To the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Prince and Lord, Lord JOHANN SCHWEIKARD [Ioanni Svicardio], Archbishop of the Holy See of Mainz, Arch-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire throughout Germany, and Prince-Elector, his most clement Lord —
the College of the Society of Jesus at Mainz [prays for him] everlasting Felicity.
Although, Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Prince, such is Thy graciousness that Thou hast readily allowed the prior part of the Joshuan history to be adorned with Thy most ample name, nevertheless it will perhaps seem to someone that the latter [part], which we now offer, agrees less with that grade of dignity which Thou holdest in the Church — in that it recounts those wars most happily accomplished, under God’s auspices, by the most valiant Joshua against his enemies. For who does not see [these things] to differ greatly from the office of an Ecclesiastical Prince, whose mind ought to be set apart from all the din of arms and placed in a certain blessed quiet — so that he who among mortals is nearest to God may emulate the state of that better world which is above the Moon, [marked] by a certain freedom from all motions and disturbances? This, indeed, might seem rightly said, if here the arms were impious and severed from all religion, if the battle-lines were devoid of piety, if any standards other than God’s ark were being followed. But whoever shall have seen a Commander [Imperator] outstanding in holiness, girt with a most powerful army — one who stamped upon [conquered] almost all Palestine with as many victories as footsteps; who encircled cities with a crown of Priests; who shook [their] walls with the blast of the priestly trumpets; who undertook and crushed all his wars from the oracle of the High Priest; who prevailed, in the end, more by the Priests’ ceremony than by the strength of arms — he, assuredly, will understand that the glory of the priests is contained within the praises of the supreme Commander. And shall we doubt whether a book is less fittingly dedicated to Thee, the Supreme Prelate of the Priests in Germany — [Thee] who dost establish the felicity of Emperors in obedience to the Priests, by God’s own arbitration? Especially since, after — by God’s will — the Principate of the Roman Empire was transferred to the Germans from the East, we recognize in Thee and in Thy predecessors almost the same authority of the Priesthood before the Emperors. For what else does the office of Arch-Chancellor [Maximi Cancellarii munus], joined with this Pontifical office, intend, except that we should understand thee to be a certain Father of the Caesars, the mind of the Empire, the president of the best counsels? Which dignity I judge our most wise forefathers to have granted to the Prelate of Mainz for this reason: that he might consider that from that most excellent City [Mainz], always — in war and peace, God favoring — counsels would flow forth into all Germany, whence true religion toward her, and the fear of God (without which the counsels of men are empty), had once emanated. Thou knowest, as we suppose, Most Illustrious Prince, what a harvest there is in this book for adorning Thy dignity. And whence the zeal for amplifying it was born in us, Thou canst not be ignorant — Thou who art conscious both of very many other merits [of Thine], and of that [benefit] which lately proceeded from Thy beneficence to this College, in a difficult time though it was. Wherefore Thou easily understandest that a great occasion has been offered to this our least Society for venerating Thy Most Illustrious name, and for assiduously making vows for Thy safety. And that the endeavors of this Society confer something toward the honor of God the Best and Greatest — to whom alone these Thy bounties are devoted — Thou dost not only deign to reckon, but also, not so long ago, hast declared by an illustrious testimony among Princes estranged from the Catholic religion. May God preserve this Thy Highness as long as possible for his Church.
At Mainz, on the Kalends [1st] of April, in the year 1610.