Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. These martyrs were beatified in 1675 by Pope Clement X., and canonized in 1868 by Pius IX. Authority: — A minute account of the death of the martyrs by William Estius of Hessels, written in x6oa, from the account of eye-witnesses; this writer was nephew of Pic, one of the martyrs. His brother was educated by Pic, and his father and brother was present during the event at Gorkum. Estius was acquainted with several of the martyrs, and was in possession of letters, sermons, Ac., by them. Another account, much shorter, is given in the * * Theatrum Crudelitatum Hxreti corum nostri Temporis,” Antw., 159a, before the publication of the account by Estius.] It will be necessary to give the reader an idea of the state of affairs in the Netherlands before we describe the Martyrdom of the Nineteen at Brill, who are this day venerated in the Western Church. The unconstitutional government, the reckless interference with the ancient privileges and liberties of the people of the Netherlands, practised first by Charles V., and afterwards by Philip II., had created a wide-spread disaffection towards Spanish rule. At the same time, Calvinist and Lutheran opinions, and in many places violent Anabaptist views, destructive to society, began to be disseminated among the people, and William, Prince of Orange, the Stadtholder of Holland and Zealand, took advantage of this religious movement to unite all the disaffected in one common bond against the king. The history of the troubles and revolt of the Netherlands has been frequently written, never more ably than by Mr. Motley, but at the same time with singular partiality. Without wishing to condone the atrocities of Alva, or the duplicity of Philip, the existence of another side to the story needs insisting on; the crimes and ambition of the Reformed and Revolutionary party must not be overlooked. This is not the place to produce an indictment against William the Taciturn, Prince of Orange; but a heavy one h»iy go Martyrs of Gorkum. 213 might be penned which would speedily dispel the halo of romance with which he has been invested. We have here to do, not with the political, but with the religious crimes of that eventful period, nor, in this place, have we to detail the butcheries of Alva, but the atrocities of the opposite party, too generally overlooked, forgotten, perhaps denied. We shall give a sketch of the persecution of the Catholics which characterized that revolt, and the progress of Reformed opinions, and it will tend, if certainly not to justify, at least to explain the exasperation of the king and the retaliation of Alva.

If the Catholic princes were everywhere compelled to adopt severe measures for the repression of the Reformed party, it was in order to protect the Catholics from outrage. It was not an age of toleration. Catholic governments forbade Protestant worship, and Protestant princes exiled Catholics and imprisoned the persons, and confiscated the goods, of those who attended Mass. But there was special reason for Catholic kings to repress Protestants, for the sectaries were never content with worshipping God in private as they saw fit; their religion was aggressive, destructive, they exercised it in outraging the feelings of Catholics where most sensitive. Severe measures we^e necessary for the protection of what was sacred from wanton profanation. At Oudenarde, a weaver, Hans Tiskaen, on May 30th, 1 566, snatched the Host from the hand of the priest who was celebrating, in the face of the congregation, and trampled it under foot At Tournai, Bertrand le Bias had committed the same outrage on Christmas Day, in the preceding year. They were cruelly executed. Life was not held sacred in that age as it is now. Not a hundred years ago in England men were hung for sheep-stealing. Religious zealots who could thus insult the feelings of a congregation in their most solemn act of worship could not be dismissed with impunity. iji— — rjuij* But for the vigilance of Count Horn, the Catholics of Toumai would have been massacred in one night by the Calvinists. 1 At Ruremund, at the instigation of one of the Calvinist ministers, fire was set to the Town-hall, and all the archives were burnt* At Amsterdam the Anabaptists stripped themselves, burnt their clothes, and ran naked about the town; they attempted to capture the Town-hall, and were only prevented from doing so by an accident Everywhere the progress of the new religion traversed these stages— -first, the appearance of preachers denouncing Catholic doctrines or rites, and stirring up the people against the monastic orders and the clergy; secondly, a tumultuous invasion of the churches and convents, and the destruction of everything that Catholics reverenced and loved in their sanctuaries; thirdly, the total prohibition of Catholic worship. This course of proceeding had manifested itself with an invariability which showed King Philip that the toleration of the preachers must lead to desecration of churches, and if that were permitted to pass unpunished, to the abolition of Catholicism. He therefore strictly forbade incendiary preaching, and when it continued in spite of his edicts the iconoclastic riot followed. It began at Antwerp, the city of which Orange was governor. On the evening of the 19th August, a large party of zealous Calvinists, together with certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, burst into the cathedral with intent to purify it of its abominations. “ Internally the church was rich beyond expression. All that opulent devotion could devise, in wood, bronze, marble, silver, gold, precious jewellery, or sacramental furniture, had been profusely lavished. The penitential tears of centuries had incrusted the whole interior with their glittering stalac1 Motley: Revolt of the Netherlands, and ed., p. 304. Martyrs of Gorkum, tites. The wealthy citizens, the twenty-seven guilds, the six military associations, the rythmical colleges, besides many other secular or religious sodalities, had their own chapels and altars. Tombs adorned with the effigies of mailed crusaders and pious dames covered the floor. The vast and beautifully-painted windows glowed with Scriptural scenes, antique portraits, homely allegories, painted in those brilliant and forgotten colours which art has not ceased to deplore.” 1 And now, in one night, the hurricane of religious frenzy which would not suffer men to worship God in the way of their fathers, which grudged God the gold, and silver, and gems, and costly array, and cunning workmanship men would gladly keep for themselves, scattered all these treasures, never to be re-collected again.

One door had been left open, and the Margrave and some of the magistrates were retiring from the minster in the evening, when the rioters burst through it, threw open the other doors, and the populace rolled in like an angry sea. The wardens, after a vain attempt to save some of the most precious relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of the church, fled to the Town Hall, and the magistrates, accompanied by a few halbertmen, ventured to the spot “It was but for a moment, however, for, appalled by the furious sounds which came from within the church, as if invisible forces were preparing a catastrophe which no human power could withstand, the magistrates fled precipitately from the scene. Fearing that the next attack would be upon the Town House, they hastened to concentrate at that point their available strength, and left the stately cathedral to its fate.”

Orange had insisted on, and had stirred up the country to insist upon, the withdrawal of the Spanish troops who had been placed in garrison in the Netherlands, and now the 1 Motley, p.

party of order was without forces wherewith to restrain the outburst of religious or political fanaticism. No doubt the Prince expected this, and it was for this reason that he urged the withdrawal of the troops.

