Ratio ineundae Concordiae inter Ecclesias reformatas, sive, quibus modis occurri possit mirificis artibus, quibus pontificii per quosdam imprudentes theologos universas Christi ecclesias potissimum autem et primum Germanicas pessundare conantur

It is to be hoped that many other Protestant Princes and Potentates will also send their own together, so that by the common consent and authority of all, concord may be more easily entered into and, once entered into, may be more certain and lasting.

Let the Evangelical Princes now weigh whether it was not the custom in the ancient Church for the Emperor, King, or Prince to preside over the Synod that he instituted or the general council that he convoked, or for those political, prudent men of the highest judgment chosen and appointed by him to perform that duty. If that custom has been recognized, received, and approved hitherto by so many most powerful Emperors, so many most prudent Kings and Princes, and by so many most pious and learned theologians as useful and most necessary for ending controversies, why should it be rejected in this most disturbed time, if other more expedient means are not proposed?

II. Let those Presidents ask of the interlocutors that they abstain from those seditious, factious, and hateful names, or—to use the words of Paul—from those which are more than enough carnal, [namely] those of Lutherans and Calvinists. And let them use others (at least while they are speaking). For in the kingdoms of France, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, and among the Swiss, there are (God be praised) more than five hundred thousand men who have read the Holy Bible more diligently and with greater fear of God and with even greater fruit than those theologians by whom they are rashly condemned: and who are of such wisdom and worth so much in judgment that they can easily discern from the Holy Scripture and the common consent of the Fathers what they ought to believe for their salvation: nor are they so mad as to want to risk all their fortunes, their lives, and their eternal salvation for the sake of Luther or Calvin: they indeed confess that both men were learned and well-deserving of the churches of Christ, but they are not ignorant that the writings of each are of such a kind that in many places they need explanation, and for that reason are to be read with the highest judgment. For that reason, it seems advisable to many that the errors which some attribute to Luther and Calvin be noted and considered in the Synod, and be judged by the common counsel of all. Furthermore, that for those things which are found to be doubtful in their writings, or which are said more obscurely, convenient [explanations] be added.