'Do not walk after strange gods so as to serve them, and do not worship them, lest you provoke me by the works of your hands to your own destruction.' Why, so prone to sacrilege, do you stop up your ears? Why, with such fire of obstinate madness, do you hasten to your own ruin and death? God has made you free; it lies in your own hand whether you live or perish. Why do you cast yourself headlong over the precipice? Set on a slippery road and placed in the very act of falling, hold back at last your tottering steps. Behold, the sentence is pronounced; behold, the penalty is decreed. Long has the divine forbearance spared your crimes; long has it regarded your wickedness with dissimulation. You come to that perilous point where hope, where prayers fail.
And that you may be more plainly instructed, learn the doom of punishment. On this matter the whole tenor of the answer stands in the Apocalypse, for thus it is written: 'If any man worships the beast and its image, and receives its mark on his forehead and on his hand, he too shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, mingled in the cup of his wrath, and he shall be punished with fire and brimstone before the eyes of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torments shall ascend forever and ever, nor shall they have rest day or night, whoever worship the beast and its image.' But upon you also, most sacred emperors, the necessity is laid to avenge and punish this evil, and this is commanded you by the law of the Most High God, that your severity may pursue the crime of idolatry in every way.
Hear, and commend to your sacred minds what God commands concerning this crime. In Deuteronomy this law is set down in writing, for it says: 'But if your brother, or your son, or your wife who is in your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, should secretly entreat you, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, the gods of the nations, you shall not consent to him, nor shall you listen to him, nor shall your eye spare him, nor shall you conceal him; but in proclaiming you shall proclaim concerning him: your hand shall be upon him first to slay him, and the hand of all the people afterward, and they shall stone him and he shall die, because he sought to turn you away from your Lord.' He commands that neither son nor brother be spared, and He draws the avenging sword through the beloved limbs of a wife.
He pursues also the friend with lofty severity, and the whole people is armed to tear in pieces the bodies of the sacrilegious. Even upon whole cities, if they have been caught in this crime, utter destruction is decreed. And that your providence may learn this more plainly, I will set forth the sentence of the established law. In the same book the Lord appointed the penalty for whole cities with these words, for He says: 'But if you hear, in one of the cities which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in there, men saying, Let us go and serve other gods whom you do not know:'
'slaying you shall kill all who are in the city with the edge of the sword, and you shall burn the city with fire, and it shall be without habitation, it shall not be built up forever, that the Lord may be turned away from the indignation of his wrath; and he shall give you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, if you hear the voice of the Lord your God and keep his precepts.' To us, most sacred emperors, the Most High God promises the rewards of his mercy and decrees the increase of the greatest magnification. Do therefore what He commands, fulfill what He enjoins. Your auspices have been heaped with greater gifts: set at the beginning of the faith, you have felt the increases of divine favor.
never has the venerable hand of God forsaken you, never has it denied help to you in your labors. The wedges of your adversaries have been laid low, and rebellious arms have ever fallen before your sight; the proud have been sent beneath the yoke of your people, and the hopes of Persia have collapsed, nor could cruelty, laden with its own evils, stand long against you. By a twofold and opposite outcome you have both felt the power of God: upon you the crown of heavenly victory has been bestowed, and by your felicity our misfortunes are relieved. These rewards the Most High God, most sacred emperors, has rendered to you for your faith; and having for the present requited you with these honors, He invites you to the mysteries of the venerable law.
With pure mind, devoted conscience, and uncorrupted spirit, let your clemency ever look up to heaven, ever await help from God, implore the venerable majesty of Christ, and offer spiritual victims to the saving God for the welfare of the whole world and for your own. So shall all things turn out happily for you—victories, abundance, peace, plenty, health, and triumphs—that, advanced by the divine majesty, you may govern the world with a happy rule.