“ And now ” — Mr. Motley shall describe the horrors of that night of sacrilege — “as the shadows of night were deepening the perpetual twilight of the church, the work of destruction commenced. Instead of Vespers [the evening prayer of the Divine Office] rose the fierce music of a psalm, yelled by a thousand angry voices. It seemed the preconcerted signal for a general attack. A band of marauders flew upon the image of the Virgin, dragged it forth from its receptacle, plunged daggers into its inanimate body, tore off its jewelled and embroidered garments, broke the whole figure into a thousand pieces, and scattered the fragments along the floor. A wild shout succeeded, and then the work, which seemed delegated to a comparatively small number of the assembled crowd, went on with incredible celerity. Some were armed with axes, some with bludgeons, some with sledge-hammers; others brought ladders, pulleys, ropes and levers. Every statue was hurled from its niche, every picture torn from the wall, every painted window shivered to atoms, every ancient monument shattered, every sculptured decoration, however inaccessible in appearance, hurled to the ground. Indefatigably, audaciously — endowed, as it seemed, with preternatural strength and nimbleness — these furious iconoclasts clambered up the dizzy heights, shrieking and chattering like malignant apes, as they tore off in triumph the slowly-matured fruit of centuries. In a space of time wonderfully brief they had accomplished their task. A colossal and magnificent group of the Saviour crucified between two thieves adorned the principal Altar. The statue of Christ was wrenched from its place with ropes and pulleys, while the malefactors, with bitter and blasphemous irony, joiy*] Martyrs of Gorkum. 217 were left on high, the only representatives of the marble crowd which had been destroyed. A very beautiful piece of architecture decorated the choir, the ‘repository/ as it was called, in which the body of Christ was figuratively enshrined. This much admired work rested upon a single column, but rose, arch upon arch, pillar upon pillar, to the height of three hundred feet, till quite lost in the vault above. It was now shattered into a million pieces. The statues, images, pictures, ornaments, as they lay upon the ground, were broken with sledge-hammers, hewn with axes, trampled, torn, and beaten into shreds. A troop of harlots, snatching waxen tapers from the altars, stood around the destroyers and lighted them at their work. Nothing escaped their omnivorous rage. They desecrated seventy chapels, forced open all the chests of treasure, covered their own squalid attire with the gorgeous robes of the ecclesiastics, broke the sacred bread, poured out the sacramental wine into golden chalices, quaffing huge draughts to the beggars' health, burned all the splendid missals and manuscripts, and smeared their shoes with the sacred oil with which kings and prelates had been anointed. It seemed that each of these malicious creatures must have been endowed with the strength of a hundred giants. How else, in the few brief hours of a midsummer night, could such a monstrous desecration have been accomplished by a troop which, according to all accounts, was not more than one hundred in number? There was a multitude of spectators, as upon all such occasions, but the actual spoilers were very few.

“The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was a wreck, but the fury of the spoilers was excited, not appeased. Each seizing a burning torch, the whole herd. rushed from the cathedral and swept howling through the streets. 1 Long live the beggars ’ resounded through the CJnljr*.

sultry midnight air, as the ravenous pack flew to and fro, smiting every image of the Virgin, every crucifix, every sculptured saint, every Catholic symbol which they met with in their path. All night long they roamed from one sacred edifice to another, thoroughly destroying as they went. Before morning they had sacked thirty churches within the city walls. They entered the monasteries, burned their invaluable libraries, destroyed their altars, statues, pictures, and descending into the cellars broached every cask which they found there, pouring out in one great flood all the ancient wine and ale with which those holy men had been wont to solace their retirement from generation to generation. They invaded the nunneries, whence the occupants, panic-stricken, fled for refuge to the houses of their friends and kindred. The streets were filled with monks and nuns, running this way and that, shrieking and fluttering, to escape the claws of these fiendish Calvinists.” 1 At the same time the Reformers rose and committed similar outrages throughout the Netherlands, Brussels, and the provinces of Limburg, Luxemburg, and Namur, alone escaping. The number of churches desecrated was never counted. In the single province of Flanders four hundred were sacked. In Mechlin seventy or eighty zealots accomplished the work thoroughly, in the very teeth of the grand council and of an astonished magistracy. At Ghent and Bruges it was the same. In the cathedral of Bruges may be seen to this day a picture of the ruin of the church by these ferocious ruffians. To this outbreak is due the immense amount of renaissance black and white marble work in altars, rood-screens, parcloses, and the like, which disfigure the Belgian churches, and which were erected after the troubles to replace the exquisite Gothic tracery which had been hacked and tom away.

Jnly 9*3 Martyrs of Gorkum. On the 22nd of August the news reached Tournai that the churches in Flanders had been sacked. By preconcerted signal the Calvinists rose at daybreak, assembled in an armed body, and fell on the churches and the glorious cathedral. Pictures, statues, organs, chalices, ciboriums, monstrances, reliquaries, chasubles, copes, crosses, chandeliers, lamps, censers, all of the richest material, glittering with pearls, rubies, and other precious stones, were scattered in heaps of ruin upon the ground. The stained windows were shattered, so that only a few fragments have remained. They even tore the dead out of their coffins. Then a large assembly swept over the province armed with halberts, hammers, and pitchforks, raging against churches, smashing images, and heaping up every possible indignity on the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the Tabernacles. At the convent of Marchiennes, considered by contemporaries the most beau* tiful abbey in all the Netherlands, they halted to roar forth Marat's version of the Decalogue. Hardly had they finished the precept against graven images than the whole mob seemed seized with sudden madness. Without waiting to complete the psalm, they fastened on the army of saints and martyrs, and hacked and tore at them with as much fury as if they had been living men and their deadly enemies.

At Valenciennes it was the same. Then all was calm, and William of Orange wrote to the King to ask for a full pardon to be accorded to the rioters who had outraged all that was holy and ruined much that was beautiful in the Netherlands.

We hear so much in Protestant histories of the intolerance of King Philip II. towards the sectaries in the Netherlands that it is well to consider what sectarianism meant there. As the Prince of Orange himself admitted to Egmont, “ The sectaries for some time past have designed and purposed not only sacking the churches, as they have done, but also a general massacre of the priests, churchmen, religious, and others, and this they planned to carry into execution on the morrow of Easter last, as might easily be shown and verified” 1 George of Montigny, one of those who drew up the famous Compromise, wrote on June 7th, 1566, “I am much afraid that the assemblies and preachings are not so much for love and zeal for the Word of God, as for other purposes, tending to seditions and revolt” 9 Margaret of Parma, the Regent, in writing to Philip II., complained of the Reformers. “They do not refrain from violence, nay, further, they boast and use menace greater than heretofore against the Catholics, so that for some days the said town (Antwerp) has been in arms several times, and the Catholics are not without fear.” 8 In nearly all the histories of the Netherland troubles we hear a good deal of the emigration of the Protestants, but there were also migrations of Catholics out of the cities where the Reformed had the upper hand, and forbade them the exercise of their religion, closing or demolishing their churches.

The Regent wrote on Dec. 18th, 1566, that “The Count Louis of Nassau had gone to Amsterdam, accompanied by thirty arquebusiers, taken from among the two hundred who formed the guard of the Prince (of Orange), his brother, with the purpose of exciting the inhabitants of that town to demand preachings, and to suppress Catholic worship.” 4 Patronised by a party of the nobles, and secretly sup1 Gachard, Correspond, de Guillaume le Tacit, ii. p. 396. 4 Gachard, Corresp. de Phil. II., i. p. 491 Martyrs of Gorkum.

ported by the Prince, the Reformed threatened the integrity of the State and liberty of conscience to the Catholics. Louis of Nassau, the brother and principal agent of the Prince, knew perfectly well what were the men whom he was to unite for his brother into a compact body. In a letter dated Aug. 16th, 1566, to his brother John, he says, “ Calvinism is spreading with force everywhere, and I do not know how it can be opposed. If it be forcibly repressed, there will follow terrible bloodshed, and true religion will be litde advanced. If it be allowed to increase, it will lead to general disobedience among the lower classes, rather than the advance of their religion, as is daily more visible. It will be seen that the common people under the cloak of religion and preachings will take the bit in their mouths, and produce a general revolt” 1 In 1564 the Regent announced to Philip that the nobles who were leagued together had obtained promise of assistance from the chief Huguenot nobles in France, from some Protestant princes in Germany, and from England, so that already an army of from thirty to forty thousand men were enrolled.

Supported from within and from without, the Reformed met in large bodies and demanded of the magistrates the destruction of all that they regarded as superstitious; and the Protestant nobles set the example which, as we have seen, was so fully acted out by the wretched men they incited to their work.

