Page:Awful memorial of the state of Francis Spira (1).pdf/3

[3] good cauſes I either defended decitfully, or ſold them to the adverſary perſidioully,- Ill cauſes I maintained with all my might. I wittingly oppoſed the known truth; and the truſt committed unto me, I either betrayed or perverted."

Thus having worn out forty-four years, or thereabouts, and the news of the new, or rather newly revived opinions of Luther coming into thoſe parts, repreſented an object of novelty unto him, who being deſirous to know, as he was famous for knowledge, ſuffered not theſe wandering opinions to paſs unexamined; but ſearching into the Scriptures, and into all books of controverſies that he could get, both old and new, and finding more than fame and opinion, he began to taſte their nature ſo well, that he entertained, loved, and owned them at length; and with ſuch zeal, that he became a profeſſor, yea, a teacher of them, firſt to his wife, children and family, and afterwards to his friends and familiar acquaintance; and, in compariſon, ſeemed to neglect all other affairs; always maintaining this main point, "That we muſt wholly and only depend on the free and unchangeable love of God, in the death of Chriſt, as the only ſure way to ſalvation." And this was the ſum of all his diſcourſe for the ſpace of ſix years, or thereabout, ſo long as the knowledge of it was kept ſecret; but at length it brake forth in public meetings, ſo that the whole Province of Padua war overrun with the knowledge of this new doctrine.

The Clergy finding the trade of their Pardons to decay, and their Purgatory to wax cold, began to beſtir themſelves; gloſſing their actions firſt, with calumnious aſperſions upon the whole profeſſion; then more plainly ſtriking at Spira