I, Poggius, send you, my Leonhard Nikolai, many greetings!
As you will remember from my former epistle dated on Saint Clara's day 1414, I have been called upon to journey to Prague in Bohemia, to challenge the world-renown arch-heretic John of Hussinecz, near Brachatitz, to appear before the Council of Constance, which will shortly convene there, so that he might answer to the fathers of the Church for his loose talk, teachings and preachings. I shall now let you know, my dear friend, what happened to me upon my pilgrimage and what mine eyes have beheld and examined here and there, because it is not given to everyone of our station that he may or must travel thus far; but do not expect fine words and style, only simple news and true arguments. Travel I did, not on foot, but upon an ass, which I straddled on the fifteenth of June of the said year, after I had received the summons for Hus on the previous day from his Holiness Pope John XXIII, through Cardinal Goolvi. The morning was foggy, but soon the mist dispelled, and before I had ridden an hour from home, the sunlight continued to shine upon my road, to mine and the donkey's pleasure, since he had carried me, exceptionally tractable, as far as Gerstbach. There I only partook of milk and fish, as it happened to be a fastday. While I ate, I remembered that I had forgotten the summons and left it behind in my prayer-cell, so that I was forced to ride back to fetch it. To the astonishment of my conventuals, I returned about midnight, seat-sore and devoid of all sprightliness. Two days of rest and a thimbleful of tallow healed my callouses, so that I felt fit to travel on, but this time I mounted more carefully and went the same way, which I had traveled before, as far as Lossenau and from there to the Abbey of Herrenalb where the pious brothers of the order of the Cistercensians took care of me lovingly. Two days I stayed in that paradise in the wilderness, then I proceeded to the hot springs in the valley of Wildbach. I had been under way for about the length of an hour when a terribly weaponed knight held the forest path with his charger, asking me whose protection I enjoyed?
"That of the blessed Virgin and her Son," was my submissive answer.
"Did not your donkey carry your body into the Abbey of Herrenalb yesterday, of which those of Eberstien have been the founders and protectors since immemorable times and still are, although these lazy busybodies in the cloister have renounced our protection and have asked for that of the Wuerttemberg prince?"
"I rode into the settlement to seek shelter for the night; I am a messenger and carry peace for everyone, I also carry a goodly part of ransom with me, to discharge any indebtedness, wherever I might incur it, for shelter and meals."
"Have you also ransomed your donkey's feed, watering, shelter and care with those of Herrenalb?" asked he of Eberstein.
"Not so!" I replied. "He found his feed in the fields until I rode on."
"Then your long-eared mount browsed in my territory, for that I ask of you five hundred hollow-pfennig feed money, for which I shall also give you free convoy to the springs of Wildbad."
"You cannot really mean that, my Lord! I do not carry such an amount with me. "
"Then give me of your free will what you carry with you, you can much easier wander toward your goal unburdened and, by the way, I like your donkey better than you! Will you therefore come down from the animal's back?"
"Sir Knight!" I prayed, "leave me my carrier, for I am a punished wanderer upon the stony roads."
"That you should be; your teacher said so himself to your priors: "Go forth into the world, but not ride ye!" Thus jesting, he of Eberstien lifted or threw me to the ground, took from me my bag with the money it contained and went laughingly on his way with my donkey.
I had to drag myself, pitifully, on raw soles, to the walls of Hirsau. There I met the Bishop of Sulzbach who visited there. He took me in his carriage to Stuttgart and to Altenburg near Cannstadt. How different is that land from that in which we have our abode, dear Nikolai! Instead of the black forests, in which robbers and beasts lie in ambush, one sees vineyards and fruit gardens, and Stuttgart too, the court of the Wuerttembergs, is a pleasant township in which tile-roofed houses stand in orderly rows, beside the proudfully rising, well protected castle belonging to the feudal lords, said to contain a wine cellar that has no equal in all Germany.
