They acknowledge only one republic, but it is the whole world; they constitute one body, worship one God, and all look forward to eternal happiness.

Not only do they pray for the emperor and the magistrates, but also for peace.

They read the Scriptures to nourish their faith, lift up their hope, and strengthen the confidence they have in God.

They assemble to exhort one another; they remove sinners from their societies; they have bishops who preside over them, approved by the suffrages of those whom they are to conduct.

At the end of each month every one contributes if he will, but no one is constrained to give; the money gathered in this manner is the pledge of piety; it is not consumed in eating and drinking, but in feeding the poor, and burying them, in comforting children that are destitute of parents and goods, in helping old men who have spent the best of their days in the service of the faithful, in assisting those who have lost by shipwreck what they had, and those who are condemned to the mines, or have been banished to islands, or shut up in prisons, because they professed the religion of the true God.