Of the Destruction of Some Tyrants of This Last Persecution

We will close this century with what formerly also concluded our old Oferboeck; showing the destruction of some tyrants, who were no small cause of this last and severest persecution of all.

Just as the old man whom King Antiochus had sent out to Jerusalem could not suppress the people of God and His law, even though he set up many abominations and tyrannized against the law of God, but had to see them increase even under the persecution, and besides had to see that the country was full of wars and commotions and resisted the king; so it also came to pass with the aged Ferdinand Alvares de Toledo (also called Duke of Alva), whom King Philip the Second had sent from Spain into these Netherlands. However much he tried to make everyone accept the abomination of idolatry, above God and His Word, and however dreadfully he raged, to utterly exterminate the true lovers of the divine truth and the ardent followers of the holy Gospel, still he could not accomplish his presumptuous undertaking to the satisfaction of his furious and bloodthirsty disposition.

For under his severe and bloody persecution the church of the God fearing, the pure bride of Christ, still bloomed steadily like a beautiful rose among pricking thorns, and was fruitful, to the praise of the Most High.

But he himself, who sought to rule over all the lords of the Netherlands and to oppress others, met with resistance from some of those he sought to exterminate, who, however, were not of the defenseless sheep of Christ. So, after he had for about seven years indulged his desire for bloodshed, slaying and murdering for the faith (when the country was full of war on his account), he had to depart in disgrace, and with him one John Vergas, who was a member of his council of blood; which many regarded as a punishment of God for his wickedness. But a still severer fate awaited Jacob Hessel, one of the chief members of his deadly court, and Jan de Vis, bailiff of Ingelmunster, who some time afterward were taken out of prison, without any previous announcement or sentence having been pronounced, led outside the city of Ghent, and hanged on a tree. And just as they had sentenced many others to death unexpectedly, so they also had to give up their lives unexpectedly; and so it was measured to them with the same measure with which they had measured to others. From this we can easily see God's just punishment upon those who persecute and kill Christ and His members. It was the same in the case of the high bailiff of Halewijn, named George de la Rave, who also took part in the tyranny over the children of God, by persecuting, scattering and arresting them, and in other ways. In the year 1571 he helped to arrest, among others, one Adriaen Jans Hoedmaecker (who was burned at Rijssel on account of his faith); and in the following year, on the very spot where Adriaen had been arrested, he met some drunken men, with whom he and his servants fell into a quarrel and a fight, in which he was wounded so badly that he had to lie in bed with the wound for a long time, and finally died a painful death in great distress of mind. So he had several confessors come to him, who nevertheless could not rid him of the gnawing worm of a torturing conscience; but he had to end his life as a tyrant in misery.

But it can be seen especially clearly how hard it is to kick against the goads, in the case of one Pieter Titelman, the Dean of Ronse, who was probably the chief inquisitor in Flanders. About this time he was in Kortrijck, struck by God with a severe disease, lice growing out of his wicked body so abundantly that he could not be kept clean of them, even though he was supplied with clean linen, and otherwise washed two or three times a day. No remedy could be found, and he died a most distressing and miserable death.

About this Dean of Ronse it is also written that, having gone out on a certain occasion with a small number of men to arrest these witnesses of God, and so to deliver them into the hands of the torturers and killers, he came in the evening into an inn, where he met a bailiff who had gone out with a great number of beadles to arrest vagrants and wicked men. The bailiff asked Ronse with surprise how he dared trust his body to so few servants when arresting other people; for if I were to do so, he said, I would soon lose my life. Ronse then replied that he had no fear in this respect, since he had gone out to catch only good men, from whom he had no danger to fear. At this the bailiff, thinking particularly about Ronse's words, answered: "If you arrest the good people, and I the bad, who then will remain free?" By this the Dean of Ronse certainly bore witness about himself, that he had laid his hands on the just, who had not resisted him. So it can also be seen from this bailiff's remark that he himself knew well that the magistracy's power ought to be used only for the punishment of the evil and the protection of the good; and that therefore this Ronse and his followers shamefully abused their authority on these people.

