LXXII. To Master Christian (Without date: about June 92, 1415)
Master Christian, my master and particular benefactor, take your stand on Christ’s truth and cling to the faithful. Do not be afraid; for the Lord will shortly grant you a defence and increase the number
[! For the legend of the Ten Thousand Martyrs’ see Acta Sanctorum,]
[June 22, vol. v. 151-62. The authority for this legend originally cited]
[seems to have been Bede’s Martyrologium (Migne, vol. xciv. p. 954), but]
[this work in its present form owes much to twelfth-century additions.]
[June 22 is the Day of St. Alban and the two thousand British]
[martyrs. I imagine the Ten Thousand was due to continental]
[rivalry. The Ten Thousand were said to have been crucified on]
[Mount Ararat under Marcus Aurelius. Their feast was celebrated at]
[Cracow, Breslau, at Paris in the Church of the Celestines, and especially]
[at Prague, in the treasury of which were many relics of these fabled]
[heroes, Hence the allusion of Hus, for whom relics had a charm]
[(see p. 85). Spanish writers crowned the absurdity by claiming that]
[they were Spaniards. This tale was one of the earliest to be discredited. Before the end of]
[fourteenth century Ralph de Rivo in his book De Observatione Canonum]
[(in Hittorpius, De div. Cath. Eccles. Officiis, Paris, 1560, pp. 1103-63)]
[mentions this among the fables to which Rome ient no sanction (de]
[decem millibus martyrum, quae fabulosze—dicam donec aliud videro—]
[finguntur, 4b. p. 1121). I may add that Hus’s reading militum if genuine is probably]
[a corruption from millia and certainly is not found in the usual]
[versions of the tale (e.g. Usuard’s Martyrologium, ed. Louvain, 1568).]
of Christ’s faithful ones. Be kind to the poor, as you have ever been. You have, I hope, kept your chastity and fled avarice; continue to flee it, and for your own sake do not be a pluralist. Ever hold fast the Church, that the faithful may flock to you as to a kind father. Greet affectionately Master Jakoubek and all friends of the truth. Written in chains, in expectation of being burnt.
Luthers comment on the following beautiful letter will be, we think, the verdict of all its readers. Read this, he wrote, and you will rejoice” In no letter does Hus rise to serener heights of resignation and conviction. The last paragraph is especially beautiful, and in the copy which I have used of the Epistole Piissime they have been underlined by one who, long ago, gained comfort from them.
The Council evidently had not yet given up all hopes of procuring a recantation. Palecz, we note, is somewhat softening towards his old friend, but Michael is as relentless as ever. But the issue had passed from their hands.
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