The last, named Henry, had divers times also been severely persecuted for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and had also been imprisoned; but he was now confined with the others, in a way which made deliverance almost an impossibility.
They were all chained, and stripped of their usual garments, and dressed, in the aforementioned manner, for a mockery and reproach, in long gray coats.
Thus they persevered until the last of August of the year 1645, being the time when we heard of them for the last time; how it further went with them, we have not been able to ascertain.
In the meantime there cannot be withheld from them the name of pious witnesses of Jesus Christ; since they professed a good profession, and, moreover, suffered all this for his name’s sake. See Tract, Mang., of the year 1645, completed the 15th of September.
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.
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.
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: