Newly translated from the Latin.
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, an admirable man (with such an honorary name St. Jerome adorns him), says in the preface to the books of his ecclesiastical history (in which he blames the sluggishness of his predecessors or the evil times), that he was forced to take a new path without guiding footsteps, and hardly had a star here and there, which he could follow in writing such a great work. If now, at the time closest to the old church, or which had its course under the old church, ecclesiastical matters have been so utterly neglected by. If at the time closest to the old church, or which had its course under the old church, ecclesiastical matters were so neglected by those men (whom we, both in spirit and zeal, justly prefer far above us, who are descendants), or were lost through the disfavor of the times, so that they left behind no history which seemed worthy or sufficient to so great a man: with how much greater equanimity must we bear the negligence of our ancestors, who lived after them in a much more corrupt time and under much more unsettled circumstances, then were not a little inferior to them in zeal and spirit, so that in truth we too have barely a few mutilated fragments of histories, but not histories.
But I believe in the almighty God (as our faith confesses), without whose counsel and order this (as well as everything else) would be
could not happen. But whether this was done according to the advice of the Majesty in her anger or in mercy, it is not for me to judge. I would rather it had been done out of mercy, but I assume in anger. It was once an act of mercy that he hid Moses from the Jews in such a way that no man ever found his grave, so that the people, who were devoted to idolatry, would not erect a temple and altar and worship in that place and finally worship Moses as God. But by this salutary mercy little has been accomplished, because the godless people invented nevertheless instead of the one Moses as many idols as they had hills, trees, springs and alleys. Thus, it can be considered a mercy that God wanted the history of many fathers of the ancient church to be lost, so that we also have no knowledge of the apostles themselves (except in the book of the Acts of the Apostles), what happened to them, from any history with certain truth, so that we do not, with Christ aside, admire the greatness of the saints too much and worship them. But even this advice was of no avail, since, Satan having persuaded us to the contrary, we have invented so many services of the saints that we have at last served even subordinate saints, namely the
*Robert Barns (called Antonius while studying in Wittenberg) was professor of theology in England and chaplain to King Henry VIII. Because he would not submit to the six papist doctrines established by his master in 1539, transubstantiation, communion under one form, priestly celibacy, monastic vows of silence, and auricular confession, he was condemned as a heretic by Parliament and burned with five companions in London on June 30, 1540. He wrote a book under the title: Vitae Romanorum Pontificum, quos Papas vocamus diligenter et fideliter collectae per D. Doctorem R. Barns. Ut tempore suo reveletur. 2Thess. II. Witebergae. M.DXXXVI. quarto. At the end: Imprint Vitebergae apud losephum Clug. An. Do. M.D.XXXVI.. It contains "the history of Peter and the biographies of the popes up to Alexander III. He dedicated it to King Henry VIII of England in a dedication dated September 10, 1535, in which he praises the king for having abolished the tyranny of the pope. Luther wrote a preface to this book. Seckendorf wrote in the lli8t. Imtli. Incksx III in 1536, because the original Wittenberg edition is very rare. Walch has had a copy of it in his hands. It is also found in Latin in the Erlangen edition, opp. vur. arZ., tom. VII, p. 532. In the German translation by Seckendorf, our preface is also found, translated by Elias Frick, which was subsequently reprinted by the Leipzig edition, vol. XXII, appendix, p. 123 and by Walch. We have newly translated according to the Erlanger.
Catharina, Barbara, Margaretha, Ursula, likewise to Christophorns, Georg, Rochius, and many other idols, in such a shameful way, that we have made the idolatries of the Jews quite gloriously righteous, namely, in that God changed the so despised mercy (as we deserved it) into terrible fury, as Paul predicted, since he speaks [2 Thess. 2, 11]: "He will send them strong errors, so that they will believe the lie, since they did not want to believe the truth." Thus, after Christ had departed, after his faithful witnesses had been removed, namely the apostles, martyrs, confessors, a new Christ finally followed, that is, the Antichrist in the temple of God with his new saints, and taught us to worship those whom neither our fathers, nor he himself, nor we have known. And he has adorned this delicious new deity with indulgences, churches, gold, silver, precious stones and all precious things, and has distributed the land to the worshippers for free, as the Spirit had prophesied in Daniel [Cap. 11, 39].