Yet it is not alone the cellar, which is notable; wines too are said to be within it, such as no other court, no bishop's see from the Swiss Lake to Cologne, may boast of. Too, many lovely maidens wander about in Stuttgart, with rosy cheeks and yellow hair, of stately figure and not such half-grown ones as at home. The men have a martial bearing and I don't feel especially comfortable among them; to judge by their language, they are mostly adherents of the English heretic Wycliffe, they do not cross themselves and they mutter when they see the priestly garb. I would rather condemn the new teachings anywhere but in Stuttgart. The womenfolk walk about piously, chaste and without pouting, those of rank as well as the commoners. When night comes, the youths revel in the streets and make lovely music, using green leaves in their mouths, such as I have never heard anywhere and even in the morning they leave thusly for their hills and fields. They carry seed-grain and harvest upon their backs, the women upon their heads, which impresses me as incautious and stupid. The marketing is done upon an unpaved square, which is full of mire, away from the spring in its center, upon which a wooden lion sits, quite sternly to behold. They keep quite a lot of domestic animals at Stuttgart; every day the herders drive their cows, geese, goats and swine out to pastures, blowing upon long steer horns. At night, watchers walk about, calling the hour with strong voices, and singing rhymes. What one does need for nourishment and daily needs, is, all in all, unbelievably cheap, and I was told, that for an honest handshake one is often invited by strangers to drink wine as much as one wants, since wine is said to be more plentiful in Stuttgart than pure water, although I have not seen little of it. Water flows about the town, in broad moats of the castle, and at some places mills rattle, castiron pipes shed water here and there. To tell you, my dear Nikolai, more about the town, I'm not able just now, but if I am fortunate enough to come here again, I propose to see more and will make notes of it. I wandered away from there to Esslingen, Gmuend, Ellwangen, Aalen, Bopfingen, Noerdlingen, Waldmuenchen, Radpuza, Pilsen, always without danger and inconvenience; because from one stop to the other one, if there happened to be no road, serfs of the cloisters carried me for hours upon their shoulders without a grudge. How different it became, however, the nearer I came to Prague, that nest of heretics. Ridiculed by the children, despised by the elders and spat upon by many, I could only travel towards Prague under cover, because everywhere Hussites were waiting in ambush to ascertain my mission. The more lovingly I was sheltered by Archbishop Sbynko, who had ordered to be burned in his court more than two hundred writings of Wycliffe which were to be distributed by Hus. It was he who had forbidden Hus to preach in Bohemian in Bethlehem-Chapel. This heretic did not obey him, until after my summons, to appear at Constance before the council, had been brought to him. To this he gladly consented, more so, because the Emperor Sigismund had given him safe conduct and protection had been promised him in my summons by our holy father, John XXIII. Also Count Chlum, Stolzoh and Bokh had been given him as a guard by King Wenceslaus. On the 8th of the Hay moon we left Prague and arrived, on the first day of the Autumn-month at Urach, a town in the lands of princes of Wuerttemberg, where a Count Eberhard had just arrived. This one invited Hus and his companions to travel with him to Stuttgart, so that he might show them honors there and festivities, since it was autumn now, which they gladly accepted. Six days prior to St. Gaul's day we arrived at said place early in the morning, and it looked as if the children of Israel had made their exodus to Canaan. Old and young were wandering into the fields to harvest the well grown grapes. But when we came into the neighborhood of the city gate, down from a steep and dangerous mountain, many people stood about our coach, because they had not seen such Wheel-wright-craft before. And instead of going into their hills, men, women and children turned about and followed us, to ascertain who was sitting in the coach. We stopped at the inn "Urban" for shelter and board. In the shortest time the house was surrounded with inquisitive questioners as to who had arrived, and when the curious mob had learned that the Bohemian Hus of Prague was passing through, there was unending whispering in all the streets of the town. It was everybody's desire to see the Wycliffian Hus, he who preached a new gospel without fear and ban.
Many men came to the inn, to shake hands with us and to invite us to visit them in their homes. Among other excellent and well learned gentlemen there was also Albrecht Widenmeyer, called the Herrenberger, prior to Stuttgart, long a friend of the bishop of Constance, who had brought it about that the monks in his abbey were permitted to eat cheese, milk and eggs on fastdays. Deep into the night there were discussions before open doors, quite civil and without hatred, about fundamental and less important matters of the church, entered into by the prior, the clergy and some of the educated laymen. When I heard Hus talk, I remembered what the scriptures say: "And all of them became full of the holy ghost. " None were at a loss about what to say and yet every one's speech could be called proper, clever and excellent in every respect. Oh, dear Nikolai, how different now is the chamber of my heart! Instead of the darkness of a dead belief, the light of understanding of the gospel has entered; instead of hatred and malice for the Wycliffian and other heretic folk, peace and forgiveness have embraced me in that evening hour and never shall I be the recording accuser about the deeds and neglect of my neighbor, as sure as the virgin, blessed from eternity to eternity, may help me. Already the day was dawning anew, when the assemblage parted with the promise, to invite Hus, after the holy mass on the coming noon, to exercise the preacher's office, for the running time of an hourglass and more. Against this plan many of the young and older priests of the abbey, the monks and beggar monks protested, calling the plan a damned heretism, devils-pact and Babylonian whoring. The burghers though, did not bother much about the caterwauling on all corners and upon the pavement and none paid attention to the threats. Yes, one Peter Blanken and one Conrad Borrhusen, who the night before had heard the speeches of Hus at "Urbans", grabbed one of the cursing monks by his cloth, dragged him beneath the pump at a well and quickly pumped so much water upon him that his last hour seemed to have arrived. This would have really happened, had it not been for Fuenffer, one of the council, who happened by with two town-soldiers and safely saw the monk from the chaffing mob into the confines of the abbey. It is said that the same soup had been cooked for four or five of St. Leonard, because they had cursed everyone who came