Pr. Jerome Gernander (of Hope Lutheran Church, ELS, Leander, TX) reminded me that this month is the 500th anniversary of the martyrdom of Esschen and Vos, the first two Lutheran martyrs. He also prepared this wonderful summary and reminder of the event. Thank you, Pr Gernander!
JOHANN VAN DEN ESSCHEN and HEINRICH VOS
Died July 1, 1523
“If this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it – lest you even be found to fight against God.” … So the apostles departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Acts 5:38-39, 41
One day in 1523, Professor Luther stopped teaching his class in Wittenberg for a moment to receive news from a messenger. “He began to cry silently,” one of his students said later. The news concerned two young monks.
Johann van den Esschen (John Esch) and Heinrich (Henry) Vos belonged to the Augustinian monastery in Antwerp in the Netherlands. Luther had been an Augustinian friar too. Brothers John and Henry were still in the monastery, but they followed Luther’s teaching, and in fact they taught it. They had preaching duties, and they preached the pure Gospel of justification by faith alone apart from works, along with others from that monastery. The city’s people had been coming in overflowing crowds to the monastery to hear their preaching.
Their monastery drew the attention of Jerome Aleander, who led the opposition to Luther after the 95 Theses, and who wrote the condemnation of Luther after his trial at Worms. Aleander then went to the Netherlands and instigated the persecution of these monks who had turned Lutheran. No matter what pressure was brought upon the monks, like the apostles in Acts 3 and 4 they continued to preach Jesus with joy.
Soon their monastery was closed, then burned down, and all the monks put into prison. Some escaped; Brothers John and Henry, along with another monk, Lambert Thorn, went into hiding and eventually were found, arrested, brought to Brussels in chains, and put on trial.
Brother Lambert was put into prison, having second thoughts, but John and Henry went to the inquisitors. They were given a chance to live by denying the teachings of Luther. They said, “No, we will not retract anything, we will not deny the word of God.” Their judges said, “We declare you to be heretics, deserving to be burned alive.”
John and Henry were taken to governing council and then the executioner. When they were first bound to the stake, the executioners waited half an hour, hoping their fear of death would make them retract the faith they had preached. They responded by singing psalms. Their judges said, “Become converted, or you shall die in the name of the devil.” – “No,” they said, “we will die like Christians, for the truth of the Gospel.”
The fire was lit and the flames rose toward them. One of them declared he felt at peace, “as if on a bed of roses.” The two said together, “O Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon us!” The flames burned through their ropes; but rather than run free, one of them threw himself on the fire, folded his hands and cried out, “Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!” They sang the Te Deum Laudamus and the Apostles’ Creed, still confessing their faith, and continued to sing until the smoke choked their voices. After four hours, they died.
It was July 1, 1523. They were the first Lutheran martyrs: the first to be killed for refusing to deny Luther’s Scriptural teaching of justification by faith alone.
Later, Brother Lambert – bothered in his conscience by his fear and hesitation – boldly confessed his Lutheran faith and also died a martyr’s death.
The news reached Wittenberg. Luther’s tears were not completely from sadness. He wrote to his friend Spalatin: “Thanks be to Christ,” who had let the Gospel “finally bear fruit.”
Then Luther wrote his very first hymn, in the style of a folksong, to tell the world the story of these martyrs and rejoice in the triumph of the Gospel. (Hymn 556 in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymary is a shortened version.) This was the way to spread news quickly in those days. Titled “A New Song Here Shall Be Begun,” it was written to counteract the lies of the Catholics, who were saying that the monks had denied the Lutheran faith before the execution. Luther’s hymn told the true story: of “their faith and creed” they “not one jot abated.” People learned the words of this folk hymn and the truth spread. Luther’s hymn ends with joy in the triumph of faith: “He who winter banished will send a happy summer.”
Theirs is the story of Lutheran youths who could not be silenced. Whether young or old, we should not let our faith be silenced, no matter what the fear, opposition, threats, or danger.
