men ought to have been invited to marriage. This duty pertains to
the magistrates, who ought to maintain public discipline. [God has
now so blinded the world that adultery and fornication are permitted
almost without punishment, on the contrary, punishment is inflicted
on account of marriage. Is not this terrible to hear?] Meanwhile the
teachers of the Gospel should do both, they should exhort incontinent
men to marriage, and should exhort others not to despise the gift of
continence.

The Popes daily dispense and daily change other laws which are most
excellent, yet, in regard to this one law of celibacy, they are as
iron and inexorable, although, indeed, it is manifest that this is
simply of human right. And they are now making this law more
grievous in many ways. The canon bids them suspend priests, these
rather unfriendly interpreters suspend them not from office, but from
trees. They cruelly kill many men for nothing but marriage. [It is
to be feared therefore, that the blood of Abel will cry to heaven so
loudly as not to be endured, and that we shall have to tremble like
Cain.] And these very parricides show that this law is a doctrine of
demons. For since the devil is a murderer, he defends his law by
these parricides.

We know that there is some offense in regard to schism, because we
seem to have separated from those who are thought to be regular
bishops. But our consciences are very secure, since we know that,
though we most earnestly desire to establish harmony, we cannot
please the adversaries unless we cast away manifest truth, and then
agree with these very men in being willing to defend this unjust law,
to dissolve marriages that have been contracted, to put to death
priests if they do not obey, to drive poor women and fatherless