Count Culemburg first pulled down all the altars in the church at Viane, and then seated himself at table with his followers of the Protestant faith, and fed a parrot with the consecrated Hosts from the Tabernacle. Brederode forbade the exercise of Catholic worship throughout the whole district of which he was governor.

> Prinstcrer, II. p. aza. tJoir 9. “We protest," said the Calvinists in their “ Apology" of the year 1566, “that it is the duty and obligation of the magistrates to exterminate all the instruments of superstition, through which the wrath of God is brought upon a people." 1 But because the magistrates did not act with sufficient precipitation they laid their own hands upon the “instruments of superstition." The testimony of the Prince of Orange that the Reformed had planned a general massacre of the Catholic clergy is supported by the Calvinist “ Apology," which shows that such a proceeding has the sanction of Holy Writ “ We see,” said the Calvinists in that document, “that one man, the prophet Elias, against the will of the king, stirred up the people not only to destroy the idols, but also to slaughter the priests of BaaL Gideon also in the night tore down the altar of Baal. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, He often executes His judgments by urging on those whom He wills by His Spirit to do extraordinary things.”* How the officers and soldiers acting under William of Orange treated the Catholics when they had the opportunity is worth considering. Unquestionably Alva behaved with great cruelty towards the insurgents, but the Calvinists equalled him in ferocity. A few instances shall be quoted. The following is an episode from the later period of the troubles — namely, from the year 1575, taken from Wagenaar: — “ In the meanwhile, as Sonnoi (the Prince's admiral) was in North Holland, the news spread that some portions of the country were overrun by the enemy, and that the principal villages of this district were to be set on fire. This report was believed by the officers of the States, and by Sonnoi, the commandant The magistrates bestirred themselves, and more than twenty of the common people were arrested, who confessed having committed burglary 1 Le Petit, Gr. Chron. de Holi&nde, p. 158. * Ibid. Martyrs of Gorkum.

and other crimes, but not treachery and arson. Sonnoi, by nature stern, and in evil mood, gave orders that they were to be questioned sharper, and for this end, as though he would not be behindhand with the Duke of Alva in anything, he instituted a special Inquisition, which acted with such frightful and savage cruelty that it was not less dreaded in a short while then the Council of Troubles, and, like it, was named the Blood Council. This sat first of all at Alkmaar, afterwards in the castle at Schagen. Vagabonds were questioned on the rack what persons they knew in the place, and when they named them they were further asked whether these persons had not suborned them to fire the villages. If they denied any knowledge of such things, the crafty judges promised them freedom if they would declare the truth. Nothing further was needed to make them denounce all sorts of respectable country people from whom thev had asked alms. One of these vagabonds, by name John Driemunt, of Hoorne, would not accuse anyone, through stress of torture or hopes of release. His arms were twisted behind and he was hung up thus by the wrists to a ladder, and a two hundred pound weight was attached to his great toe, so that the anguish sweat was as it were wrung out of his body and fell down in drops. Under this torture his courage failed, and he accused the same country gentleman as had the others. He and his companions were then, in spite of the promise of release, condemned to the flames. On their way to execution they protested their innocence in the supposed plot of arson, and also that of those gentry whom they had accused. “ But in the meantime these persons had been arrested. The principal man amongst them, Jacob Corneliussohn, and his son Nanning, and Peter Nanningssohn, were all three Catholics. The modes of torture invented and tried upon them to force them to confess would surpass all belief were it not supported on evidence. The least of them was that all their limbs were pulled apart, and they were thus scourged with fresh birch rods, rendered flexible in water. They were burnt from the head to footsoles by being wrapped in hnen steeped in brandy and then fired, till they were black as coals, and their arteries were exposed. Sulphur, and from time to time, half a pound of suet, was used to bum these people under their armpits and footsoles. Thus tortured they were left several nights uncovered on the bare ground, and were prevented from sleeping by strokes of rods. They were fed upon salt herrings and given other salted meats to eat, but not the least drop of anything to drink was allowed them, however earnestly they pleaded for it. Beetles were dug out of the earth and put upon the navels of those who were being tortured. At Sonnoi’s own command rats were sent to assist in torturing the prisoners. These beasts were placed on the naked belly and breast, and they were tormented with fire which was laid on the cover of the vessel which contained them, so that they were driven to gnaw into the flesh to the heart and bowels to escape trom it. The wounds were burned with red hot iron. The bodies were also tortured with melted pitch 1 But it hurts my heart too much to describe this last revolting horror. I will only add that Koppe Comeliussohn, after having been completely exhausted by his protracted martyrdom, fell into insensibility, and gave up the ghost at the feet of his judges, who, to throw off the blame which attached to tneir inhuman proceedings, spread the report that the devil had broken his neck. Nanning Koppessohn, overcome by his sufferings, and encouraged by the promise that he should retain his life and property if he would confess, admitted Protestant historian breaks off, and says, **Doch mir thut das Her* so wehe al* ich diese abscheulichen Grauel welter beschreiben konnte." of au Engraving in M Theatrum Crudelitatum Hsereticoruxn noatn tampons,' Martyrs of Gorkum. 225 everything which his judges required, and then, by order of the Commandant Sonnoi, he was sentenced to have his heart tom out of his body, and his body to be quartered; and this sentence was carried into execution at Hoorne, but not without opposition of the Town Council And although they made him drunk, and the preacher Jurian Epessohn continually urged him, yet he persisted to the last moment in declaring his innocence. It is remarkable that he summoned this preacher to appear at the expiration of three days before the judgment-seat of God, and that thereupon the minister went sadly home and died shortly after the appointed time.

“Peter Nanningssohn was at the same time forced by severe torture to accuse not merely certain persons, but whole villages and judges, and even persons of the government, as sharers in the treason. Thus it seemed that the tortures would be interminable. But the people ol Hoome, roused by this, refused to allow their fellow-citizen, Jeroenssohn, who was accused, to be carried out of the town; however, Sonnoi forced them to it by emphatic commands. Jeroenssohn was four times racked m the absence of the envoy of the magistracy of Hoome, which had required his presence, and afterwards there arose disputes upon this point”

However, this wholesale accusation of persons in office alarmed the judge, and led to the cessation of captures. Mostard, the judge who had presided over these horrible tortures, was rewarded by the Estates of Holland with some confiscated Church property in the neighbourhood. “The whole transaction,” concludes Wagenaar, “was, as it is believed, contrived with the design of frightening once for all the Roman Catholics, so as to take from them the spirit to strive to alter the existing government ” 1 As 1 Allg. Geschichtc d. Niederlattde, tr. Tose, Leipzig, 1758, iii. pp. *4 S “*I«* VOL. VII. 15 Sebastian Brandt says, the Catholics in the revolted Netherlands were in great perplexity: if they sought restoration of the Spanish rule, it was taxation and despotism, if they remained content with the rule of the Prince of Orange, it was compulsory abandonment of their religion. When the Prince occupied the town of Guelders, his soldiers broke into the Carthusian [a strict order of hermit-monks founded by St. Bruno in 1084] monastery, and killed three lay brothers at the door — Albert Winda, John Sittart, and Stephen van Roermund; then, rushing into the church, they assailed the prior and the rest of the brethren who were engaged in prayer; the prior was wounded and dragged out; four of the monks were killed — John of Louvain and Severus, priests, Henry Wellen and Frederick, deacons; the rest were grievously wounded. Vincent Herquius, a lay-brother, seized by them and drawn into the church, fell on his knees and prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and was shot whilst praying. At the same time Paul k Walwyck was murdered. The prior bought his life for 2,000 florins, and was allowed to escape to Cologne, where, however, he died of his wounds a few days after. 1 Strada thus describes the wretched condition of the Catholics at this time: — “ In the meantime the Prince of Orange stirred up the rebellion of the provinces by collecting a second expedition against Alva, and at the head of six thousand horse and eleven thousand footsoldiers, at the beginning of July (1578), having crossed the Rhine and the Meuse, and having sacked Ruremund with great cruelty, he entered Brabant If ever the condition of Belgium was wretched, it was so now, when assailed by four armies by sea and by land. De Lumaye attacked the sea-coast, Nassau assailed it on the French side, Bergen on the German side, and Orange vexed the heart of; Threat. Crudel., p. 60.