“Ein neues Lied wir heben an,” the opening of Luther’s first hymn, “A New Song Here Shall Be Begun,” written in response to the martyrdom of Brothers John and Henry.
I found the text of the hymn here:
- A new song be by us begun,
God help us tell the story,
To sing what our Lord God hath done
Unto His praise and glory.
At Brussels in the Netherlands
Hath He made known His wonders
Through two mere boys, right youthful lads,
Whom He with heav’nly treasures
So richly hath adornèd. - The first right fitly John was named,
So rich he in God’s favor;
A Christian true and free from blame
Was Henry, his dear brother.
Out from this world they both have trod;
Their heav’nly crowns they cherished;
Like any pious child of God,
For His Word have they perished.
His martyrs they have become. - The ancient Foe did have them bound,
With terrors to enwrap them;
When to God’s Word they true were found,
He sought by craft to trap them.
From Louvain many Sophists came,
With their accursèd learning,
By Satan gathered to the game;
But God, the tables turning,
Denied them all victory. - Well, they sang sweet and they sang sour,
Crafts of all kinds devising;
The youths stood steadfast as a tow’r,
The Sophists’ pow’r despising.
The ancient Foe was filled with hate
To be thus overtaken
By such young men, and he so great;
His wrath did then awaken,
And he resolved to burn them. - They stripped them of their monkish garb,
Their priestly vestments taking;
The youths for this were well prepared,
A joyful “Amen!” speaking.
To God their Father gave they thanks,
For He at last had freed them
From all the devil’s masks and pranks
Wherewith he’d fain mislead them,
Deceiving thus all the world. - So by God’s grace it came to pass
That they true priests were rendered.
Themselves they offered at the last,
And Christ’s own priesthood entered.
Unto the world they died indeed,
Hypocrisy renouncing,
And came to heaven, pure and free,
All monkish ways denouncing,
Forsaking all men’s trifles. - A statement for the youths they wrote
And bade them read it over;
They did therein their doctrine note,
Their errors to uncover.
Their greatest fault was to proclaim:
“We ought to trust God solely,
For men are naught but liars vain;
We should distrust them wholly.”
For this they must both be burned! - Two roaring fires they kindled then;
The youths they brought unto them;
But wonder seized on all the men,
For fear could not undo them.
With joy they gave themselves to death,
With songs to God and praises;
The Sophists’ courage waned and fled,
For God, who new things raises,
A wonder had now prepared. - They rue it now, and feel their blame
And fain would gloss it over.
They dare not glory in their shame,
The tale they seek to cover.
They feel their crime within their breast
And for their part deplore it,
But now the Spirit cannot rest,
For Abel’s blood outpourèd
Must evermore Cain accuse. - Their ashes ne’er will cease to swell;
They fly to ev’ry nation.
No stream, hole, ditch, or grave can quell
Or hide th’ abomination.
He who did seek with murd’rous hand
To silence them while living
Now in their death through ev’ry land
Must hear men praises giving
And singing right joyfully. - From lies to lies they still proceed,
And feign forthwith a story
To color o’er the murd’rous deed;
Their conscience pricks them sorely.
Those saints of God e’en after death
They’ve slandered, and asserted
The youths had with their dying breath
Confessed and been converted,
Their heresy renouncing. - Well, let them lie forevermore;
No favor they’ll be earning.
We’ll ever thank our God therefore:
His Word is now returning.
The summer is hard by the door,
And winter starts to shun it,
The tender flow’rs now bloom once more,
And He who hath begun it
Will surely complete His work.
Ein neues Lied wir heben an
Martin Luther, 1523
Tr. composite
NOTE: I asked Pr Gernander for the reference to the conversation of Luther and Spalatin, and he responded:
- The comment to Spalatin is in Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, by Heiko Oberman, Doubleday: Image Books, 1982, p. 265.
- The report and quote of the student silently crying was from Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation by Martin Brecht; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989. It’s reported on p. 103, and footnote 44 on p. 476 says that this is from Johannes Kessler, an eyewitness.
