Hans de Vette, and Eleven Others, in the Year 1559

A confession written by Hans de Vette, at Ghent, where he was imprisoned with eleven others, in the year 1559, concerning his examination

On the first Friday after Whitsuntide the following named persons were imprisoned at Ghent for the Word of the Lord: Pieter Coerten of Meenen, Kaerle Tanckreet of Nipkerck, with Proentken, his wife, of Belle, Jacob Spillebout, Abraham Tanckreet, and Maeyken Floris of Nipkerck, Anthonis van Cassel, Hans de Smit, Marcus his brother, Hans de Vette, with Maritgen, his wife, of Waesten, and Tanneken, the wife of J. de S. These had been handed over by treachery to the Procurator General, who, with three thief catchers, took them away as prisoners from their lodging place, in the evening.

The next day we were visited by the authorities, who asked us, each separately, for our names and where we came from, which we told them. They then asked us whether we confessed another baptism than infant baptism, and whether we had also received another. We all renounced idolatrous infant baptism, and confessed that we had received Christian baptism, except Marcus de Smit, who confessed that he had not yet received it, but that if he had opportunity, he wished to receive it with all his heart. They then asked us whether we wanted learned men to instruct us; that they would send us some, and just such as we wanted, ecclesiastics or secular men; they also said that they would not hurry us. But since they almost always asked us the same questions separately, I, the writer of this, said that by the grace of the Lord I wanted no other instruction than I had received, even if an angel should come from heaven. Galatians 1, verse 8.

Besides this, about eight days afterward they nevertheless sent one Friar Peter de Backer (who had partly spied us out), with one of his companions, two false prophets, called Jacobines, as I believe. After we had appeared before them, and exchanged a few words, we came to infant baptism, which he declared to be a divinely instituted doctrine, saying that circumcision was a figure of it; also, that the apostles had baptized entire households, and that Christ had commanded it, John 3. But when I had proved to him that he had not spoken the truth, and that the apostles had baptized no one without faith, as is clearly found in the Acts of the Apostles, he tried to speak about another article, saying that we would not be able to agree. But I told him that I wanted to see the first one finished before going further, and begged him to repent, proving to him that their worship was a rotten and putrid idolatry, contrary to all the commandments of God, and a human plant; and that God's commandments were enough for us, that no lies need be added to them, and that it was worth nothing to regard what God has not commanded. Then he said that I was deceived, and had looked too much at their abuses: that it was true there were some abuses in their church, but that the main part of what was observed in it was good. After many words we parted.

A few days afterward the Dean of Ronse, an inquisitor in the country of Flanders, came, and with him the said Peter de Backer, who had visited us first, and other false prophets. When I appeared before them, the Dean asked my name. I replied that my name was Hans de Vette. Then he asked me whether I was married. I replied: "Yes." He then asked me whether my wife was also from Waesten. I replied: "Yes." He asked me how long I had been married. I said: "Not very long." He asked me in what church and by what parish priest I had been married. I asked him whether we find anything said in the Scriptures that a parish priest was required for it. He said that in the world whores and knaves come together without parish priests. Then I said that I had done this according to the direction of the Scriptures, as permitted by Paul, in order to avoid fornication, it being better to marry than to burn (First Corinthians 7, verses 2 and 9); whores and knaves, on the contrary, will much rather burn than marry, as is abundantly seen and heard in this wicked world in many thousands of instances. He then said that this was a small matter, and that if I had done nothing more, it could easily have been arranged; however, I should only tell him where it took place. I told him that I did not intend to tell him. Then he adjured me by the living God to tell him; but I made no reply. Then he asked me why I had not continued in the faith of the Roman church, and in her worship. My reply was that I had separated from her so as not to share in her plagues, since darkness can have no communion with light, nor Christ with Belial, nor the righteous with the unrighteous, and so on. Therefore we must come out from among her. Revelation 18, verse 4; Second Corinthians 6, verses 14 and 17.

He then asked me what I thought of the seven sacraments, part of which he named to me. I replied that I considered them utterly worthless, because of all the abominable idolatry observed in them; but since the Lord has commanded us to confess His name before men, I said that I would confess my faith to him. He said that I should. I then began to make my confession: that I believed in one God, the Creator of heaven and earth, sea and waters, and all that is in them; and who created man in His image. Him alone we must serve, honor, worship, and love with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our thoughts, since He alone is good; forsaking all idols, whether of gold, silver, stone, metal, wood, bread, or of whatever other make or substance they may be, just as they are rejected and forbidden in the holy Scriptures; for we know that an idol is nothing in the world. First Corinthians 8, verse 4.

