Twee brieven [...] aan Everhardus vander Hooght

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independent, just as any other could be under the pretext of that being domestic: which nonetheless is against their known modesty, conducting themselves in everything alongside the other Consistories of the other Congregations under this Classis, although together they are not half as large as theirs alone. But I must tell you something more, Brother, about that domestic matter, which is from Utrecht, against which you never have much to say. Mr. Leusden Jan Leusden, a famous Hebraist at Utrecht University told me once in Utrecht, as I recall some 25 years ago, that the Consistory of that city had by sentence rejected a Bankhouder one who is barred or banned from the table from the Lord’s Supper. He appealed to the Classis, which confirmed what had been decided by the Consistory. He brought it to the Synod: where those of the Classis of Utrecht, having already judged it, had no vote; and by the two others, with one vote over, the sentence of the Classis and the Consistory was annihilated. Consequently, the Consistory in Utrecht had no choice but to do otherwise against it, according to its own discretion, for the reason that the matter was domestic: Or did they nonetheless do it, keeping the Man from the Lord's Table against the decision of a higher assembly, just as happened once in my time in Leeuwarden; in Amsterdam one does not have that custom.

After such strange language from the Consistory, which I was never accustomed to hearing there, you come back to me: and say that I came into the Classis on April 6 (it was the 8th) without previously requesting permission to do so. But you must know, Brother, that no wise man will ever request permission for that which he already has permission for. I already had that for 12 weeks by the Act of the Classis; which says in that of January 22, containing my sentence, that after the lapse of the time of my suspension, (I shall not first be readmitted, but) I shall be readmitted; and the matter shall then (not be settled) but be settled. So that the Classis having already sat for an hour before I entered therein, it must have been an hour ago that I had been restored. My well-known vrymoedigheid boldness or frankness as you call it, if you are serious about that, you should not take as an accusation; since boldness is a virtue in the right sense