Oswald of Jamnits, in the Year 1545

In this year Brother Oswald of Jamnits was imprisoned for the faith at Vienna, in Austria, and various means were tried to make him renounce his faith. The citizens came to him in prison and in a friendly manner earnestly urged him to recant, or they would have to drown him in the Danube. But he said: "Even if you drown me, I will not depart from God and His truth. Christ died for me, and I will follow Him, and also die for His truth, far rather than forsake it." No matter what they said, they could not make him renounce his faith. Two brothers then came to him and comforted him; to them he entrusted his wife and child. They embraced each other, and so took leave of one another, wishing him patience in his suffering, which he had to endure though innocent. After he had been confined for one year and six weeks, they took him from prison on a certain Wednesday night; they took him out of the city, so that the crowds of people should neither see nor hear anything, and drowned him in the Danube. There was no trial held over him, and his crime was not made known.

Since he patiently and cheerfully persevered to the end, God will also confess him; and though they executed him secretly and at night, he will yet appear in the open judgment of the Lord in the valley of Jehosaphat, where another judgment will be held. Joel 3, verse 2. And that judgment will fall a hundredfold more heavily upon the heads of those who so presumptuously condemn innocent blood on earth; indeed, it will be more tolerable for those of Sodom and Gomorrah in the last day, than for such. Matthew 10, verse 15.