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

LIPPIJNTGEN STAYAERTS, SIJNTGEN BARNINGE, OR LAME SIJNTGEN, A. D. 1573.

In the same year there were imprisoned at Ghent, in Flanders, for the truth of the holy Gospel, Lippijntgen Stayaerts, a native of Ghent, and Sijntgen Barninge, called Lame Sijntgen, born at Kortrijck in Flanders. As these had also betaken themselves into the way of righteousness, under the banner of their only and eternal Shepherd Christ Jesus, the ministers of antichrist inflicted upon them the same treatment which their Captain himself had met with, and which he had also foretold and promised his followers: not to be loved and highly esteemed by the world but the very opposite, namely, hatred, tribulation, crosses, persecution and death. Thus it happened, after manifold trials and temptations which they suffered for Christ’s sake, that they were sentenced to death by the rulers of darkness, and beheaded with the sword in the count’s castle. And as Sijntgen was lame, she was carried upon the scaffold in a chair, and as she held up her folded hands rather high, a brother (named Natanael de Tollenaer, a brother of Joost de Tollenaer) cried: “Lamb, look out for your hands;” and so they also cut off her two thumbs. Thus they did not love their lives unto death, but willingly delivered up their earthly house for the heavenly; hence there is prepared for them a building of God, a house which, in unspeakable glory, shall endure forever in heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:1.

JACOB VAN DEN WEGE, A. D. 1573.

This Jacob van den Wege, born at Ronse, in Flanders, was a nephew of Mr. Claes, who was a colleague of the Dean of Ronse, in his time, probably, the most prominent and zealous inquisitor and persecutor of the Christians in that country. As Jacob had come to the knowledge of the truth, and followed it with ardent love, he was on this account banished from all the dominions of the king of Spain, and had thus, as a fugitive, for more than seven years to subsist very meagerly, gaining a livelihood, and providing bread for his wife and children, by making chests or trunks. Much of the time he abode secretly with good friends, here and there in Flanders, as at Meenen, Halewijn and Wervick, whence, on account of the severe persecution under the Duke of Alva, and because he was also an exile, he went to work in a shop at Rijssel, which was three leagues from the former place.

Having afterwards secretly taken up his residence, with wife and children, at Ghent, it happened at a certain time, that he went to the house of one Christoffel van Leuven, a minister of the word of God, at the very time that the authorities of Ghent had sent to apprehend this Christoffel, and not finding him, they laid hands upon Jacob, taking him along and putting him into severe confinement, in a tower, guarded, and secured with seven doors. There, lying in great fear and distress, he earnestly called upon the Lord his God, in prayer, in spirit and in truth, that he would strengthen him therein, and graciously grant him help, of which he was then in great need, seeing many strong enemies assailed him; for Satan, the envier of all that is good, exerted great power to make him apostatize from the Lord his God, not resting day or night, but very subtly going about him to lead his soul astray. The emissaries of Satan also approached him very craftily, with plausable speeches, as though they sought to comfort and enlighten him; but if he had listened to them, they would have murdered his soul, from which God preserved him. His wife and children also were to him a source of great temptation, for it was very hard for him to leave them, but for the Lord’s sake it had to be done.

After he had been imprisoned for a time and valiantly withstood many entreaties and torments, he was finally publicly burned, at Ghent, for living in accordance with the genuine truth, about three years after his brother Hans had been burned there for following Christ, as related before.

We have added here the letters of this Jacob van den Wege, which have come into our hands, that the reader from them may see in what faith he stood and died.

A LETTER FROM JACOB VAN DEN WEGE, WRITTEN TO HIS WIFE, IN THE BEGINNING OF HIS IMPRISONMENT, AT GHENT, IN THE HUYS TER LUCHT, AT THE END OF THE MEULENAERS STREET.

O my most beloved under the sun, and my three children, who make my heart so faint that I scarcely know what I have in myself, for when I think of you, I am so sorely crushed with anguish in the press of affliction, that my eyes run over with tears, so that I only with difficulty can quiet myself.

O my dear wife, and my three lambs, whom I love, how strong is love? how shall I be able to write you a parting letter? for the waters of affliction fill my eyes, and this through my infirmity, misery and great weakness.