Persecutions in Germany

The general persecutions in Germany were principally occasioned by the doctrines and ministry of Martin Luther. Indeed, the pope was so terrified at the success of that courageous Reformer, that he determined to engage the emperor, Charles V, at any rate, in a scheme to attempt their extirpation. To this end:

1. He gave the emperor two hundred thousand crowns in ready money.

2. He promised to maintain twelve thousand footmen and five thousand horsemen, for the space of six months, or during a campaign.

3. He allowed the emperor to receive one half the revenues of the clergy of the empire during the war.

4. He permitted the emperor to pledge the abbey lands for five hundred thousand crowns to assist in carrying on hostilities against the Protestants.

Thus, prompted and supported, the emperor undertook the extirpation of the Protestants against whom he, indeed, was particularly enraged himself; and, for this purpose a formidable army was raised in Germany, Spain, and Italy.

The Protestant princes, in the meantime, formed a powerful confederacy in order to repel the impending blow. A great army was raised and the command given to the elector of Saxony, and the landgrave of Hesse. The Imperial forces were commanded by the emperor of Germany in person, and the eyes of all Europe were turned on the event of the war (1546-1547).

At length the armies met, and a desperate engagement ensued in which the Protestants were defeated, and the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse taken prisoners. This fatal blow was succeeded by a horrid persecution, the severities of which were such that exile might be deemed a mild fate, and concealment in a dismal wood passed for happiness. In such times a cave is a palace, a rock a bed of down, and wild roots delicacies.

Those who were taken experienced the cruelest tortures that infernal imaginations could invent, and by their constancy evinced that a real Christian can surmount every difficulty, and despite every danger acquire a crown of martyrdom.

Henry Voes and John Esch, being apprehended as Protestants, were brought to examination. Voes, answering for himself and the other gave the following answers to some questions asked by a priest, who examined them by order of the magistracy.

Priest: Were you not both, some years ago, Augustine friars?

Voes: Yes.

Priest: How came you to quit the bosom of the Church at Rome?

Voes: On account of her abominations.

Priest: In what do you believe?

Voes: In the Old and New Testaments.

Priest: Do you believe in the writings of the fathers, and decrees of the Councils?

Voes: Yes, if they agree with Scripture.

Priest: Did not Martin Luther seduce you both?

Voes: He seduced us even in the very same manner Christ seduced the apostles; that is, he made us sensible of the frailty of our bodies, and the value of our souls.

This examination was sufficient. They were both condemned to the flames, and soon after suffered with that manly fortitude which becomes Christians when they receive a crown of martyrdom.

Henry Sutphen, an eloquent and pious preacher, was taken out of his bed in the middle of the night and compelled to walk barefoot a considerable way so that his feet were terribly cut. He desired a horse, but his conductors said in derision, “A horse for a heretic! No, no, heretics may go barefoot.” When he arrived at the place of his destination, he was condemned to be burnt, but during the execution, many indignities were offered him, since those who attended, not content with what he suffered in the flames, cut and slashed him in a most terrible manner.

Many were murdered at Halle. Middleburg being taken by storm, all the Protestants were put to the sword, and great numbers were burned at Vienna.

An officer being sent to put a minister to death, when he came to the clergyman’s house, pretended that his intentions were only to pay him a visit. The minister, not suspecting the intended cruelty, entertained his supposed guest in a very cordial manner. As soon as dinner was over, the officer said to some of his attendants, “Take this clergyman and hang him.” The attendants themselves were so shocked after the civility they had seen that they hesitated to perform the commands of their master. The minister said, “Think what a sting will remain on your conscience for thus violating the laws of hospitality.” The officer, however, insisted upon being obeyed, and the attendants, with reluctance, performed the execrable office of executioners.

Peter Spengler, a pious divine of the town of Schalet, was thrown into the river and drowned. Before he was taken to the banks of the stream which was to become his grave, they led him to the market that his crimes might he proclaimed. Such were not going to Mass, not making confession, and not believing in transubstantiation. After this ceremony was over, he made a most excellent discourse to the people and concluded with a kind hymn of a very edifying nature.

A Protestant gentleman being ordered to lose his head for not renouncing his religion, went cheerfully to the place of execution. A friar came to him and said the words in a low tone of voice, “As you have great reluctance publicly to abjure your faith, whisper your confession in my ear and I will absolve your sins.” To this the gentleman loudly replied, “Trouble me not, Friar, I have confessed my sins to God, and obtained absolution through the merits of Jesus Christ.” Then turning to the executioner, he said, “Let me not be pestered with these men, but perform your duty,” on which his head was struck off at a single blow.

Wolfgang Scuch and John Huglin, two worthy ministers were burned as was Leonard Keyser, a student of the University of Wertenbergh, and George Carpenter, a Bavarian, was hanged for refusing to recant Protestantism.

The persecutions in Germany were horrid but after many years eventually subsided (in the latter 1500s), but again broke out in 1630.

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