At Bruges, in Flanders, in the year 1574, there were also apprehended for following and practicing the doctrine of Christ and his apostles, one Adriaen Hoedemaecker, called Kort Adriaentgen [Short Adrian] of Ghent, and one Mattheus Keuse, and after they had been in confinement for a time, they were, for the steadfast confession of their faith, sentenced to be burned. When they came upon the scaffold, to offer up their sacrifice, the priest addressed several remarks to them, whereupon the executioner said to him: “Attend to your preaching.” The executioner then kissed these brethren, and comforted them with the word of God, hearing which the priest or confessor said to him: “Attend to your office, for preaching is my business.” After this and other things, these two brethren boldly offered up their burnt sacrifice to the Lord, and commended their souls into his hands, thus taking their departure out of this vale of tears; to enter into the eternal joy with God and all his saints.
In the year 1574, Hans Peltner, a tailor, at Rottenhosen in Imtal, was apprehended for his faith, and the divine truth, who had to endure many disputations and temptations, from the priests as well as others, all of which he very valiantly resisted, and with the word of God testified to the truth, to which he by the help of God would adhere unto death. On this account he was finally sentenced to death, and conducted forth to the place of execution, where he exhorted the people to desist from sin and repent. He then kneeled down, turning his face to the east, or the rising of the sun, lifted up his hands to heaven, and poured out an earnest prayer to God his heavenly Father, thanking and praising him for all the grace and benefits shown him and that he had made him worthy to suffer for his name: He also prayed for all men who were worthy, that God would put repentance and amendment into their hearts. Finally he commended his spirit into the hands of God, for whose name he was willing to offer up again his life and body (which he had received from him), and to testify to his truth even to his last drop of blood, as he had promised him in baptism, and would thus expect to be received of him into his gracious arms.
This prayer was too long for the executioner’s patience, for he wanted him to shorten it; but the judges said that he should let him pray to his heart’s content, since it was his last time.
When he had finished praying, he rose and went boldly toward the executioner, so that neither his face nor his color changed, but he knelt down again so intrepidly, that the executioner was consternated by his valiant praying and undaunted mind, and became afraid to execute him.
When the executioner removed the collar from his neck, previous to seizing his sword, he asked him once more, whether he would renounce; but he would not. Thereupon the executioner proceeded, beheaded him, and then burned his dead body. Thus this Christian hero freely testified to the truth with his blood, and in no wise suffered himself to be separated from the way of eternal life in Christ. Hence the Lord, the Judge of the living and the dead, who holds in his hand the judgment and the souls of them that have died for the faith, shall raise him up at the last day, and cause him to appear before him, where he shall inherit a martyr’s crown and all that God has promised his own.
REYTSE AYSESS OF OLDENBORN PUT TO DEATH FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, AT LEEUWAERDEN, ON THE 23D OF APRIL, IN THE YEAR 1574, TOGETHER WITH VARIOUS LETTERS WRITTEN BY HIM WHILE IMPRISONED AT THAT PLACE.
_The first letter of Reytse Aysess, written in his prison, how he was betrayed, apprehended and put into bonds by the Bailiff, called Andries Grief, and boldly and fearlessly acknowledged and confessed his faith._