Satyra.

We perceive, that you care only for yourself, and for your own:
And that you do not weigh a straw what happens to Christ and the peoples.
Now we hear that you are preparing a Council. But for that
What need have you? In vain you fatigue kings and nations,
And desire that fathers should run together at immense expense,
And seek truth and falsehood for many years:
When you can prescribe to all with a small bull,
What you wish to be tolerated to be written and taught commonly,
And whether it be expedient for things prepared by crime, guile, and force:
And whether you are accused of errors and a profane life.
Since you can close the mouths of accusers with a single nod,
And cut through all disputes with the sword:
Kings will obey eagerly, and peoples will follow,
Of course. You dare to hope for this, insane one, when
The people and the fathers despise your name and authority,
And do not want to bear so much of your fury,
And offer themselves as ministers to rabid bulls,
As if you had ordered them to slaughter their dear parents?

But you, princes of the Empire, who following sound
Dogmas, love Christ, and form the life of the people
And of the ministers according to the prescriptions of the highest teacher,
Do you not yet know what Cerberus is preparing with the guile
Of a council? Are the famous acts of Trent not yet
Patent, and the new canons made for strengthening the dogmas
Of the Papacy? He will seek his own things in a council
That he has gathered, not Christ's. He will condemn no abuses,
Nor will he remove the monsters of false doctrine, nor will he