As I continued to speak, the Dean of Ronse said to me that I was making it too long to write it all down. "You would make us too much work," he said, "if you should confess your faith this way from the beginning of the Bible." "I also believe," said he, "what you have said here; but what do you say of the sacrament of baptism as used in our church, to which everyone must come in order to be saved?" I replied that I considered infant baptism worthless, since it was not commanded by God. He said that circumcision was a figure of it, and that all the children who were not circumcised in the Old Testament, or are not baptized in the New Testament, must be damned. I then said, in keeping with his own words: "Then the female children in the Old Testament must all be damned." He became angry, and said that what I brought forward was only sophistry. I told him that he should be ashamed to say that children were damned, to whom, as the Lord says, the kingdom of heaven belongs. He said that I lied in this. And another priest told me that one of Paul's disciples writes that he had learned infant baptism from his teacher, Paul. Then I said that Paul writes that we should not be shaken in mind, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter, as sent from them; or even if an angel from heaven should come and teach us anything different from what is written in the holy Gospel, he should be accursed. Second Thessalonians 2, verse 2. I also asked him to show me where the Lord had commanded to baptize children, or to prove that the apostles baptized infants; which he could not do.

Again, he asked me how long ago I had been baptized. I replied: "Not yet a year." He asked me where and by whom I had been baptized; but I did not tell him. He then adjured me three times by the living God, and by the baptism which I had received, to tell him. I said that Caiaphas adjured Christ that way. He replied that Christ spoke. I said that Christ spoke for Himself; but that when He was questioned concerning His disciples, He did not speak.

He then asked me what I held concerning the sacrament of the altar. I told him that I considered it nothing less than an unclean, rotten, putrid idolatry, and an abomination before God. He asked: "How? Do you not believe that He is present in it in flesh and blood, just as He walked upon the earth, or as He hung upon the tree of the cross?" "Far be it from me," said I, "that I should believe that Christ's flesh and blood are here upon earth; for Christ Himself said to His apostles that we would always have the poor with us, but that we would not always have Him." Matthew 26, verse 11.

He then told me that He was not present in the sacrament in that way, but that it was in spiritual substance, and that I did not understand the matter; but that this argument had been settled many centuries before my time; for when Christ held His supper He said, He took the bread and gave it to His disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body." I replied that the bread which Christ gave to His disciples, He gave them as an emblem of His body which was to be broken for them; just as He has represented Himself by figures in many places of Scripture. In John (15, verse 1) He says: "I am the true vine;" yet in reality He was no vine, but He compared Himself to a vine. So the bread which Christ broke for His disciples was spiritually a figure of His body; for He says in John 6: "Flesh and blood profit nothing; but the words that I speak are spirit and life." He said that this was beside the point; "for if Christ were not present," said he, "how could we eat damnation by it?" But I replied: "If it were the flesh and blood of Christ, we would not eat damnation by it; for Christ says Himself, 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.' John 6, verse 54. So these words must not be understood literally, but spiritually, namely, that if someone who was still a drunkard, or covetous, or an idolater, or the like, should go to the Lord's Supper with the church of Christ, whose head is Christ, such a one would be unfit to break bread with the members of Christ, not discerning Christ's body." First Corinthians 11, verse 29. Then he said that there were many among us who were drunkards, adulterers, and the like, and that they were well known to him. I then asked him

"Who are they?" He said: "J. de R." I then asked him where he lived. He replied: "I shall not tell you." I said that I well knew that if there were such people in our church, and they were known, they would, according to the Scriptures, be put away and excluded. First Corinthians 5, verse 11.

He then asked me who had baptized me. And when he could not learn it from me, he adjured me, but I did not tell him. Then his secretary said

"I will wager you a pot of wine that you will tell it before two weeks have passed;" but I would not bet. He then asked me how often I had observed the Supper. I replied that I had sometimes observed it, when opportunity offered, with many dear brothers and sisters. He asked: "With whom? What are their names?" I gave him the name of one of them, whom he specially named in his question. He then asked about others, whether I regarded them as my brothers, or whether they were only friends or novices; "for I have learned all this Flemish," said he, "about novices [dencomelingen, that is, newcomers], friends and brothers." I said: "I thought you were from Brabant; do you understand so much Flemish?" "I hardly know what I am," he said; "perhaps I am a foundling." "Yes," said I, "John's Revelation (13, verse 1) speaks of a beast which rose up out of the sea; you may belong to that race."

He then asked me whether I did not believe that Jesus Christ had taken flesh and blood from Mary. I replied that I believed that the Word which was in the beginning with God, and by which the world was created, became flesh. Then he said that according to the flesh He was David's son. I replied: "If He is David's son, Christ Himself says, 'How then does David call him Lord?'" He said that Christ only brought this up to the Pharisees as an argument; but Matthew, he said, describes His generation from Abraham to Mary. I replied that Matthew traces the generation of Christ only to Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Christ was born; and Luke says that Jesus was supposed to be the son of Joseph. "But," said he, "do you not believe that Mary is the mother of Christ?" I said: "Yes; Christ says, 'Whoever does the will of my Father, the same is my mother, sister and brother.'" Matthew 12, verse 50.

