The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe/Volume 3/The first Schedule or Bill, which the Nobles of Bohemia delivered up to the Council for the Deliverance of John Huss, the fourteenth day of May, A. D. 1415
When the said Master John Huss was freely of his own accord come unto Constance, under the said safe-conduct, he was grievously imprisoned before he was heard, and at this present is tormented both with fetters, and also with hunger and thirst. Albeit that in times past, at the council holden at Pisa, in the year of our Lord 1410, the heretics who were condemned, were suffered to remain there at liberty, and to depart home freely; notwithstanding this, Master John Huss, neither being convicted nor condemned, no not so much as once heard, is taken and imprisoned, when neither king nor any prince elector, nor any ambassador of any university, was yet come or present. And albeit the lord the king, together with the nobles and lords here present, most instantly required and desired, that as touching his safe-conduct they would foresee and have respect unto his honour, and that the said Master John Huss might be openly heard, forasmuch as he would render and show a reason of his faith; and if he were found or convicted obstinately to affirm or maintain any thing against the truth or holy Scripture, that then he ought to correct and amend the same, according to the instruction and determination of the council; yet could he never obtain this. The extremities John Huss suffered in prison.But the said Master John Huss, notwithstanding all this, is most grievously oppressed with fetters and irons, and so weakened with thin and slender diet, that it is to be feared, lest that, his power and strength being hereby consumed and wasted, he should be put in danger of his wit or reason.
And although the lords of Bohemia here present are greatly slandered, because they, seeing the said Master John Huss so to be tormented and troubled, contrary to the king's safe-conduct, have not by their letters put the king in mind of his said safe-conduct, that the said lord and king should not any more suffer any such matters, forasmuch as they tend to the contempt and disregard of the kingdom of Bohemia, which from the first original and beginning, since it received the catholic faith, never departed or went away from the obedience of the holy church of Rome; yet, notwithstanding, they have suffered and borne all these things patiently hitherto, lest by any means, occasion of trouble or vexation of this sacred council might arise or spring thereof.
Wherefore, most reverend fathers and lords! the nobles and lords, before named, do wholly and most earnestly desire and require your reverences here present, that both for the honour of the safe-conduct of our said lord the king, and also for the preservation and increase of the worthy fame and renown, both of the aforesaid kingdom of Bohemia, and your own also, you will make a short end about the affairs of Master John Huss; forasmuch as by the means of his strait handling he is in great danger by any longer delay; even as they do most specially trust upon the most upright consciences and judgments of your fatherly reverences. But, forasmuch as, most reverend fathers and lords! it is now come to the knowledge and understanding of the nobles and lords of Bohemia here present, how that certain backbiters and slanderers of the most famous kingdom of Bohemia aforesaid have declared and told unto your reverences, how that the sacrament of the most precious blood of our Lord is carried up and down through Bohemia in vessels not consecrated nor hallowed, and that cobblers do now hear confessions, and minister the most blessed body of our lord unto others: The confutation of certain slanders.the nobles, therefore, of Bohemia here present, require and desire you, that you will give no credit unto false promoters and tale-tellers, for that, as most wicked and slanders, naughty slanderers and backbiters of that kingdom aforesaid, they do report and tell untruths; requiring also your reverences, that such slanderous persons of the kingdom aforesaid may be named and known. And the lord the king, together with your reverences, shall well perceive and see that the lords of Bohemia will go about in such manner as to refel and put away the false and frivolous slanders of these naughty persons, that they shall be ashamed to appear hereafter before the lord the king and your reverences.As soon as this their supplication was read, the bishop of Luthonis, rising up, said, “Most reverend fathers, I well perceive and understand, that the last part of this writing doth touch me, my familiars, and friends, as though the kingdom of Bohemia were slandered by us. Wherefore I desire to have time and space of deliberation, that I may purge myself from this crime that is laid against me.” The principal of the council appointed him the seventeenth day of May, at which clay the lords of Bohemia should be present again, to hear both the answer of the council, and also the excuse of the bishop of Luthonis; which thing indeed was afterward performed, for, the seventeenth day of May, which was the fourth day before Whitsuntide, they met there again; where, first of all, a certain bishop, in the name of the whole council, answered by word to the nobles of Bohemia; the contents of whose answer may easily be known by the second supplication which the Bohemians put up to the council. But first, I shall here, in these few words following, show how the bishop of Luthonis defended himself against that which is before written.