he
has done so because I bade the people seek their Lord when they had been
prohibited from doing so! Here is the contract! As the Church, by that
contract, has bound me to hell, so I set myself free from it (he tears
the letter to pieces)--and from the ban of the Church, too! So help me
God! Amen!

Crowd (howling). Anathema!

Marten. Down with him! At him! He is banned!

Olof (placing himself in front of the Harlot). Do you hear the devils
yelling for their victim?--Dare not to touch me!

Marten. At him! Down with him!

[Just as one of the mercenaries raises his weapon to strike, the
iron door in the rear is flung open, and the Anabaptists, headed by
Knipperdollink, come rushing in, uttering wild cries. They carry broken
crucifixes and images of saints as well as torn vestments. All those in
the room before are forced toward the street door.]

Knipperdollink (as he pushes back the iron door and enters ahead of
the rest). Come here, folk--here's another sanctum!--What's this? A
drinkshop in the temple!--Look ye! Look ye--the abomination has gone so
far that the tabernacle itself is being polluted. But I will cleanse it
with fire. Set fire to the church and prepare a stake for the saints!

Olof (stepping forward). Consider what you propose to do!

Knipperdollink. Are you afraid that the beer kegs will burst from the
heat, you Belial? Are you the popish tapster who thought it not robbery
to build vice a chapel in the very wall of the church?

Olof. I am the Secretary of the Court-House, and I command you in the
name of the King to keep order!

Knipperdollink. So you are the man whom the King has sent here to make
war on our sacred cause? Onward, onward, ye men of God, and seize him
first of all! Afterwards we'll cleanse the temple of the Lord from
idolatry.

Marten. Go at him, good folk, for he's a heretic and under the ban!

Knipperdollink. A heretic? You are not one of the papists, then?

Olof. Since they have banned me, I can no longer be of the Church.

Knipperdollink. Then you are on our side? (Olof remains silent.) Answer:
are you with us or against us?

Marten. He's Olof Pedersson, the man that was sent here by the King.

Knipperdollink. Are you Olof Pedersson?

Olof. I am.

Knipperdollink. But a heretic?

Olof. I pride myself on being one.

Knipperdollink. And yet take service with the King?

Olof. Yes!

(The Anabaptists raise an outcry and surround Olof.)

[Enter Gert quickly through