The north wind of persecution rose now more and more in the Knonow district, which also appeared in the case of an old sister, named Catharina Mulerin; who having also been apprehended and taken to Zurich, had to suffer much there in prison, for the faith and testimony of Jesus Christ; but was afterwards (as the preceding ones), beyond all hope and expectation, released from bonds. Tract, Jer. Mang., fol. 8, B.
FOUR SISTERS, NAMELY, BARBARA MEYLIN, OTTILA MULERIN, BARBARA KOLBIN, AND ELIZABETH MEYLIN, A. D. 1639.
The persecution did not cease with the foregoing; but they continued and laid their hands also upon four pious sisters, Barbara Meylin, Ottila Mulerin, Barbara Kolbin, and Elizabeth Meylin, who also had to drink out of the bitter cup of the dreadful Zurich prison; however, the Lord preserved them, so that they, unharmed in their faith, unknown to the authorities, unexpectedly also escaped from imprisonment and bonds. See the last mentioned tract, fol. 10, A.
Note.—We made mention, for the year 1635, of one Hans Muller, who, being imprisoned in the council house at Zurich, with two of his fellow brethren, was released for a month upon condition, and then again imprisoned, and released the second time upon the same condition.
He was subsequently (about the year 1639, as the circumstances show) again cruelly persecuted; insomuch that even his neighbors and their houses were not spared, through which the thief-catchers ran like ravening wolves on the track of a sheep; but when they came into his house, from which he had already escaped, they, with pincers and other instruments, broke open chests and drawers, in the hope that they might there find the property of the church or the poor.
These thief-catchers, that night, threatened his little children, with bare swords, that they would kill them, if they did not show them where their father was.
When they could not get him, they took along his wife, whom they bound and imprisoned in Othenbach. Thereupon, it was proclaimed in church, that no one was allowed to lodge, or give food or drink to Hans Muller from the Groeningen Bailiwick, on pain of severe penalty and the disfavor of the authorities.
Now when his life was made exceedingly hard to him, the Bailiff in the convent of Ruti, in the name of the burgomasters and councilors of Zurich, sent to him a letter of this import, namely: That he should have a safe conduct for three weeks, to go and remain wherever he would; also that he might freely come to him in the convent, and, after they should have finished their conference, leave free and unmolested.
Thereupon he voluntarily, with sure confidence in the aforesaid promise, went into the convent; but when he could not consent to the Bailiff’s demand about his having to go to church, he was confined there, guarded day and night, and then taken to Zurich, imprisoned for a time in the council house, and then in Othenbach (that being the place where also his wife was imprisoned), where he was stripped, and kept a prisoner about sixty weeks; in which time he was in irons sixteen weeks, till he with the other prisoners finally, one Friday before Easter, unexpectedly made his escape.
Afterwards he was again hunted with mad fury, even as before, and driven from one place to another, so that he did not dare to live in his house with his wife.