28 June 1628

All week I have felt a foreboding in my heart, and now I know for what it was.  My father was arrested on a charge of witchcraft.  They interrupted his morning prayers to take him.  I am so distressed—I do not know what to think.  I spent the entire morning in prayer, praying that the court might see clearly in his case.

I cannot believe my father has dealt with the Devil.  I have never known a more conscientious or Christian man.  I can only believe that he has been maliciously accused by one of those vile wretches the court has rightly imprisoned.  What better proof that they seek to bring about the collapse of all that Christians hold dear than that they attack our leaders?  Through God’s guidance, I have faith that the court will see this, too.  They know my father and how good and pious he is—my kinsman Dr. Braun from Abswerth, who has questioned and judged many witches here, will surely see that my father is not one of them (Apps and Gow, 159).  He had ever the praise of God upon his lips, a certain shield against demons, and on fast days he was cheerful and neither spoke nor thought about earthly food but only that of the spirit.  I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears his forbearance when faced with temptations—what could the Devil offer him that he would stoop to take?  Nothing!  My father is not a witch, and the court, knowing him as I do, will see it.