Extract Of The Sentence Of Maerten Janss, Corn Porter, Citizen Of This City, And Jan Hendrickss Of Swartewael, Steersman, Put To Death With Fire.

Whereas Maerten Janss, corn porter, citizen of the city of Delft, and Jan Hendrickss of Swartewael, steersman, prisoners, have confessed, without torture and iron bonds, to belong to the evil and reprobated sect of the Anabaptists, and consequently to have attended various forbidden and improper meetings; and also confess to be rebaptized, and to have withheld the holy sacrament of baptism from some of their infants: that they also hold very evil views concerning the mass, despising and utterly rejecting the holy sacrament of the altar, as also all other sacraments, services and ceremonies of the holy Roman Catholic Church, and, what is worse still persist and obstinately adhere, to their aforesaid damned reprobated heresy, without in any wise repenting, or being willing to abandon it, notwithstanding all the good admonitions frequently and at divers times addressed to them by various good spiritual Catholic persons; all of which are most enormous, wicked and scandalous matters, which for an example unto others ought not to go unpunished; therefore, the judges of the city of Delft, according to the import of the decrees issued by His Royal Majesty, have ordered, and do order by these present, the aforesaid Maerten Janss and Jan Hendrickss, prisoners, to be led upon the scaffold erected in the market place of this city, and there to be tied to a stake and burned till death ensues, and their dead bodies then to be brought to the Gallows Hill and there placed at stakes. We furthermore declare all their property confiscated and forfeited for the benefit of His Royal Majesty. We further condemn the aforesaid prisoners to the costs of their imprisonment and the expenses of the execution. Done the fifth of February, A. D. 1572, Delft Style.

Note.—The original date seems to be in the year 1570, being two years earlier; but it is an error, as appears from various circumstances that follow, as also from the date of the letters which Jan Hendrickss wrote in prison.

Extracted from the first book of criminal sentences, fol. 195, preserved in the archives of the city of Delft, 23d of August, A. D. 1659.

SECRETARY OF DELFT.