Anthony van Asselroye, in the Year 1550

The Lord Jesus said to Peter, who was not only a lamb of Jesus Christ, but also a faithful shepherd, elder and overseer of the flock: "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you, and carry you where you do not want to go." "He said this," says John, "signifying by what death he would glorify God." John 21, verses 18 and 19. Here no great bishopric, benefice, or yearly stipend is promised to the high apostle Peter by his Master Christ Jesus for this faithful service of his, which he was to begin and carry out in watching and feeding the sheep and lambs of the Lord; but much rather tribulation, bonds, and the bitter death he was to meet. John 16, verse 33; John 15, verse 20.

But just as his Master entered into His glory through tribulation and suffering, so it was His will that His servants should follow His footsteps. This was shown, about the year 1550, in the case of one Anthony van Asselroye, a faithful follower of Christ and of His chosen apostle Peter. He also bowed his neck under the easy yoke of our Lord Jesus, following Him with his whole heart in the regeneration, so that he was chosen by the church of God to feed and pasture, like Peter, the souls of the sheep of the Lord with the Word of God; which he faithfully did in that dark, perilous and bloody time, until he fell into the hands of the bloodthirsty papists, who bound him and carried him where he did not want to go; for no chastening seems, for the present, to be joyful to the flesh, but painful. Hebrews 12, verse 11.

So this teacher and elder was forced to tread the bloody wine press, and he suffered and endured many torments from these persecutors. And since he patiently passed through all this, and no tyranny could move him to apostatize, he was condemned and put to death, and so torn and devoured by these ravening wolves according to the flesh, but in no way according to the Spirit. But just as this hero and soldier of Jesus Christ obediently followed Christ and His faithful followers in the faith and the regeneration, so he, at the appearing of the Lord, will sit with them upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matthew 19, verse 28. There he will receive again, in glorious immortality, like the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ, the members which he gave up to bitter death for the truth and the name of the Lord, and he will live with Him forever. Philippians 3, verse 21; First Thessalonians 4, verse 17.

Peter Bruynen, who was offered up at Antwerp in the year 1551, confesses that he received Christian baptism upon his faith from the said Anthony van Asselroye.