PREFACE

The text continues from the previous page: "...from the reformed Chur-"ches, and from their legitimate Pastors they have secretly stolen away the little sheep Latin: "oviculas"; a traditional biblical metaphor for members of a church congregation as if by stealth. They have hindered the building up of those same Churches and, where they were able, they have utterly disrupted them. This fact is evident everywhere, as much concerning many others as concerning the Polish Polonicis: referring to the Protestant churches within the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Churches. In many places, before the excursions of these Brethren out of their homeland of Bohemia (where they write that they truly held dominion), these churches were devoted to our Confession original: "Confessioni addictæ"; referring to the Augsburg Confession, the foundational document of Lutheranism; yet they were at last seduced by those Brethren and completely led away from their legitimate Ministry.

Therefore, many very grave reasons—which I set forth at the beginning of this work—moved me to oppose them with this writing. I am one who, in a previous time, was called by a legitimate vocation to administer an ecclesiastical office among the Moravians The Moravians were a branch of the "Brethren" or "Unity of the Brethren" (Unitas Fratrum) who originated in the Czech lands and in their neighborhood. Having lived there for many years, I learned the details of their practices more accurately than would be possible elsewhere. This same writing of mine, before and around the time of its publication, was subjected to the judgment of certain Magnificent Lords and more eminent Theologians and Pastors, who were performing their duties both among the Bohemians (with whom the Brethren share a common homeland) and among the Germans. These men, indeed, by reading it through most diligently and weighing every point, judged it to be not only necessary but also of future use for our Churches; indeed, some of them either publicly or...