Indeed it is somewhat discreditable that the great towns and princes of Germany cannot achieve what the Swiss do by co-operation and local action.’  He then turns to the religious dissensions, and in his passion for concord exclaims that it would be better that a nation should be united in error than so numerously divided:  experience shows that there is no opinion so wild but that some one will be found to embrace it.  Of the orthodox party he has nothing to say beyond extolling the system by which the Pope might act as judge and father of all, and as supreme court of appeal.  To the Utraquists he would counsel conformity to the practice of the majority; although unable to understand why the Church should have allowed a practice instituted by Christ to fall into disuse.

Then he comes to the Brethren, and after admitting that they have strayed further than the Utraquists from the rule of Christian life, he continues:  ’If they go on still in their wickedness, they must be restrained; but this is not the duty of any one who likes, nor must violence be used, lest the innocent suffer with the guilty.  Their practice of electing their own priests and bishops has authority in antiquity; but it certainly is unfortunate if their choice falls on men bad as well as unlearned.  With the titles of Brother and Sister I see no fault to find:  it is a pity they are not more widely used among Christians.  To prefer God’s word in the Bible to the judgements of Doctors is sound:  though to reject the latter altogether is as uniform an error as to embrace them to the exclusion of everything else.  To celebrate the mass in everyday dress is not contrary to the truth; but it is a pity to abandon customs sanctioned by use and authority:  though perhaps the Pope might be persuaded to concede to them the use of their own rites, as he does to the Greeks and the Milanese.  The Lord’s Prayer is, of course, part of our own use; and though it seems narrow to confine themselves to this, I doubt whether they do worse than those who weave in long strings of intercession from any source.  Their opinions about the sacraments are certainly impious; but at any rate they are under no temptation to exploit these holy mysteries for the sake of gain or futile glory or tyrannous imposition.  I do not see why they should reject vigils and fasts in moderation; but these are matters for encouragement rather than positive command.  About festivals they seem to follow the usage current in the days of Jerome:  better, I think, than the modern calendar, full of saints-days which end in riot and carouse, and on which the honest journeyman is forbidden to work for his children’s bread.’  As Slechta read these words, he must surely have felt as did Balak, the son of Zippor, when he listened to the seer from Mesopotamia taking up his parable upon Israel in the plains of Moab.  The man whose eyes were open, had blessed the Brethren instead of cursing them; and literary Europe might well follow his lead.