# Hans Bret, A. D. 1576. · Page 1 of 3

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Hans Bret, who was about twenty-one years old,
and the son of one Thomas Bret, an Englishman,
was (besides his daily labor which he performed in
the service of his master) very diligently concerned
and engaged with the study of the word of the
Lord, in which he constantly exercised himself in
the morning and evening also, generally, exhorting
with edifying, profitable and instructive passages
from the holy Scriptures, those with whom he had
intercourse, to a virtuous and godly life. He would
also not spend Sunday idly, but truly sanctifying
and observing it, generally sought together a number
of new converts, to whom he diligently went in
all kindness, giving out to them in the fear of
God some edifying questions from the Scriptures,
whereby he exhorted them to repent and desist from
their sinful life, showing them the indignation which
God shall pour out upon the children of unbelief
and unrighteousness, and the gracious promises of
salvation which are promised in eternal life to the
penitent children of faith. This his exhorting he did
with such becoming earnestness and edifying doctrine,
that many sought to be with him, perceiving
in him the powerful work of God and his advancement
in the knowledge of Christ, with which he,
though so young in years, was very richly filled,
and which he also did not keep to himself alone,
but allowed it to break forth and flow from him
without fear, to the profit and advantage of his
neighbor. 2 Cor. 3:5; Phil. 3:8; 1 Tim. 4:12;
1 Cor. 10:33.

But the devil, the enemy of righteousness, and
envier of the increase of virtue and of the church of
Christ, could not long tolerate or endure this; for,
perceiving in this servant the godly zeal in the
truth, and assiduity to convert the erring, he, by
his instruments (blood-thirsty men, who always
have dishonored the temple of God, murdered his
sheep, slain his saints, shed their blood, and given
their flesh as meat to the beasts of the field), sought
to trouble this servant of God with affliction, and to
hinder the brightness of his light, which he also
partly effected and accomplished; for about two
months after he had been baptized upon the confession
of his faith, according to the command of
Christ, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, there came, on the sixth day of May,
in the year 1576, about nine o’clock in the evening,
the Bailiff of Antwerp, with many servants, to the
house of Hans Bret’s master, who had been betrayed
with all his household. They closely guarded
this house from behind, where it had two exits, as
well as in front, with armed men and beadles, and
then knocked at the front door, which Hans Bret
came to open (not knowing that those who thirsted
for the blood of his master and his household, and
for his own, stood before it), and asked who was
there. They said: “Open,” and pretended that they
wanted to buy something. In the meantime, hearing
that they had inserted an instrument in the
door, to open it from the outside, he began to think
that they were the wolves and tyrants, who came to
devour the innocent and harmless sheep of Christ,
and did not open the door to them; but they managed
to open it from without, which perceiving,
Hans Bret ran into the house, where his master
with his wife and several other women sat eating,
and warned them of it, who all quickly rose up and
ran to the rear, thinking (as also Hans Bret) to escape
by the back door; but when they opened this,
the Bailiff’s beadles showed themselves with great
cruelty, speedily apprehending and capturing all
whom God permitted them, among whom there was
also this servant of God; but his master and several
others with him were wonderfully and remarkably
delivered and preserved through the hand and assistance
of God. Jer. 1:8; Acts 26:17. Behold,
thus did this innocent sheep of Christ fall into the
hands of the wolves, and was confined in prison,
only for the faith in the doctrine of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the practice of the same.

Now, how he conducted himself in his bonds;
how they, through wiles and snares, fair promises
and severe threats, sought to move him from, and
despoil him of, the salvation of his soul; and how
they, because he had written some letters to his
brethren and friends, cast him into a loathsome
dungeon; together with the various disputations
which he had with the priests and soul-seducers,
and also how he answered them, and what boldness
he manifested through the help of God; all this you
will find fully treated and revealed in the following
letters written by him.



## Original source

[Read this passage on Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/65855/pg65855-images.html#Page_984)

[Edition details](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65855)

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