O Christ, what cause can I
allege to Thee why Thou shouldst not banish me from Thine own, if
to so many lights of the Church I should have preferred
mannikins, dwellers in darkness, few, unlearned, split into
sects, and of bad moral character!
I call to witness likewise Princes, Kings, Emperors, and their
Commonwealths, whose own piety, and the people of their realms,
and their established discipline in war and peace, were
altogether founded on this our Catholic doctrine. What
Theodosiuses here might I summon from the East, what Charleses
from the West, what Edwards from England, what Louises from
France, what Hermenegilds from Spain, Henries from Saxony,
Wenceslauses from Bohemia, Leopolds from Austria, Stephens from
Hungary, Josaphats from India, Dukes and Counts from all the
world over, who by example, by arms, by laws, by loving care, by
outlay of money, have nourished our Church! For so Isaias
foretold: _Kings shall be thy foster-fathers, and queens thy
nurses_ (Isaias xlix. 23).
Listen, Elizabeth, most powerful Queen, for thee this great
prophet utters this prophecy, and therein teaches thee thy part. I
tell thee: one and the same heaven cannot hold Calvin and the
Princes whom I have named.
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