Of the Mandate Published Against the Anabaptists in the Duchy of Prussia (but…, in the Year 1586

When, because of the terrible burning and scorching of the pious witnesses of Jesus who were called by the name of Anabaptists, many of them went from papist regions, where the distress was greatest, to the Prussian countries, hoping that the rulers there, who boasted of greater discretion and mercy than those of general popery, would grant them liberty to live according to their conscience, it happened that when they came there they found themselves deceived in their opinion, since the prince of that country, who then reigned at Brandenburg, ordered them, by a public mandate, to leave.

Concerning this, P. J. Twisck has given this account:

George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg, commanded in a public mandate, on the 12th of November, in the year 1586, that the Anabaptists must leave this whole Duchy of Prussia. Chron. van den Ondergang, edition 1620, 2nd part, 16th book, for the year 1586, page 1401, column 1.