September 1614 · event
Hans Landis and the Swiss persecution
The account of Hans Landis in Martyrs’ Mirror shows that persecution of Swiss Anabaptists continued into the seventeenth century.
Hans Landis continued to teach and care for believers when the Zürich authorities ordered him to stop. Martyrs’ Mirror presents his ministry as the feeding of people hungry for the word of God and explains his refusal to abandon them through the duty to obey God.
The account follows his arrest, removal to Solothurn, release through the assistance of friends, and a later arrest at Zürich. When he would not give up his convictions, he was sentenced to death and beheaded in September 1614. The authorities represented the punishment as a response to disobedience; the book records it as suffering for his faith.
A following section preserves a later letter from an observer who remembered his death. Bringing the narrative and recollection together gives a fuller account of a named minister and shows that persecution of the Swiss Brethren continued well into the seventeenth century.
Sources for this history: [1] [2]
