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XLVIII.: To John of Chlum ( Without date: March 4, 1415) - 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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XLVIII.

To John of Chlum

(Without date: March 4, 1415)

Will you please expound my last night’s dream? I dreamt that they wanted to destroy all the pictures of Christ in the Bethlehem, and they did so. On rising next morning methought I saw many painters, who had painted other pictures more beautiful, upon which I gazed with joy. And the painters and a great assembly of folk cried out, “Let the priests and bishops come and destroy these pictures of ours!” Whereupon much people rejoiced in the Bethlehem, and I with them. And when I awoke, I found myself laughing.

Note that they had spread it abroad in several quarters that they wanted to destroy the writing on the walls of the Bethlehem Chapel. I will forward a copy of my treatises, which I have copied out in duplicate.1

To this letter of Hus we fortunately possess the answer of John of Chlum. It was written by Peter Mladenowic, his secretary, who has added at the close a paragraph of his own, explaining how it came to pass that Hus called Chlum ‘the doctor of Biberach’ (see p. 155). The letter is a revelation of the sturdy common sense and genial humour of the honest knight. But the Latin is very obscure and crabbed.

John of Chlum to Master John Hus

(Without date: March 5, 14152 )

My beloved friend, do not be troubled about the hearing,3 as more than ordinary attention is now being given to this and the rest of your case. We are hoping that, by God’s kindness, all these matters are working out to a holy issue. Only get rid of the other fancies and entanglements of your brain; lay them aside, and give your thoughts to the charges that are to be laid against you, and the reply you are to give. Nevertheless, the truth infallible forbids you to take thought, saying, When ye shall stand, etc., and as follows: For it shall be given you in that hour what to speak.1

This is the exposition of the dream:—

The picture of Christ painted on the walls of the “House of Bread”2 is His life, which is to be imitated. Likewise in the same place the Holy Scripture that cannot be broken is represented. Both of these the enemies of Christ’s cross attempt to daub out in the evening darkness; for the Sun of righteousness setteth upon them by reason of their misshapen3 life, and it seems as if the Christ and His Scriptures will be forgotten in the sight of men. But on the morrow, at the rising of the Sun of righteousness, both of these are restored and painted more splendidly by preachers, who proclaim on the housetops what had been spoken in the ear4 and well-nigh passed into oblivion. Thereupon from all these things great joy arises in the community. And the Goose, although he be laid on the altar, as indeed he is now laid there, and although he shall be distressed by the weakness of the flesh, yet in the time to come, as we trust, he will be with Him Who dwells in the heavens; and as he awakes from the sleep of this miserable life, he will howl in derision and hiss at those destroyers of the picture and of Scripture. Nay, in this present life, by God’s blessing, with mighty earnestness he will restore in clearer colours and paint anew those pictures and Scriptures alike for the flock and his beloved friends.

Here endeth the learned doctor of Biberach,5 who maketh his exposition of this passage in a Daniel’s6 vision to conform with that wherein the goose, floating on the sea, took refuge, as it seemed, on a rock: for both of these indicate a foundation that, cannot be shaken. Your friends and supporters have no little joy in your letters, although it is true they are known to few.1 To-day an embassy from the King of the French arrived at Constance.2

[1 ]The treatises written in prison. See p. 171.

[2 ]See last clause and p. 190.

[3 ]The public audience.

[1 ]Matt. x. 19.

[2 ]Chlum evidently knew the meaning of Bethlehem. His correspondence shows that he was a well-educated man.

[3 ]Difformis = deformis.

[4 ]Luke xii. 3; paraphrase only.

[5 ]P. 155.

[6 ]Cf. “A Daniel come to judgment.”

[1 ]Licet constet valde paucis. Possibly it is the letters that are few.

[2 ]March 5, 1415. See p. 190.