BARTHOLOMEUS PANTEN, MICHIEL THE WIDOWER, AND KALLEKEN N., A. D. 1592.

In the year 1592, in the month of July, there were apprehended at Ghent in Flanders, for the practice of the word of God, two brethren and a sister, named Bartholomeus Panten, Michiel the widower, and Kalleken N., who suffered much temptation, and were severely examined, by the priests, the Jesuits, and also by the pensionary, before whom they freely and fearlessly confessed their faith, to which they adhered steadfastly without departing from it. Thereupon it happened, that the sister was released from her bonds and set at liberty. But the brethren were severely tortured, in order that they should apostatize from their God, and indicate their fellow-brethren. But God, who does not forsake his own, but keeps them as the apple of his eye, so succored them, that they were enabled to adhere steadfastly to him and his word, and to keep their lips from bringing their neighbor into trouble. Hence they were finally sentenced to death as heretics, for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and having first been hanged to the gallows, and strangled, in the Count’s castle, they were then buried without in the gallows’ field. And as they helped the Lord Jesus Christ bear his reproach, so they shall also be received up with him into his glory full of honor and light, to live with him forever in joy and gladness.

We have also added here, for the benefit of the reader, the letters which Bartholomeus Panten wrote in his bonds.