ensueth.
The forced Abjuration of Master Jerome of Prague.
I, Jerome of Prague, master of arts, acknowledging the catholic church, and the apostolic faith, do accurse and renounce all heresies, and especially that whereof I have hitherto been infamed, and that which in times past John Huss and John Wickliff have holden and taught, in their works, treatises, and sermons, made unto the people and clergy; for which cause the said Wickliff and Huss, together with the said doctrines and errors, are condemned by this synod of Constance as heretics, and all the said doctrine sententially condemned, and especially in certain articles expressed in the sentences and judgments given against them by this sacred council.
Also I do accord and agree unto the holy church of Rome, the apostolic seat in this sacred council, and with my mouth and heart do profess in all things, and touching all things; and especially as touching the keys, sacraments, orders, and offices, and ecclesiastical censures, of pardons, relics of saints, ecclesiastical liberty; also ceremonies, and all other things pertaining to christian religion; as the church of Rome, the apostolic see, and this sacred council, do profess: and specially, that many of the said articles are notoriously heretical, and lately reproved by the holy fathers, some of them blasphemous, others erroneous; some offensive unto godly ears, and many of them temerarious and seditious. And such also were accounted the articles lately condemned by the sacred council, and it was inhibited and forbidden to all and singular catholic men hereafter to preach, teach, or presume to hold or maintain, any of the said articles, under pain of being accursed.
And I, the said Jerome, forasmuch as I have laboured by scholastical arts to persuade the opinion, 'De universalibus realibus,' and that one substance of the common kind should signify many things subject under the same, and every one of them, as St. Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, do affirm, and likewise others; for the teaching hereof by a plain example I described as it were a certain triangle, form, or figure, which I called the shield of faith: therefore utterly to exclude and take away the erroneous and wicked understanding thereof, which, peradventure, some men may gather thereby, I do say, affirm, and declare, that I never made the said figure, neither named it the shield of faith to that intent or purpose, that I would extol or prefer the opinion of universalities above or before the contrary opinion, in such sort, as though that were the shield of faith, and that without the affirmation thereof the catholic faith could not be defended or maintained, when I myself would not obstinately stick thereunto. But this I said, because I had put example in the description of the triangle or form, that one Divine essence consisted in three subjects or persons in themselves distinct; that is to say, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The article of which Trinity is the chief shield of faith, and foundation of the catholic truth.
Furthermore, that it may be evident unto all men what the causes were for which I was reputed and thought to stick to, and favour sometime John Huss; I signify unto all men by these presents, that when I heard him oftentimes both in his sermons, and also in the schools, Jerome is made here to say not his own mind, but what pleaseth them.I believed that he was a very good man, neither that he did in any point gainsay the traditions of our holy mother the church, or holy doctors; inasmuch as when I was lately in this city, and the articles which I affirmed were showed unto me, which were also condemned by the sacred council, at the first sight of them I did not believe that they were his; at least not in that form. But when I had further understood, by certain famous doctors and masters of divinity, that they were his articles, I required
