D E D I C A T I O.

THE DEDICATION

**The satellites of [the enemy] in a monstrous war against the gods original: "gigantomachia"; a reference to the mythological battle of the Giants against the Olympian gods, here used to describe a rebellion against divinely appointed authority have brandished against your sacred head—the head, that is, of the Christian world original: "orbis Christiani"—the deadly weapons of treachery and envy. These were soaked in every corruption of wickedness and poison, and sharpened by a madness of insanity, so that they might, by an abominable daring, sever the thread of your most august House (which has been preserved until now by divine gift) and root out your most holy lineage through your sacrilegious murder.

But the outcome they so certainly anticipated was in vain. This leaf metaphor for the family tree or the state, so solidly founded upon a Eucharistic base and upon that incomparable model of Princes, RUDOLPH Refers to Rudolf I of Habsburg, the founder of the dynasty's greatness, and stabilized by the continuous cultivation of piety and all virtues through so many most august descendants—which divine oracles are believed to have destined for the final comfort of a senescing world—these rivals of Babylonian impiety A common rhetorical trope linking the enemies of the state to the biblical "wicked city" of Babylon have attempted to shake.

For as much as the deadly hatreds of your enemies conspired toward your destruction, so much did the zeal of all good men who live in you keep watch for your safety; their pious vows breathed forth, and their burning desires glowed. As much as these portentous architects of crimes sought to ruin the public welfare through your death, so much did the cares of those men—indeed, of the most pious inhabitants of heaven—labor with every effort to strengthen your safety, or rather our safety which rests in you. So vain are all machinations constructed against the counsel of the Almighty God, whether by the insane presumption of a swelling and raging mind, or by the secret tunnels of treachery.

I say these things not for the delight of your ears (for you hate this kind of flattery), but because, just as the minds of all were previously frozen with horror at such monsters of crime, so now it is sweet and pious to remember these things for the comfort of our souls; for the omens of more serene times; and for a richer hope of public safety. We are raised up into this hope by the grateful memory of so many heavenly benefits, which shall never be erased by the forgetfulness of any age.

Henceforth, after so many sad clouds over the Christian Commonwealth original: "respublica Christiana", and after the torches of the cursed Furies have been extinguished, we finally take up more joyful omens of prosperity, and that not by an empty augury. For to what great good of the Christian world divine providence has destined you, it certainly seemed to have hinted to the world by a sign of no small prophecy at your birth: indeed, there were many diligent observers who gathered from heaven a clear omen of happiness...