Arrests By Night.
The persecution of 1540 had been only partial. The inquisitors were provoked to see that it had not put an end to what they called heresy. Evangelical books and lectures were multiplied. The theologians and the monks—the band of Pharisees, as they were called by a minister of the day—multiplied their complaints and outcries. The Council of Brabant resolved, at the beginning of 1543, to make a general arrest of suspected persons at Brussels, Antwerp, Oudenarde, and especially at Louvain, where the reformed Christians were taking greater and greater liberties. In the course of March the attorney-general, Peter du Fief, a man notorious for his violent and unjust proceedings, arrived at Louvain. He determined, in order that none of those who had been denounced to him might escape, to apprehend them in a body during their first sleep. One night, in the middle of March, when it was already dark, Peter du Fief assembled his men and informed them that the business in hand was the seizure and imprisonment of all the heretics, without any noise, and without words, in the darkness. Between ten and eleven o’clock at night the officers set out on their way. The poor people, mostly of the class of artisans, wearied with their day-labor, had lain down to rest in their beds without a thought of any thing happening.[[856]] The officers knocked at the door. If perchance the father of the family, on account of his hard work, had fallen into a sound sleep and did not immediately come to open to them, the door was broken down, and these brigands hastened violently to the very bedside of the father. There they took by surprise the husband and the wife, who, starting out of sleep, stared about, wondering what was the matter. The sergeants immediately laid hands on the husband, sometimes on both husband and wife, according to orders, and took them away.[[857]] Thus were seen leaving their homes the sculptor Beyaerts and his wife Catherine, Dietrich Gheylaert and his wife Mary, van der Donckt and his wife Elizabeth. The children, who were beside their parents, sometimes even in the same bed, were the last to wake, and they all trembled. The whole house was filled with armed men, torches were flaring here and there, soldiers were ferreting about in every corner in search of books or men—a suspected book was sufficient ground for a sentence of death—drawn swords, halberts and cuirasses gleamed in the pale light of the torches. The little ones, who saw their father and mother ill-used, dragged one this way, the other that way, and carried off with their hands bound, wept and cried aloud. They called after them—‘Where are you going, father? Where are you going, mother? Who is going to stay here? Who will give us our food to-morrow?’ The sergeants, fearing that the neighbors would hear these cries and come to help them, seized the little ones. ‘The poor children were flogged,’ says the chronicler. As they only cried the more, their mouths were closed by force.
Nevertheless, the constables did this to no purpose, for the uproar was too loud not to be heard. Many evangelicals, ‘when they perceived these boors were coming,’ threw themselves out of bed, leaped over the walls in their shirts, and made their escape. Sometimes ‘some good people’ came with all speed to warn their friends, who then escaped; and this greatly increased the fury of the tyrants. The attorney-general, inflamed with rage and hatred against the truth, kept up the hunt all night with his men; and nothing could pacify his wrath but committing to prison twenty-three of the townsmen, fathers and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, of various classes. He had them confined in different places, giving orders that they should not be allowed to read, to write, or to speak to any one, whether it were father, mother, or wife. Besides those whom we have named, there were also seized Antoinette van Roesmals, the chaplain Paul de Roovere, the parson van Rillaert, the Sclercx, Schats, Vicart, Jerome Cloet, and others, who, when thus torn away from their homes, were persuaded that nothing short of their death would allay the rage of their enemies.
The honest townsmen of Louvain could not restrain their indignation. ‘What!’ said they, addressing the cruel du Fief, ‘thou art sending to prison people who by their virtue gave a good example to the whole town! Have they stirred up any sedition? Hast thou seen a single one of their number with a bloody sword in his hand? How durst thou lay on innocent men those unclean and sacrilegious hands with which thou hast pillaged the holy places, and robbed the poor of their earnings? Will not these houses into which thou dost make bold to enter for the purpose of persecution fall on thee?‘[[858]]
The Examinations.
The examinations forthwith began. Latomus, a doctor of the university of Louvain, famous for his controversy with Luther, the dean, Ruard Tapper, of Enkhuysen, whom the pope six years before had nominated inquisitor-general of the Netherlands, and others besides, betook themselves every day to the prisons; and they went ‘as if they were going to a combat, equipped and tricked out at all points against a body of poor weak women. The younger prisoners modestly kept silence; but the more experienced turned the arguments of the theologians against themselves, so that the latter retreated in confusion.’
