Maeyken Wens, and Some of her Fellow Believers, in the Year 1573

The north wind of persecution now blew through the garden of the Lord harder the longer it lasted, so that the herbs and trees of that garden (that is, the true believers) were rooted out of the earth by the violence that came against them. This appeared, among other instances, in the case of a very God-fearing and pious woman named Maeyken Wens, who was the wife of a faithful minister of the church of God in the city of Antwerp, by the name of Mattheus Wens, a mason by trade. About the month of April, in the year 1573, she, together with others of her fellow believers, was arrested at Antwerp, bound, and confined in the harshest prison there. In the meantime she was subjected to much conflict and temptation by so-called spirituals (ecclesiastics), as well as by secular persons, to bring her to fall away from her faith. But when she could by no means at all, not even by severe tortures, be turned from the steadfastness of her faith, they passed sentence upon her on the fifth day of October, 1573, and pronounced it publicly in court at the aforementioned place, namely, that she should, with her mouth screwed shut, or with her tongue screwed fast, be burned to ashes as a heretic, together with several others, who were also imprisoned and stood in the same faith with her.

Then, the following day, the sixth of October, this pious and God-fearing heroine of Jesus Christ, as also her fellow believers who had been condemned by the same sentence, were brought out with their tongues screwed fast, as innocent sheep for the slaughter, and each of them, having been fastened to a stake in the marketplace, was deprived of life and body by fierce and terrible flames, so that in a short time they were consumed to ashes; this severe punishment of death they steadfastly endured; therefore the Lord shall hereafter change their vile bodies, and fashion them like His glorious body. Philippians 3, verse 21.

Further Observation

The oldest son of the aforementioned martyress, named Adriaen Wens, about fifteen years old, could not stay away from the place of execution on the day his dear mother was offered up. So he took his youngest little brother, named Hans (or Jan) Mattheus Wens, who was about three years old, on his arm, and went and stood with him on a bench somewhere not far from the stakes that had been set up, to watch his mother's death.

But when she was brought out and placed at the stake, he lost consciousness, fell to the ground, and stayed in that condition until his mother and the rest were burned. Afterwards, when the people had gone away, having regained consciousness, he went to the place where his mother had been burned and searched in the ashes, where he found the screw with which her tongue had been screwed fast, which he kept in remembrance of her.

There are at present, in 1659, several grandchildren (well known to us) of this pious martyress still living, who are named after her.

As for the others, her fellow believers, who were put to death with her, we are not able, because it was so long ago, to give their names; but it appears to us that they are the ones mentioned in the account that follows next (that is, the women*), since it is stated of them that they were, on the same day, namely the sixth of October, 1573, also put to death, at Antwerp, by fire. [n1107-1] This by way of notice.