Visit TO AN Inquisition
A sixteenth century document records an inquisition held in Flanders in 1569. The inquisitor is a Franciscan named Friar Cornelis. The prisoner is an Anabaptist shepherd (pastor) named Jacob de Roore. Observing the inquisition are two government officials who will be required to execute Jacob de Roore if he is found guilty of heresy.
Friar Cornelis opens by telling Jacob de Roore, "I've come here to see whether I can bring you back to the Catholic faith of our mother, the holy Roman church, from which you have apostatized to this damnable Anabaptism."
Jacob de Roore answers, "I have apostatized from your Babylonian mother, the Roman church, to the true Church of Christ -- this I confess and thank God for it."
The Friar responds with predictable indignation… "Do you call our mother, the holy Roman church, the whore of Babylon!? And do you call your hellish, devilish sect of Anabaptists the members of the true church of Christ!? Who the devil has taught you? This, your accursed Menno Simmons I suppose."
(At this point the Friar utters an obscenity.)
Jacob de Roore responds, "You talk very wickedly. It was not necessary that Menno Simmons should have taught us [this] since John teaches [it] in his Apocalypse… in the 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th chapters."
The Friar rebuts: Bah! What do you understand about John's Apocalypse?! You were nothing but a poor weaver and candle maker before you went around preaching and re-baptizing out here… I have attended the University at Louvain, and studied divinity so long, and yet I do not understand anything at all about St. John's Apocalypse.(?)"
To which Jacob de Roore responded, "Christ thanked His heavenly father, that He had revealed [the truth] to babes, and hid it from the wise of the world, as is written [in] Matthew 11:25."
Friar Cornelis once again responds contemptuously… "God has revealed [truth] to the weavers at the loom, to bellows-menders, scissors grinders, and all sorts of riff-raff. And to us ecclesiastics who have studied from our youth, night and day, He has concealed it!? Before you are re-baptized, you can't tell A from B, but as soon as you are re-baptized you can read and write. If the devil and his mother do not have a hand in this, I do not understand anything about you people."
Jacob de Roore replies that indeed the friar does not understand the Anabaptists, "for you ascribe to Satan the grace which God grants our simple converts, when we [diligently] teach them to read."
Predictably, this exchange of opinions ended with Jacob de Roore being condemned to death. On June 10, 1569, he was executed by the Flemish government in Bruges.