one of the city officers, who had gone out secretly, he also was apprehended.

"After ten days' imprisonment, Jan de Swarte, his son Klaes, and four others, were executed. While going to death, the clock struck. Jan asked what it was o'clock.. He was told four. On this he comforted himself, saying, hope to be in our lodge, or rest.""

By five o'clock we

A few days afterwards, Klaesken, Jan de Swarte's wife, with her three sons, and Herman, were burnt alive. The remaining two suffered a year's imprisonment, when they also were 66 cast alive into the fire, and burnt to ashes."

The priest who had betrayed them "was very severely punished. For his flesh became so putrified, that pieces

fell off from his body, or were sometimes cut off, and no cure could be found for it. . . While he was lying ill, a man came to visit him. When the priest complained of his great misery, the man said to him, It is the coals of the fire at Ryssel.' This greatly displeased the priest; but he was obliged to endure such scoffing, as well as the punishments with which God had visited him. He at last died most miserably, as was of old the case with Antiochus and Herod."

I will add only one more case. Christian Langedul, with three others, were burned at Antwerp in 1567. In his letters to his wife he gives an account of the manner in which they were tortured :—

"We were all four, one after the other, sorely racked, so that we have at present little inclination to write. . Cornelius was the first taken: then Hans Symons. It was next my turn. You may conceive how I felt. As I approached the rack near the gentlemen, I was ordered to strip or to say where I lived, I looked sorrowful, as you may suppose. I said, 'Will you ask me any more questions besides that?' They were silent. I then thought, I know how it must be; they will not spare me.' I therefore undressed, and gave myself up to the gentlemen, fully prepared to die. They now cruelly racked me. I think two cords fastened on my thighs and legs broke. They also drenched me with water, pouring it into my mouth and nose. After releasing me, they inquired if I would now speak. They entreated me; then menaced me; but I did not open my mouth. God had shut it. They then said, 'Give him another taste of it.' This they did, calling out, Away, away; stretch him another foot.' I thought, You can but kill me.' While thus lying stretched out, drawn by cords on my head and chin, and on my thighs and legs, they said, *Martyrology, 338–341.

Speak, speak.' They now chatted with one another about the account which J. T. had prepared of my linen, which amounted to six hundred and fifty pounds, the sum it would fetch by auction. . . . Again I was asked, 'Will you not speak?' I kept my mouth closed. They said,Say where you live, and where your wife and children are.' But I said not a word. What a dreadful thing!' said they in French; but I replied not, for the Lord kept the door of my lips. After they had long tried

He named his own

to make me speak, they at last released me. "Matthew was tortured after me. house, and the street where we live. He also said that we lived in a gateway, and I think there is no other gateway in the street but ours. You had better, therefore, immediately remove, if you have not left, for I think the magistrates will go there. Let no one go to the house who is in any danger of apprehension. He also mentioned the

He is very

house of R. T., and the street in which F. V. lives. Do immediately the best you can in this matter. sorry that he did so.

anything.

Cornelius and Hans did not disclose

"We were afraid that the margrave would come to torture Cornelius once more, and we also feared that we should again be tortured. We tremble much at the prospect, for the pain is frightful; we do not fear death near so much. Cornelius was so racked and scourged the second time that it required three men to carry him upstairs, who say that he could scarcely move a limb, only his tongue. He sent to us to say that if they come to him again he thinks that he must sink under it. As the margrave did not come yesterday, we expect him here to-day. The Lord help us! for the pain is excruciating!" *

While these horrible scenes were enacted, the Baptists of the Netherlands persevered in the faith. Neither fires nor *Martyrology, ii. 426–43°

floods appalled them. Menno Simon and other bold-spirited men risked their lives continually in the service of the Gospel. They were always travelling from place to place, and by their itinerant labours an immense amount of good was accomplished. Converts were baptized and added to the churches in every part of the country. The servants of God were confirmed in the faith, useful publications were scattered abroad, and Anabaptism, as it was called, like the bush which Moses saw, though it was "burned with fire, was not consumed."

SECTION VI.

Biography of Menno Simon Account of his Publications
Government among the Baptists-Missionary Excursions.

Church

WE Simon, to whose labours the Baptists of Holland

propose now to give some account of Menno

were so deeply indebted.

This great man was born at Witmarsum, in Friesland, in the year 1505. Very little is known of his early life. It is not known where he studied; but it is evident, both from his writings and from the admissions of his opponents, that he was a first-rate scholar. Mosheim says, that he had acquired "learning enough to be regarded by many as an oracle." Though he was educated for the priesthood, he was entirely ignorant of the Scriptures, excepting such portions as are contained in the Missal and the Breviary. Nay, more, he was not only ignorant but hostile," speaking evil of things which he knew not," after the manner of the Romish priesthood of that age, who were irritated by the Reformers' constant appeal to the Word of God, and refused

to admit it, maintaining that the authority of the Church was supreme. The fact that Luther and his coadjutors proposed to derive their religious views from the Bible, led