So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.
Ver. 27. This our craft] Whereof they had the patent, the monopoly, το μερος. Dictio est mercimoniorum et negotiorum, in genere significans illud quod in divisione obvenit, saith Lorinus. Istud quod nobis est peculiare. So Beza renders it.
To be set at nought] Gr. εις απελεγμον ελθειν. To be refuted, disgraced, decried, and we greatly damnified. Nobis refutatum intercidat. (Beza.) This was the Diana they strove for, and about which they raised all this uproar. So the poor Waldenses were persecuted, not for detestation of their tenets, but out of a jealousy lest these men's plain dealing should discover their drifts and mar their markets.
And her magnificence should be destroyed] Her majesty, μεγαλειοτητα. Utinam aeque saltem reverenter de Dei nomine hodie homines loquerentur, saith Malcolm. I would men would but use like reverence in speaking of the true God.