By me, Adrian Corneliss, glazier, your unworthy brother, who am not meet to be called a brother. 1 Cor. 15:9. Written in my imprisonment, sitting in the stocks, with two fellow-companions, and one who is separately confined, and two sisters that are below us. We wait daily for the redemption of our body; and our pilgrimage, I trust, is half finished. I hope that we shall soon have completed the rest.
We commend you to the Lord, dear brethren. Remember the prisoners; we remember you in our prayers. Heb. 13:3. Salute all lovers of the only salvation by name; the times are too perilous now, to mention them; hence we must govern ourselves accordingly.
Let me inform you, how it went with us in our last time. When we were to be offered up on Monday, a priest came to us on Sunday, who talked to us, and said: “You have to die.”
Answer. “Thus did also the Jews, who said: We have a law, and by our law you must die. So must we also, as the decree of the Emperor shows.” But we asked the priest, whether their things were right.
He replied: “Not all; for we have also abuses in our church.”
We then said: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” 1 Cor. 5:6.
He replied; “It has to be leavened.”
By this we may perceive that their things are not good. But beware of such; for they are not sent from God. Jer. 14:15. Salute all lovers of the divine word.
Confession of Adrian Corneliss before the magistrate and the priests, together with an account of the manner of his apprehension.
My dearly beloved brethren and sisters, to the twelve tribes which are scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, with all that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, in their and in our places, greeting. Jas. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Tim. 2:22. I must yet write to you a little, hoping herewith to take my leave. Let me tell you how it went in my imprisonment. I had come to Leyden, and there conversing with a brother, we wondered how it came that they kept our friends confined so long. We therefore agreed that I should go and see Jan of Delft, the Bailiff’s servant, and ask him, how it stood with the prisoners, and whether they would not soon be offered up. He replied: “I hear nothing at all concerning it.” I then said: “This long imprisonment gives you much trouble.”