To this excess of wrath has been added that we do not even have a proper and correct history of this monster and new Christ, since his flatterers so honor his disgraces and extol his false virtues, raising the painted keys and the fictitious ray of banishment in a frightening manner. Therefore, he should be held up to us not only as the governor of God on earth, but also as a mixture of God and man, as it were as a hideous image of the true Christ, as a kind of earthly God, who is nevertheless to be feared and worshipped above all that is called God (as Paul says [2 Thess. 2, 4.)). Namely, the man of sin and the child of perdition, who is a worm and rottenness (so great is the wrath against the ungrateful world), has presumed to sit down in the place of majesty. This might not have happened, or might not have happened so successfully, if his deeds had been actually and truly handed down by some reliable historians, by which godly people would have been reminded; however, there is no lack of such
who seem to have smelled the vile stench of this diabolical cloaca to some extent; but they have not been able to find the body itself and bring it to light.
It is said of the Turk how abominably he desecrates holy places and the relics of the saints; this is indeed something unseemly, which should rightly move all the godly to pray 1) and act against this raging angel of the abyss. But if you compare with this evil the most holy sanctity of God's governor on earth, you will see that the Turk, as an enemy of the church, desecrates and devastates everything bodily, but nevertheless leaves everyone free to believe in Christ. But this friend, the new bridegroom of the church, sanctifies everything in the flesh and preserves it by terrible ordinances, but does not allow the freedom to believe in Christ at all, so that it is not safe for anyone to even be afraid of it. The Turk oppresses the kings and lords of the earth by force and arms (as they say) according to martial law, but our new God and new Christ, with deceit, with deceitfulness, with lies, and all manner of shameful artifices, has always afflicted and oppressed the best kings and princes, until he has forced them to worship his most holy feet with blessed kisses, and to offer their necks for him to tread upon. 2) May the cursers of the day curse you, and those who are ready to awaken the Leviathan [Job 3:8], Amen.
At the same time I wanted to pour out this with great sorrow of heart and with displeasure, so that I might inflame some godly hearts that love Christ to investigate (what can also only be investigated) about the papal tyranny and the most holy church of the pope. For those who have the spirit of Christ have no doubt, but know that whatever they read, speak and write against this bloodthirsty, blasphemous and god-robbing whore of the devil. They offer it to God as the highest and most pleasant sacrifice of thanksgiving. I have admittedly in the beginning,
1) Instead of adorandum, orandum should be read; nä is accidentally set twice.
2) Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XIX, 1964, § 2 ff.
Since I was not very knowledgeable, not even familiar with the Histories, I attacked the papacy (as they say) a priori, that is, from the Scriptures; now I am extraordinarily pleased that others do the same a posteriori, that is, from the Histories. And I let myself think that I am completely triumphant, since I recognize, where the light rises, that the histories agree with Scripture. For what I have learned and taught, since St. Paul and Daniel were my teachers, that the Pope is the abominable one of God and of all things, the histories shout this to me by deed, and point it out, as it were, with the finger, and do not show a kind of
or subspecies, but the person (individuum) itself, not something indeterminate (vagum, as they say).
May our Lord Jesus Christ, who has begun to kill this repulsive man of his with the spirit of his mouth, also destroy him in the near future by the appearance of his future. I say amen, and I wish this with all my heart, and I do whatever I can for it, every one who loves the kingdom of God and his blessedness. I am not mistaken.
1) Instead of ors Spiritus sui, read: Kxiritu oris sui, 2 Thess. 2, 8.