All that heard him wept, save the judges.
Then he asked if there was no pardon for him, saying:
“I toiled all my days, earning but little; I was good to the poor and comfortable to all men. I left the Romish Church to obey the spirit of God that spoke to me. I ask for no other boon than to commute the penalty of the fire into that of perpetual banishment for life from the land of Flanders, a penalty already full grievous.”
All that were present cried aloud:
“Pity, sirs! Mercy!”
But Josse Grypstuiver did not cry with them.
The bailiff signed to the people there to be silent and said that the edicts contained an express prohibition against asking mercy for heretics; but that if Claes would abjure his error, he should be executed by the rope instead of by fire.
And among the people ran the word:
“Fire or rope, it is death.”