It also happened at Dixmuyden, in Flanders, in the year 1553, when the devout Wouter Capelle, who is mentioned in this book, was burned for the truth, that there was a simple, harmless fellow who was arrested by the lords of Dixmuyden. He begged in the streets, and was fed in this way by kindhearted people. And since the aforementioned Wouter Capelle (a say weaver by trade) was very generous in supplying the poor with food, sharing with them out of the labor of his hands, it happened, two or three days before Wouter was arrested, that this simple fellow came to Wouter's house late in the evening. Wouter asked him whether he wanted something to eat. He said: "Yes." So Wouter brought him a piece twice, until he did not want any more. Now when it came about that Wouter Capelle was sentenced to be burned, this simple fellow cried: "You thieves and murderers, you shed innocent blood; this man has done no evil, but has fed me very kindly." And he cried this constantly; and as Wouter was brought out to be burned, he also stepped up and wanted to run into the fire with the condemned man, so that they had to carry him away by force. And when he was dead, and the burned body had been brought outside the city to the gallows field, this simple fellow went there daily, minding neither snow nor rain, and stroked the burned body with his hands, and said: "O poor fellow, you have surely done no evil, and yet they have shed your blood; and you fed me so kindly." Finally, when the body had almost been devoured by the birds, this man on a certain occasion took up the whole skeleton, laid it on his shoulders, and ran in to the gate with it. So many people followed him, to see where he would take it; but he went with it to the lord burgomaster of the city, and when the burgomaster had opened his door, he threw the whole skeleton down into the hall, and said (other lords also being gathered there): "You thieves and murderers, if you have eaten the flesh of this man, eat the bones, too." And as the lords of Dixmuyden had set up an iron stake in the place where the aforesaid Wouter Capelle had been executed, as a token and lasting memorial that such a heretic (as they considered him) had been burned there, it came about that the burgomaster of that city, into whose house the skeleton had been thrown, became sick to death, and his sickness so affected him that in his delirium he cried out that he had seen the angel of God fly over the stake with the soul of the burned Wouter Capelle. And he cried this constantly, until the lords had the iron stake taken away; then he stopped his crying, but died most miserably shortly afterward. As a result of this, it seems, those of Dixmuyden were so frightened that afterward they shed no more innocent blood.

Concerning this avenging hand of God, which He exercised very signally upon bloodthirsty tyrants and persecutors of His people, you may also read in a letter of Menno Simons, S. G. folio 133,* which he wrote in his time to Martin Mikron, and which partly concerned the aforementioned Menno himself. [n1211-1] It reads as follows

"It is now about eighteen or nineteen years since a very eminent and distinguished man, who was highly esteemed by the world, but whose name and country I will not mention, wickedly advised how they should wipe out me and the devout. He had scarcely finished his words and his wicked thought when the avenging hand of the Most High touched him. He dropped at the table, and so in a moment ended his unrepentant, bloodthirsty, wicked, ungodly life in a most dreadful manner. O terrible judgment!" This happened about the year 1539.

"About the same time it happened to another man, who thought that he would so set his trap for me that I could not escape, that in the same way, at the very meal he was eating, while he was speaking the words, he was suddenly pierced by an arrow from the Lord's quiver, being struck with a severe disease, and so had to give an account before the almighty, avenging God, and was buried within eight days of the time he had spoken these words.

"Still another, who was to become an officer of the emperor in a certain place, imagined that he would exterminate this people, if there was any power in the imperial authority. He came to the place where he was to be stationed and serve in his office; and four or five days afterward the bell was tolled and the requiem sung over him.

"Behold, so God the Lord destroys the designs of the ungodly who assail His holy mountain, and brings to nothing all those who hate His truth and are hostile to it.

"In the year 1554 it also happened that three of our brothers were at Wisbuy in Gotland, in order to earn a living there. A preacher of that city, whose name was Laurentius, who was led by the spirit of his father [the devil], shouted after them in the street, and reviled them as much as he could, saying that they should not practice their religion there, though it should cost him all that was inside his coat, namely, body and soul. A few days afterward he came to talk with one of these brothers, another preacher also being present, who was somewhat more reasonable in disposition. He reviled and carried on dreadfully; but the great Lord struck him in the presence of them both, so that he was suddenly deprived of his speech, and within twenty one hours (alas!) was numbered with the dead. O terrible punishment and judgment of God!

