The Waldensian Confession

PREFACE

[...pub]licly The text continues from the previous page's partial word "public-". issued from their assembly original: "Synagoga"; here the author uses the term 'synagogue' polemically to refer to the governing body or meeting of the Bohemian Brethren against me, to which at least a private response was given by me.

However, so as not to pass over in silence those things which were objected against me in the Protest of the Waldensians original: "VValdensium"; the author identifies the Bohemian Brethren with the Waldensian movement—not without insults and injuries—I made mention of them in another way in a second Oration. I delivered this speech at the beginning of my theological lectures in the year 1586, after I had been called by a legitimate vocation from Moravia to the office of Superintendent Superintendent: A high-ranking administrative and pastoral office in the Lutheran church, similar to a bishop in Braunschweig original: "Brunsvigam". This oration was titled On the Origin and Causes of Religious Conflicts, etc. and was printed in Magdeburg. Among other things, therefore, I advised that the Bohemian Brethren should contend with me using reasons sought from Holy Scripture and the Augsburg Confession The primary confession of faith for Lutherans, presented in 1530 which agrees with it—that is, with true arguments and not at all with insults—and that they should defend their cause, if they were wise.

I also added this: If they wish to satisfy intelligent people by denying my charges, it is necessary that they utterly deny and remove from their midst the corruptions which they have long ago and recently inserted into their Confession—which has been changed many times—and into their Apology A formal written defense of their religious positions and many other booklets. Furthermore, they must deny the injuries against our churches which are better known and more troublesome to their neighbors among the Bohemians and Moravians (to whom I add the Poles, Prussians original: "Prutenos", and some from among the Silesians) than to the foreigners who defend them. These [neighboring churches] know these injuries better and find them more...