Com. “Jacques, I have come here commissioned by the King, and the Procurator General, to examine you with regard to the articles of faith.”
Jacques. “Well, my lord, be it done then in the name of the Lord.”
After we had had many words together concerning the faith, he began to ask me regarding the place of my nativity, my residence, and my life from my youth up to the present time; all of which I confessed to him. Thereupon I was led back to prison by the jailer.
In the afternoon of the next day, namely, the fourth of January of the same year, I was again brought before the same commissary. As I stood before him, he commenced to revile, vituperate and blaspheme the pastors and the flock of Christ, saying: “Is it not a pity that we suffer ourselves to be so deceived?”
Jacques. “Yes, my lord.”
Com. “I speak of you and others, who forsake our mother the holy church, and suffer yourselves to be deceived by a set of mischievous idlers and vagabonds.”
Jac. “I have not suffered myself to be deceived by such.”
Com. “No! when you believe such accursed villains and beggars as Menno, Leenaert, Henderick van Vreden, Frans de Kuyper, Jelis of Aix-la-Chapelle, and other such rascals, and forsake us and the true word of God, do you not then suffer yourselves to be deceived?”
Jac. “I have not forsaken the word of God; for my faith is founded upon the word of God, and not upon men, nor upon the doctrines of men, since the prophet Jeremiah exclaims: “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.” Jer. 17:5.
A little after this the commissary cried out, saying: “O the miscreants, such as Menno and Leenaert, how many have they deceived and led to all the devils and into perdition.”