Claudine Le Vettre, and with her a Brother, in the Year 1568

Meenen is a beautiful little town in Flanders, three leagues from Rijssel, on the road to Bruges, built on the edge of the Leye. In this town there lived a God-fearing man, Piersom des Muliers, with his wife Claudine le Vettre. Through the preaching of Leenaert Bouwens, and by reading and studying the Word of God, they were turned away from papal idolatry. When Titelmannus, Dean of Ronse, and inquisitor of the faith, learned of this, he came there with bailiffs, intending to arrest the above-named Piersom in his house. But a godly man of the council of Meenen had warned Piersom to flee from the inquisitor, which he did, taking himself into a certain piece of woods not far from his house. But his wife Claudine, being busy with her four little children (one of whom is still living), waited a little too long, and had just left the house, with a child on her arm, when the bailiffs came in. They noisily demanded of the children and the neighbors where the husband was; and when they could not find it out, they prepared to leave. Seeing this, one of the neighbors, stirred up by an evil and perverse zeal, said: "Men, there goes the wife with a child on her arm." So they seized her at once, and handed her over to the above-named inquisitor. This happened in the year 1567, a few months before the Duke of Alva's arrival in the Netherlands. She was taken from Meenen to Ypres, where many lay in prison for the faith; that is, because they could not understand that there was any other Mediator and Savior than Jesus Christ alone, who was offered up for our sins on the tree of the cross (First Timothy 2, verse 5; Romans 4, verse 25); and could not believe that God had any pleasure in images of wood and stone, or of silver and gold, but believed rather that such worship was forbidden in the Word of God (Exodus 20, verse 4; Deuteronomy 4, verse 16). And because they also did not believe that dead men can hear our prayers and help us; but much rather that we are to call on no one but God alone, who alone discerns our hearts and our thoughts, and knows what we will pray for even before we have poured out our prayer; who called out with a loud voice

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," and so on; "to whom all the prophets and apostles point us, and not to one of the departed saints." Matthew 4, verse 10; Revelation 2, verse 13; Hebrews 4, verse 12; Matthew 6, verse 8; Romans 8, verse 26; Matthew 11, verse 28; Acts 10, verse 43; Acts 4, verse 12; Jeremiah 23, verse 5; Jeremiah 33, verse 15.

All who held such a faith were declared heretics by Titelmannus, and handed over to the secular authorities, to be dealt with according to the decrees, namely, the men to be burned alive, and the women to be buried alive. This severe death terrified some greatly, so that many fell away, in order to save their lives. For at one time a large number broke out of prison and escaped, so that Claudine also could have made her escape, but she would not leave her child; and neither would a godly brother, who stayed with her in prison to the end, and would not leave her, dying with her for the truth at that place. But Claudine did not fall away, in spite of many assaults that went on for a year; she remained steadfast in the faith, refuting from the Word of God everything the priests and monks were able to bring against her, as appeared from various letters which she wrote to her husband from prison.* Finally, when they could not prevail on her, they tried to move her by her motherly love for her infant, which until then had been nursed at its mother's breast in prison. So the child was taken from her and put out to a wet nurse. This was the greatest affliction she suffered during her imprisonment, and she wept many a tear over it, praying God constantly for power and strength against such temptation and assault of the flesh, so that she might not fall, as many of her fellow believers fell in her presence. God Almighty heard her prayer, for the Duke of Alva had in the meantime entered the country and had ordered all prisons cleared of heretics; and so she too was crowned with the crown of the godly, outside Ypres, in the year 1568; and with her a brother, who was also burned for the truth at that place.

Her husband, Piersom, often said of his above-named wife that it was astonishing how well she knew the Scriptures. For whenever he could not find a passage, he would ask his wife Claudine, and she would at once point out clearly to him what he was looking for.**

It is understood that the child which was taken from her in prison was never seen again from that time on, and the father and the friends never knew what became of it.

Piersom had formerly lived with his wife Claudine in Bruges, where the same thing had happened to him, namely, that he and his wife escaped from the inquisitor through the friendly warning of a councilor of the city. [n933-1] However, he had to leave behind everything he had, as was also the case at Meenen. But the godly man of Meenen who had warned him hid Piersom's books and part of his household goods, and saw to it that they were taken again to the place where the books belonged. But the bad neighbor, who had betrayed Claudine, became so hated by the townspeople that he had to leave the place, after the rabble of the town had wrecked and ruined his shop, calling after him, Judas! Judas, the traitor!

Meenen was at that time an open city, without walls or gates, and so Titelmannus did not dare to trust his prisoners there: it would have gone with them as it did in another small town of Flanders, where on a set day the peasants came in great numbers, broke open the prison, and set free about four hundred people who had been imprisoned for the same cause.

The friends had Piersom's children baptized by the pastor of Meenen, as Margriete, the oldest of the children, who later died at the age of sixteen in Calais, used to relate.

The rest were three sons, named Pieter, Nicolaes and Jan, the last of these being the infant that was nursed at the mother's breasts in prison. Pieter died during his mother's imprisonment.

Piersom later married a woman by the name of Peronne Hennebo, who died at Leyden in the year 1589, leaving two daughters, Maria and Martha, both born at Hoorn. This Martha was the wife of Doctor Dirk Volkertsz Velius, who wrote the Chronicles of Hoorn, and the mother of Pieter Velius of Hoorn.

Piersom's third wife was Habeau de la Motte, the mother of Margriete des Muliers, who lived at Gonda.

Piersom fell asleep in the Lord in Leyden, in the year 1591, leaving a son by his first wife Claudine, two daughters by his second wife Peronne, and a daughter by his last wife, as has already been said.

Claudine was beautiful in person, and a good singer, so that she moved the bystanders by her singing. Especially on the last day of her life, people stood before the prison to hear her sing with a joyful heart, when death was announced to her. One who told it to me had heard her sing, with a clear, strong voice, the 27th psalm of David

Le Seigneur est la clarté qui m'adresse [n933-3]

And the people firmly believed that if they had not gagged her when they brought her to the place of execution, she would have left this life singing and praising God.

This account we received from D. N. M., the son of Piersom and Claudine, with the help of D. D. V., Claudine's brother-in-law.