To Scapula 1

We for our part are neither terrified nor frightened by what we suffer from those who do not know us, since we have come into this sect having accepted, of course, the terms of its contract, so that we enter these fights bound over to them even at the cost of our lives, desiring to obtain what God promises and fearing to suffer what he threatens to a different way of life. In short, we contend with all your savagery, even bursting forward of our own accord, and we rejoice more when condemned than when acquitted. We have therefore sent this little book not in fear for ourselves, but for you and all our enemies, to say nothing of our friends. For by our discipline we are commanded to love even our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us, so that this may be our perfect and distinctive goodness, not the common kind. For to love friends is everyone's practice; to love enemies belongs to Christians alone. We, then, who grieve over your ignorance and pity human error, and foresee what is to come and see its signs threatened daily, must burst out, at least in this way, to set before you what you are unwilling to hear openly.