Vita clarissimi viri D. Iosiae Simleri Tigurini, S. Theologiae in Schola Tigurina Professoris fidelissimi

power. It is said that Themistocles, as a young man, when he could not sleep, was accustomed to say that he was awakened by the desire to rest upon the trophies of Miltiades. How much more keenly, then, must men be inflamed and incited by such trophies of virtue, which they behold not set in marble for the proclamation of a short time, but commended to all eternity through literature?

And surely, in this most corrupt age of ours, which is piled high with every kind of vice, the rarer the examples of virtue are found, the more diligently and accurately they must be collected and proposed to all, not only for observation but also for imitation. For they have not only much moment and weight for teaching, but also for consoling and uplifting the pious, who in these ruined and profligate times of ours—with the infinite multitude of the impious wandering and running rampant everywhere, and the small number of the pious—are vehemently offended and weakened in their spirits.

Finally, since the impious have such a zeal, which, alas, we experience daily, to deform the lives of the pious, both living and dead, with the most lying slanders and insults, how much more zeal should we strive and labor to treat their lives with the due and deserved praises that truth and reason demand? Great, therefore, as is apparent from these few points I have mentioned, is the remarkable impudence and ignorance of those who dare to reject and despise the custom of describing the lives of such famous men—a custom still common in all academies, just, honest, and looking toward the glory of God, the praise of the fatherland, and the safety and utility of all men.

If this honor, such as it is, should be attributed to any other person by the most just right, it is to our Simler, whose singular zeal was evident in adorning and celebrating our entire fatherland and church, and in particular its three main lights: Petrus Martyr Peter Martyr Vermigli, Gesnerus Conrad Gessner, and Bullingerus Heinrich Bullinger. I also learned from that most distinguished and dear friend of mine, Froschauer, that a description of Simler's life has been requested again and again at the Frankfurt fairs by several men outstanding in doctrine and piety, who even said they were very surprised why it had been omitted and neglected by us until now. And although the writings of learned men that exist are sufficiently suitable and manifest testimonies of their doctrine and piety, so that such descriptions might seem superfluous, vain, and empty, there is no doubt—