first, I will recite in good faith the articles which the booklet of the adversaries contains, transmitted to me by the Mechlin senate, with my petition recently sent to the same most illustrious senate, also placed here. Then, I will respond to each one, so that our detractors cannot abuse my silence as if it were a consciousness of guilt, and I will mark with numbers added in the margin to which words of my response the statements of the adversaries refer, and I will show, by adding brief scholijs scholarly notes/commentaries to the margin of the articles, with what arts of calumny these theologians of pious ears use.

TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MEN,

the Lord President and the Senators of the Imperial

Parliament at Mechlin,

A woodcut depicts the letter 'Q' as an ornamental drop cap, featuring a winged cherub or putto figure within an architectural square frame.
Since some rabbis of Louvain, almost a year ago, gathered out of scholastic hatred certain articles from my declamation (On the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences and Arts, and the Excellence of the Word of God), by which they have slandered me secretly and behind my back to the Imperial Majesty and his private council, accusing me of error, impiety, scandal, and perhaps even heresy. Then truly, whether fearing that a judgment of that case would bring dishonor upon them, or whether it seemed sufficient to them that a fictitious crime concerning me might dwell in the ulcerated mind of the Caesar, they have thus far deferred the prosecution of those articles. I, however, who am not cruel to my own fame, nor prodigal of my honor, nor wish to be nor ought to be a deserter of my own innocence, nor to be judged by an injurious name before the Caesar and all clear and upright men, since I had understood that those articles had lain deserted and, as it were, buried in your hands for many months, I petition your clarity and urgently ask that a transcript of those articles be given to me and your decree be interposed upon them, prepared, if any things are erroneous, to amend them, if any things were wrongly understood, to declare them, and to vindicate my own innocence and integrity from the crime of impiety and the injury of those slandering me, which, as I ask what is just and fair, so I think you will not deny it to me, continually perceiving the rest in all matters.