treat him in a fatherly manner and to refrain from punishing him too harshly, if there was any evidence of sacrilege, blasphemy, heterodoxy, or obscenity found in his works. On the same day, after the Vierschaar heard his confession, they convicted Beverland of writing godless, profane, and perverse works. In addition to a series of minor punishments, Beverland had to retract his heterodox and erroneous statements on the Bible, and had to ask God, and the people he offended with his work, for forgiveness. The De Peccato Originali was censured, he had to hand in the ‘De Prostibulis Veterum’ manuscript, and to promise not to publish any more scandalous works. He was expelled from the University of Leiden and was banished from Holland and Zeeland. If he returned to these provinces without special permission, he would meet with corporal punishment. On 4 December 1679 Beverland signed a written statement, in which he promised to never again write or publish anything against the Bible or decent virtues, that he would hand over the ‘De Prostibulis Veterum’ manuscript, and that he accepted all the other punishments of the Vierschaar. He was released from prison the same day. Beverland travelled to Utrecht. Situated outside the provinces of Holland and Zeeland, he was allowed to stay in this city without violating the terms of his punishment. In March 1680, as part of his sentence, Beverland handed over the manuscript of the first book of the ‘De Prostibulis Veterum’ to the authorities of the University of Leiden and in the same month he travelled across the Channel. He was welcomed into the home of his friend Isaac Vossius in Windsor. He continued to work on his ‘De Prostibulis Veterum’ (he had sent copies of the first, second, and third book of the work to England before his departure). Sometime in the next two decades, however, he gave up on his master thesis. He seems to have realised that the work would never be published and he started focusing on other things. Beverland did continue his classical studies concentrating for instance on Martial’s epigrams, the satires of Juvenal, and De Rerum Natura of Lucretius. In addition to classical scholarship, soon after his arrival in England Beverland started working as a sort of secretary, librarian, and broker in the service of Dutch friends, such as Vossius, and new English contacts, like Hans Sloane. Beverland soon started contemplating