Joly 9.] Martyrs of Gorkum. the country. Not only did they subdue the cities, and kill their opponents, and ruin houses by military licence and avarice, but they also, with barbarous brutality, spared neither modesty nor youth, raged against tombs and tore up the dead, and were specially fanatical against priests, and having hunted them out, massacred them with shameful tortures. And these butcheries of clergy took place in many cities, so that if the royal troops abused their victories afterwards by inclemency, yet the ferocious • example was set by the Gueux, begun at Brill, and with the destruction of Amorsfort, against oaths sworn to respect it Certainly the army of Orange became infamous throughout Belgium, even by the confession of the heretical annalists, on this account” 1 At Ruremund there suffered twenty -three priests, among whom were twelve Carthusians, three regular canons, two Franciscans, and six secular priests. A few scraps from the Ghent Chronicle of the time, the “Gentsche Geschiedenissen,” shall complete this list of horrors, before we turn to the history of the Nineteen who are specially commemorated this day. It must be remembered that the same sort of thing went on all over Holland, Zealand, and Flanders; and we only give a few instances from the small area of Ghent. 2 “1568, March nth. — A priest of West Flanders came to Brussels to give evidence concerning the cruelties committed by some Gueux (the nickname of the party of the Prince of Orange), headed by a certain Captain Hanecam, who was arrested in the Star Inn in the corn-market at Ghent A short time before, seven leaders of the Gueux had cut off the ears of the priest, and had hung him on a tree, but he had been fortunate enough to loosen the knot after they had gone, and to escape.

1 De Bello Belgico, ed Rom. 1648. i.p. 371 -a. a Gentschc Geschiedeninen, i., p. xi$. “July 9th. — A man beheaded because he was convicted of having killed a priest at Audenarde. “1571, November 19th. — About sunset, a Franciscan Father, Peter Prus, from Arth, born at Lille, a pious and learned preacher, was attacked outside the gates of St Livinus, near Ledeberg, by a troop of the Wood-Gueux who hid near the road. They wounded him, beating him about the head with a gun, and dragged him about; then, supposing him to be dead, they left him. But as soon as they were gone, he got up, though in great pain and agony, and crawled to the nearest house, which was that of a miller, where he died a few hours later. His companion, a lay friar, had hidden in a ditch, and there he remained all night standing to his cincture in the water. 1 “1572, Jan. 15th. — The country people of Meerelbeke, Leinberge, and other parishes, were obliged to form patrols, a second time, according to the placard (or order) from the King, in order to protect their priests and churches against the Wood-Gueux, who everywhere took the clergy prisoners, cut off their ears and ncses, or murdered them, and robbed and violated the churches.i “June 30th. — The parish priest of Ecioo was taken by the Water-Gueux of Brill (those under De la Marck, High Admiral of the Prince of Orange), together with the bailiff and burgomaster of the place and two or three Spaniards, and all the ornaments of the church — the priest’s name was Matthias Pariden — and all were carried to Flushing in Zealand, and thence to Brill. The priest was severely wounded, and then gagged and hung with the gag in his mouth, but so carelessly that he lived for three hours. “July 8th. — The parish priest of Assende, near Ghent, together with the burgomaster and the notable citizens, were taken by the Water-Gueux.

1 Gentsche Gc»chiedeniMen, p. 171. * Ibid, p. 185. joiy 9-] Martyrs of Gorkum. 229 “July 16th. — Twenty-one or twenty-two priests and rectors, nearly all from the Franc of Bruges, had already been killed in Brill, whence the Water-Gueux made inroads upon Flanders at intervals. 1 “1573, March nth. — The church of Hansbeke (between Ghent and Bruges) was sacked, and the rector was murdered. “ March 14th. — The rector of Cuerne, near Courtrai, was robbed and killed by a troop of Wood-Gueux, numbering one hundred men, who swept the neighbourhood of Ypres.” On May 22nd a Captain Beck, a blacksmith, born at Nazareth, serving under the Prince of Orange, and belonging to the party of the Reformed, having murdered several priests and sacked and burnt churches, was caught and executed at Ghent In 1575, on September 13th or 14th, the Rev. Father Francis Penneman, superior of the Franciscans at Sluys, was killed by the soldiers of the Prince. The “ Gentsche Geschiedenissen ” says, “ he was a virtuous and modest man, and left many manuscripts behind him.” On the 17th, one of the leaders of this party was caught, one Andrew Boschaert, and was executed. Thereupon the Reformed hung and shot, and slashed the back of a Franciscan friar they had caught. This friar's name was William Olys or Holst: “ he was still quite young, very pious, and a peaceable religious.” “They slashed him like a pig,” says the book from which I quote.

Here also is a passage from the “ History of Bruges ” at that eventful period: — “ The Prince of Orange wished to come to conclusions with the Brugeois. After having taken Ecloo, he sent the Seigneur de Ryhove, at the head of a thousand foot soldiers and forty horsemen, to Bruges. The city was betrayed into their hands on March 26th, 1578, and on the same day the magistracy was changed by decree 1 Gentsche Geschiedenissen, p. 19$, et seq. LJoiy*.

of this man of war. The first acts of the victory of the Gueux were spoliation and cruelty. They began by seizing on the church of the Augustines, the chapel of S. John, and the church of S. Sauveur for their preachings. But they did not limit themselves to those violent acts; they pillaged the convent of the Grey Friars and burned alive three of the brethren publicly on the Bourg, in the midst of the frantic applause of all the sectaries, glad of being by this means able to immolate the most energetic defenders of religion in the pulpit that were to be found in Bruges.” 1 In 1576 was drawn up the famous Pacification of Ghent, between the Prince of Orange, with the Estates of Holland and Zealand, on the one side, and the rest of the provinces on the other, plighting a mutual promise to expel the Spaniards from the Netherlands, and to allow a general toleration of religion. “ It should not be legal for those in Holland and Zealand to attempt anything against the Roman Catholic religion, nor for cause thereof to injure or irritate any one, by deed or word.” 8 Had the Prince the slightest intention of keeping his oath ? I do not believe it This Pacification, granting full toleration, was a mere blind intended by him to hoodwink the Catholics, and keep them quiet till he was strongly enough settled to crush them, and forbid them the exercise of their religion.

Shortly after the Pacification of Ghent, Don John of Austria arrived in the Netherlands as their Governor in place of the recalled Alva. When the Prince heard the news of his approach, he gave the crafty advice to the Estates to send some of their bailiffs and seize on his person, in order, as he said in his letter, to force the King by holding the Don in captivity, to grant them whatever they 1 Cou re* (le Professcur) Hist, de Bruges, p. 186. * Motley, p. 64. Martyrs of Gorkutn.

pleased to ask. 1 In his ban Philip denounced the Prince for this meditated treachery. “ The said Orange has not desisted by his practices and intrigues from creating such a difference between my aforesaid brother and the Estates of our country that a great and evident crisis appears imminent, to avoid which, or at least the imprisonment of his person, the said Don John was obliged to take refuge in our town and castle of Namur.”

