LETTERS OF HUS

deserve to be better known.

This

t3S

is the letter written

on June loth, two days after his trial before the Council had ended. Hus was then in expectation of immediate death, though, as already stated, attempts were still made to obtain his recantation, and his execution only took place on July 6th. The letter, also written in Bohemian, is addressed "To the whole Bohemian nation." Hus " writes : Faithful in God, men and women, rich and poor, I beg and entreat you to love the Lord God, praise His word, hear it gladly, and live according to it. Cling, I beg you, to the divine truth, which I have preached to you according to God's law. I also beg that if any one has heard either in my sermons or privately anything contrary to God's truth, or if I have written anything such — which, I trust to God, is not the case — he should not retain it. I further beg, then, if any one has seen levity in me in word or deed he should not retain it ; but let him pray to God for me that God may forgive me. 1 beg you to love, praise, and honour those priests who lead a moral life, those in particular who strive for God's word. I beg you to beware of crafty people, particularly of unworthy priests, of whom our Saviour has said they are clothed like sheep, but are invariably greedy wolves. I beg the nobles to treat the poor people kindly I beg the burghers to conduct and rule them justly. their business honestly. I beg the artisans to perform their labours conscientiously. I beg the servants to I beg the serve their master and mistress faithfully. teachers to live honestly, to instruct their pupils carefully, to love God above all ; for the sake of His glory and the good of the community, not from avarice and worldly ambition should they teach. I beg the students and other scholars to obey and follow their masters in