TEN PERSONS, MEN AS WELL AS WOMEN, BURNED FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, AT DORDRECHT, ABOUT THE YEAR 1570.
Ancient and credible memoirs tell us as indubitable facts, that about the year of our Lord 1570, two very devout persons, a man and a woman, whose names we have not been able to ascertain, were sought for by the bailiff of the city of Dordrecht, because they were called Anabaptists, and finally found in the Marienbon street of said city, in a house from which was suspended the sign of a boot. As they steadfastly adhered to their faith, both were shortly after burnt in the market field, beyond the scales, where then was the place of execution.
Also, that seven others, men as well as women, of the same religion, who had come from Breda,[326] when they could by no means be moved therefrom, suffered like punishment, namely, by fire, until death ensued; which took place in the plain, not far from the Menne bridge, beyond the powder magazine being the other place of execution.
[326] Of these martyrs from Breda mention seems to be made also in one of the letters of Jan Wouterss van Kuyck.
About the end of the year, namely, in the month of November, when that great and terrible flood, that came on All-saints-day (of which almost every one knows something) had come to an end, it is stated, that a certain Anabaptist widow in the Armetij street was taken from a room at the side of a stairway by the bailiff and the stadtholder; which widow some time afterwards, as she would not apostatize from her faith, also had to die in the flames.
We made search for the examinations and death sentences of the aforementioned persons, in the ordinary’s criminal city records of that time, but did not find them, nor of J. W. van Kuyck and Adriaentgen Jans van Molenaersgraef, who were put to death two years afterwards; though there were several living witnesses of it in our time, who saw the death of said persons, together with all the circumstances. This being the case it appears that the papists were ashamed to put the court proceedings and death sentences of said persons into the city records, since it seemed that the country and at the same time also this city should before long change government and religion, which about two years afterwards was accomplished through the coming of William I., prince of Orange; and thus the constraint over the faith and conscience ceased at the same time, at said place.
_Further Observation._--As regards the persons who then (in the year 1570) sat in court, and administered justice, they were, according to the record of Johan van Beverwijck, in his Register of the Magistracy of Dordrecht, as follows:
Adriaen van Bleyenbergh Adriaenss, Bailiff of said city, who had entered on his office in the year 1549, and completed his time in the year 1571.
Arent van der Mijle Sir Corneliss, Burgomaster of the community.
Together with nine judges: Gijsbrecht van Haerlem Jans; Cornelis van Diemen Jacobss; Huybrecht Jonge Adriaenss; Jan van Slingelandt Sir Ottenss; Wourick van Drenkwaert Sir Wilmss; Jan Janss Elandtss; Bondewijn Heerman Gijsbrechtss; Dierick van Beverwijck Sir Philips; Cornelis van Mosyenbroeck Sir Corneliss.
However, whether they all concurred in this sentence, or only some of them, is not known to us.
JELIS CLAVERSS, LIJSABET, WIFE OF CLAES DE VRIES, NELLEKEN JASPERS, AND WITH THEM THIRTY-THREE OTHER PERSONS, A. D. 1571.
In the year 1571, thirty-six persons were apprehended at Antwerp, in Brabant, for the truth of the holy Gospel of Christ and following the same. Among them were Jelis Claverss, Lijsabet, wife of Claes de Vries, and Nelleken Jaspers, whom we think to have also been among this number, which comprised six men and thirty women, some of whom were burnt, and some suffered drowning with great constancy. But said Lijsabet died with a screw in her mouth, by which she was prevented from speaking, that she should not tell the spectators how innocently she died; in which deed the monks and priests more than filled up the measure of their forefathers, the blood-thirsty Pharisees; for they stopped only their own ears, that the truth should not be told them by Stephen, the worthy man of God; these new Pharisees, the monks, on the other hand, caused screws to be put on the tongues of these pious and faithful witnesses of God, and the tip of the tongue touched with a red hot iron, that the swelling should prevent it from slipping out. Thus these pious persons [were put to death] not on account of any crime or uproar or fraud, nor for any heresy, but only because they had gone out of Babylon, and united with Christ, herein following the teaching of the Holy Ghost. 2 Cor. 6:17. Hence they valiantly contended for the belief of the truth, and shall, from the Prince of truth, through grace, for this short, little labor, receive the crown of eternal glory, and enjoy it forever.