Anabaptist Church History
Language: English

The original account

EXTRACT FROM THE APPENDED MATTERS IN THE OLD MARTYRS MIRROR, EDITION OF 1631, PAGE 964, COL. 2.

Original wording, with book contents, page navigation, and linked notes. Century of containing source section; exact event date not assigned

We received, too late, a certain chronicle of England, by Egmont Howes, a nobleman in London, printed A. D. 1615, by Thomas Dauwson, in which, on page 678, the following is related, as having occurred under Queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1575:

On Easter-day, being the 3d of April, about nine o’clock in the forenoon, there was discovered a gathering of Dutch Anabaptists, Hollanders, in a house beyond the Aldgate; seventeen of whom were apprehended, and four cast into prison.

On the 21st of May, on Whitsuntide eve, one man and ten women, Dutch Anabaptists, were condemned, in the Consistory of St. Paul’s church, to be burnt in a place called Smithfield; however, after much labor and pains with them, only one woman turned, and the rest were banished from the country.

On the 22d of July two Dutch Anabaptists were burned in the place called Smithfield, who died in great terror, weeping and crying. So far the aforementioned author.

We have deemed it well to add this here, since it serves to confirm the foregoing; as also, to testify that they did not suffer for any reviling against Her Majesty (as circulated by some), but only for their faith. And this is the more authentic, because it was recorded by the hand of their adversaries.