But the more enthusiasm one party displayed, the more wrath was displayed by the other. Certain monks of other convents, certain priests, with the inquisitor Van der Hulst at their head, enraged at this concourse of people, applied to the governess of the Netherlands. They put forward false witnesses, who declared that they had heard from the lips of the preacher heretical statements. At the same time they sought to stir up the people. But God, says Zutphen, prevented any tumult, however sharp the provocation might be. Van der Hulst had already prepared at Brussels the prison in which he reckoned on confining him. Zutphen expected it.
His Arrest.
On Michaelmas Day (September 29) he was arrested. The agents of the inquisitors laid before him certain articles of faith, extracted from his discourses, and required him to retract them. But he replied with intrepid courage, and well knew from that moment that he had nothing to look for but death. It was in the morning; and the inquisitors, fearing the people, determined to wait till night to remove him to Brussels.[[750]] The prisoner therefore remained all day in peace within the convent walls, engaged in meditation and in preparation for giving up his life. Suddenly the noise of a great disturbance was heard. In the evening, after sunset,[[751]] men were seen, and women too, usually timid but now made valiant by their love for the Word of God, hurrying together from all quarters and surrounding the monastery.[[752]] The most determined among them burst open the doors; the crowd rushed into the convent; some men and some women penetrated into Henry’s prison, took him by the hand, and conducting him to the house of one of his friends, concealed him there. Three days elapsed, and no one had any suspicion of his place of refuge. His enemies moved heaven and earth to discover him, and ransacked all nooks, and corners. They summoned his friends, and with threats demanded of them whether they knew his place of concealment. Flight alone could save him from death. ‘I will go to Wittenberg,’ he said. The difficulty was to get out of the town. He effected his escape, however, and succeeded in reaching Enkhuysen, a town of Holland, and there took up his abode in the monastery of the Augustines. An order arrived to arrest Henry, to bind him and to take him before Margaret at Antwerp. He had just before left Enkhuysen, and was arriving at Amsterdam. He set out with all speed from the town and betook himself to his native place, Zutphen. But here he was presently recognized and seized. He appeared before the ecclesiastical tribunals. ‘Who art thou? Whence comest thou? Whither goest thou?’ they said to him. ‘Art thou not come hither to preach?’ ‘If that is agreeable to you,’ said he, ‘I shall do so with much pleasure.’ ‘Get you gone!’ exclaimed his enraged judges.
His Murder In Holstein.
He then set out for Bremen. Here he remained some time without any one suspecting who he was. Some good townsmen, however, having made his acquaintance, requested him to preach. He did so, on St. Martin’s Day (Sunday), 1522, and was immediately cited by the magistrate of the town. ‘Why have you preached?’ said the canons to him. ‘Because the word of God must not be bound.’ ‘Expel him from the town,’ said the canons to the magistrates. The latter replied that they could not do this; and Henry continued to preach. The nobles and the prelates of two dioceses then demanded that he should be delivered to the bishop; and they invited the notables of the town and the heads of the trades to unite with them for this purpose. But they all replied, ‘We have never heard any thing from his lips but the pure Gospel.’ Henry’s preaching became more and more powerful, and danger was incessantly increasing. ‘I will not leave Bremen unless I am driven away by force,’ said Zutphen. He therefore remained at Bremen, preaching the Gospel fervently and successfully. ‘Christ lives,’ he said; ‘Christ is conqueror, Christ commands.’ His prosperous career was suddenly interrupted. Called into Holstein, he went there, and preached energetically. But, on the day after the Feast of the Conception, the Ave Maria was sounded at midnight. Five hundred peasants, instigated by the monks, assailed him, pulled him from his bed, bound his hands behind his back, dragged him almost naked over the ice and the snow through the bitter cold air, struck him a blow with a club, and burnt him. His tragical end we have narrated in our account of the German Reformation.[[753]] Luther described and deplored his martyrdom.
A convent which sent forth such men as Spreng and Zutphen could not be allowed to subsist. Its suppression was obtained by the inquisitors. All the friars were turned out of the monastery.[[754]] The governess of the Netherlands herself attended this sinister expedition of the inquisitors of the faith. Those monks who were from Antwerp were confined in the house of the Beghards, others in other places; and a small number who had renounced the Gospel were set at liberty. The host was solemnly removed from this heretical place and carried in great pomp into the church of the Holy Virgin, at which the governess of the Netherlands, the aunt of Charles the Fifth, was present for the purpose of receiving it with high honors. All the vessels of the monastery were sold; the church and the cloisters were closed, and the passages stopped up. At length, in the month of October, 1522, the convent was demolished and razed to the ground.[[755]] These ruins were to teach every one, and especially the monks, not to read, and above all not to preach, the Word of God.
Three of the Augustine monks, Esch, Voes, and Lambert, were eminent for their faith. We have elsewhere narrated their noble and affecting martyrdom, and have mentioned the beautiful hymn composed in honor of them by Luther.[[756]]
But it was vain to burn those who had awakened to a new life; there were still many who were no longer willing to sleep.
Holland and other states of the North were beginning to assume the position which they were afterwards to hold as the United Provinces.
At Delft, Frederick Canirmius, by some discourses delivered in the Gymnasium, had damaged the cause of the monks. The enemy strove to stifle his voice by orders, epistles, and deputations. But the brave Christian man had said with proud confidence, ‘The Lord will cause this mountain in labor to bring forth nothing but a mouse.[[757]] Oh!’ he exclaimed, ‘if only it were permitted us to preach publicly, the cause of the monks would be ruined.’ But obstacles were every day increasing, and the ruin of monachism seemed more and more remote. Canirmius did not lose courage. ‘The Lord withdraws his arm,’ said he, ‘because we attribute every thing to our own efforts. But if he see that we cling to him with all our soul as to the sole salvation of Israel, then he will suddenly present himself in the midst of his Church.’[[758]]