He had ventured on a worse game with Alva, if we may credit Meteren. Alva had intended to pass Holy Week in the monastery of Gronendal, for the purpose of prayer. An agent of the Prince of Orange, Carloo, disguised himself as a monk, and obtained admission into the monastery, with purpose to assassinate Alva, “ armed with a commission from the Prince of Orange f but Alva had changed his mind, and the plot failed accordingly. Whether the Prince really did commission Carloo to assassinate Alva it is impossible to decide without further evidence, but it is significant that in a letter shortly after, he expresses his regret at Alva having so suddenly changed his purpose of visiting the monastery, and spent the sacred season in the monastery of St Bernard instead of that of Gronendal, and having thereby escaped the assassin's dagger. 2 Let us now see how he kept his oath to tolerate Catholicism. In Holland and Zealand, where alone he had complete authority, he had not kept it at all; the Catholics were not allowed either priests or churches, so that the Netherland nobles — Champagny, cordial hater of Spaniards, but most devotedly Catholic, Aerschot, and other members of the State Council — presented a memorial to the Prince at Gertruydenberg, in 1577; they prayed that the Prince would keep the solemn promise he had made, and permit the exercise of their religion by the Catholics in Holland and Zealand. 1 His answer was a disingenuous quibble. He said that this question of religion pertained to the Estates of Holland and Zealand, and he could not interfere with their decisions thereon — be it remembered that he and they had promised toh ration the year before — but, he said, neither he nor the Estates of these two provinces had any intention of suppressing Catholicism in the other provinces. That he had any intention of keeping this promise, any more than that made the year before, I do not believe, because, as a matter of fact, when he was able to break it, he did break it The Prince had long been tampering with Ghent He had his eye on that wealthy and powerful city, and determined to get hold of it by any means in his power. He had two agents there, Ryhove and Imbize, sound Evangelicals: 44 audacious and cruel by temperament, they were ever most happy in becoming a portion of the desolation which popular tumults engender.”* The land was at peace; but peace did not satisfy the ambitious Prince who ruled only two provinces. When all was ripe, Ryhove galloped to Antwerp and had an interview with Orange on the last day of October, to’d him his plan, galloped back to Ghent, and in a day or two the conspirators had seized the city, and on November 9th, had re-organised the magistracy. A few weeks afterwards the Prince of Orange visited Ghent, and was received with great pomp. Thus the war, which had ceased, was blown into a blaze once more, by his restless ambition. On May 27th, 1578, all the clergy were expelled from Amsterdam by the adherents of the Prince suddenly rising and taking possession of the city for him, and the Catholic religion was totally suppressed, every church in the town being forbidden the Catholics.

At Ghent was John Casimir, whom Queen Elizabeth assisted and paid to support the Protestant cause. 44 RobMartyrs of Gorkunt.

bery and pillage were his achievements, to make chaos more confounded was his destiny.” 1 On Jan. 22nd, 1577, the satisfaction of Haarlem was drawn up.* By the articles agreed to on oath by the Prince, full liberty was given to the Catholics, and one church was accorded to the Reformed. Both parties promised to live in good understanding, and to avoid mutual strife and molestations. But the Catholics of Haarlem soon found out that these promises were made to be broken. At Oudewater and at Amsterdam they had been trampled on with impunity by the Reformed soldiery and mob, with the tacit consent of the Prince. The object of the “ Satisfaction” was to get a footing in the cities for the Reformed, and when once they had got there, they cast the conditions to the winds.

On Corpus Christi Day, May 29th, 1578, whilst the Catholics were having the procession of the Blessed Sacrament inside the cathedral, with closed doors for fear of the Calvinists, the Reformed burst in upon them, plundered and destroyed everything in the church, wounded and injured many persons, and killed Peter Balling, the priest Three other churches were profaned in the same way. When the thing was done, the States of Holland ordered all the churches to be taken from the Catholics and to be given up to the Calvinists, and forbade the exercise of the Catholic religion. 3 The same thing was done everywhere, at Hertogenbosch, Groningen, Utrecht, &c. Everywhere the same plan was followed out First a promise was made to respect Catholicism if Evangelical worship were tolerated, and then ensued a violent uprising and the total abolition of the free exercise of Catholic worship. • Bor, Nederland. Ooiioger; Amsterd. 1697, i. ( p. 7$$, et uq, ClnJy 9. I We shall have to go back to an earlier date, 1572, for the martyrdom of the Nineteen of Gorkum. Gorkum, or more properly Gorincheim, is a little town in Holland, at the distance of about six hours on foot from Dortrecht, situated on the Meuse.

At the time of which we are writing, the pastors of Gorkum were Leonard Vecchel and Nicolas PoppeL Vecchel was a native of Hertogenbosch, and a student of Louvain, a man of singularly gentle and retiring disposition. He was noted for his charities to the poor and his zeal for souls, but he shrank from the confessional, which was to him a continual martyrdom; he called it his shambles, and declared that it distressed him more to hear one confession than to preach three sermons. But however greatly it pained his sensitive spirit, he never yielded to his repugnance when duty called him to the exercise of his office. He laboured especially to encourage modesty and purity among the young people of Gorkum, and his efforts to enlighten the prejudiced and those led astray by heretical teaching, were not devoid of success.

The other parish priest of Gorkum was Nicolas Poppel, who had been a sizer at Louvain, a pale-faced little man, not learned and eloquent, like Vecchel, but very hard working, and ready to do all sorts of work, so that the people gave him the nick-name of Statfuen, or the servitor. “ Well,” said Poppel; “ he serves well who serves God 1” He used to catechise the children, and sometimes preach in simple homely style, which found its way to the hearts of the people. His parents were poor people, and on his mother's death he inherited a trifle. If he did not give as much to the poor as did Vecchel, it was not through want of will, but of means.

In Gorkum there was also a Franciscan convent, which contained only a few friars at the time, under Nicolas Pic, joiy 90 Martyrs of Gorkum 235 the Guardian, unde to Estius, the historian of the martyrs. Nicolas Pic was a native of that town, and was related to the Hessels family, which was one of the most distinguished in it The horrors perpetrated by the Gueux had been reported in Gorkum, and some of his relations advised him to seek a safer retreat “ Take care, or the Beggars will hang you ! ” “I am not worthy enough/’ was his answer, “ the grace of martyrdom is not given to the unworthy.”

His nephew describes him as a man with an open face, gentle eyes, pale in colour, from much study, and a cheerful expression of countenance. He was singularly sensitive to pain, and fainted away when he cut his thumb with a knife; and though of a delicate constitution, he never indulged himself in relaxation of the rule of his Order in meat or sleep. He was a diligent reader of the New Testament, his old thumbed copy full of under-linings and marginal notes, in a worn common cover, became the property of William Estius, his biographer. He was remarkable for his courtesy. Instead of ordering the brethren about, he asked them to do what he required, with an “ of your kindness but he had no patience with sentimental women “who do not want to marry, and yet do not intend to leave the world, who will neither give up thenown headstrong wills, nor live by rule.” He used to say of them, “A woman must become a wife or be walled round.”