through the inner gate into the town today and condemned their body, soul, worldly possessions and eternal salvation. But those of St. Leonard were not satisfied with mudslinging and cursing, they mounted the lifting gear at the gate and lowered the palisades, so that nobody could leave or enter. This incited, as I have heard tell and have written down from hearsay, one Philipp Kessler, Dionys Zillenhard and Young Binkusser, so that they courageously stormed the gate, chased the hinderers away and lifted the palisades. Two of the men from St. Leonard were cast into the Giessuebel, near the bridge, by the angry burghers, the others were said to have escaped through the moat. No man, woman, child, hired man or servant girl remained inside of their four walls. Everybody, who had sound feet, hastened and scrambled toward the abbey church, not only to hear, but also to see, inquisitively, what wonders there might be, more so, because the majority did not know why they came there at all. For this reason the abbey people closed the portals to separate the curious mob, who filled the cramped streets and congested the narrow bridgelets. They lifted each other on arms and shoulders over the walls which encircled the church, so that the churchyard became filled more and more and a pressure was created from within and without. Suddenly, half a rod of wall toward the castle-market crumbled and broke down, killing several of the mob, others had their legs cut off by the stones and others were slightly bruised. When Count Eberhard heard of these events, he rose from his sick-bed and ordered the burghers to be quiet under penalty of corporal punishment and disfavor, adjudged the abbey people, for their unthinkable stubbornness, as being right, but not prudent and called Hus, with Count Chlum and his companions into his castle, where after a long discourse in argument and counter, the ostracized Bohemian priest was given a hearing, and was permitted to preach in the open courtyard before all the people according to his manner and belief. The fundamental text for his words he took from the Biblia Sacra, where, in the gospel according to St. Luke, it is said of the mild Samaritan: "Go and do thou likewise." For a long time, dear brother Nikolai, I, thy Poggius, reasoned with myself, whether or not, I too, should walk over to the castle, to listen to the man summoned before the Council at Constance; finally I tired of worried reticence and walked across the few paces which separated the church from the county seat and came to a stop across from the Reformer, who stood, in the black garb of the penitent, upon a stool, so that all eyes could see him and all ears could hear him.
Loudly penetrated Hus' fiery words: "Love thy neighbor as thyself, and God above everything else!" "into every hearer's heart. More masterly, more courageously no apostles' holy lips could speak. There you should have heard, dear Nikolai, the interpretation of the parable of the proud priest, the self-satisfied Levite, who had left the man, beaten and wounded, lying beside the road not cared for nor pitied by anybody, until a despised follower of another religion honored his own belief by the deed and not by hollow sham. And then you should have noted how he called the ways of our priests a godless idolatry, which is only a ringing bell and stupid salt, as long as hatred, pride, strife and persecution come from them and as long as they were not willing to heal everybody's wounds, be they in soul or body, manfully and without rancor. Yes, such teaching is not heresy, or Christ himself is such an heretic in every way. After Hus had ended, Eberhard of Wuerttemberg offered him his hand and led him with his followers into his chambers and banqueted with them, for which he was censured by the gentlemen of the church, but was highly praised by the listening burghers. Following that was a festive day for Stuttgart; with sweet wine, jellied meat and white loaves everybody celebrated. We should have had to sit here more than a year, fat and idle, if we should have lent an ear to every welcome bidding or had accepted half of the invitations. For fully eight days we remained here, in which time we also saw unhappiness. First of all, four of those were buried, who had happened to be under the falling wall; instead of granting them an honest burial, such as would have been not more than right, the priests of the parish remonstrated, they closed the gate of the church cemetery to the biers, (to which act they were not entitled, according to my humble opinion) and did not permit the bodies to rest in sacred earth, those unfortunates, because, as was claimed, they found a deserved end in forcible acts against the church and had departed without confession and absolution. For a long time the bereaved people cried and begged to allow their dead to be laid next to their brethren resting in the memory of Christ. They hoped for a granting of their request until the sun had almost set, but in vain! Thereupon great bereavement permeated the whole town of Stuttgart and my own heart seemed to burst for the woe of it; women came with their children and begged for clemency for their dead; all these found no attention. Then came the men from the vineyards and many gentlemen from the hills, who heard the request. Just as the wind rises all at once, there rose within the ever growing crowd a grim unrest. Within a few moments the entrance gate crashed and the biers were carried in to rest with the other honest bones. Even though the chaplain tried not to submit to the force, courageously holding a crucifix against the crowd, he was nevertheless compelled to read the services since even Count Eberhard requested it. The following day a strict order was issued that no one, be it who may, high or low, aristocrat of lowborn, young or old, was to speak of the dire happenings, as had occurred in the recent days, whether in the public houses nor in the inns, nor to tell firsthand of from hearsay to the young folks, under penalty of severe punishment and sentence. Further, Count Chlum and his companions were advised to leave Stuttgart and travel on to their destination. These honorable men had not to be told twice and proceeded at once with their journey and on the second day of November we reached Petershausen, situated opposite Constance, where I hastened at once to embrace you, dear Nikolai. But to my sorrow I was told that you had, due to the painful gout which has made you so cruelly suffer for a long time, left for the healing Wildbad near Hirsau, where I am sending you this epistle with the appendix, in order to intimately acquaint you with everything which might occur at the heresy court. That much I might dare to predict already, that all delegates, cardinals, arch-bishops and bishops will not be able to harm Hus, unless it be by force and unclean heart, which would be sinful and godless withal, which the Holy Trinity, whose protection I beseech for you and all mankind, may prevent.
Written on the third of November in the year of Christ 1414.
Poggius, Prior of St. Nicholas.