"A case almost like it occurred the same year at Wismar, where they had taken on a crier named Doctor Smeedesteed, who said that he would rather have a hat full of our blood than a hat full of our gold. He persuaded the magistrates (who gladly have and want to hear such pillow makers) to proclaim, just before the cold winter, to the poor children, that they should leave the place before Saint Martin's Day, or they would be put where they would not like to be. Smeedesteed was very glad that he had accomplished the fulfillment of his heart's desire; but to his own sore judgment; for that very day the almighty, great Lord laid the hand of His wrath upon him, and within six or seven days took him away by an awful and severe sickness. Yet the hardened, blind and stupid world did not see it.

"In the year 1555 it happened again in that city that there was a preacher named Vincentius (who still lives there), who never grew tired of his ungodly reviling and severe reproaching. On the day they call the Lord's Ascension Day he read from the Scriptures (Mark 16, verse 16), 'He who believes and is baptized shall be saved,' and said that he would reproach and revile us as long as his mouth was open. Instantly the strong power of God closed it, and bound his tongue, and he fell down in the pulpit, and was carried out by some of those present, as one punished by God, and taken into his house a mute man. Behold, so He can punish those who would touch and injure the apple of His eye.

"If I were to relate all the things which in my time befell the enemies of the saints, it would require a separate volume." Thus far from Menno Simons.

It is fitting to add here what happened to this same God fearing Menno Simons himself. A traitor sold him for a certain sum of money, binding himself to deliver him into the hands of the tyrants, or else lose his own head instead; in which, however, to his own injury, he did not succeed, though he used his utmost diligence to accomplish it. He went to their meeting, and diligently spied out a place where they gathered; but Menno escaped his hands in a miraculous manner.

It also happened that the traitor and the officer, who had gone out to seek and arrest Menno, unexpectedly met him in a small boat on a canal. The traitor kept silent until Menno had passed on a little way, and then jumped on shore, to escape with less danger. Then the traitor said: "Look there, the bird has escaped us." The officer called him a villain, and scolded him for not speaking in time. The traitor replied: "I could not speak, for my tongue was held." The lords took this so badly that they severely punished the traitor, as a rigorous and instructive example to all bloodthirsty traitors.

So by these and similar examples mentioned in various places in this book, and in both Testaments as well, in murderous Cain, Pharaoh, Jezebel, Antiochus, Herod, and many like them, the avenging hand of Almighty God can be plainly seen and understood, and how grievously those offend against the God of heaven and earth who here afflict, persecute and kill His people; and what unbearable punishment they have to expect at the coming of Christ from heaven, of which this temporal punishment is only a beginning and a foretaste, since the Son of God, in the day when He rises to avenge Zion, will regard all that has been done to His own as though the apple of His own eye had been touched. Then all persecutors will be sorry with too late repentance, and will groan for anguish of spirit, who here condemned and killed the just, who did not resist them. Wisdom of Solomon 5, verse 3; James 5, verse 6.

So the wise woman Judith says in her song of praise: "Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred! For the Lord Almighty will judge them, and visit them in the day of judgment; for He will put fire and worms in their flesh, that they shall burn, and feel it forever." Judith 16, verse 17.