News reached Gorkum at the end of June, 1572, that the Gueux, or the party of William of Orange, had taken Dortrecht, and that amongst other atrocities they had put to death a staunch Catholic, named Arnold Crobbant, in Waterland, under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. 1 1 He had been taken on board ship, his ears and nose cnt off, was hung up to the yard-arm, and flaming lard applied to his wounds, till he died in agony. Rudiger Estius, the sister's son of Pic, and brother of the historian, implored his unde to fly from Gorkum before the “ Beggars ” paid it a visit The Guardian refused to desert his post, but removed the precious vessels of the sanctuary to the house of Estius van Hessels, his brotherin-law. But afterwards, thinking that in ail probability the houses of the Catholics would be ransacked, he removed them to the citadel. On June 25th, the rumour spread that thirteen vessels of the rebel fleet were sailing up the river towards Gorkum; and a citizen of Dortrecht escaping to Gorkum, told horrible tales of the treatment of monks, and friars, and priests at Dortrecht by the Gueux. Nicolas Pic summoned the friars and novices in the convent around him, and gave them permission to fly. But with one consent they resolved to remain with their Guardian and share his fate, relying, no doubt, on being able to find safety in the citadel.

Leonard Vecchel and Nicolas Poppel urged their flock to hold fast the Catholic faith, and to defend their town against the rebels. Then Poppel extinguished the red lamp in the church, and carried the Blessed Sacrament into the citadel, lest It should be subjected to profanation by the heretics. All the well-to-do citizens, the women, the priests and friars took refuge in the citadel, which it was expected would hold out till relief came. The Gueux were under de Lumaye, Baron De la Mark, the High Admiral of the Prince of Orange, but the party which was detailed to take Gorkum was headed by a Fleming named Marinus Brandt. The town was entered without opposition, and the “ Beggars" resolved to storm the citadel, which was defended by Gaspar Turk, drossar, or governor of ArkeL The Gueux succeeded in setting fire to, and bursting open, the gates of the citadel, and making themselves masjmiy 9.] Martyrs of Gorkum. 237 ters of a large portion of the fortress, driving the besieged before them into the Blue Tower, where they might have held out longer, had not fear, despair of succour, and the entreaties of the women disposed the governor to yield. Gaspar Turk opened communication with Marinus Brandt, who promised if the castle were surrendered that all within it should be given life and liberty to depart unmolested. It was night, the thunder of the guns of the besiegers, the blaze of burning rafters, filled the women with fear. Some of the soldiers despairing of succour from Rotterdam, where was the nearest garrison, flung away their arms, and escaped to the enemy. The wife and daughter of Turk clung to his neck, and implored him not to prolong a desperate resistance. He yielded to the terms offered by the Gueux, on the morning of June 26th, after that the priests and friars had confessed one another, and reverently consumed the Blessed Sacrament which had been conveyed for safety to the castle.

Estius van Hessels was at the gate as Mirinus Brandt entered. “Fear not, what we have promised, I ratify with an oath,” said the captain of the “Beggars,” turning to him. “I will leave unharmed all in the castle, old and young, laity and clergy.”

Then the Gueux rushed in, drove the besieged before them into a hall, and proceeded to ransack the castle for money and valuables. Then a list of all in the citadel was drawn up, and the names called over. From among the captives, a layman, named Theodore Branmers, was summoned before the captain. He had made himself odious to the Gueux by having called them “plunderers of churches,” and defied them as they approached the town. They threw him into prison, and a few days afterwards hung him in the market-place along with another stanch Catholic citizen. The governor, Gaspar Turk, was next subjected to interrogatory. “Why had he held out the castle so obstinately ?” “ Because it was his duty.” “ Why had he given refuge in it to priests and monks T “ Because they were his friends.” He was heavily ironed and thrown into prison. “ He is a Catholic of Catholics,” said a Beggar. “ If you were to cut his heart out, you would find it full of Masspriests and monkery.”

A soldier having found a paten, flung it in the face of Nicolas Pic, and cut his lip. The venerable Guardian showed no signs of indignation. Beside him were Nicasius and Wilhad, two friars, meditating and reading as if in their cells. Wilhad was a Dane who had fled his country when the Catholic religion was forcibly suppressed in it He was a very old and infirm man. The priest Nicolas Poppel was pale and trembled; natural fear made itself felt, but his constancy was not shaken.

At length, at the end of the day, laymen and women were allowed to depart after having sworn to pay heavy sums as their ransom. But the priests and friars were reserved, contrary to the terms of the capitulation, till a messenger had been sent to De la Mark at Brill, to learn his pleasure with regard to them. An old priest, named Godfrey van Dun, was allowed to go forth with the laity, but as he was crossing the drawbridge, a citizen of Gorkum said to the soldiers, “ Whither are you sending this priest ?” “ He is an old idiot and may go !” said a soldier. “ If not too old to make his God 1 he is not too old to be hung !” The soldiers laughed, and drove the old priest back among the rest of the prisoners.

A kinsman of Father Pic, who had been suspected of leanings to the Gueux, and had got into difficulties accordingly, but who had been released from prison at the intercession of Pic, hoped to repay the Guardian by obtaining Meaning to consecrate the Host.

his release. When the friars heard that such an opportunity afforded itself, they murmured, “Will you leave us 1 You brought us here, and now you meditate deserting us !* Pic was moved, and said, “ No, my brethern, I stay and share your fate. We shall be liberated, or die together.”

The prisoners had eaten nothing since the preceding day, and were faint with hunger. It was Friday, and their captors, in mockery, placed before them meat To have eaten under these circumstances would have caused the Gueux to have regarded them as traitors to their religion, and therefore they gravely refused the proffered food. That evening the Gueux made themselves mad drunk on the wine they found in the castle, and amused themselves with tormenting the friars and priests. They examined their pouches, and found some money in only one pocket, that of the parish priest, Leonard VeccheL Godfrey van Dun, an old priest, almost childish, was ordered forwards. “ Reveal to us where the church vessels are hidden.” “ I do not know that they are hidden anywhere,” answered the old man. “Likely enough,” said some of the soldiers: “ You are too much of an idiot to have much confided to you. That fellow is more likely,” and they picked out another aged priest, named Theodore Emden, confessor [in old usage, a saint who was not martyred, or who suffered for the faith without being killed] to the Franciscan convent ol sisters, of S. Agnes. A pistol was placed at his breast, and he was ordered to tell where the treasure was hidden. He replied firmly that he did not know. They turned to Nicolas Poppel, whose pale face and evident agitation made them suppose that he would reveal everything. The pistol was presented to his breast, and he was ordered to tell where the church vessels had been secreted. Finding he knew nothing, they said, “Then surrender to us your gods you have fabricated at mass. We hear you carried a good store of them away with you. Now, what think you with this pistol at your heart, of all you have preached against us from the pulpit “I believe,” replied Poppel calmly, “all that the Catholic Church teaches; I believe in the real presence ot my Lord under the Sacramental forms.’' Then, thinking his last hour was come, he fell down on his knees and cried out, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit !” But instead of shooting him, the Gueux unloosed the rope from the waist of a friar, attached one end to the neck of Poppel, and flung the other over a door. They dragged him up, and then cast him down, repeating each time, “ Where is the treasure hidden ?” till he was unconscious, when they flung him down and left him.

Then they laid hold of the friars, and began with the youngest They broke a back tooth of one by a violent blow on the jaw. Another, in pain, and unable to endure more, moaned, “We know nothing of the treasures; we young ones are not charged with the custody of them.” “ Hah 1 who is the Father Guardian, then !” exclaimed the soldiers, and they seized Jerome van Werden, the viceguardian, who would willingly have suffered in the place of Pic, but the Guardian would not suffer it, and stepping forward, declared his name and office. Thereupon the Gueux kicked and beat him from side to side like a football, and when wearied with this sport, insisted on the surrender of the church plate. “ All that we had,” said he, “was moved into the castle, and that is already in your hands. We have no more.”

