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

spirit, I pray all the pious to forgive me if I frankly confess that I cannot believe that, until I am more fully and openly instructed about those things from sacred scripture. For the end of this sacred Supper is that all communicants become one body, of which Christ is the head, and that through this communication the pious may be separated from the impious. Furthermore, these words of Christ are plain and clear: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. Therefore, the theologians must be diligently prayed to, that they also openly declare their opinion in this chapter. Namely: how an impious soul eats the body of Christ, and whether it must necessarily be believed for salvation that impious souls eat the true body of Christ, since all confess that they eat judgment, and become guilty of the body of Christ, because they do not acknowledge or believe him to be God and Savior.

But to conclude, for many (as I said above) it seems advisable for these controversies to be safely and easily composed: 1. That a Synod be established in Germany by the common consent of the Evangelical Princes: For serious matters of great importance, which concern many, can scarcely be transacted by a few without the offense of others. But just as the Roman Pontiffs are terrified by nothing more than the name of a Council, so those who now wish to be considered the censors of all in Germany seem to abhor nothing more than a general synod. But so much must be attributed to the prudence and piety of the Evangelical Princes, that they are rather to consult and provide for the struggling Republic and Church through a general synod than to patronize the pride, hatreds, and vain affections of a few theologians.

II. That in such a synod errors be condemned. III. That the Presidency, with the prudence and the counsel and consent of the theologians, distinguish those things that must necessarily be believed for salvation from those that are not necessarily to be believed: so that the Republic may not be disturbed longer because of unnecessary things. For by those means and reasons, concord will easily be established among the Churches.