Oh, how good it would be for all tyrannical men if they would consider and lay to heart these and similar passages of holy Scripture, and would fight no more against the high God; for it will be required of them on that day, before the judgment seat of Christ. Since faith is a pure gift, which comes from God alone, and therefore can neither be given nor taken away by any man, however highly esteemed he may be. All princes and rulers ought also to commit the matter of faith to the Creator of all things, who alone is the discerner of the hearts and the inward parts of all men, and who knows and sees the hidden thoughts and intentions of the heart, clear and uncovered before His eyes; before whose high majesty both the judge and the condemned must finally appear together. He will judge the world in righteousness, and offer faith to everyone. Acts 17, verse 31. He will then judge according to truth, as to who believed and walked righteously or falsely. To this end we would, from the depths of our soul, counsel and entreat all lords and princes, as for their own welfare. Oh, that Almighty God would be pleased to grant all princes and lords who have received the sword of justice the grace to use their sword and authority no further than only upon the bodies and goods of men in civil matters, for the punishment of evildoers and the protection of the good, for which purpose it has been given them by God; and to let Almighty God be the Lord and judge over the faith, souls, and consciences of men, which unquestionably belongs to Him (blessed be He) alone. And that they would moreover consider how very short and uncertain man's life is, and how soon these earthly kingdoms can pass from one nation to another. And if the incoming lords hold different views than the former ones, city and country are instantly in great danger of revolt, uproar and destruction, if they want to force all their subjects to the religion which they have accepted; or else the common people must resort to pretense and hypocrisy, to escape the punishment threatened; for such lords seldom lack preachers who, for the sake of large prebends, are willing to preach according to the pleasure of the lords.

And, Oh, that men would once consider how many thousands of persons have for many centuries been deprived of life and property on account of religious differences, because the magistrates (at the instigation of their preachers) would force them to their religion; which nevertheless brought about no improvement, but the conflict went on without interruption. But how utterly blind and unreasonable they are in this matter is easy to see; since we certainly find, most clearly and abundantly, that even the Lord's apostles, whom He had sent out and highly enlightened, could bring only a very small proportion of men to one religion; and that in their time, besides the countless multitude of unbelievers and persecutors of the truth, there were also many false apostles and deceitful workers, who preached Christ out of envy and strife, and not sincerely; so that Christ was preached in many ways, in season and out of season. Second Corinthians 11, verse 13; Philippians 1, verses 15 and 16. Who then will believe that in this last and evil time, in which iniquity prevails, whole countries and kingdoms can be brought into the obedience of the apostolic doctrine through the sword and constraint of the magistracy? The more so, since Christ Himself says that at His coming it will be as it was in the days of Noah and Lot. Luke 17, verse 26. So the Lord Jesus also seems to ask doubtfully: "Whether, when the Son of man comes, He will find faith on the earth?"

For the number of believers has from the beginning of the world been very small among the children of men; and not all men have faith, as Paul says; and the whole world, according to the teaching of the apostle, lies in wickedness; and all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world, and the world and its lust will pass away; and Solomon seems to compare this world and all her ungodliness to a magnificently adorned woman, in the attire of a harlot, subtle, wild and stubborn, so that her feet could not stay in her house, by which she seduced and deceived the foolish youth, so that he followed her in wickedness.

Compare with it now this present evil world: how one can see every city and country polluted with pride, boasting, cursing and swearing, drinking houses, tennis courts, dancing halls, and shameful brothels, or houses of ill fame, where one can see with open eyes what a countless multitude of people, especially of the young, gorgeously arrayed and adorned in honor of the world and the devil, allow themselves to be lured and seduced there; while it is certainly known, and also unanimously acknowledged by all the mutually opposing sects, according to the express words of God, that the end of such a life and walk, without true fruits of repentance, is eternal death. Nevertheless, we do not find that the preachers, to prevent this wickedness, work with the authorities to punish and root out in every respect, by rigorous decrees and bodily penalties, this unquestionable evil and deception of souls; but in the point of religion (in which, through the craftiness and subtlety of men, there are so very many articles of contention and doubtful and conflicting views) we see them labor with all their might to punish, exterminate, and use constraint upon the faith and consciences of others, though these others cannot be charged with any of the evils mentioned. Yet experience teaches that many of these preachers are themselves so uncertain and wavering in their faith that they would rather change their faith many times, according to the desire of the authorities, as the chameleon changes its color, than forsake their large salary on this account. So it is our hearts' wish and earnest prayer to all rulers that they would be pleased not to listen to such treacherous preachers, who seek the loss and destruction of other people; but that they would use their authority for the punishment of evildoers and the protection of the good; so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life under them, in all godliness and honesty; and at the last day may together find comfort and grace before the judgment seat of Christ, when we will all stand so greatly in need of grace and comfort. To this end may the Lord strengthen and keep us by His Spirit. Amen.