In the year 1552, there was apprehended under the administration of the Count of Kulenburgh, for the testimony of Jesus, a lad called Cornelis; he was kept imprisoned at said place about three years, and then burnt for the truth of Christ. During his imprisonment he was greatly assailed by priests, monks and prelates, who were gathered in the castle of Kulenburgh. These ministers of said Roman antichrist laid many snares for said youth, to entrap his soul; they inflicted severe tortures upon him, that he should name his fellow-believers, and then plied him again with fair promises of this world, herein following the example of their master, Satan, with our Savior Jesus. But this prisoner, though young in years, yet old in the faith, through the grace of God valiantly resisted this temptation, on which account he was [condemned to death][257] by said count, the latter being constrained to this by the so-called spirituals (priests), and his desire to remain a friend of the Pope. John 19:12. Thus this pious youth had to pay for it; he was placed at a stake, and while there, the priests yet came to him, and tried to make him apostatize: but he chose much rather to die for the name of Jesus, than to depart from the truth, and was therefore burnt at the stake, thus becoming a partaker of the sufferings of Christ, for which he will be rewarded with everlasting joy, when the great God shall be revealed.
Concerning this, see hymn in History Liedt-Boeck.
HERMAN JANS OF SOLLEM, BURNT ALIVE FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, AT AMSTERDAM, ON THE 16TH OF FEBRUARY, 1553.
The distress of this time was very great, and did not cease; insomuch that all who truly left the idolatrous Roman Babel, and turned to the spiritual Jerusalem of the peaceable church of Jesus Christ, were forthwith declared to have forfeited their lives.
This appeared in the beginning of the year 1553, at Amsterdam, in the case of Herman Jans, a native of Sollem and a pious, godfearing novice, who stood prepared to receive baptism on the confession of his faith. Being yet in his first zeal for the divine truth, he was apprehended by the rulers of wickedness, and brought a prisoner to Amsterdam, where he had to suffer much vexation and torment, inflicted upon him for the purpose of drawing him from the faith; but remaining immovable and steadfast, he was sentenced to death, to be burnt as a heretic; which sentence was publicly read to him in the court, on the 14th day of January, 1553, and also executed on him the same day; as appears from the following sentence, which we, in proof of this matter, have received from the criminal records of the city of Amsterdam. It reads as follows:
Sentence of death of Herman Jans of Sollem.
Whereas Herman Jans, a native of Sollem, has frequented the assemblies of the Anabaptists, received their admonition, doctrines and errors, and attended certain conventicles (gatherings), in which, by Gillis of Aix-la-Chapelle, as also by others, improper things were taught concerning the Scriptures, so that renouncing the baptism administered to him, he has confessed to have desired to receive another baptism, if he should be able to attain it, and also holds pernicious views with regard to the holy sacrament of the altar, all of which is contrary to the ordinances and the faith of the holy Christian Church, and the written laws and decrees of his Imperial Majesty, our gracious lord; and as he, moreover, obstinately persists in his unbelief, heresy and error, notwithstanding the instruction given him by the truly sent; therefore, my lords the judges, having heard the demand made by my lord the Bailiff, concerning the aforesaid Herman Jans, together with the confession of the latter, and having duly regarded the circumstances of the case, condemn said Herman Jans, pursuant to the aforesaid decrees, to be executed with fire by the executioner, and furthermore declare his property confiscated, for the benefit of his Imperial Majesty, as count of Holland. Thus pronounced and executed on the sixteenth day of January, A. D. 1553, in the presence of the Bailiff, Pieter Cantert and Joost Buyck, Burgomasters, and all the Judges, by the advice of the other two Burgomasters.
Thus extracted from the book of criminal sentences of the city of Amsterdam, in the keeping of the secretary there.
N. N.