Letter

And as if they stand on their own hinges cardinibus the word from which "Cardinal" is derived, the Church of the whole world is moved and governed. Therefore, Your Eminence was long ago assumed into this most excellent dignity for your singular gifts of body and soul, your exceptional purity, your tireless zeal in preserving and adorning the Catholic religion, and your singular piety toward God. This is a testament to your own virtues and brings no small praise among mortals. All of which is further increased and adorned by the supreme office of Legate a latere at the side of the Pope entrusted to you by the successor of St. Peter. Not only that, but you undertook the care of the most ample dioceses of Metz and then Strasbourg Argentinensis of Argentina, the Latin name for Strasbourg to counsel their afflicted affairs in deed and word. You were Ezekiel 34. to seek that which had perished, bring back that which was cast away, bind that which was broken, and strengthen that which was weak. Finally, you were to guard that which was fat and strong. That is, you were to perform all the duties of a true Bishop, as one who will render an exact account of all those things to Almighty God. These are certainly the most excellent offices if administered correctly; if not, they are the most grave and dangerous of all. To perform these, one needs strength and a firm heart. What then did Your Highness do to satisfy these requirements? You girded your loins with strength and strengthened your arm. You spared no expense and did not fear to undergo dangers even to your own life, especially to bring back to health the people of Strasbourg, who for many years had been laboring under partly Calvinist and partly Lutheran heresy. Therefore, having sent letters to them once and again, you reminded them of your legitimate election as their Bishop. You urged them to restore the plundered resources of the church, to recall those ejected from their seats through the greatest injustice, and not to infest the people of the diocese with hated wars. You seriously exhorted them to obey the powers established by God and placed over them, as becomes Christians. When they did not obey the first and second warnings, you admonished them a third time to forbid certain apostate Canons from their city—men made famous by incest, robbery, and sacrilege—and to restore the monasteries to religious men and allow the practice of the Catholic religion in the great cathedral. But they did not listen to the voice of their shepherd but to that of strangers. They brought war upon their country and religion. Heretical cunning denied that this was being done under their own auspices or help, until their captains, machines, and banners were captured by a greater force, and they were convicted of public fraud and imposture. Nor were they corrected even then. Instead, progressing into worse, they called upon heretical allies from Brandenburg, Luneburg, Mansfeld, Anhalt, Baden, the Palatinate, and Switzerland to assist them. These allies acted neither slowly nor lazily, capturing and plundering many fortresses of the diocese. What did Your Highness do then? Having received a stronger and more powerful army from your excellent Parent and Illustrious brothers, you prostrated the heretical forces

Dedication.

once and again. You routed and put them to flight, liberated fortresses they had besieged, and snatched others from the hands of the enemies. Leading your victorious army bravely to the very gates of the rebellious heretical city, you wore down the enemies with just arms until, tired and broken, they agreed to certain conditions of peace and obedience. The primary cause of the dispute was left to be defined by the law of the Imperial princes and the judgment of the Emperor. In the meantime, Your Eminence would retain eight well-fortified towns of the diocese in Alsace, while certain others across the Rhine would go to the competitor from Brandenburg. As the saying goes, "a worthy lid was given to the pot" dignum patella daretur operculum a proverb meaning a fitting end or an appropriate match for a situation.

WELL DONE, therefore, in your virtue! It is fitting that heretics be compelled to their duty, not enticed, according to the authority of Tertullian. Tertullian, book Scorpiace against the Gnostics, chapters 2 and 3. Their hardness must be conquered, not persuaded. It is like idolatry, which God commands us to avoid so strictly that He ordered the places to be exterminated and the idolaters and false prophets to be killed. Deuteronomy 13. Exodus 32. Numbers 25. 1 Corinthians 10. Judges 2. For thus three thousand apostate men were slain by Moses and the Levites; and twenty-three thousand, slaughtered by domestic swords for idolatry, were sacrificed to divine wrath. After the death of Joshua, when they abandoned the God of their fathers, the Lord delivered them into the hands of plunderers, and they could not stand before their enemies. Who will deny that heresy is a separation from the God of our fathers, and at least a spiritual idolatry, by which wretched men worship the fictions of their own heads in place of the Divine Word? Nor should Your Eminence ever allow yourself to be led away from this most worthy and burning zeal by certain soft and political traitors—or rather, courtly flatterers. When they can prove Ecclesiasticus 4. that Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, and Micah spared the false prophets and seducers; or that Mattathias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, the High Priests of the old Synagogue, indulged those who betrayed the faith of their parents; or finally, that Peter and Paul, the chief Apostles of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, played along with and ignored Simon Magus, Nicolaus, Hymenaeus, Philetus, Ebion, and similar heretics—only then may they persuade Your Eminence to allow these seducers to act quietly and destroy the souls of your subjects at their whim. Meanwhile, by the exhortation of the Wise Man, fight for justice even unto death, and God will fight down your enemies. Do not cease to prove yourself the legitimate offspring and clear descendant of Charlemagne, who tamed the Saxons, Pannonians, Dalmatians, Slavs, Lombards, and heretical or infidel Saracens. Extend your fame by your deeds. Do not leave what you have, lest another take your crown. Labor as a good soldier of Christ JESUS, and you will find a great reward laid up for you in heaven. To this end, the work of Blessed IRENAEUS, which is to say...