THE COMPANIONAGE.
No. III.— OBSERVATIONS
The
and
fearful impieties
237
ON THE ABOVE PRACTICES AND RESOLUTIONS.
which are practised in the
crafts of the cordwainers, hatters, tailors,
Companions of the charge, having been
saddlers, in passing the
lately revealed
by a
special
Providence, some zealous persons, in order to annihilate these damnable practices, and full of
zeal for the glory of God and the good of their neighbours, after having assembled the doctors
and taken
their opinion
on this subject, have believed that they could no longer defer (without
an evident danger of the loss of several souls engaged in these disorders), giving to the public
the knowledge of a matter so important to their well-being, in order that the confessors,
pastors, masters, and all those who have power, should be on their guard.
Hardly could one
believe that our century, corrupt though it be, had produced monstrosities of this nature,
and
if the matter had not been already seen, examined into, and condemned by justice, one
could not possibly persuade himself that such a thing could enter into