A man appeared, of a mind incredibly deep, a consummate dissembler and at the same time a powerful statesman, capable of undertaking everything and of concealing everything, no less active and indefatigable in peace than in war; who left nothing to fortune of that which he could take from it by wisdom or foresight, but withal so vigilant, so well prepared for everything, that he never failed to improve any opportunity:  in short, one of those restless and audacious minds which seem to have been born in order to transform the world.  How dangerous the fate of such minds, and how many appear in history who were ruined by their very boldness!  But at the same time, what do they not achieve when it pleases God to make use of them!  To this one it was given to deceive the people and to prevail against the kings.  For as he had discovered that in this infinite medley of sects, which no longer had any fixed rules, the pleasure of dogmatic arguing without any fear of being reprimanded or restrained by any authority, either ecclesiastical or secular, was the spell that charmed their minds, he so well managed to conciliate them thereby that out of this monstrous medley he created a formidable unit.  When a man has once found a way of seducing the multitude with the bait of freedom, they afterwards blindly follow, provided they still hear the beloved word.  These, occupied with the object that had first transported them, were still going on without noticing that they were going to servitude; and their subtle leader—­who while fighting and arguing, while uniting in himself a thousand different characters, while acting as theologian and prophet as well as soldier and captain, saw that he had so bewitched the world that he was looked upon by the whole army as a chief sent by God for the protection of independence—­began to perceive that he could drive them still further.  I shall not relate to you the story of his too prosperous undertakings nor his famous victories which made virtue indignant, nor his long tranquillity which astonished the world.  It was God’s purpose to instruct the kings not to desert his Church.  He wished to reveal by one great example all that heresy can do, how indocile and independent it naturally is, how fatal to royalty and to any legitimate authority.  Moreover, when this great God has chosen any one for the instrument of his designs nothing can stop his course:  he either chains or blinds or subdues all that is capable of resistance.  “I am the Lord,” he says through the lips of Jeremiah; “I am he who made the earth, with the men and animals; and I place it in the hands of whomsoever pleases me; and now I wished to submit these lands to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, my servant.”  He calls him his servant, although an infidel, because he selected him for enforcing his decrees.  “And I order,” he goes on, “that everything be obedient unto him, even the animals;” thus it is that everything bends and becomes flexible when God so commands!  But listen to the rest of the prophecy:—­“I order that these people shall obey him, and shall obey his son also, until the time of the one and the other do come.”  See, ye Christians, how clearly marked the times are, how numbered the generations:  God determines how long the sleep of the world shall be, and also when the awakening is to come.