had abandoned the priests who derive their power from the papal office, firmly believing that God did not desire that we should heed them in regard to our obedience (=obey them), therefore we firmly believed that God would grant us what we prayed for. And the Lord did so, because of our faith and our prayers, and ordained that it (the choice) should fall on all three.[1] And God thus manifested His wisdom and power to us in such a manner that we all felt clearly that God had visited us, and had done great things to confirm us in the faith. More than sixty brethren were assembled, and with full confidence and joy we received the Holy Ghost, and thanked God that He had visited us at the end of days and done His work.
"We then conversed together on the confirmation of their priestly office (i.e. that of the three who had been chosen as priests), how it could be done in the most seemly manner and without offence to the people; though we believed without doubt that they were already ordained and confirmed by our Lord Christ, as God had shown us. But we wished to appear righteous, not only before God, but also as far as possible before all men. Therefore we sought it (i.e. confirmation) from one (priest) whom we had received from the Romans, and from another who belonged to the Waldenses, who spring from the primitive Church, a man of whom we were confident that he was in the state of grace. And
- ↑ That the choice was made by the drawing of lots, which is here only hinted at, is more fully explained in the later accounts of Brother Jaffet and Komenský; they tell us that the brethren chose nine of their number, and then intrusted a boy who was unaware of their intentions with twelve slips of paper; of these, nine were blank and three contained the word "Jest." The nine chosen men then drew the slips of paper, and all those containing the word "Jest" were drawn; this was considered as signifying that God wished the Unity to have three spiritual chiefs.
