The Bloody Theatre, or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians / who baptized only upon confession of faith, and who suffered and died for the testimony of Jesus, their savior, from the time of Christ to the year A.D. 1660

by Thieleman J. van Braght

J. van Dort.

Written on the 18th and 19th of January, in the year 1572. Whatever I can do for you is at your service; do not spare me. Adieu, farewell; put your trust in the Lord alone, and you will find rest for your soul. Amen.

Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. John 16:2,3.

SEVEN BRETHREN AT BREDA, JAN PIETERSS, GELEYN CORNELISS, PIETER DE GULICKER WITH HIS SERVANT, ARENT BLOCK, CORNELIS GIJSELAER, AND ONE MICHIEL, IN THE YEAR 1572.

In the year 1572, when many exiles were residing in Nieuwvaert, near Breda, where they enjoyed a little more liberty than elsewhere, among whom there were also some who, for the testimony and following of Jesus Christ, had fled thither from other places; it happened in the beginning of the month of August of said year, that, many brethren and sisters having come there from without, from Brabant, from Breda, Sevenbergen, and several adjacent villages, also from Holland, from Leyden, Haerlem and elsewhere, which being discovered, it was reported to the Bailiff, while he was sitting at Gerrit Vorster’s, and drank with the steward, who hearing this, was filled with anger and said: “We will disturb that nest, and exterminate that band at once. Thereupon they gathered an armed force, in the evening of the fifth of August, about nine or ten o’clock, when these assembled to hear the preaching, and to marry a couple, in a house standing on the Voorstraet, in the front part of which resided Pieter de Gulicker, a tailor, and in the back part, Jan Pieterss, a weaver, where about one hundred men and women were assembled together. The steward and the bailiff with their men came twice to the house to listen, without accomplishing anything further; but the third time the steward sent a servant, who found them assembled, by the light of many candles, engaged in their preaching. Thereupon came the steward, stadtholder, and bailiff, with all their servants and people, well armed with pistols, halberds, swords, and other weapons, and thrusting open the doors of the house, they apprehended some whom they could get; but most of them broke through the walls, passages, and the roof of the house, and escaped. In all there were apprehended, Jan Pieterss of Vlaerdinge, who lived in the rear part of the house, and ministered to the assembly with the word of truth; Pieter de Gulicker, a tailor, who resided in the front part of the house, with one of his apprentices, who was but sixteen or seventeen years old; Geleyn Corneliss, a shoemaker of Middleharnisse, near Somerdijck; Arent Block of Sevenbergen; and Cornelis, the son of Koppen de Gijselaer, of Dortrecht; and two or three women. These having been apprehended they were brought to Gerrit Vorster’s house, and the men put in irons; but the women were placed unfettered in a chamber by themselves, whence they made good their escape. The next day in the morning there came to these six prisoners Michiel, the uncle of Cornelis de Gijselaer (married to the widow of Valerius, the schoolmaster, who in the year 1568, about three years prior to this, had been offered up at Brouwershaven), who having come to visit his friends, to comfort them from the word of God in their tribulation, the Bailiff happened upon them and apprehended him likewise, saying: “You also belong to this people; you must also stay here with them.”

All the property of these prisoners was immediately written down and confiscated, so that the women and children had to flee deprived and stripped of everything, which was lamented by many. In consequence of these things the people in Nieuwvaert were so terrified, that many dared not stay there any longer, the more so, as the steward had written to the duke of Alva, and having received a letter in return, had gone thither in person. In all, there fled about thirty, brethren as well as sisters, of those who resided in Nieuwvaert, besides all the others who had come there from other places.

The schoolmaster of Nieuwvaert, called Master Pieter Claess van der Linden, who had disputed five hours with Jan Pieterss (besides that the pastor had also disputed with him two or three times), and was greatly embittered against this people, gives nevertheless this testimony concerning them, that their chief and principal errors are: “That they do not baptize infants; that they cannot believe that Christ had his flesh and blood from Mary; and that they regard themselves as the little flock and the elect of God. But that, with this exception, their life and conversation is better than that of many others, and that they also seek to bring up their children in better discipline and fear of God, than many other people. That he also had of their children in his school, who were apter and learned more readily than any others. That he and many others deeply deplored the great persecution and vexation inflicted upon these people, and especially that on account of the men the poor women and children were so lamentably stripped of all their possessions, and driven away into misery.”

These prisoners were confined in irons, in the house of said Gerrit Vorster, from the fifth of August, when they were apprehended in the night, until noon of the seventh, when they were together taken to Breda, where they were most severely assailed with examinations, promises, threats, and tortures, to cause them to apostatize from their faith, and to name their fellow believers, so that Pieter de Gulicker, unable to resist the same, abandoned the faith and his God, whereby he nevertheless did not obtain a release, but was executed with the sword. But the rest remained steadfast unto the end, however unmercifully they were treated in the torture. For one was very cruelly tortured and wound upon the rack, and while thus lying, urine was poured into his mouth, and his body trampled upon; another was fastened below by his feet, his hands tied behind his back, and he was thus hauled up from behind, and scourged. But Geleyn, the shoemaker, was tortured most cruelly of all. They stripped him naked, and suspended him by his right thumb, with a weight attached to his left foot, and while thus suspended he was burned under his arms with candles and fire, and scourged until the two commissaries of the Duke of Alva, who were present, themselves became tired, and went away and sat down to play cards, the executioner looking on, for about an hour, or an hour and a half. Meanwhile Geleyn was left suspended, who, during all the time that they played, experienced no pain, but was as though he had been in a sweet slumber, or in a swoon; yea, he subsequently himself testified that he never in his life rested on his bed with less pain, than while he was suspended there. When they had finished playing, they said to the executioner: “Seize him again; he must tell us something; a drowned calf is a small risk.” Coming to him, the executioner exclaimed: “The man is dead” (so deep was his sleep or swoon). Then one of the commissaries darted up, and shook him so roughly by one arm as to sprain it, which was not yet healed from the burning. When he began to revive again, he was let down; but he implicated no one, nor did he deny his faith, so that he was finally sentenced to the fire with Jan Pieterss and the young apprentice to be burnt alive. When they were standing at the stakes, and were being burned, the flames were wafted away so much from Geleyn, that the executioner had to hold him into the fire with a fork on the other side of the stake. Thus these, valiantly adhering to the truth, laid down their lives for it.

Shortly after, when Cornelis de Gijselaer and Arent Block were also led to death to be burnt, Arent dropped a letter which he had written, thinking that some one of the friends would pick it up and get it, but unfortunately, it fell into the hands of the tyrants, who immediately had the two taken back to prison, whereupon they were yet most dreadfully tortured; but when they nevertheless constantly remained valiant, named no one, and in no torture apostatized from their God, they were finally, like the three preceding ones, also sentenced and burned; and very soon after also Michiel, the uncle of Cornelis de Gijselaer followed the others with a like sacrifice.

Thus these now lie together under the altar, and wait for the number of their brethren to be fulfilled, that they may then live with them forever in everlasting joy with the Lamb that was slain, and all the friends of God, and sing the new song.