The letters of John Hus/Letter 4, To Master Zawissius, Rector of Prachaticz
IV. To Master Zawissius, Rector of Prachaticz
(Late autumn, 1408)
Greetings from the Lord Jesus Christ! Reverend sir, it hath come to my ears that you have spoken of me in plain words as a heretic. If this is so, I beg you to send me a reply. You will then see, by God’s grace, that I will publicly confess and defend the faith I hold, not by detraction in nooks and corners, but in manner becoming a true Christian. I would that you knew yourself and the way you have been shearing the sheep in Prachaticz this thirty years or more! Where do you reside? Where do you work? Where do you feed the sheep? You forget the Lord’s word: Woe to the shepherds . . . that feed themselves, but the flock they did not feed.[1] Where, pray, is your fulfilment of this gospel of Christ: The good shepherd goeth before the sheep and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice?[2] In what way do you pass before the sheep, and how do they follow you or hear your voice when for many years together they rarely set eyes on you? The day will come when you will give an account of your sheep and also of the plural livings you have held. Of this last you read in your canon law that he who can get a competence out of one, cannot hold another without committing mortal sin.[3]
You ought to take these things to heart and not charge your neighbour with heresy. At all events, if you are certain he is a heretic, you ought to admonish him once or twice according to the apostle’s precept, and if he will not receive the admonition, then you may reject him as a heretic,[4] the more so as you are a master and doctor of the law able, nay bound, to occupy your master’s chair for the public defence of the truth.
I write these words by way of brotherly advice according to Christ’s precept: If thy brother shall offend against thee, rebuke him between thee and him.[5] Therefore, brother, receive me; and if you have spoken in this way about me, say so in your reply. If you prove me a heretic, I will humbly make amends and you will receive the reward of restoring a sinner from the error of his way.[6] Yet by the grace of God Almighty I hope I hold the same faith in the Lord Jesus as yourself and as truly, seeing that I am ready to suffer death on its behalf in humility and hope.