# Of A Certain Writing From Mackenheym, Being A Defense Of The Persecuted Swiss Brethren, Or Refutation Of A Letter Accusing Them, Sent From Zurich To Amsterdam, A. D. 1658.

1658 · Historical source

Source: Martyrs’ Mirror. Original heading: OF A CERTAIN WRITING FROM MACKENHEYM, BEING A DEFENSE OF THE PERSECUTED SWISS BRETHREN, OR REFUTATION OF A LETTER ACCUSING THEM, SENT FROM ZURICH TO AMSTERDAM, A. D. 1658.

Source heading; not independently verified

When all the aforementioned outrages perpetrated
on the Swiss brethren gave rise to much censure
on the part of some people, against the authors
of said outrages, a certain letter was sent from the
city of Zurich to one of the merchants at Amsterdam,
in which the cause of the persecuted brethren
was represented in the blackest hues, but the cause
of their persecutors, in the fairest colors; consisting
principally in the assertion, that those who were
persecuted there were quite a different class of people,
and of another faith and practice, than their fellow-believers
in the Netherlands, namely, that they
were disobedient, stubborn, etc.

1065

This letter having arrived at Amsterdam, it was
found good to send the same (either the original or
a copy of it) to the Swiss brethren; to the end that
they might obtain from them a correct and true
explanation with regard to this matter.

Thereupon they wrote an answer upon the 20th
of March, old style, or the 30th of the same month,
new style, A. D. 1658, and sent the same, together
with the confession of their faith to the ministers of
the church of God at Amsterdam.

Therein it is stated, among other things, concerning
the slander of disobedience, that even the Zurich
lords of both estates had often confessed to
them (the prisoners), that they had been to them
very dear and obedient subjects, that is in common
or civil matters, yea, that in the matter of doing
right they serve as lights and examples unto others.
Again, that they had nothing to complain of them,
save only that they would not go to church with
them, etc.

It is then stated in said letter, that they had nevertheless
been reduced to extreme desolation and
misery, in regard to which these words are found:

“They apprehended the old and sick, women enceinte
and in childbed, together with their innocent
babes, and treated said persons in various ways,
with great harshness and cruelty; yea, they seized
all whom they could get into their power, so that at
one time there were, in confinement, thirty-seven
persons, of whom many men and women, in consequence
of the dampness and long confinement, were
very grievously injured in their health, and sixteen
persons had to die in these prisons,” etc.

This letter was written at Mackenheym, and
signed by six elders and ministers from Alsace
(whose names on account of the present peril, we
will not mention), in the year 1658, in the month
and on the day given above.





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