Jan de Swarte, Klaesken his Wife, Klaes, Christian, Hans and Mahieu, in the Year 1563

Jan de Swarte, a very good-hearted man, of Nipkerke, with his wife and his grown children, came to the knowledge of the truth, and united with the church of God. Afterwards he was chosen and ordained a minister of the church. In that ministry he conducted himself according to his ability, and in simplicity (not only in the deaconship, by caring for the poor, but also, according to his gift received from God, in dispensing the Word of the exhortation), so that he endeared himself to all who knew him. First Corinthians 12, verse 4; Second Timothy 2, verse 15.

And as the apostle Paul foretold, that all who will live godly in Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution, so he also met with it. For that reason he lived in various towns and villages of Flanders, as in Honschote, Rijssel, Wervick, Meenen, and finally at Halewijn, supporting himself mostly with tape weaving. With his wages he was very generous and openhanded to the poor, not only to those of the household of faith, but to all in general (Second Corinthians 8, verse 1; Galatians 6, verse 10). By this above all he left behind him a good name, to the praise and glory of God, as also by hospitality, as the Scriptures teach (Romans 12, verse 13), in which he was not negligent; for it appeared that when he was arrested, there lodged with him a brother from Doornick, named Perceval van den Berge, a native of Zwevegem, and another, who had come from Honschote, whose name was Jan Maes.

At that time there lived at Halewijn various other God-fearing brothers and sisters. N., the priest of the castle, greatly envied them, and betrayed them into the hands of the Dean of Ronse, the inquisitor in Flanders, who, on a Saturday night, the 7th of March, 1563, quietly came there with a great number of servants, from Rijssel, surrounded several houses, entered them, and arrested the aforementioned Jan de Swarte, with Klaesken his wife and four sons, namely, Klaes, Christian, Hans, and Mahieu (who was only about sixteen years old), and also Perceval van den Berge, and Jan Maes, already mentioned. Besides these he also arrested one Pieter the shoemaker, with Jacomijntgen his wife, who did not remain steadfast. Also, one Heyndrick Aerts the hatter, with Janneken Cabiljaus his wife, and another sister, Kalleken Steens, the wife of a brother whose name was Augustijn.

When Jan de Swarte was arrested, his two younger sons were not present, but came in the meantime. When they reached the house the neighbors warned them that those who had arrested their father and mother were inside. The one said to the other: "Let us not flee, but let us die with father and mother." Meanwhile Jan de Swarte was led out of the house a prisoner, and seeing his sons, he said to them:

"Children, do you want to go along to the New Jerusalem?" They replied: "Yes, father;" and so they were led captive with them.

The inquisitor brought them all as prisoners to Rijssel, and there had them very closely confined in the castle. Jan was put into a hole by himself, which was called the "Paradise," and it was so small that he could neither stand upright in it nor lie down full length.

It happened one day that various brothers and sisters, moved by love and compassion, had come from outside the city, and were standing opposite the castle, calling to the prisoners over the fortification to comfort them; and among them there was one brother named Herman, who was noticed by one of the beadles of the town, who came out secretly, so that he too was arrested.

After an imprisonment of ten days, the inquisitor delivered these prisoners into the hands of the secular authorities, who first took out Jan de Swarte with his son Klaes, Pieter, the shoemaker, Hendrick Aerts, the hatter, Percival van den Berg, and Jan Maes. All six of them, because they valiantly and steadfastly held to the divine truth, they sentenced to death, and took them in a wagon to the marketplace, where the scaffold stood, provided with earth and stakes. There they were taken up one after another, and fastened two by two to a stake.

As they were going to their death, the clock struck. John asked what time it was. He was told that it was four o'clock. He comforted himself with this, saying: "At five o'clock we hope to be in our lodging or resting place." His son Klaes said: "We have to die for this reason, that we believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of the eternal God, is from heaven and not of the earth."

Pieter was gagged, to keep him from speaking. When they stood at the stakes, wood and straw were placed around them, and fire was then set to it, and they were thus burned alive to ashes.

A few days afterwards also Klaesken, the wife of Jan de Swarte, with her three sons, and Herman, because they held immovably to the love of God, were all five sentenced to death by the authorities, and also burned alive to ashes, persevering to the end as valiant witnesses of Christ.

Almost a year after this, after a very long imprisonment, Janneken Cabiljaus and Kalleken Steens were sentenced to death, placed alive into the fire, and burned to ashes, as valiant and steadfast witnesses of the divine truth.

It also came about that the priest of the castle, N., who had so spitefully betrayed these dear friends of God, was very sorely punished by God; for such rottenness entered his flesh that it fell off piece by piece, or was cut off from time to time, from his body, and no physicians were able to cure the disease. So it happened on one occasion that a large piece of rotten flesh, having dropped, or been cut off from his body, was eaten by a dog, while he watched it with his own eyes. How he must have felt at that moment is easy to imagine, especially when it is viewed as the fulfillment of a curse said to have been pronounced upon him. "That he should yet see with his own eyes the dogs eat his flesh."

It also happened that while the priest was lying sick, a man came to visit him; and when the priest complained to him of his great misery, he said to him: "It is the coals from the fire at Rijssel" — namely, from the burning of the friends mentioned above. This did not please the priest very much, but he had to bear this taunt as well as the punishment sent him from God. And in this way he at last died most miserably, just as we read that in former times it happened to Antiochus and Herod. Second Maccabees 9, verse 9; Acts 12, verse 23.