With Matthys there was no need for waiting, even for a day; the time was not merely at hand, it had already come.

His influence among the Brethren was immense.

If Melchior Hoffmann had been Elijah, Jan Matthys was Elisha, who should bring his work to a conclusion.
Among Matthys' most intimate followers was Jan Bockelson, from Leyden.
Bockelson was a handsome and striking figure.

He was the illegitimate son of one Bockel, a merchant and Buergermeister of Saevenhagen, by a peasant woman from the neighbourhood of Muenster, who was in his service.

After Jan's birth Bockel married the woman and bought her her freedom from the villein status that was hers by heredity.