the latter end of the council of Constance, and to the choosing of Pope Martin, as the order of years and time shall require.
*But first[1] I will declare a certain vision, which the said John Huss had in his country of Bohemia, before his martyrdom. He, being the minister in the church of Bethlehem, had a vision by night, that he had painted, in the said church of Bethlehem, certain pictures of Christ and his apostles; which pictures the bishop of Rome, with certain cardinals, came and defaced: which being done, within a while after, it seemed unto him that other painters came in place, renewing and repairing the said pictures, which he had painted before, of Christ and his apostles, and much more fair than he had done before. The number of which painters was so great that they gloried against the pope and all the cardinals, bidding them now to come and put them out if they could: which thing, with all their power, they were not able to do.
This vision John Huss himself, in his book of epistles, expoundeth; and applieth these pictures of Christ and his apostles, unto the preaching of Christ and his apostles. Which preaching and doctrine, though the pope and his cardinals should extinguish in him, yet did he foresee and declare that the time should come that the same doctrine should be renewed again by other preachers, so plenteously, that the pope, with all his power, should not be able to prevail against it.
Thus much as concerning the vision of John Huss, whereunto doth well accord the prophecy of the same Huss[2] a little before his death, and printed on the coin, there, in Bohemia, called 'Moneta Hussiana,' having this subscription. Centum Revolutis Annis Deo Respondebitis et Mihi; Anno 1415. That is, "One hundred years come and gone, you shall give account to God and me. Anno 1516;" for the exposition of this prophecy, if we count from this year of John Huss, which is 1415, unto the year of our Lord, 1516, in which year Martin Luther first began to write against the pope, we shall find the number of a hundred years fully complete.*
Vide supra.Henry Chichesley archbishop of Canterbury.Ye heard before, how, after the death of Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, succeeded Henry Chichesley, A.D. 1414, and sat twenty-five years; in whose time was much trouble and great bishop of affliction of good men here in England; of whom many were compelled to abjure, some were burned, divers were driven to exile. Whereof, partly now to treat as we find them in registers and histories recorded, we will first begin with John Claydon, currier, of London, and Richard Turming; whom Robert Fabian doth falsely affirm to be burned in the year wherein sir Roger Acton and Master Brown suffered; who indeed suffered not before the second year of Henry Chichesley being archbishop of Canterbury, which was A.D. 1416.[3] The history of which John Claydon, in the registers, is thus declared.
