Christopher Goodman to Dominus Peter Martyr.

It is the perverse inquisitiveness – not to say malice – of certain people, who are keener of sight when it comes to other people’s business than is right or than they are when it comes to their own, that drove me to write to you at this time, most esteemed teacher. For I recently published a small book [libellus], as you know, in which I would admonish our people both of their duty and of the divine vengeance which, hastened by our crimes, hangs over the heads of all, unless God should keep it in check. This little book I sent long since to your Julius;¹Terentianus. I do not doubt but that he has ere now explained to you its gist and point. By it I understand that some of our people were evidently upset and annoyed excessively. For some plainly ridicule and distort what they are unable to understand; some, betraying their own foolhardiness, freely jeer at an author they do not know; others, to whom it seems more advisable to conceal their malice with cunning hypocrisy, ask for the attitude and opinion of the doctors, so that by this method at least – by the decrees of the masters -- they might condemn and drive off the stage poor Goodman as a most worthless little fellow. But in a matter no less honourable than necessary and one in agreement with and confirmed by the sacred word of God, I neither fear nor care about these people. Perhaps your people, overcome by their own consciences, will at length assent to the truth when the matter has been examined in more careful and seemly fashion and not persist any further in the obstinate course they have embarked upon.

But when it is signified to me through the letters of friends that those people either have come or will soon come to you and to other learned men to ascertain your opinion concerning certain articles which they have extracted at their pleasure from here and there in my little book, I considered that it was incumbent on me to inform you of this and to send to you the principal and more difficult questions beyond which I did not proceed. When you have compared them with the opinions which others, as I hear, plucked out, you can the better apprehend their line and character. For that reason I vehemently beseech and implore you that concerning those matters when you have time you not only write back openly what you yourself think, but also the opinion of Dominus Bullinger, if that can be done. If, among the other benefits that you have so often conferred on me, you see fit to fulfill this task as a favour to your pupil, it will not be relegated to the last place.

Farewell. In Geneva. 25 May in the year 1558.

D. Petro Martyri Christophorus Goodmannus. /

Perversa quorundam curiositas ne dicam malitia, qui in rebus alienis oculatiores / sunt quam par sit quamque in suis esse soleant, me ut ad te scribam hoc tempore (Col-/endissime Praeceptor) impulit. Nuper enim libellum ut nosti edidi: quo nostrates et / officii sui et ultionis divinae quae sceleribus nostris accelerata capitibus omnium, nisi / deus prohibeat, impendet, admonerem. Hunc ad Julium tuum iamdudum misi, cu-/ius summam scopumque non dubito quin antehac tibi explicuerit. Eo nonnullos nostra-/tium videlicet supra modum vexatos exacerbatosque intelligo. Nam alii quae refuta-/re nequeunt maliciose traducunt atque torquent: alii stultam suam temeritatem pro-/dentes, in autorem quem ignorant liberius insultant[?]: alii, quibus consultius videtur ma-/liciam suam astuta hypocrisi obtegere, doctorum mentem sententiamque inquirunt, ut / hoc saltem pacto miserum Goodmannum magistrorum decretis tanquam vilissimum / homuncionem condemnent et explodant. Sed istos ego in re non minus honesta quam / necessaria, sacroque dei verbo consona et confirmata nec formido nec curo. Tui fortasse / re diligentius modestiusque examinata, propria conscientia victi, veritati tandem subscrib-/ent; nec amplius in incepta pertinacia persistent. Verum quum amicorum literis mihi / significetur, illos ad te et alios doctos viros aut venisse aut brevi venturos, sent-/entiam vestram exploraturos de quibusdam articulis, quos ex libello meo hinc illincque / pro libidine extraxerunt, mearum partium existimavi te eius certiorem facere, et prae-/cipuas et difficiliores questiones, ultra quas non sum progressus, ad te mittere. quibus, cum / aliorum avulsas ut audio sententias contuleris, illorum mentem animumque melius depre-/hendas. Quamobrem te vehementer oro atque obtestor, ut de illis non solum aperte quid / ipse sentias; sed etiam Domini Bul[lingeri] sententiam si fieri possit, per otium rescribas. Quod si / in discipuli tui gratiam praestare dignatus fueris inter caetera beneficia tua in me sae-/pius collata postremo in loco non ponetur. Vale. Genevae. 25° Maii a°. 1558.