Page:Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol 1.djvu/17

Rh fratres meos, quorum mors pretiosa erat in conspectu Domini; deinde, quum multis miseris eadem instarent supplicia, pro illis dolor saltern aliquis et sollicitudo exteras gentes tangeret. Neque enim densum hoc et laboriosum opus, quale nunc extat, sed breve duntaxat Enchiridion tune in lucem prodiit: neque in alium finem, nisi ut testata esset eorum fides, quos videbam ab impius et perfidis adulatoribus scelerate proscindi. Porro, an propositum esset mihi famam aucupari, patuit ex brevi discessu, præsertim quum nemo illic sciverit me authorem esse. Quod etiam alibi semper dissimulavi, et in animo erat idem institutum prosequi, donec Genevæ," &c.:—

"While I was living at Basle, retired and unknown, the indignation of the Germans having been deeply roused by those fires in which a great number of godly men had been burnt alive in France, it was circulated, in wicked and lying pamphlets, with the view of suppressing that indignation, that the only persons who had been thus cruelly treated were Anabaptists and turbulent men, who, by their perverse ravings, were subverting not religion only, but all civil order. Seeing this done by crafty courtiers, whose aim was not only to hide the guilty shedding of innocent blood, under a calumnious charge falsely brought against holy martyrs, but also to have liberty afterwards to proceed unrestrained in their murderous career, without exciting in others any feeling of compassion, I thought that if I did not oppose them to the utmost of my ability, my silence might justly be condemned as perfidy. The occasion of my publishing the Institutes was this: first, That I might wipe off a foul affront from my brethren, whose death was precious in the sight of the Lord; and, secondly, That as the same sufferings were impending over many others, at least some interest and sympathy for them might be excited in foreign nations. The work then published was not the dense and laboured volume which now exists, but only a short Manual: my