“ You lie, you monk !” and he was again beaten and kicked. His girdle was detached, noosed round his neck, and the same barbarous treatment dealt him that had been dealt to Poppel; but with greater violence, till the cord Martyrs of Gorkum.

snapped, and he fell headlong on the ground. The soldiers not knowing whether he was alive or dead, applied torches to his chin, burnt his beard, and let the flames scorch his nostrils and ears; and, opening his mouth, put lighted candles into it, and burnt his tongue and palate. Finding him unconscious, they concluded he was dead, and left him.

After the departure of the soldiers, as the prisoners were standing round him showing each other their wounds, they heard a sigh, and gradually the venerable father Pic returned to consciousness. On the morrow the soldiers entered the prison with hatchets to quarter his body, and were surprised to find him alive. They kicked him, and rolled him about on the floor; but did not endanger his life.

For ten days these martyrs were exposed to similar insults and outrages, which were repeated every evening by the soldiers after they had been drinking. A Frieslander said, “See! I will puff out their cheeks like trumpeters !” and he belaboured their cheeks till the blood flowed from their noses and mouths. Only two escaped who had concealed themselves in the shadow of an embrasure. Sometimes the soldiers knelt before them and pretended to be making their confessions, saying all sorts of obscene, blasphemous, and laughable things, and winding up by striking the friars. “ Why do you not give me absolution ?” asked one of these fellows of the Dane Wilhad.

" Alas 1 my brother ! M answered the old man. “ There is no sign of contrition in you. I cannot absolve you; but I can pray for you l”

In the meantime De la Mark, the High Admiral, then at Brill, sent orders for the removal of the prisoners to Brill, by John Omal, a renegade priest, who had been canon of Ltege, and like all renegades, was filled with a ferocious hatred of the religion he had deserted. In the middle of the night, of the 5th and 6th July, the holy confessors were awoke, despoiled of the greater part of their garments, and hurried down to the waters' edge, where they were embarked. The night was raw, and the venerable Wilhad, who had been divested of everything except his shirt, entreated his keepers to allow him something to protect him from the cold. He was answered with blows; but one of those on board, perhaps a sailor, threw him a cloak, out of pity for his white hairs. On entering the boat, Leonard Vecchel recognized at the rudder a parishioner to whom he had done several acts of kindness. “What! You, Roch, among those who lead us to our death ?" “ Alas !” answered the man, hanging his head; “ I am not master here.” Standing on the boat which was thrust off from the bank, Vecchel bade farewell to the scene of his pastoral labours, the stepped gables, the tall dark roof and bulbous spire of the church, the quaint bell filches of the convents, standing out against the soft twilight of the summer sky. But there was a ghastly object against the grey horizon. From the gallows outside the town dangled the great image of Christ wrenched by the Calvinists from the rood in the church, and suspended by them thus in derision. 1 It was one o'clock in the morning when the boat put off; it reached Dortrecht at nine. It was Sunday, and the bells were ringing.

The soldiers finding that the company of martyrs excited general curiosity, spread a sail between the boat and the quay, and made the inquisitive pay to pass, and have a sight of, and offer an insult to the Nineteen they were conveying to their death. In the afternoon the boat Martyrs of Gorkum.

was unmoored and dropped down the river. As yet they had received nothing to eat since the previous day, and they would have been given nothing had not the captain of the ship taken compassion on them, and given the Nineteen each a crust of bread. The night of the 6th was spent on the boat in a condition bordering on nudity, and they landed at Brill early in the morning of the 7th. The martyrs, on leaving Gorkum, had numbered nineteen. There were to be defections among them; but the places of those who fell away was to be supplied, so that the same number received the crown which had begun the journey.

The Count de la Mark was not risen from bed when the prisoners arrived -} he at once rose, mounted his horse, and galloped to the quay. They were disembarked before him, and then he ordered them to be arranged two and two, and to march thrice round the gallows erected near the place. A banner, stolen from some church, was placed in the hands of Henry, a young Capuchin novice, aged eighteen, and he was made to walk in front of the procession, with the Capuchins at his side bearing pikes with tufts of yellow grass at their heads, to represent candles, whilst the Evangelicals pelted them with stones and mud.

De la Mark made a sign to the procession to advance 1 When De la Mark took Brill. M Aa toon as the conquerors were fairly established in the best houses of the place, the inclination to plunder the churches could no longer be restrained. The altars and images were all destroyed, the rich furniture and gorgeous vestments appropriated to private use. Adam van Haasen appeared on his vessel's deck attired in a magnificent High Mass chasuble. Treslong thenceforth used no drinking cups in his cabin, save the golden chalice of the Sacrament." Motley. Revolt sf Netherlands, p. 46$. One of his barbarous acts there was to cut off the cars of a priest, and nail one to the city gate, and the other to the church door. The M Theatrum Crudelitatum Hcsret. nostri temporls" says that at Gouda they nailed the Host, which they took from the tabernacle in the church, to the town gallows, p. 58.

to Brill. Then the martyrs raised their voices, and burst forth into the Salve Regina* As they entered the gates they sang the Te Deum.

It was a strange spectacle. A solemn procession led by a sacred banner, followed by priests and friars, some in their habits, some in their shirts, haggard, bespattered with mud, with bruised faces, scarred also with wounds. One was an old man of sixty, another was seventy, and the venerable Wilehad was nearly ninety. The mob of Calvinist zealots howled round the devoted band, throwing at them whatever came first to hand, and mocking them with blasphemous allusions to the great verities of their faith. Some showered sand over them; a man with a pail of salt-water splashed it in their faces, whining, “ Thou shalt wash me with hyssop, and I shall be clean,” m allusion to the rite of the Asperges before mass.

The martyrs were drawn up in the great square at Brill, and after having been made to march processionally round it thrice, were forced to kneel down and chant the Litany of the Saints. This they did heartily; but, when the last of the invocations was said, there was silence, for none knew who was to recite the collect Then the mob burst forth in a boisterous roar, “ Oremus 1 Oremus 1 we must have the collect for the last time in our town.” Thereupon the aged Duneus rose from his knees, and in a clear voice, slowly, without hesitation, recited the collect The martyrs responded Amen. At that moment the hour struck, and the carillon chimed melodiously over the heads of the martyrs and their persecutors, like an angel's song, out of the clear blue sky. It was eight o’clock. The Nineteen were now taken to prison, where they found two priests from the neighbourhood, who had been caught by the Calvinists, Andrew Wallis, pastor of Martyrs 0/ Gorkum.

Heinoort, and Adrian, priest of Maasdam. Wonderful is the providence of God 1 He putteth down one and setteth up another. The priest of Heinoort had led a life which had caused great scandal in his parish. Yet now he remained firm, and by his martyrdom for the faith, redeemed the past, whereas others who had led blameless lives in the hour of supreme trial fell away. Shortly after, two more priests were thrust into the dungeon, Adrian Bechan and Jacques Lacop, the incumbent and curate of Munster in Holland. They weie both Norbertines of the abbey at Middleburg in Zealand. The dungeon into which the twenty-three confessors were cast was loathsome beyond description. It was beneath two other prisons, and all the filth from above fell into it, or streamed down the walls. It was unprovided with an opening for light and air, and the unfortunate men were huddled together in pitch darkness, in the midst of intolerable filth and stench. They groped with their feet for a dry spot on which to stand, and discovering by this means a space which was less deep in excrement than the rest, they remained crowded on it, as close as they could stand.

