John Claess replied: “Three years ago or thereabouts I was baptized as all Christians ought to be.”
The court said: “You acknowledge it then?”
John Claess: “Yes.”
Court: “Well, since you confess it, we have full power from the seven judges.”
John Claess: “Can I not obtain the full court? it is granted even to thieves and murderers, why should it not be granted to me?”
The four judges then went out to pronounce the sentence.
Lifting up his voice, John Claess said: “O merciful Father, thou knowest that we do not desire revenge” (Rom. 12:19), and he wrung his hands, saying: “O merciful Father, grant them thy Spirit, that thou mayest not count this to them as wickedness.” Acts 7:60.
The four judges now returned into the court, and sat down to declare the sentence, saying: “John Claess, a native of Alkmaar, who has taught the people false doctrines, errors and new opinions—”
Upon this John Claess answered: “It is not so.”
The lords of the court then forbade John Claess to speak, and good John Claess observed silence, that he might hear his sentence. They then proceeded with their sentence, and said to the clerk: “Read his crime.” He read that he had caused to be printed at Antwerp six hundred books, which he had concluded with Menno Simon, and scattered abroad in this country, containing strange opinions and sectarianisms, and had kept school and held meetings, to introduce errors among the people (Acts 17:6), which is contrary to the decree of the Emperor, and our mother the holy church, and which it is not proper for my lords of the court to tolerate, but to correct.