Of a Certain Writing from Mackenheym, in the Year 1658

When all the previously mentioned outrages committed against the Swiss brothers gave rise to much censure from some people against the authors of those 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 brothers was represented in the blackest hues, but the cause of their persecutors in the fairest colors; it consisted chiefly in the claim 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, and so on.

When this letter arrived at Amsterdam, it was thought good to send it (either the original or a copy of it) to the Swiss brothers, so that a correct and true explanation of this matter might be obtained from them.

Thereupon they wrote an answer on the 20th of March, old style, or the 30th of the same month, new style, in the year 1658, and sent it, together with the confession of their faith, to the ministers of the church of God at Amsterdam.

In it they state, among other things, concerning the slander of disobedience, that even the Zurich lords of both estates had often admitted to them (the prisoners) that they had been very dear and obedient subjects to them, that is, in common or civil matters; indeed, that in the matter of doing right they serve as lights and examples to others. Again, that they had nothing to complain of in them, except only that they would not go to church with them, and so on.

It is then stated in that letter that they had nevertheless been reduced to extreme desolation and misery, and concerning this these words are found:

"They arrested the old and the sick, pregnant women and women who had just given birth, together with their innocent babies, and treated these people in various ways, with great harshness and cruelty; indeed, they seized everyone they could get into their power, so that at one time thirty-seven persons were in confinement, of whom many men and women, because of the dampness and the long imprisonment, were very grievously injured in their health, and sixteen persons had to die in these prisons," and so on.

This letter was written at Mackenheym, and signed by six elders and ministers from Alsace (whose names we will not mention, because of the present danger), in the year 1658, in the month and on the day given above.