O Jasper, my dearest brother in the Lord, acquit yourself valiantly unto the end in the word of God; I hope to do the same. Again I say: Adieu, adieu! farewell, farewell! we must now part. O I beseech you most affectionately, to receive my simple letter in good part, as I hope you will, since I have done it out of pure love. Written in bonds by me, your weak sister in the Lord, who lies in bonds in St. Peter’s, for the true testimony of Jesus Christ. Keep this letter in remembrance of me; I hope to seal it with my blood. Always fear God, but not men.
Barbelken Goethals.
TEN PERSONS, MEN AS WELL AS WOMEN, BURNED FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, AT DORDRECHT, ABOUT THE YEAR 1570.
Ancient and credible memoirs tell us as indubitable facts, that about the year of our Lord 1570, two very devout persons, a man and a woman, whose names we have not been able to ascertain, were sought for by the bailiff of the city of Dordrecht, because they were called Anabaptists, and finally found in the Marienbon street of said city, in a house from which was suspended the sign of a boot. As they steadfastly adhered to their faith, both were shortly after burnt in the market field, beyond the scales, where then was the place of execution.
Also, that seven others, men as well as women, of the same religion, who had come from Breda,[326] when they could by no means be moved therefrom, suffered like punishment, namely, by fire, until death ensued; which took place in the plain, not far from the Menne bridge, beyond the powder magazine being the other place of execution.
About the end of the year, namely, in the month of November, when that great and terrible flood, that came on All-saints-day (of which almost every one knows something) had come to an end, it is stated, that a certain Anabaptist widow in the Armetij street was taken from a room at the side of a stairway by the bailiff and the stadtholder; which widow some time afterwards, as she would not apostatize from her faith, also had to die in the flames.
We made search for the examinations and death sentences of the aforementioned persons, in the ordinary’s criminal city records of that time, but did not find them, nor of J. W. van Kuyck and Adriaentgen Jans van Molenaersgraef, who were put to death two years afterwards; though there were several living witnesses of it in our time, who saw the death of said persons, together with all the circumstances. This being the case it appears that the papists were ashamed to put the court proceedings and death sentences of said persons into the city records, since it seemed that the country and at the same time also this city should before long change government and religion, which about two years afterwards was accomplished through the coming of William I., prince of Orange; and thus the constraint over the faith and conscience ceased at the same time, at said place.
Further Observation.—As regards the persons who then (in the year 1570) sat in court, and administered justice, they were, according to the record of Johan van Beverwijck, in his Register of the Magistracy of Dordrecht, as follows:
Adriaen van Bleyenbergh Adriaenss, Bailiff of said city, who had entered on his office in the year 1549, and completed his time in the year 1571.
Arent van der Mijle Sir Corneliss, Burgomaster of the community.