Six Brothers Strangled at the Stake in Volewijk, Near Amsterdam, in the Year 1555

It happened in the year 1555, when the first separation took place among the Anabaptists, because Gillis of Aix la Chapelle and others began to introduce what the other brothers of Waterland could not subscribe to or consent to, that these brothers kept themselves as a separate people, without, however, having been separated or banished from the others; but they became a forgotten, indeed, a lost people: so that the Waterland brothers, because of the severe persecution, could not live in houses, but had to keep themselves in boats and in the field, because they did not know where to hide from the constables, who were looking for them everywhere and sought their lives. It was at this time that six brothers, who were together in a boat, were arrested in the Oostsaner field and brought to Amsterdam, where they were sentenced to death. It was at the beginning of the winter when they were brought to the Volewijk and all strangled at the stake. There was freezing weather for thirteen weeks from that time on, and, what is remarkable, during all these thirteen weeks a light like a candle stood over each stake to which the bodies of the six brothers were fastened, and burned all night. After the thirteen weeks were over, a violent storm and rain arose, and, consequently, a great thaw followed, so that the water rose very high, and the ice was torn apart by the wind. Around the body of one of the six brothers the water stood so high that the stake, through the force of the ice pressing against it, was broken in two and fell down upon the ice. His body drifted here and there on the ice, with the tide, between Sparendam and Volewijk. In that neighborhood there were two persons, each in a boat, who were both novices in the church. Passing along there in the night, they saw the light already mentioned, like a candle, on the ice. Looking closely, they thought it stood on Jaapje Maet (so they called this brother). As soon as it was daylight they went to two sisters who were concealed in the city, which was known to these two novices. To them they told what they had seen in the night. Then they let themselves be barred out, and each getting into a boat, they rowed to the most northern point, where they waited for the ice to come. In the meantime that light came drifting on the ice. They rowed up to it and saw that it stood on Jaapje Maet. They took him into their boat and brought him to the other brothers, who also kept themselves in a boat in the field.* These took the body into their own boat. [n777-1] But as soon as they touched it, in order to take it to the place where they intended to bury it, the dried up and frozen body, which had stood at the stake for thirteen weeks waiting to be burned, burst, so that the blood flowed abundantly into two or three baskets that were at the bottom of the boat. The persons who saw all this, and did with his body as has been told, were his chief brothers and associates; pious and credible persons, who told it to many, so that this miracle should never be forgotten, but be remembered, for the edification of the pious.