At three o'clock in the afternoon some food was offered them, but they were too sick and faint with the fetid odour of the place to be able to eat In the evening they were brought out for examination, before the Count de la Mark. During the interrogatory a soldier struck Leonard Vecchel with the back of his axe, and another hit him on the brow with a hammer, which cut the skin and covered his face with blood. They were led back to prison, but this time into the one above the fetid dungeon in which they had been previously huddled. But the Calvinists, in their first interrogatory, had seen that three of the party were so overcome with CJuljr*.

terror that they were disposed to sacrifice their faith to save their lives. These were a canon of Gorkum, the young novice Henry, and the parish priest of Maesdara. They were therefore given a more comfortable lodging in the house of the chief of the watch.

On the morrow, July 8th, the seven principal men of the company were brought before the High Admiral for a conference on religion with the Calvinist ministers. One of these, an old sailor of Gorkum, very ignorant, was impatient of argument, and at every pause, turned to the Admiral, saying, “ Hang them 1 hang them 1 and so make an end of the matter."

That evening three letters were brought to De la Mark, one from the magistrates of Gorkum complaining that the detention and ill-treatment of the prisoners was a violation of the terms of capitulation; the second from Marinus Brandt, enclosing a copy of a letter he had received from the Prince of Orange ordering the release of the prisoners. De la Mark was furious. “ This fellow Marinus Brandt, who a few years ago worked with pick and shovel, signs himself the Seigneur. And I am to take orders from him 1” At the same time the two brothers of Father Pic arrived, and made urgent appeal for his liberation. Pic refused to depart without his brethren. “ If they will abjure the Pope they shall go,” said De la Mark.

The brothers persuaded the Admiral to allow them to take Nicolas Pic to their lodging, and endeavour to break his oppugnance to the renunciation demanded of him. It is needless to recount their arguments. Suffice it that they failed, and Pic, wearied out, laid down on a bench and fell fast asleep. The brothers watched him, unwilling to disturb his placid rest, till about midnight, when Jacques Omale, the apostate priest of Lilge, burst into the house i«i7 9] Martyrs of Gorkum. 247 at the head of some armed men, sent by De la Mark to conduct Pic and the rest of the prisoners to execution. As the chimes rang one o’clock in the morning of July 9th, 1572, the procession of martyrs was formed outside the prison, and they were made to walk out of Brill to a monastery called Ruggen, which the Gueux had lately dismantled and burnt At Ruggen was a large bam traversed by two beams, one long, extending from wall to wall, the other shorter. Jacques Omale presided at their execution. They were allowed to embrace one another, and were then despoiled of their clothes to their shirts. The Father Guardian was the first to mount the fatal ladder. The rope was attached to his neck, — u See, my brethren, the way to heaven I Follow me as brave soldiers of Jesus Christ” He was flung down, and died in the 38th year of his age. Then the rest were offered life if they would renounce their faith. Jerome van Werden cheerfully mounted the ladder. As he did so, the Calvinist minister came close up to him and scoffed at him for an idolater. Jerome, losing his temper, kicked him in the face through the bars of the ladder. It was then that the courage of Henry the Novice gave way finally, and he promised to renounce and disbelieve any of the articles of his faith the executioners would be pleased to desire. He was at once set free from his bonds.

“AlasP cried Van Werden to the apostate Omale. “ Hereafter, wilt thou, minister of Satan ! answer to God for having led astray this poor ignorant lad F The soldiers stopped his mouth by running a pike into it The ladder was withdrawn, and as he hung the Calvinist soldiers amused themselves with slashing off a representation of the Crucifixion Van Werden had tattooed on his breast in memorial of a pilgrimage he had made to Rome. On Lives oj the Saints.

his right arm was another cross, and this they also defaced, with their pikes and knives. Then the courage of a Capuchin, named William, failed, and he cried out that he would abandon his faith if they would spare his life. He was released. The cord round his neck was cut through with a hatchet, and a cloak was thrown over him. This poor wretch, so near his crown, was hung two months after by his new friends for theft Henry the Novice escaped, and returned to the fold of the Church he had deserted. Two or three of the younger martyrs, filled with horror and fear of death, implored the compassion of their executioners; but nothing would induce them to desert their religion.

Strange it seems to us who read not the secrets of men’s hearts 1 The blameless priest of Maasdam fell away through fear of death, and the priest of Heinoort, who had caused scandal in his parish, without any apparent struggle, submitted to death.

Leonard Vecchel sighed at the thought of how the news would affect his old mother. Godfrey Duneus said to him, as he halted on the ladder, “Courage, Master Leonard ! This day we shall assist at the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Godfrey Duneus was the last to suffer. He was an old man of seventy, and almost childish. As he stood on the ladder, waiting for it to be withdrawn, the soldiers began to talk about sparing him. “ He is but an old fooL” “ Hasten, hasten to unite me with my brethren 1” said the old priest “ Already I see heaven open.” And then, after a pause, he added, “ If I have wronged or offended any one, I ask his pardon.”

The number of the martyrs was nineteen; eleven were Martyrs 0/ Gorkum. Capuchin friars, two Norbertines, one Dominican, an Augustinian [religious following the Rule of St. Augustine] canon, and four secular priests. The names of the martyrs were Nicolas Pic, Guardian of the Capuchins.

Godfrey Duneus, secular priest Comelis van Vic, a Capuchin friar of great simplicity. Jerome van Werden, vice-guardian of the Capuchins. Theodore Emden, chaplain of the convent of S. Agnes at Gorkum, an old man, a Capuchin.

Nicasius John Hezius, a Capuchin, an eloquent preacher, who knew the whole of the New Testament by heart Wilehad the Dane, aged ninety, a tail thin man, a Capuchin.

Anthony van Homaas, a Capuchin. Francis Rod of Brussels, a young Capuchin priest Peter van Ask, a Capuchin lay-brother. Leonard Vecchel, parish priest of Gorkum. Nicolas Poppel, priest of Gorkum.

John van Oostervic in Brabant, canon-regular of S. Augustine, a very old man. John, priest of Hornaar, a Dominican from Cologne. Adrian Becan, a Norbertine, aged forty. Andreas Wallas, priest of Heinoort Jacques Lacop, a Norbertine, curate of Munster, hung not from the beam, but from the topmost rung of the ladder.

The execution was done so carelessly that they were long in expiring. The cord supported one only by the chin, another had it in his mouth, and bit it like a bridle. Nicasius did not die till after the sun had risen. Before they were cold, the soldiers hacked the bodies and mutilated them in the most horrible manner. They fixed their noses, ears, and hands on their casques, or hung them over their pikes, and threw the bleeding morsels in the faces of the people who came to see the sight The soldiers made the curious pay to enter the grange and feast their eyes on the horrible objects within. As the fat of those who have been hung was superstitiously believed to be useful in various diseases, the butchers cut up Jerome, who was fat, and extracted all the lard they could from his body, and sold it to quacks for the fabrication of unguents.

On the 10th, two ditches were dug, the bodies cast into them. There they remained till 1615, when they were exhumed and translated to Brussels. Portions of the relics have been given to many churches in Belgium. 83. FELICITA3 AND HER SEVEN SONS. After Cahier. July ia juiy to.j 6'6’. Felicitas and her Sons. 251