Persecution At Amsterdam.
Although the doctors had to take their flight, the Holy Scriptures and the Christian books remained. It is even possible that Mary of Hungary secretly promoted the printing of the Bible. This sacred book was eagerly read in the Netherlands. ‘Ah,’ people used to say, ‘it is because many of the dogmas taught by the clergy are not to be found in the oracles of God, that the reading of them is so rigorously prohibited.’ Thus the wrath of Charles and of his councillors was kindled against the authors, the printers, and the readers of these books which contradicted Rome; and a new placard made its appearance (1531), drawn up with a refinement of cruelty. It was posted up in all the provinces, and ran thus—‘It is forbidden to write, to print, or to cause to be printed or written any book whatsoever without permission of the bishops. If any one do so, he shall be put in the pillory; the executioner shall take a cross of iron, he shall heat it red-hot, and applying it to his person shall brand him; or he shall pluck out one of his eyes, or cut off one of his hands,[[818]] at the discretion of the judge.’ The papacy in the sixteenth century was not in favor of freedom of the press.
At the same time, orders were given for the promulgation, every six months, without delay, of the edict of 1529. There were some things the remembrance of which Charles V. was not willing that his faithful ones, as he called them,[[819]] should for one moment lose. Men were bound always to keep in mind the sword, women the pit, and the relapsed the fire. Three good thoughts these were, fit to keep alive the fidelity of the faithful. The government did not restrict itself to words. A little while after, the agents of the imperial authority at Amsterdam, entering by night into certain houses, which they had marked during the day, crept noiselessly to the bedsides of those whom they sought, seized nine men, ordered them to put on their hose immediately and without murmuring, and then carried them off to the Hague. There, by the command of the emperor, they were beheaded.
They were suspected of preferring the baptism of adults to that of infants.[[820]]
These executions produced profound irritation among the free population of the Netherlands, and in some places they offered resistance to the caprices of the autocrat. Deventer contained many evangelicals. Consequently, some envoys of the emperor received instructions, in 1532, to make an inquiry concerning those suspected of Lutheranism. It was intended to place the unhappy town under the régime of the fire, the sword, and the pit. When the envoys of Charles arrived at the gates of the city their entrance was prohibited.[[821]] They were amazed to see the townsmen sending away the deputies of their sovereign. ‘We demand admission of you in the name of the emperor,’ repeated the imperial officers. The senate and the tribunes of the people assembled. The question was hardly discussed. The ancient Dutch immunities still lived in the hearts of these citizens, and they intended to put in practice the right of free manifestation of conscience. The deputies of the senate therefore went to the gates of the city and said to the envoys of Charles—‘We can not by any means consent that foreign commissioners should usurp the rights which you claim. If you have any complaint to make, carry it before the burgomaster or before the delegates of the senate.’ Noble and courageous town, whose generous example is to be held in honor!
A Family Of Martyrs.
All magistrates were not so bold. At Limburg, a small town in the province of Liège, many of the townsmen had been converted to the Gospel without being exposed to any interference on the part of the magistrates. Among these converts was one family, all of whose members were consecrated to God. There were six of them: the father and mother, two daughters and their husbands. Called one after another to the knowledge of the Saviour, they had taken their lamps in their hands in order to show to others the path of life; and truly their upright and holy life enlightened those who were witnesses of it. Some emissaries of the emperor arrived (1532), and no one stopped them at the gates. The home of this family was immediately pointed out to them. They entered the house, and seized father and mother, sons and daughters. Sobs and groans were now heard in this abode, which used before to resound with the singing of psalms. In the midst of their great trial, however, these six Christians had one consolation—they were not separated from each other, but were condemned to be all burnt at the same fire. The pile was constructed outside the town, near the heights of Rotfeld.[[822]] While they were being led to execution, the father and mother, the two daughters, and the sons-in-law felt, it is said, a kind of holy transport, and uttered cries of joy.[[823]] It appears, however, that some among them showed signs of momentary weakness. Therefore, desirous of strengthening each other, they began to sing together their beautiful psalms—‘God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death.’ Thus they reached the place of execution; and each of them breathed his last calling upon the Lord Jesus.[[824]] This blessed family had been removed to heaven all together, and without any painful separation.
Persecution did not slacken. In 1533, four men accused of holding evangelical doctrines were put to death at Bois-le-Duc. Five men and one woman, terrified at the prospect of death, abjured their faith and were condemned to walk in procession before the host, carrying lighted tapers, to cast their Lutheran books into the fire, and to wear constantly on their garments a yellow cross. One man, named Sikke Snyder, was beheaded at Leeuwarden for having received baptism as an adult;[[825]] and not long before, a woman, for the same crime, had been thrown into the lake of Haarlem. This was the most expeditious way to get rid of her; but they did her husband the honor of burning him alive, with two of his friends, at the Hague.
The like crimes marked the year 1534. A potter of Bois-le-Duc lost his head for the crime of being an evangelical. William Wiggertson suffered the same fate, but secretly, in the fortress of Schagen; and Schol, a priest of Amsterdam, distinguished for his eloquence and his virtues, was condemned to the flames at Brussels.[[826]]
These horrors—and there were many besides those we have described—could not but produce a fatal reaction. The persecutions which befell the adherents of the reformed faith in those lands in which the change was most thorough, in the Netherlands, in France, in England, and in Scotland, were to exert a lasting influence. It is felt even to the present day. It may be said that the martyr-fires are hardly yet extinguished, that the bell of Saint Bartholomew’s Day is still resounding, and that there are yet visible the last of those numerous bands of prisoners and of refugees, defiling some of them to the galleys, others into exile. In the Lutheran countries, and especially in Germany, where the blood of the martyrs was not spilt at all, or to a very small extent, there is a certain moderation, and even some kindliness in the intercourse between Roman Catholics and Protestants. The conflict there is scientific only. But it is otherwise in the countries of the reformed or Calvinistic faith. There people do not forget the fire and the sword, and the two parties appear to be irreconcilable. If this is the present result of cruelties perpetrated more than three centuries ago, we may imagine what the effect must have been on contemporaries. They filled the hearts of pious men with sorrow and distress.