It was on the 20th of March, 1543, that the inquiry began. Catherine Sclercx, wife of Jacques Rogiers, an apothecary, was brought up pede ligato on that day, on March 31, and on June 13. ‘What do you hold about the invocation of saints?’ they said to her. ‘I am little practised in discussion,’ replied Catherine, ‘but I will not hold any thing except what Holy Scripture teaches. It is there said we must worship God only and there is only one Mediator. I have therefore purposed in my own mind to worship and to invoke none but Him.’ ‘What impudence!’ said the theologians; ‘thou art venturing, with hands full of uncleanness, to present thyself before God. If the emperor came into this town, wouldst thou not, before approaching him, appeal to Monsieur de Granvella, in order that he might recommend thee to him?’ ‘But see,’ simply answered Catherine, ‘suppose the emperor were at a window and called me with his own tongue, saying—“Woman, thou hast to do with me; come up hither, I will grant thee what thou shalt ask for,” would you still counsel me to wait until I had gained friends at court?’ This noble woman then said, with a holy boldness—‘I have a heavenly emperor, Jesus Christ, the redeemer of the world. He says aloud to all men, Come unto me! It is not to one or two of you, gentlemen, our masters, that he speaks this word. It is to all; and whosoever, feeling the burden of his sins pressing upon his soul, hastens in tears to respond to the call of God’s mercy, needs no other advocate, neither St. Peter nor St. Paul, to procure him access to his prince.’ The judges in astonishment rose without coming to any decision, contenting themselves with exclaiming, as they went away, ‘A Lutheran.’ This was an argument which they found unanswerable.[[859]]
‘Even the women mock at us,’ said the theologians; ‘let us put an end to this trial as soon as possible, and let us begin with those of our own order.’ They then gave orders to bring up the priest, Peter Rythove, schoolmaster of Sainte-Gertrude. They were more afraid of him than of any one, conscious that he knew them well and had the power of divulging their frauds.[[860]] Word was brought to them that he had escaped. This was an addition to their trouble. ‘Quick,’ they said; ‘let placards be posted up that he may be arrested.’ He took good care not to make his appearance, and they declared him to be an obstinate heretic. Then flying to his house, like insatiable harpies,[[861]] they plundered him of every thing that belonged to him. ‘O players!’ said honest men, ‘how well you agree to perform your farces before the simple-minded people! and especially never to return empty-handed to your homes!’
Paul De Roovere.
They now fell upon the poor priest, Paul de Roovere, and they were determined to have him put to death with pomp and solemnity, and to exhibit him as a public spectacle. Artisans set to work and erected a platform in the great hall of the Augustines. On the day of the exhibition a great crowd of townsmen and of students filled both the hall and the adjacent streets. The procession advanced. At its head there walked a small wan old man, thin, with a long white beard, and almost wasted away with grief and exhaustion.[[862]] Truly, said the spectators, this is the shadow of a man, a corpse already in a state of decomposition. It was poor Paul surrounded by armed men. Behind them came the dignitaries of the university, the heads of the convent, and others of the clergy. These doctors, at once accusers and judges, ascended the platform and took their seats in a circle, with Paul de Roovere standing in the midst of them. There sat the chancellor, Latomus, a great enemy to literary culture, who, when preaching one day before Charles V., narrowly escaped being hissed by some lords of the court.[[863]] By his side sat the dean and inquisitor, Ruard of Enkhuysen, ‘a man whose oratory was of the poorest kind, but whose cruelty was extreme.’ Next to him was Del Campo a Zon, also an inquisitor, canon of St. Peter’s, and rector for the occasion, who was called by some ‘the devil incarnate,’ and there were several others. ‘Sergeants, armed at all points, surrounded the platform, prepared to defend these brave pillars of the Church.’ The rector, who was afterwards bishop of Bois-le-Duc, rose, enjoined silence, and said with a loud voice—‘Desirous of faithfully discharging our duty, which is to defend the sheep against the furious assaults of wolves, to kill the latter and to strangle them,[[864]] we present to you, as a rotten member of our mystical body, which ought to be lopped and cut off, this man, in whose house we have found a great number of Lutheran books, and who dares even to say that to be saved it is enough to embrace the mercy of God offered in the Gospel.’