Disputation Between Jacob De Keersgieter And Mr. Friar Cornelis, A Franciscan Monk; In The Presence Of Mr. Jan Van Damme, Recorder, And Mr. Michiel Houwaert, Clerk Of The Criminal Court, On The 9th Of May, A. D. 1569.306

Jac. Still, you desired that I should reply to your comparison between the authority of the Pharisees and that of you priests.

Fr. Corn. Ah, bah! do you think you can satisfy me with such a meagre answer? By no means we priests do not care for this; though the scribes and Pharisees were not of much account, their authority was none the less, on that account; and just so it is also with our priestly authority, after confession to absolve from and forgive, or to retain, sin, see!

Jac. What authority has a man that is already himself excluded from heaven, to help another into it: for Christ says, Matt. 5:20: “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” How shall an unrighteous man forgive the sins of one whose righteousness is greater than his own?

Fr. Corn. My lord the inquisitor wrote truly enough from Kortrijk, where you were born, that your tongue was well hung, and that it was labor lost to dispute against you. In troth, if you are so exceedingly opposed to all priestly authority, and say, that all men that believe, yea, even your wives and children, are all priests, why do you have more episcopal authority than the other Anabaptists? For you are their bishop, teacher and preacher. You rebaptize them, lay your hands upon their heads, and endow them all alike with the Holy Ghost, as they think. Hence, let us hear what you yourself think of your episcopal authority; for no one can lawfully administer the sacrament of confirmation, unless he be a bishop, or at least a suffragan. Hence, let us hear once, how you administer the sacrament of confirmation, and what you think of it.

Jac. I know nothing to say of episcopal authority, or of confirmation. How then should I administer it, or what should I think of it; for confirmation is a bugbear about which I know nothing.

Fr. Corn. Is it possible, do you Anabaptists call the sacrament of confirmation a bugbear? Ah, accursed heretic, the devil take you into the fire of hell, to burn you forever; see!

Jac. Do not get so angry and excited, for I call it a strange bugbear, because it is so unknown to me. But tell me what it is, and what you hold concerning it; then I can tell you better what I think of it.

Fr. Corn. Bah, this blockhead presumes to be a bishop of the Anabaptists, and does not yet know what the sacrament of confirmation is. If you are a bishop, you ought to confirm yourself. My lords, see once, what a fine bishop the Anabaptists have had out there in the Gruthuysbosch, who preached so many sermons there; is it not a fine bishop, teacher and preacher? Bah, see once, with what we have been vexed and tormented * * *

Jac. I am no bishop, nor do I consider myself a teacher; but I have sometimes led the brethren and sisters and converts of our church, with exhortation from the word of God or the holy Scriptures, according to my small ability.

Fr. Corn. Bah, you are a fine leader, that you do not yet know the sacrament of confirmation. Confirmation is, that the bishop or the suffragan anoints the grown children, and sometimes also adult persons (that are not yet confirmed) with the holy chrism on their forehead, and gives them a blow on the cheek, in token that they should remember 745 that they have been confirmed; which confirmation signifies the confirmation of baptism. Now you will understand or know it, I think.

Jac. Just as little as before, since I also do not know what chrism and the confirmation of baptism are.

Fr. Corn. It seems that you know nothing concerning the Christian religion; so does the devil hold you by the throat. And you presume nevertheless to be a teacher and preacher of the Anabaptists. Bah, is it not a shame, that you have to be taught yourself yet, how children are confirmed, and that chrism is a substance mixed together of holy, consecrated things, which must not be told you? and that one has to teach you yet, that confirmation signifies the imposition of the priest’s hands, as the apostles laid their hands upon them that were baptized. Do you not yet understand it, blockhead that you are?

Jac. In the nineteenth chapter of Acts we read, that, after Paul had caused some Christian believers to be baptized at Ephesus, and had then laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came down upon them, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. Hence I do not believe that your confirmation or chrism, and your blow on the cheek, have anything in common with the imposition of the hands of the apostles.