1 " Nulla jam alia propositione nobis opus est, cum htec se obtulerit; nos autem, Deo volcnte, et voluinus, et pai'ati sumus demonstrare, quod Spiritus Sanctus nou alium nos Dcum in Scriptura doceat, nisi solum Patrem, Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, id est, Deum ununi in trinitate."
2 " Nos (juidein o amici hand difficulter poterimus vobiscum eam rem transigere, nam ubi primuni Biblia aperueritis, et initium veteris et nova; legis consideraveritis, statim oiFendetis, id ibi asseri quod vos pernegatis, sic enim Gcneseos primo Scriptura loquitur, Faciamus hominem ad imaginem, nostravi. Nostram, inquit, non meam. Postea vero addit. Fecit Deus. Novoe autem legis initium hoc est, Ve.rbum erat apud Deum, et Verbum erat Jhus. Vidctis ut in vcteri lege loquatur uuus Deus tanquam de tribus; hie vero quod Filius, Verbum a^ternum (nam quod ab initio erat, seternum est) erat apud Deum, et erat idem, non aliuss, uti yos perperam interpretamini, Deus."
» " Mdx agunt de iniaginibus sanctissima; Trinitatis, non content! simpliciorum qiio- rundam pictiiras conycllere, eas item qute ab Ecclesia Catholica rite usnrpataj sunt, scom- matibus et blasphemis carniinibus proscindunt." — Anton. Possev. lib. viii. cap. xv. xvi.
« "Profecto illis temporibus res catholicorum fere deplorata erat; cum in amplissimo genatu vix unus aut alter praiter episcopos reperiebatur."— Casper Cicovius Canon, et Parock. Sardom. Alloquia.
PEEFACE TO THE READER. 23
And when Henry, duke of Anjou, brother to Charles IX., king of France, was elected king of Poland^ (being then a man of great esteem in the world, for the wars which in France he had managed for the Papists against the Pi-ince of Conde and the never-enough-magnified Gasper Coligni," being also consenting at least to the barbarous massacre of the Protestants in that nation), and coming to the church where he was to be crowned, by the advice of the clei'gy, would have avoided the oath of pro- serving the Protestants and keeping peace between the dissenters in reli- gion, John Shirli, palatine of Cracovia, took up the crown, and making ready to go away with it out of the convention, cried out, " Si non jurabis, non regnabis," — "If you will not swear, you shall not reign;" and thereby compelled him to take the oath agreed upon.
This progress, I say, had the doctrine of the gospel made in those na- tions, so considerable a portion of the body of the people were won over to the belief of it, when, through the craft and subtilty of the old enemy of the propagation thereof, by this apostasy of some to Tritheism, as Gre- gorius Pauli, of some to Arianisra, as Erasmus Johannes, of some to Pho- tinianism, as Statorius and BJandrata, some to Judaism, as Seidelius (of whom afterward), the foundation of the whole building was loosened, and, instead of a progress, the religion has gone backwards almost constantly to this day. When this diiference first fell out, the Papists^ not once moved a mouth or pen for a long time against the broachers of all the blasphemies mentioned, hoping that by the breaches made by them on the reformed churches they should at length be able to ti-iumph over both; for which end, in their disputes since with Protestants, they have striven to take advantage of the apostasy of many of those who had pretended to plead against the Papacy in behalf of the reformed churches and afterward turned Antitrinitarians, as I remember it is particularly insisted on in an English treatise which I saw many years ago, called " Micheus, the Ccn- verted Jew." And indeed it is supposed that both Paulus Alciatus and Ochinus turned Mohammedans.*
Having thus, then, disturbed the carrying on of the Reformation, many ministers and churches falling oiF to Tritheism and Samosatenianism, they laid the foundation of their meeting at Racovia ; from which place tliey have been most known since and taken notice of in the world. The first foundation of what they call the "church" in that place was made by a con- fluence of strangers out of Boliemia and Moravia, with some Polonians,^ known only by the name of Anabaptists, but professing a community of
'"Neque vero hoc juramentvun pro tuenda pace evangelica prasstitisset, nisi eum Johannes Shirli palatinus Cracoviensis, vir plenus zeli et magnae cum poteutia authori- tatis, adegisset ; fertur enim cum rex Henricus jam coronandxis esset nee pacem inter dissidentes se conservatui'um jurasset, sed silentio eludere vellet, accepta quae regi turn prajferebatur corona, exitum ex templo parasse, et in ha3c pi'orupisse verba, ' Si non jurabis, non regnabis.'" — Hist. Eccles. Slavon. Regeu. lib. i. p. 92.
2 " Condseo succedit Colignius, vir natalibus et militia clams, qui nisi regi suo moveret bellum, dissidii fomes et caput, virtutis heroicie exemplar erat, supi-a antiquos duces, quos mirata est Grrecia, quos Roma extidit." — Gramond. Hist. Gal. lib. vi.
' " Quid iuterca bonus ille Ilosius Cardinalis cum suis Catholicis ? Nempo ridcre suaviter, et quasi ista nihil ad ipsos pertinerent, aliud quidvis agere, imo etiain nostros undiquo, ad cxtinguendum hoc incendium accurentes, probrosis libellis arccssere." — Bez. Ep. 81.
♦ "Cum Gentilis de Paulo Alciato sodali suo rogaretur, 'factus est' inquit 'Mahome- tanus.'" — Bez. Ep. ubi supra.
5 " Erant alii quoque Antitrinitarii sectse Anabaptisticoe per Bohremiam ct Moraviam longe latequc seipeiitis sectatores, qui absurdam illam bonorum comniunioncm, observa- turi ultro ahjectis suis conditionibus Racoviam se contulerunt. Novam Ilierusalem ibi loci exstructuri (ut aiebant), ad hanc ineptaia societatem plurimos iuvitabant nobiles," etc.— Regen. lib. i. p. DO.