Dilucida explicatio sanae doctrinae de vera participatione carnis & sanguinis Christi in sacra coena, ad discutiendas Heshusii nebulas

CHRISTI IN COENA.

malice. The hypothesis in which he places the prow and the stern of his cause openly uncovers his profane contempt for all religion. For he wishes the entire doctrine we profess to be suspected on this one account, and he strives to render it infamous, because ever since the eternal truth of God emerged again after the darkness of the Papacy was routed, many errors also arose, which he claims he accepts as part of the reborn Gospel. As if he were bringing this lawsuit not against Christ and the Apostles rather than against us. Never had the devil raged so impotently, vexing both the bodies and souls of men, as when the heavenly and life-giving doctrine of Christ shone forth. Let him calumniate, therefore, that Christ came so that those who were previously healthy might be made demon-possessed. An incredible mass of errors began to overflow in the whole world shortly after the promulgation of the Gospel. Let the mercenary rhetorician of the Pope, Staphylus, chatter that these flowed from the Gospel as from a spring. Certainly, if he strikes any light-minded and erratic spirits with this such futile calumny, they will not stumble whose hearts have been fixed by the admonition of Paul: "It is necessary that there be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest" 1 Corinthians 11:19. He himself is a notable proof of this fact: for his beastly fury, which it is apparent is the just reward for his perfidy, confirms all the pious in the sincere fear of God. It is a matter of indifference to this foul and clearly Epicurean man that reverence for heavenly doctrine be torn from everyone's hearts. Indeed, his efforts tend toward this: not only that all religion may become worthless, but that care and zeal for it may also be shaken off. Therefore, not only does his wickedness collapse of its own vanity, but he is detestable to all good people along with his author. Meanwhile, the false