Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/211

2* If the books of this man Peter of Chelčice have not frequently seen light until recently, the cause is to be sought nowhere else but in the priesthood of the Pope of the Anti-Christ; which priesthood – with many of its number living disreputably and ignobly – has not ceased and even today is not desisting from defaming before the general public the books of this excellent man by calling them schismatic and heretical, for no other reason except that (the reading of them) shrinks their benefice, reduces the offerings in their plates and scares them away from their rich soup. For he said about them that they wasted the substance of the Law of God with gluttonous living behind rich tables and that they drowned the light of exemplary living with costly and rare wines.

It is the se very priests who, flushed with anger against Peter, condemn him acrimoniously as a heretic. But good and honest priests do love him and make use of his books.

The Almighty Lord and most gracious God does not withhold His gifts from them that seek Him; it pleases Him to award them from the bountiful store of His inspiration, so that they might put aside all threats of the Antichrist and his harmless intimidations and, getting hold of the truth written down in these books inspired by the Spirit, love and study it  The original is here ambiguous; the words  could also be translated "the priesthood seduced by Pope the Antichrist."