“The following day…, they summoned us…and with the laying on of hands laid upon us the office of preaching…. We could feel the laying on of hands and…many loose words which had neither strength nor lasting effect — as afterward we amply discovered….
“Three men…shortly thereafter — through ‘the driving of the Spirit’ — walked through Amsterdam [March 23rd 1534]. One cried out: ‘The new city is given to the children of God!’ Another called out: ‘Repent ye, and do penance!’ The third cried out: ‘Woe, woe to all the godless!’
“Now, as they were captured in the midst of these outcries, they and some fifteen or sixteen other teachers and brethren were taken as insurrectionsts and Anabaptists to Haarlem — where the were all condemned and tortured to death…. Such was the reliability of their prophecies…. All they told us would come upon the world, the tyrants and the godless on earth — that came upon us, and upon them first of all….
