PREFACE

...[he] even finally noticed that the brothers had fallen into heresy, on the grounds that they promised to reform the defects of the arts and to heal and correct their ailments; And yet we see that in Theology—the most excellent of sciences—the context of the Holy Bible is constantly called into controversy, since one school of theologians interprets it in one sense, and another in another. Each school is accustomed to explain and twist any of the more difficult passages of the scriptures in its own way, and this is done without any suspicion of heresy—although it is the habit and custom of the Romans and Papists A 17th-century term for followers of the Roman Catholic Church, often used by Protestant writers to imply political and religious subjection to the Pope. to most gravely accuse those of heresy who do not constantly adhere to their religion.

Thus Lutherans, Calvinists, and others of this kind—and likewise these brothers—are to be held as heretics because they have condemned the Pope along with Muhammad original: Mahumeta. The author is grouping the Papacy with Islam as external threats to "true" Christian spirituality, a common rhetorical move in Reformation-era polemics., if any faith is to be placed in the vain and threatening assertions of the Papists.

Having therefore carefully weighed these things in my mind, I perceived it to be a negligence in man—one that can never be punished enough by the whip of ignorance—to lightly refuse and reject such gifts of wisdom, which are perhaps offered to us by divine power. For it is the part of a wise man to accept what is good with a grateful heart, and to sagaciously reject what is evil as unworthy. For "prophecies are not to be despised, but all are to be tested and those which are good are to be retained" (1 Thessalonians 5). We are also exhorted to follow love and to desire spiritual gifts so that we may prophesy from them (1 Corinthians 14). I say, therefore, that the propositions of the brothers are not to be despised, since it is possible that the true [inspiration] of the Holy Spirit...