Thomas Han, in the Year 1592

In the year 1592, on the twelfth day of May, Thomas Han, of Nicktsburg, was also imprisoned for the faith at Freiburg, in Bavaria. He was also very severely tortured and racked, and so that he would tell them what they wanted, and renounce his faith, they had him hung up by ropes from eight until eleven o'clock. But he answered them

"You have my body; do with it what you will. You will not take my soul from me, and I also will not tell you what you want, nor betray anyone. Though you pull the veins out of my body one after another, and cut away a strip of my skin every day, still I will not renounce, nor depart from the truth." They heaped many words of reproach on him, saying that he was a deceiver, and had led many astray into the sect of the Anabaptists. But he said to them: "It is the true, Christian baptism, and not anabaptism; and if I could convert the whole world, I would gladly die three times if that were possible."

When he had been in confinement about seven weeks, he was (since he could not be brought to recant) brought into the council house on the 8th of July to be sentenced. As this took place, he turned to the people and called out three times with a loud voice: "Honor and thanks be to God, that it has come to this, and that this is His will." The executioner then bound him, and wanted to put him into a wagon, but he said: "I will walk to death, just as Christ our Lord also walked to death" ; and with that he began to sing. The beadle ordered him to be silent, but the executioner said: "Let him alone." As they went out, a priest joined him, and other people went along as well. The priest asked (when he refused to be instructed) whether he thought that he and those like him were the only righteous ones, and that all the rest were damned. But Brother Thomas answered

"We try to live godly lives, and shun sin; but those who insist on living in sin we put away from us, and do not tolerate them. Yet we condemn no one; but everyone who commits sin is condemned by his evil works, and this we tell them." Then the priest said: "We also reprove sin." The brother said: "How should you reprove? For where the shepherd is not good, how then should the sheep be good? You are false prophets; how then should you reprove falsehood?" And he said further to the priest: "Go away, you false prophet; I cannot look at you any longer." Then the priest began to exalt his sacrament, saying that it was the true body and blood of Christ, and that whoever partakes of it has no sin. The brother said: "You go around with your sacrament, and sell it for money, just as Judas sold and betrayed the Lord; but we observe the Lord's Supper in remembrance of Him, according to His command."

He then asked the priest where anything was written about the sacrament. The priest fell silent, and did not know what to answer, except to say: "It is written in the Bible." Thomas asked: "Where?" The priest said: "Paul writes of it in the fifteenth chapter." The brother said

"That is not so;" and then went on to say: "Do go away from me, you false prophet." When they arrived at the place of execution, the executioner asked whether he wanted to pray. He did, and then said: "I have finished my prayer; proceed now, for I want to get out of this world." He then knelt down, and the executioner quickly drew the sword, to frighten him, and then begged him three times, for God's sake, to renounce, and he would let him go. But the brother said: "Renounce I will not; but proceed with your work, for it must be." So the executioner beheaded him, while he peacefully committed his spirit to God. The executioner then laid the body upon the wood, and singed it a little, and then buried the severed head with the body. And though there was a strong wind that day, the smoke of the fire still went straight up to heaven, as can also be testified by all who saw it. This happened at Freiburg, in Bavaria, on the 8th of July, in the year 1592.