a) Speculum Humanae Salvationis (Mirror of Human Salvation). Blockbook, probably Flemish, (c. 1446-1471).

b) I heard then also a wonderful melody and joyful singing of angels with a marvellous sweetness and heavenly delight. Then the womb of the Virgin that was very great before the birth, it shrank and withdrew inward again to the state that it was in before she conceived. And then her body was of a marvellous and of right great beauty and fairness and full pleasant to behold.

After that the Virgin perceived and knew that she had borne the child, she then being still upon her knees, most devoutly she inclined and bowed down her head and with both her hands joined together she honoured and worshipped him with great honesty and reverence, saying to him these words: ‘Welcome my God, my lord and my son’. Then the blessed child, weeping and trembling for coldness and hardness of the pavement where upon he lay, turned himself then a little, seeking to find some comfort, and the favour and succour of his mother and anon the blessed Virgin his mother full lovingly and reverently took him up into her hands and held him to her breast and with her nipple and with her breast she made him warm with full great joy and gladness, with a motherly tender compassion.

c) The worthiest thing, of most goodness in all this world, is the mass. In all the books of Holy Church that holy men have written over time, the mass is praised many times over; its benefits may never be totalled. For if a thousand clerics did nothing else, as the book tells, but list the virtues of singing the mass, and the benefits from hearing the mass, yet they could never tell more than a fifth part (for all their understanding and all their ability) of the benefit, rewards, and pardon for he who with devotion, in purity and with good intent pays honour to this sacrament. I find in a book written by someone (Dom Jerome was his name - a devout and religious man) who speaks thus in his writing. He says, you shall have a good mind not to create any commotion at the mass; he sets a great example with this why it is bad to do that; also he explains the way in which you should hear your mass. When the priest speaks, he says, or if he sings, you should listen well to him: when he prays privately, that is a time for you to pray.

Lay Folks’ Mass Book (c.1400)

d) Further it is stated that the said John Hus obstinately preached and defended the erroneous articles of Wyclif in schools and in public sermons in the city of Prague. He replied that he had neither preached nor wished to follow the erroneous doctrine of Wyclif or of anyone else, as Wyclif was neither his father nor a Czech. And if Wyclif had disseminated some errors, let the English see to that.

When they objected to him that he had resisted the condemnation of the 45 articles of Wyclif, he replied that when the doctors had condemned his (Wyclif’s) 45 articles for the reason that none of them was catholic, but that every one of them was either heretical, erroneous, or scandalous, he dared not consent to their condemnation because it was an offence to his conscience.

e) I denounce and charge Yuçe Franco, Jew, citizen of Tembleque, who is present ... Item. He contracted and made a contract and agreement, as principal, jointly with others, to secure a consecrated host to commit outrages against it and abuse it, in vituperation of and contempt for our holy Catholic Faith, and because among the said Jews, accomplices in the aforesaid offence and conspiracy, there were certain sorcerers [hechizeros] and, on a day during their Passover, he had to receive the aforesaid host in communion [sic], and also the heart of a Christian child: and when these acts had been done in the aforesaid form and manner, all the Christians were to die of rabies. And the intention which moved Yuçe Franco and his followers and co-conspirators in the aforesaid agreement, was that the law of Moses should be better honoured and kept, and that its rites and precepts and ceremonies be more freely kept by them, and because the entire Christian religion would perish and be subverted ...

Inquisition trial of Yuçe Franco, Avila (1490). Case of the Holy Child of La Guardia.

f) It is a mystery to me how my theses, more so than my other writings, indeed, those of other professors, were spread to so many places. They were meant exclusively for our academic circle here. This is shown by the fact that they were written in such a language that the common people could hardly understand them. they are propositions for debate, not dogmatic definitions, and they use academic categories. Had I anticipated their widespread popularity, I would certainly have done my share to make them more understandable.

What shall I do now? I cannot recall my theses and yet their popularity makes me to be hated. Unwillingly I must enter the public limelight and subject myself to the dangerously shifting judgement of men ... Therefore, Most Holy Father, I prostrate myself before your Holiness and dedicate myself to you with whatever I am and have. Raise me up or slay me, approve my work or reject it according to your pleasure: I shall recognise your voice as the voice of Christ, speaking and ruling in you.