Mariken and Anneken, in the Year 1552

Those who hold only to God and His holy Word, and seek to fulfill it, are not only persecuted but also imprisoned and put to death, as was very plain in the year 1552, at Leyden, in the case of two women named Mariken and Anneken, who were arrested and brought into a house, where the bailiff asked them what views they held of the Roman church. They answered that for the most part it was nothing but the doctrine of devils. He questioned them further about the sacrament of the priests, whether Christ was not bodily in it. They said: "It might be a hidden devil, for God does not let Himself be locked up in silver or golden caskets." They were then led to prison, and as they passed the church they said: "O den of murderers and choir of devils!" "Why do you speak such presumptuous words?" said the bailiff's servant. "Because so many a poor soul is murdered in it," they answered. They were kept in prison for a time and examined, and they boldly confessed their faith and held firmly to it, and for this they were sentenced to death. The sentence of the one charged that she had denied infant baptism, rejected the sacrament, and, against the decree of the Emperor, had attended unlawful assemblies, and that she should therefore be put to death as a heretic. The other, not having been baptized, would have been set free if she had been willing to fall away from her faith, which she was pressed hard to do; but she remained immovable, and since she had said: "Your bread god is eaten by spiders and worms; I will not be a partaker of it," and remained steadfast in the other articles as well, she too was sentenced to death. So these two had to lose their lives for the truth, to satisfy the bloodthirsty judges, who have feet that are swift in running to mischief, and hands to shed innocent blood. Proverbs 6, verses 18 and 17.