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Notice to the Synod - Jan Huss, The Letters of John Hus [1904]

Edition used:

The Letters of John Hus. With Introductions and Explanatory Notes by Herbert B. Workman and R. Martin Pope (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1904).

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Notice to the Synod

Master John of Husinecz, bachelor of divinity,2 is ready to appear before the most reverend father, Conrad, Archbishop of Prague, legate of the Apostolic Seat, at the next convocation of all the prelates and clergy of the kingdom of Bohemia, being at all times prepared to give an account of the faith and hope that is in him to the satisfaction of all who may inquire of him thereof; and, moreover, to see and to hear each and all who have a mind to charge him with obstinacy in error or with any heresy whatsoever, in order that they may render themselves liable in that same place, according to the requirements of the law of God and of justice, to the penalty of retaliation, if they fail legally to prove against him obstinacy in error or heresy.1 To all which charges before the said Archbishop and prelates, and withal at the next General Council in Constance, he is ready with God’s help to reply, to abide by the law, and, in Christ’s name, to prove his innocence according to the decrees and canons of the holy fathers. Given on Sunday following the feast of St. Bartholomew.2

On the refusal of the Synod to receive either Hus or his proctor, Jesenicz, Hus on August 30 once more posted up notices on the door of the royal palace and throughout all Prague stating his future intentions.

[2 ]Baccalarius formatus, the technical term for a bachelor of divinity who had read Peter Lombard’s Sentences, but not yet incepted as a regent. See, e.g., Chartularium Univ. Paris, ii. 700, and for Oxford, Munimenta Acad. (R.S.), 392, 395-6.

[1 ]Hus is here strictly within the canon law. See Gratian, II. C. 2, q. 3. This point is emphasised in the conclusion of the Czech Notice.

[2 ]August 26, 1414.