On the Restraint of the First Electors of Saxony in Adopting and Establishing Luther's Doctrine, Volume 2

We owe graver duties to our ancestors, who, having dispelled the murky darkness of so many centuries, restored the celestial truth to its original splendor, than to think that this judgment should be passed over. It is a judgment that detracts much from the honor and glory of Princes, who were aroused by a divine instinct and are most worthy of eternal proclamation, and it accuses them simultaneously of all the crimes which were brought forward by us more copiously for this reason in §§ I, II, and III. It is a judgment that, with various pigments of untruth, easily and vehemently oppresses the unwary and the not-so-firm. It is a judgment that harms piety itself, as it deeply excludes God and His admirable power and wisdom from religion, when it has been purged from the corruptions of the ages, and refers it to base desires. Finally, it is a judgment with which those who follow the family of the Roman Pontiff rejoice wondrously. But if you doubt it, read, if you please, the new literary works published at Florence in the Italian language, where at the beginning of the previous year the censures of the author of the Brandenburg Commentaries noting the sacraments reformed by Luther are recited word for word, and are praised to the heavens. Therefore, religion in the divine and immortal Deity—without whose inspiration, as Cicero rightly judges, no remarkable and excellent man ever existed—persuades us; the study of a friendly truth persuades us; the dignity of our Saxony, which brought us forth in the bosom of purer sacred rites, persuades us; and the gratitude of the Princes persuades us.