after Slechta's letter. He begins
again with the roads. 'Prevention is better than punishment. It would
be wiser if, instead of these avenging raids, the more frequented
roads could be cleared of forest on either side, and held by
block-houses and armed posts at intervals. 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