Twee brieven [...] aan Everhardus vander Hooght

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and know. Another that was there I added at the end; of which I was afterwards told, that it was somewhat drafted by a predikant minister, and taken for a part from the conclusion of my first Letter to You, Reverend Brother; which you, if it pleases you, can compare therewith. Then another writing was still put into my hands since then, without saying who the writer of it was, containing those 25 places from my Book, which now stand expressed or indicated in those articles of satisfactie satisfaction; with a draft of a declaration, how I understood them; to dispel the guilt or the appearance, that I held our Churches guilty of Manichæiſterye Manichaeism, a heresy that believes in two equal powers of good and evil. This I inserted between the other, as one can now see: and this piece alone I have put into my own words, at least for the most part. Just as I also changed nothing of the thing that now comes at the end, after it was already closed before with an Amen; because they had me sign that still upon the insistence of one or very few Brothers, when the assembly was already together. See thus, Brother, how it is situated with that Act of satisfaction, which the Classis accepted on the 22nd of January: provided that I (as you rightly say) should still stand still in all parts of the service as punishment for given offense, from then until the 8th of April, being Paaſchdingsdagh Easter Tuesday. Mark then once how it is true, Brother, as you write, that those Articles were drawn up by me.

That which you further say, that on the Thursday thereafter, the 24th of January, there were many dissatisfied members in the Consistory, is true: for that has appeared to me myself enough before and after. But that you call the negotiations of the Gedeputeerden Deputies of the Classis with me secret, therein you do them great injustice. They did it publico nomine original: "publico nomine," meaning in an official capacity or in the public name, and went to work openly therein: so far, that they let several Brothers, who showed the most earnestness, see their writings; to their good satisfaction, seeing that they were in no way out to excuse me, or to overlook the matter lightly.

If those dissatisfied members of the Kerkenraad Consistory desired an opening of that negotiation, as you say therewith; and also still requested to hear reasons, why the Classis had departed from the 14 articles: so they have desired the thing that did not belong to them, and requested the thing no one was obligated to give. For it was then no