fix it, and we on our part either had to expect that we would
be summoned also to the Council or [to fear that we would] be
condemned unsummoned, I was directed to compile and collect
the articles of our doctrine [in order that it might be plain]
in case of deliberation as to what and how far we would be
both willing and able to yield to the Papists, and in what
points we intended to persevere and abide to the end.

I have accordingly compiled these articles and presented them
to our side. They have also been accepted and unanimously
confessed by our side, and it has been resolved that, in case
the Pope with his adherents should ever be so bold as
seriously and in good faith, without lying and cheating, to
hold a truly free [legitimate] Christian Council (as, indeed,
he would be in duty bound to do), they be publicly delivered
in order to set forth the Confession of our Faith.

But though the Romish court is so dreadfully afraid of a free
Christian Council, and shuns the light so shamefully, that it
has [entirely] removed, even from those who are on its side,
the hope that it will ever permit a free Council, much less
that it will itself hold one, whereat, as is just, they [many
Papists] are greatly offended and have no little trouble on
that account [are disgusted with this negligence of the Pope],
since they notice thereby that the Pope would rather see all
Christendom perish and all souls damned than suffer either
himself or his adherents to be reformed even a little, and his
[their] tyranny to be limited, nevertheless I have determined
meanwhile to publish these articles in plain print, so that,
should I die before there would be a Council (as I fully