Anneken Heyndriks isn't done with me — nor I with her. Here is the account of her trial, torture and death from Martyrs Mirror. I'm hoping to post some further thoughts by Monday.
In the year 1571, there was burnt alive, at Amsterdam in Holland, for the testimony of Jesus, a woman named Anneken Heyndriks, aged about fifty-three years. Having come from Friesland to Amsterdam, she was betrayed by her neighbour, the underbailiff, who entered her house in order to apprehend her. She said to him with a meek spirit: “Neighbour Evert, what is your wish? If you seek me, you can easily find me: here I am at your service.” This Judas the traitor said: “Surrender, in the name of the King.” And he bound Anneken with a rope, and led her along with him, as Judas and the scribes had done with our predecessor, Jesus.
When they arrived on the Dam, Anneken said that they should not
hesitate to look at her, since she was neither a harlot nor a thief,
but a prisoner for the name of Jesus. After arriving in prison, she
thanked and praised her Lord and Creator with an humble heart, for
counting her worthy to suffer for His Name's sake. And she boldly
confessed her faith before Pieter the Bailiff and the other lords.
They greatly tormented her with Baal's priests, in order to cause her
to apostatize; but through the grace of God she valiantly resisted
it. This greatly astonished the bailiff, that she did not pay more
regard to his spiritual lords, and he said to Anneken, “Sir Albert,
our chaplain, is such a holy fellow, that he ought to be mounted in
fine gold; and you will not hear him, but make sport of him, hence
you must die in your sins, so far are you strayed from God.”
Thus they suspended this God-fearing
aged woman (who could neither read nor write) by her hands, even as
Christ had been, and by severe torturing sought to extort from her
the names of her fellow believers, for they thirsted for more
innocent blood. But they obtained nothing from Anneken, so faithfully
did God keep her lips. Hence the bailiff preferred against her the
charge of being infected with heresy, having forsaken the mother, the
holy church, now about six years ago and having adopted the cursed
doctrine of the Mennonists, by whom she had been baptized on her
faith, and married a husband among them. Thereupon she was sentenced
to be burnt alive. She thanked the lords, and said with humility,
that if she had done amiss to anyone, she asked them to forgive her.
But the lords arose and made no reply. She was then tied on a ladder.
Then she said to Evert the underbailiff, her neighbour: “Thou
Judas, I have not deserved it, that I should be thus murdered.” And
she asked him not to do this any more, or God should avenge it on
him. Thereupon Evert angrily said that he would bring all those that
were of her mind the same trouble. The other bailiff came once more
with a priest, tormenting her, and saying that if she did not
renounce, she should go from this fire into the eternal. Thereupon
Anneken steadfastly said: “Though I am sentenced and condemned by
you, yet what you say does not come from God; for I firmly trust in
God, who shall help me out of all my trouble.”
They did not let her speak any more,
but filled her mouth with gunpowder, and carried her thus from the
city hall to the fire into which they cast her alive. This done, the
traitor Evert, the underbailiff, was seen to laugh, as though he had
done God an acceptable service. But the merciful God, who is the
comfort of the pious, shall give this faithful witness, for this
brief and temporal tribulation, an everlasting reward, when her
stopped mouth shall be opened in fullness of joy, and these sad tears
(for the truth's sake) shall be wiped away, and she be crowned with
eternal joy with God in heaven.
Note: we have obtained this sentence of
death of this pious and valiant heroine of Jesus Christ, as the same
was read to her in court; as also the record of her torture, which,
as it appears, took two weeks before her death; which we shall place
here one after the other, as they were copied by the secretary from
the criminal records of the city.
Next: conclusion!(?)
Next: conclusion!(?)
6 comments:
Curious about this, all the more so because of the Dutch connection? Who was it that burned Anneken Henydrinks? Catholics? Lutherans? Dare I ask, Calvinists?
Well ... I should think 1571 clears your forebears of this particular execution. The predominant religion servicing the ruling regents of Amsterdam would still have been Catholicism.
Thought this might interest you. It's tangentially related.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x79MW1gWtJ8
Yeesh - 4 1/2 hours of listening to this joker mispronounce "Mathyss" and "Münster" and wax puns and colour commentary on a slice of history I spent weeks of my youth studying? What did I do to deserve this??
But thanks for thinking about me, Joel. :)
New readers, please note: I have come around 180 degrees on Joel's recommendation of the Dan Carlin podcast -- I recommend it also, and greatly regret my reflexive snark. Joel's a good dude and a valued friend.
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