He then said that Christ was of the seed of the woman. But I told him that women have no seed of their own; for as the woman is of the man, so also is the man by the woman. First Corinthians 11, verse 12. Then he said that He was of Mary's substance and blood. But I replied that Christ said to the Jews that He was from above, but they from beneath; "you are of this world," He said, "I am not of this world." John 8, verse 23. Moreover, the apostle says

"The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven." First Corinthians 15, verse 47. I then told them that they should repent of their unrighteousness, persecution, and false, idolatrous doctrine. They said: "We have the true doctrine." I said that Paul nevertheless commands us to avoid those who command to abstain from meats, which God has created for the use of those who believe; and who forbid to marry, and have their conscience seared with a hot iron; for it is better to marry than to burn; but you people, contrary to the Scriptures, command to abstain from meats, and forbid to marry, and will rather burn than marry. First Timothy 4, verses 2 and 3; First Corinthians 7, verse 9.

Dean. "We do not forbid to marry."

Hans. "Certainly you do; you know that because of your commandment a person may neither eat meat nor marry, in Lent, and on many other days; and you have entered into a covenant that keeps you from marrying; but you commit such fornication that it is a shame to speak of it, as is daily seen from the bastards that are brought to your houses, and Paul says that we shall not eat with such people, namely, fornicators, drunkards, and so on, but that they are to be delivered to Satan, for the destruction of their flesh." First Corinthians 5, verse 5.

Dean. "We are not so bad; we do not want to deliver them to Satan; we are that much the better."

Hans. "Poor man, would you be better than Paul? But all that is told you is of no use; for you will not repent; but if you want to dispute with us in the market or any other public place, we are ready, in hopes that some of the ignorant might be drawn by it."

Dean. "This shall not be; who would judge there? Boatmen, fishmongers, and the like? That would be just the way to stir up a riot; but we are fools that we dispute so much with you; the proper way would be simply to tell you our faith, and if you will not believe it, pass sentence."

We had many other words yet, as about the worshiping of saints, the Pope of Rome, confession, fasting, purgatory, and the sleeping of the saints, which it would take much too long to write. The foregoing I have written down from memory, just as they often occurred; but since it happened long ago, I would not be able to write it down word for word. But since I well know that it is of no use to tell them anything, and that they are arrogant and shameless. I sometimes give them very brief answers, offering to dispute with them in public, which they refused. They often put the same questions repeatedly to our brothers and sisters who are in bonds with us, who are all still of good cheer, the Lord be praised; for we feared the false prophets much more before we spoke with them than afterward. But the Lord knows how to give His chosen ones a mouth in such hours, as He has promised, better than we can imagine; for those who seemed weak when not in bonds are so courageous that it is astonishing to see and hear it. The Lord alone be praised forever and ever. Amen.

The Dean also asked me whether we did not pray for him. I said: "Yes," "What do you people call me?" said he; "Do you call me Saul?" I replied: "I have sometimes heard you called the Inquisitor (they all laughed); sometimes the Dean of Ronse." He said: "That is my name." We had many more words yet; however, partly from lack of paper, I refrain from writing more; but I beg all who see this to receive it in good part, and if possible, let a copy of this be sent to our acquaintances at Antwerp, and one to our acquaintances in the West.

Then these twelve friends (whose names are mentioned at the beginning of Hans de Vette's letter) all courageously laid down their lives for the truth. First four valiantly passed through the conflict, who offered up their burnt sacrifice in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and a short time afterward six others, who, after steadfast confession of their faith, were also brought forth, and being asked whether they would not yet recant, they answered: "No," but if they had committed any crime, they should be dealt with accordingly. They were quickly sentenced to death as heretics, and when they were taken out to death in two wagons, two monks sat beside them, who kept them from speaking much, so that they could only with great difficulty speak a word or two, namely, "'Do not fear those who kill the body; for after that they have no more that they can do.' But, O men, repent, for the apostle says that he who lives after the flesh shall die." Romans 8, verse 13.

When they were led into a hut of wood and straw in which they were to be burned, they showed great joy, and committing their souls into the hands of God, they put off the corruptible, to put on the incorruptible.

There remained yet two pregnant women, who, after giving birth to their children and recovering from the birth, were both secretly beheaded in the count's castle. So all these, continuing steadfast to the end, went to rest with the Lord, and shall also enter into eternal joy with Him, in the company of all the dear children of God. Matthew 25, verse 21; John 1, verse 12.