To the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Prince and Lord, Lord JOHANN SCHWEIKARD [Ioanni Svicardo], Archbishop of the Holy See of Mainz, Arch-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire throughout Germany, and Prince-Elector — his most clement Prince and Lord —
the College of the Society of Jesus at Mainz [wishes] Felicity.
It was not, indeed, unknown to us, Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Prince, that upon the receipt of these commentaries of Nicolaus Serarius, that grief would be renewed of which — at the recently-heard report of his untimely death — thou hadst given no doubtful proofs; since thou seest the lucubrations of that man offered to thee by another’s hand — [that man] who, not so long ago, was himself accustomed to inscribe his own [works] to thee, and to commend [them] to thee in person; and who strove, as far as he was allowed, to propagate and increase — by the renown of his name (which he had among all the learned everywhere, on account of the exceptional riches of his genius and learning) — thy splendor, and that of this thy Academy [of Mainz], in which he flourished, now in [his] twelfth year, in teaching and writing. Since, however, that man — by [his] incredible zeal and unceasing labors, in the exertion of which he laid down [his] life — attained this: that even [when] buried he might be able to serve thy glory, we should seem to study too little either the honor of thee, [our] most excellent Prince, or the ardent will of that most learned Man, if [those works] which he had long ago destined to thy Highness as a perpetual testimony of his devotion toward thee, we should either begrudge to the public, or [assign] to another, rather than bring [them] forth adorned with thy Most Illustrious name.
There comes forth, therefore, under thy auspices, that most holy and most valiant Commander, Joshua — bearing, in his very name and in his illustriously accomplished deeds, an express image of Christ our Best and Greatest Savior. We hope, indeed, that it will come to pass that — at the [very] time [in] which thou hast received into this thy city [Mainz], with splendid ceremony, two Most Reverend Prelates and [two] of the Empire’s Seven-men [the Electors], and with them the Most Serene Ferdinand, Prince of Bavaria — thou wilt reckon it honorable also not to have repulsed this [Joshua]: [him] who brought an end to the long-continued errors of the sacred people, and to the most savage wars and the fury of enemies; to whom the walls of the most fortified city [Jericho], collapsing of their own accord, fell; to whom the rivers [the Jordan], flowing back to their source, gave way; whose victories, that it might behold them, the Sun itself — prince of the stars — obeying his voice, with the night deferred and the day prolonged, stood still.
He will also be pleasing to thee, as we suppose, by a certain fellowship of praise with thee. For just as that which the most holy man Moses had before wished for in vain — [namely] that he [Joshua], [as their] prince, should settle the nation beloved of God in the land promised by so many oracles of God, overflowing with an abundance of all things — [so accomplished]: so to thee no small part of the peoples subject to thy dominion attributes [i.e., owes] that they have come to the communion of the Catholic Church. And although thy most wise and most religious ancestral Princes often attempted this thing, it nevertheless seems to have been reserved for thy felicity that thou shouldst impose an end upon a long, and (in the opinion of many) dangerous, labor. Indeed, that which once seems admirable to us in the deeds of Joshua — [namely] that, with him as leader, as the sacred procession went around the city and the trumpets sounded, the firm and lofty walls fell down first of all — this we perceive to befall thee daily: that minds most stubborn in their [own] opinions, by the mere sight of thy religion and piety (which thou daily commendest to the minds of all by so many illustrious examples), as though by a certain battering-ram, are struck down. But thou wilt not scorn even that cause of this dedication — [namely] that this very illustrious Prince [Joshua] has the name of Jesus, by which name this our least Society has been marked [distinguished] by the Church’s decree.
Since, therefore, that [Society] has been endowed with immortal benefits by thy Highness — to which we are not equal even to recount — suffer, we beseech [thee], that we summon this most illustrious man [Joshua], even from those very times of the Heroes, to give thanks in our words, and to beg that thou wilt not at any time lay aside this thy so-favorable good-will toward this College. And we, meanwhile, will beseech our true Savior Jesus, that he too — lest [thy good-will] be shaken — may command the Sun [soli]: that is, that he may will thy Highness, the most illustrious light of [thy] fatherland, to stand in this rank as long as possible, for the salvation and honor of his people, and — as far as can be [done] — to be willing to set [to sink, to die] as late as possible.