ntry, and to direct my Epistle to you, to communicate copies
of it also to the bishops of Triest and Goricia. I asseverate before
you, three witnesses, that I am not guilty of the blood which is shed in
the present terrible war; although I would be most guilty, if I had not
faithfully fulfilled the duties of my charge. If those to whom I have
written at Vienna, in our native country, and also in other countries of
Europe, had discharged as conscientiously the duties of their office, as
I did those of my office, the promised universal peace would have been
established not only in the whole of Europe, but also in other parts of
the globe. But whereas there was deficiency in respect to the
intellectual and moral preparations of those who were in the office, the
terrible consequences therof are more and more visible. To bishops I
write usually in Latin. But this epistle should be delivered by you to
the government of Austria, and published to the nations not only in
German, but also in as many other languages as possible.

Prince Bishop Anthony Slomshek! Having had more opportunity than others
who are at present bishops under the Austrian government, to obtain
knowledge about me during my residence in Europe and by wise providence
having become a bishop of the diocese, in which I was born, educated and
ordained a priest, I expect that you will receive light from the spirit,
to comprehend correctly the hints which may be concentrated into the
space of an ordinary epistle. You know that I had from my youth an
extraordinary desire to search not only the Jewish and Christian but
also the antiquities of other nations, and to compare the results of my
investigations with what others have brought to light in former times
and recently, to find out, how the promised universal peace will be
established. After my having been six years secular priest of the
diocese of Laibach, I entered the Benedictine Order of the Monastery of
Saint Paul in Carinthia, for the purpose of obtaining more time and
opportunity in that order which furnishes learned professors, than in my
native country for a continuation of my investigations for the peace of
nations. After my having searched two years in the library of the
monastery, I became Professor of Biblical Literature in Clagenfurt, and
in that city I became acquainted with you, you having been there
Spiritual Adviser of Students of Divinity.

During the ten years of my Professorship I had opportunit