never given cause for the least suspicion. Is
it probable that we are meditating the subversion
of kingdoms?—we, who were never heard to
utter a factious word, whose lives were ever known
to be peaceable and honest while We lived under your
government, and who, even now in our exile, cease
not to pray for all prosperity to attend yourself and
your kingdom! Is it probable that we are seeking
an unlimited license to commit crimes with impunity?
in whose conduct, though many things may be blamed,
yet there is nothing worthy of such severe reproach!
Nor have we, by Divine Grace, profited so little in
the Gospel, but that our life may be an example to
our detractors of chastity, liberality, mercy, temperance,
patience, modesty, and every other virtue. It
is an undeniable fact, that we sincerely fear and worship
God, whose name we desire to be sanctified both by
our life and by our death; and envy itself is constrained
to bear testimony to the innocence and civil integrity
of some of us, who have suffered the punishment of
death for that very thing which ought to be accounted
their highest praise. But if the Gospel be made
a pretext for tumults, which has not yet happened
in your kingdom; if any persons make the liberty of
divine grace an excuse for the licentiousness of their
vices, of whom I have known many,—there
are laws and legal penalties, by which they may be
punished according to their deserts; only let not
the Gospel of God be reproached for the crimes of wicked
men. You have now, Sire, the virulent iniquity
of our calumniators laid before you in a sufficient
number of instances, that you may not receive their
accusations with too credulous an ear.—I
fear I have gone too much into the detail, as this
preface already approaches the size of a full apology;
whereas I intended it not to contain our defence, but
only to prepare your mind to attend to the pleading
of our cause; for, though you are now averse and alienated
from us, and even inflamed against us, we despair
not of regaining your favour, if you will only once
read with calmness and composure this our confession,
which we intend as our defence before your Majesty.
But, on the contrary, if your ears are so preoccupied
with the whispers of the malevolent, as to leave no
opportunity for the accused to speak for themselves,
and if those outrageous furies, with your connivance,
continue to persecute with imprisonments, scourges,
tortures, confiscations, and flames, we shall indeed,
like sheep destined to the slaughter, be reduced to
the greatest extremities. Yet shall we in patience
possess our souls, and wait for the mighty hand of
the Lord, which undoubtedly will in time appear, and
show itself armed for the deliverance of the poor from
their affliction, and for the punishment of their despisers,
who now exult in such perfect security. May the
Lord, the King of kings, establish your throne with
righteousness, and your kingdom with equity. Basil,
1st August, 1536.