“Dear brethren, I have received the writing tablets and the account of the doctrine and faith of our religion, as also six candles and pens; but most important, the Bible, I did not receive, as is written in the fore part of the tablets; but it is my request, that you will send it to me, if it can still be found; for I would like to have it above all things; if it can be according to the will of God; for I am sadly in want of it, and suffer great hunger and thirst for the word of the Lord these many long years. To God and his church I make this complaint; the days of my miserable imprisonment are twenty years, wanting eight weeks; the Wednesday after All-saints-day will be the anniversary. I, John Bair of Lichtenfels, the most miserable of the miserable, and the most forsaken of the forsaken, captive in Jesus Christ our Lord, again make the complaint to God and his angels, and to all his laborers and churches. Now, my most dearly beloved brethren and sisters in the Lord, pray to God for me, that he will deliver me from this peril and great distress, a distress which is unspeakable; this God knows, and I poor man, and you know it with me. Adieu.”
Written at Bamberg, in a dark dungeon, in the year 1548.
After this writing, he remained in prison three years longer, that is, twenty-three years in all; when, in the year 1551, he cheerfully fell asleep in the Lord, in his prison, and obtained the martyr’s crown.
JEROME SEGERS, WITH HIS WIFE LIJSKEN DIRCKS, AND BIG HENRY, A. D. 1551.
In the year of our Lord 1551, Jerome Segers, with his wife Lijsken Dircks, and Big Henry fell into the hands of the tyrants, for the testimony of Jesus, at Antwerp in Brabant. They suffered many severe torments and sharp examinations, but, through the grace of God, endured them all. And as they, through faith, were so firmly bound to their Captain Christ Jesus, that nothing could induce them to apostatize, they brought Jerome Segers and Big Henry to the slaughter, on the second day of September, A. D. 1551. Both, each at a stake, surrendered their bodies in great steadfastness to God as a well pleasing sacrifice. Lijsken Dircks, the wife of Jerome Segers, who was pregnant, was (after her delivery) thrust into a bag early in the morning, between three and four o’clock, and murderously thrown into the Scheldt and drowned, before people were up. Nevertheless; there were some that saw it, who testified to her firm and steadfast faith unto death. They now rest together under the altar. Read the following beautiful letters written by them, which attest their strong faith, firm hope and ardent love to God and his holy truth.
A LETTER FROM JEROME SEGERS, WRITTEN IN THE PRISON AT ANTWERP, TO HIS WIFE LIJSKEN, WHO WAS ALSO IMPRISONED THERE, A. D. 1551.
Always fear God.
In narrow prison walls I lay, well guarded and confined;
Because for Christ I testified, sore troubles I did find;
But it cometh from the Lord,