Two Orations on the Political Question: Whether the Children of Lutherans Can Be Sent to Jesuit Schools with a Clear Conscience

rummaging through the homes of the powerful and the wealthy, crawling into every corner, searching out and examining everything, even consciences themselves, so that no impediment can be placed in the way of the Jesuit course, nor anything attempted or thought against παπποκολακείαν flattery of the Pope and the absolute authority of their father Refers to the Pope.. Those who should seriously restrain this madness, beat it back by all means, and nip it in the bud, often—whether out of ignorance or negligence, it matters little—assist them as if they were gathering forces, and by joining them, confirm them more and more with their own support. They bring into the heart of Germany, on their own shoulders, those whom it would be right to banish to the farthest Garamantes A desert tribe in North Africa, representing the ends of the earth in classical literature. or beyond the Frozen Ocean. This is especially true of those parents who, lured by I know not what holiness of these companions, and persuaded by the diligence they boast of in educating pupils, and moved by the singular scarcity of expenses which they believe is required here, send their own children to the schools of the Jesuits as if to the most bountiful emporiums of liberal arts and workshops of all piety. They are choosing and finding mustard instead of pepper, spurge instead of roses, and aloe instead of honey. This calamity of the Lutheran foundation is so great that it cannot be sufficiently expressed in words or deplored with tears. And yet, they think that the state of Germany does not hinge on this, nor that any loss redounds to the parents or the children from it. Indeed, they stupidly believe that they have found something far greater than what boys say they find in a bean A reference to a children's game or a proverbial expression for finding something trivial. um. But the annals of literature have consigned these companions to memory, and have consecrated them to posterity so that it may guard itself against them. And this is done in good faith. It is not the way of a good man, nor a sensible one, to lie; it brings repentance to the noble and rebuke to the foolish. For this reason:

I will not stain my speech with falsehood. From Pindar, Pythian 4.98.
For:
Often, profit is associated with slander. From Pindar, Pythian 2.77.

I will always lead my arguments back to experience itself, which is truly the touchstone of mortals.

While I spin this task of mine, this Hora or Horta a play on words referring to his work or garden, with a thread and style somewhat rough, I ask you, Magnificent Lord Pro-Rector, generous Barons and Lords, Magnificent, Noblest, Reverend, Most Consulted, Excellent, and Most Distinguished men, and you, most select youths, to breathe upon me with the breeze of your clemency and benevolence, and to lighten this burden of mine in some part. Thus, refreshed as if by the most welcome Etesian winds, I may walk worthily in this heat, and collect the honey useful for the Church and the State—though I know I will not lack the stings of drones—and store it away with the fruit of erring parents. If I feel that this is granted and conceded to me by you with clemency and benevolence (and how could I not feel it from you, whom nature created for this clemency and benevolence, will exercised, and fortune preserved), I will certainly ensure that [one should flee] from the schools of the Jesuits more than from the fountain of Salmacis. For:

Or even from the water of the river of the Cicones,

This I say to all, unless they wish, knowingly and willingly, to rush toward their own ruin.