Grace and peace from God our heavenly Father, through the merits of Jesus Christ, with the true illumination of the Holy Ghost, we wish all lovers of the eternal truth. Amen.
My dear N., I still remember you at the end of my life, and pray Almighty God to comfort you with his Spirit, and instruct you with all spiritual wisdom and understanding that may conduce to your salvation. Col. 1:9. I further inform you, that I was on the rack the 2d of June, and on the 16th day I was brought into court, where they asked me whether I was baptized, or rebaptized. I asked whether I was permitted to speak. They consented. I said that I believed all that was written in the law and in the prophets, and would live and die by what Jesus Christ and his apostles taught and commanded; and that I was baptized upon acknowledgment of my sins, that I was sorry for them, and upon confession of my faith, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Thereupon they sentenced me; hence I expect nothing else than that they will do their will with the body; may the Lord receive the spirit. I am quite ready to live and die for the name of the Lord. I cannot sufficiently praise and thank God, that he has called me to suffer for his name. O my dear N., I am of good cheer; the Lord, I trust, will give me strength unto the end. I cannot say that I ever had a happier day in prison, than when I was apprehended, and when I was sentenced. My dear N., be of good cheer; it will soon be over here; and let us not fear them that kill the body; but Christ tells us whom we shall fear. I and my wife salute you most affectionately with the peace of the Lord. Receive my brief letter in good part; I would fain have written you more, but I am not much gifted for it; however, I thank the Lord for all that he has given me.
Greet the dear friends much, with whom we are acquainted, or who inquire after us. Farewell!
Written by me,
Adriaen Pan.
HANS DE VETTE, AND ELEVEN OTHERS, PUT TO DEATH FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, AT GHENT, IN FLANDERS, A. D. 1559.
A confession written by Hans de Vette, at Ghent, where he was imprisoned with eleven others, in the year 1559, touching his examination.
On the first Friday after Whitsuntide there were imprisoned at Ghent for the word of the Lord, the following named persons: Pieter Coerten of Meenen, Kaerle Tanckreet of Nipkerck, with Proentken, his wife, of Belle, Jacob Spillebout, Abraham Tanckreet, and Maeyken Floris of Nipkerck, Anthonis van Cassel, Hans de Smit, Marcus his brother, Hans de Vette, with Maritgen, his wife, of Waesten, and Tanneken, the wife of J. de S. These had been delivered by treachery to the Procurator General, who, with three thief-catchers, took them away prisoners from their lodging place, in the evening.
The next day we were visited by the authorities, who asked us, each separately, for our names, and where we came from, which we told them. They then asked us whether we confessed another baptism than infant baptism, and whether we had also received another. We all renounced idolatrous infant baptism, and confessed that we had received Christian baptism, except Marcus de Smit, who confessed that he had not yet received it, but that if he had opportunity, he wished to receive it with all his heart. They then asked us whether we desired learned men to instruct us; that they would send us some, and just such as we wanted, ecclesiastics or secular men; they also said that they should not hurry us. But since they almost always asked us separately the same questions, I, the writer of this, said that by the grace of the Lord I wanted no other instruction than I had received, though an angel should come from heaven. Gal. 1:8.
Besides this, they nevertheless, about eight days afterwards, sent one Friar Peter de Backer (who had partly spied us out), with one of his companions,—two false prophets, called Jacobines, as I believe. After we had appeared before them, and exchanged a few words, we came to infant baptism, which he declared to be a divinely instituted doctrine, saying that circumcision was a figure of it; also, that the apostles had baptized entire households, and that Christ had commanded it, John 3. But when I had proven to him, that he had not spoken the truth, and that the apostles had baptized none without faith, as is clearly found in the Acts of the Apostles, he endeavored to speak about another article, saying that we should not be able to agree. But I told him that I desired to see the first finished before proceeding further, and begged him to repent, proving to him, that their worship was a rotten and putrid idolatry, contrary to all the commandments of God, and a human plant; and that God’s commandments were sufficient for us, that no lies need be added to them, and that it availed nothing to regard what God has not commanded. Then he said that I was deceived, and had looked too much at their abuses: that it was true there were some abuses in their church, but that the principal of what was observed in it, was good. After many words we parted.