HANS VERMEERSCH, ALSO CALLED HANS VAN MAES, PUT TO DEATH AT WAESTEN, IN FLANDERS, FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, A. D. 1559.
_Confession of Hans Vermeersch, written by him while imprisoned at Waesten in Flanders A. D. 1559._
In October A. D. 1559, I was brought before the inquisitor to confess my faith before him. He demanded to know my age, my name, and where I had been; he then asked me whether I was rebaptized. I said: “I know but one baptism, as is written in Ephesians (4:5); which is the baptism of believers, as is stated by Matthew and Mark in their gospels. And also as Peter said (Acts 2:38,41) to the people that heard it: Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. Mark, in the same chapter, and read with attention: They brake bread; fear came upon them; they were all of one soul, and had all things common; all of which an infant cannot do.” Verses 42, 43; and 4:32. He then asked me why I believed that the Gospel was true. I replied: “Because every word is established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Deut. 17:6; Matt. 18:16. Now there are four evangelists, as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, who all together testify and speak of one Christ and Messiah, who is the Son of God, and God is his Father. That there is a God, is also clearly seen from the creation of the world, and the signs and wonders which we daily behold, as causing corn, grass, apples, cherries, nuts, etc., to grow as may be seen. That the Gospel is true may further be seen from this: I have read that Christ says: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my name’s sake. Matt. 5:11 Christ also says: Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake, 10:22. When I read this, I believed it, and now I find it to be true in me and in others, and believe that the Gospel is true. Now every one may know, see and understand that it is as Paul says: All that will live godly shall suffer persecution. 2 Tim 3:12. Hence I say: By all these witnesses, who cannot lie, we may boldly say that the Gospel is true, let every one take good heed.” With this they tormented me greatly.
They then asked me concerning the Roman church, whether I did not believe that it was the true church, which is built upon the rock which is Christ. I said: “No.” Then he asked me which church I believed to be the true church. I replied: “The congregation of believers in the name of Christ, as Christ said to Peter: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church (Matthew 16:18); that is to say: those who have such a faith as Peter had, as can easily be seen in the second epistle to the Corinthians, (6:16), where Paul says: What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thus, all believers who assemble in Christ’s name are the true church.”
They also asked me whether the sacrament used by the church in the mass is not flesh and blood after the consecration by the priest--whether it is not the body of Christ in flesh and blood. I replied: “How should this be possible; for it is written in Acts (1:9), that he ascended to heaven; and in the seventh chapter (v. 56) Stephen says: I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. And Peter, in his first epistle, third chapter, says that he is risen, and gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; hence he is not here.” He then asked me, whether he was not able to be here by his divine power. I said: “He can do nothing contrary to his word; he is Almighty, I know; but he does not act contrary to his word.” They further said that when he held his supper with his disciples, he gave them his body as is written in the text, since he said: “Take, eat, this is my body.” Matt. 26:26. But I replied that he did not give his body, but a morsel of bread; for it is obvious that it [the body] was immediately delivered into the hands of the Jews, and suffered, and was hung on the cross; hence he certainly could not give his body to eat, as he says himself: I will not henceforth drink of this fruit of the vine, namely, the wine which he before called his blood. Read the tenth and eleventh chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians, where you can obtain a fuller understanding. Hence he did not give his apostles his body; but it represented his body. He then asked me what I thought of the service performed in the church. I said I regarded it as a great and abominable idolatry. Thereupon he said: “Then you consider her the whore of Babylon?” I replied: “Yes, as is written Rev. 13:4, of the beast that caused himself to be worshiped; hence, as many as would not worship him, or receive the mark in their hand, or in their foreheads, etc., who opposeth himself against God in his elect. He then told me that we could not show that our church, namely, that of the Anabaptists (as they called it) had been in existence forty years ago; and that their church had continued, etc. I replied: “We do not keep a register for our church, as does the Roman church; she would soon be discovered; for every one seeks to destroy or kill her, and she has not (as has the Roman church) the Emperor or the King for her helper, but Emperor, King or Prince diligently seek to destroy her. But I will show you that she is fifteen hundred and fifty-nine years old. For Christ is the foundation stone and it is that long since he was crucified.” They rejoined: “Yes, the Roman church; for she was instituted by Peter; he was the first; after him all the holy popes, and all the holy doctors [teachers], as Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Bernard, who are the four doctors of the holy church, will you not believe these, who were such learned men?” I said: “I believe only the word of God.”