Hans Jacob Hess, with his Wife, in the Year 1639

Among those who suffered in the Swiss persecution, not the least was Hans Jacob Hess, a chosen and confirmed minister of the Christian church.

He was arrested for the third time in the year 1639; for out of the two earlier imprisonments, the first of which had already taken place in the year 1637, the Lord, beyond all expectation, had remarkably delivered him, through the help of those who were imprisoned with him; as also out of this third imprisonment. The first lasted nineteen days; the second, eight weeks; the third, eighty-three weeks, or more than a year and a half.

But in the meantime his life was made very bitter and hard; for he was stripped, and, together with some of his fellow believers, put in iron bonds for sixteen weeks, which he nevertheless bore patiently and with a steadfast mind, until the time of his deliverance.

While this was happening, namely in the same year, his wife also was arrested. She was imprisoned first in the council house, then in Othenbach, where bad treatment and unfit food and drink for sixty-three weeks so broke and weakened her health that she was seized with consumption, and after suffering much misery, died in prison.

This, then, was the end of this pious heroine of Jesus, who, to receive the eternal, blessed life, because of the uprightness of her faith, chose to die a lingering death rather than enjoy the temporal rest and pleasure of this life. Therefore the gracious God will hereafter crown and reward her, with all who have valiantly suffered and fought for His name's sake, with the unfading crown of honor. (First Peter 1, verse 4) Tract, Jer. Mang., folio 16, A. B., and folio 17, A., and so on.

NOTE. The property of Jacob Hess was seized by the authorities, who realized 4,000 guilders from the sale of it, without giving back anything of it to those who remained. O great injustice! How will they be able to account for this before the righteous judgment seat of Jesus Christ?