im to purchase injustice, yet may
we never contradict you? Are you formally to pronounce that a man may be
saved without ever having loved God, and yet close the mouths of those
who would defend the truth of the faith, on the ground that their
defence must wound fraternal charity by attacking you, and must grieve
Christian modesty by laughing at your maxims?

_IV.--THE SIN OF SIMONY_

Reverend Fathers,--I was about to write to you concerning the
accusations which you have so long brought against me, wherein you call
me impious, buffoon, rogue, impostor, calumniator, swindler, heretic,
disguised Calvinist, one possessed of a legion of devils. I wish the
world to know why you speak thus, for I should be sorry that anyone
should think thus of me; and I had already made up my mind to complain
publicly of your calumnies and impostures when I saw your replies,
wherein you bring the same charges against me. You have thus forced me
to change my purpose. Yet I shall still carry it out in some degree,
inasmuch as I hope that my defence will convict you of more real
impostures which you have imputed to me. Truly, fathers, your position
is more open to suspicion than mine, for it is very unlikely that I,
being alone as I am, and without strength or human support against so
powerful a society as yours, and being sustained only by truth and
sincerity, should have exposed myself to the risk of losing all, by
exposing myself to a conviction of imposture. But your position,
fathers, is different; you can say of me what you please, and I can find
no one to whom I may complain. Well, you have chosen your ground, and
the war shall be made in your country and at your expense. Do not fear
that I shall be tedious; there is something so diverting about your
maxims that they never fail to rejoice the world.

Let me closely explain, for instance, your doctrine with regard to
simony. Finding yourself in a dilemma between the canons of the church,
which forbid with the severest penalties any trade in ecclesiastical
benefices, and the avarice of so many people who promote this infamous
traffic, you have followed your ordinary method, which is to give to men
what they desire, and to offer to God nothing but words and appearances.
For what do simonfacal persons demand, if not that they shall receive
money in return for their benefices?

But that is precisely the transaction which you have cleared from the
guilt of simony. Yet, since you canno