# Fifty-Four Persons, Brethren As Well As Sisters, Namely, Thirty-Seven At Antwerp, And Seventeen At Brussels, Very Unmercifully Burnt For The Testimony Of Jesus Christ, In The Year 1574. [Previous page: ANTHONIS YSBAERTS, A. D. 1573.](/en/stories/mm-anthonis-ysbaerts-a-d-1573/) · [Book contents](/en/sources/martyrs-mirror/#book-contents) · [Next page: ADRIAEN HOEDEMAECKER AND MATTHEUS KEUSE, A. D. 1574.](/en/stories/mm-adriaen-hoedemaecker-and-mattheus-keuse-a-d-1574/) After manifold and long tyranny, torturing, murdering and killing of the children of God, it further occurred, in the year 1574, through the order of the most dreadful, bloodthirsty tyrant, the Duke of Alva, that there were apprehended, in a meeting, at Antwerp, in Brabant, thirty-seven persons, and at Brussels, in Brabant, at one time, seventeen persons, men, women, widows, and young maidens, who, in the places stated here, were very severely confined, and tortured and examined with dreadful tyranny, to cause them to apostatize from the truth of the holy Gospel, and from following Christ, and to obey again the papistic superstitions, together with all their trumpery of human ordinances and commandments militating against God. Especially were they dreadfully tyrannized and tortured, that they should inform against their fellow-believers, and deliver them up into the hands of the executioners and torturers, since they were by no means sated yet, but greatly thirsted after more innocent blood. But these valiant heroes and men of God courageously resisted and overcame, through faith and the invincible power of God (which was in them), the subtle and tyrannical wiles of the devil. Hence the blind scribes declared them heretics, and delivered them into the hands of the secular authorities. These, made drunk with the wine of the Babylonian whore, allowed themselves, this and many other times, to be used as the executioners and obedient servants of these idolatrous priests and monks, and caused all these fifty-four persons to be unmercifully burnt, at different times, so that they all died steadfastly, and attested and confirmed the faith of the eternal truth with their death and blood. And though open thieves and murderers were permitted to open their mouths and confess to the by-standing people their distress, as also to call upon the God of heaven for forgiveness of their sins, yet the awful tyranny and envy against the true children of God were so great, that this was frequently denied them, and to this end they filled the mouths of the pious witnesses of God with gags and balls, so that they were not able to proclaim to the by-standing people their innocence and the true reason why they suffered this. But the priests and monks having noticed that these pious men of God, when they came to the place of execution, freed themselves from these gags and balls, and spoke to the people from the word of God; the monks, in order to prevent this, had instruments made resembling vises, between which they made the prisoners stick their tongues, which they then had screwed fast, and the tips thereof touched with a red-hot iron, that they should swell up and thus not slip back. And this new and abominable invention of the monks, these tyrants, to their own perpetual shame, used on the persons mentioned here. 943 All this these true witnesses of Jesus suffered, and were, as humble sheep and lambs of Christ, led to the slaughter, who did not resist, but were thus unjustly put to death by them. But this deed, it is to be feared, will at the coming of Christ, when it will be too late to repent, exceedingly smart their eyes; while these brave heroes and heroines who so valiantly strove for the name of the Lord, will by their bridegroom Christ Jesus upon mount Zion, be rewarded with the crown of eternal glory; for the fight is now fought, and they are now resting under the altar. Whoever will, let him read Emanuel van Meteren, the laudable historian of the High Lords States; printed A. D. 1614. On page 99 this matter will be found verified. ## Original source [Read this passage on Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/65855/pg65855-images.html#Page_943) [Edition details](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65855) [Previous page: ANTHONIS YSBAERTS, A. D. 1573.](/en/stories/mm-anthonis-ysbaerts-a-d-1573/) · [Book contents](/en/sources/martyrs-mirror/#book-contents) · [Next page: ADRIAEN HOEDEMAECKER AND MATTHEUS KEUSE, A. D. 1574.](/en/stories/mm-adriaen-hoedemaecker-and-mattheus-keuse-a-d-1574/) --- Page: https://history.truechristian.church/en/stories/mm-fifty-four-persons-brethren-as-well-as-sisters-namely-thirty-seven-at-antwerp-and-seventeen-at-brussels-very-unmercifull/ [Contribute a correction or addition](https://github.com/trueChristian/history.truechristian.church/issues/new?title=Correction%3A+Fifty-Four+Persons%2C+Brethren+As+Well+As+Sisters%2C+Namely%2C+Thirty-Seven+At+Antwerp%2C+And+Seventeen+At+Brussels%2C+Very+Unmercifully+Burnt+For+The+Testimony+Of+Jesus+Christ%2C+In+The+Year+1574.&body=%23%23+Page+or+topic%0AFifty-Four+Persons%2C+Brethren+As+Well+As+Sisters%2C+Namely%2C+Thirty-Seven+At+Antwerp%2C+And+Seventeen+At+Brussels%2C+Very+Unmercifully+Burnt+For+The+Testimony+Of+Jesus+Christ%2C+In+The+Year+1574.%0A%0APage%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fhistory.truechristian.church%2Fen%2Fstories%2Fmm-fifty-four-persons-brethren-as-well-as-sisters-namely-thirty-seven-at-antwerp-and-seventeen-at-brussels-very-unmercifull%2F%0A%0ARecord%3A+mm-fifty-four-persons-brethren-as-well-as-sisters-namely-thirty-seven-at-antwerp-and-seventeen-at-brussels-very-unmercifull%0A%0ADate+currently+shown%3A+1574%0A%0A%23%23+Correction+or+addition%0A%0A%0A%0A%23%23+Sources+and+evidence%0APlease+include+book%2Fpage+references%2C+archive+links%2C+or+first-hand+documentation.%0A%0A%0A%0A%23%23+Image+credit+%28if+applicable%29%0ACreator%2C+source%2C+and+permission+or+public-domain+basis.%0A%0A%0A%0ASubmitted+for+review%3B+this+issue+does+not+publish+changes+automatically.)