The letters of John Hus/Letter 65, To Henry Skopek de Duba

For other English-language translations of this work, see Letter of Jan Hus to Henry Skopek de Duba (2).
Jan Hus3149068The letters of John Hus1904Robert Martin Pope

LXV. To Henry Skopek de Duba[1]

(June 13, 1413)

God be with you, my dear lord! Your notes reached me on Wednesday before St. Vitus’s Day.[2] I looked at them with a happy heart, although in prison, bound with chains and expecting my death-sentence. I entreat you, dear lord, live as the law of God commands and observe what you have heard from my lips: if there hath been aught of wrong therein, spurn it. Nevertheless I trust, by the Saviour’s mercy, you have learnt nothing from me that hath been contrary to His holy will. I cannot write at length; but in a few words I counsel you to keep in your heart God’s counsels, to be kind to the poor, to abstain from pride, to lead a chaste life, and to remember these words: “What thou art, what thou wert, what thou wilt be, ever ponder: ponder too the matter, the place, the subject, the ‘why,’ the ‘how,’ the ‘when’ of thy words.”[3] Dear lord, remember me, and give my greeting to your wife and family and all my friends; for you will never methinks look upon my face again, as I am every moment expecting the sentence of death. Sent off on Thursday before St. Vitus’s Day. God be with you, dear Bohemians, and with me a sinner; it is for His holy law that I suffer.

  1. The letter is in Czech. Cf. Letters LXI. and LXII. to the same.
  2. i.e., June 12.
  3. See also next letter, p. 237. I do not know the source of this quotation.