# COPY OF A LETTER BY JANNEKEN MUNSTDORP’s OWN HAND, WRITTEN AT ANTWERP IN PRISON, TO HER FATHER AND MOTHER, ON THE 19TH OF SEPTEMBER, A. D. 1573.

1573 · Historical source

Source: Martyrs’ Mirror. Original heading: COPY OF A LETTER BY JANNEKEN MUNSTDORP’s OWN HAND, WRITTEN AT ANTWERP IN PRISON, TO HER FATHER AND MOTHER, ON THE 19TH OF SEPTEMBER, A. D. 1573.

Source heading; not independently verified

My dear father and my dear mother, I wish you
a true understanding, and a contrite spirit in your
hearts, to fear God, for an affectionate greeting.

After all cordial and proper salutation, I now
leave you my dear and most affectionately beloved
father and dear, beloved mother, without forgetting
all my dear brothers and sisters, whom I must now
leave for the Lord’s sake, and I expect not to see
your faces any more in this world, because I am imprisoned
and bound here, and this for the Lord’s
sake, and am daily expecting to be sentenced to
death.

Hence, my dear father, since the Lord through
his great grace has still given me time to write you
a little, I am prompted to inform you concerning my
bodily health; hence I write to you, that I am still
tolerably well according to the flesh, and after the
spirit I am still determined to adhere to the living,
almighty, eternal God, and not to depart from him
for any tortures which they may inflict upon me,
for it is written: “Whosoever shall confess me before
men, him will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven.” Hence I know that this God
will deliver me out of all this sorrow, if I only remain
faithful to him, and seek no other God beside
him; I therefore hope that he will help me finish
the good work begun by him in me, that his name
through me may be praised.

Hence, my dear father and mother, I would from
the heart that it were also with you according to the
spirit, as it is still with me at this present time; it
would be a great joy to me, if you should yet come
to fear the Lord. O that you might yet at the last
hour work in the Lord’s vineyard; though you
seem to be free, and are not imprisoned, you are
not certain of a single hour as to how long you will
live.

Therefore, my love you also are commanded to
watch, for in the last day you will have no excuse
that you can make, that you did not know which is
the narrow way that leads to eternal life, of which
Esdras speaks, on the one side of which there is
water, and on the other side fire; and there are
many that know this way, but few that walk it.

Thus, dear father and mother, water and fire are
set before us, and we may choose which we will,
life or death. Hence, dear father, we have here in
this life sought the salvation of our souls, that we
may exchange this death for eternal life, this corruptible
for the incorruptible; for the sufferings of
this world are not worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed to us. Though we are
here robbed of all men, and accounted as a sport
and spectacle to all the world, they shall yet have
to confess in the last day that they shed the innocent
blood; they shall then see whom they have pierced.
Though we are here accounted poor, we shall yet
have much wealth, if we fear God and shun sin.

Hence, my dear father and mother, though you
must now sometimes hear that I am imprisoned for
a base sect, or heretical doctrine, which I presume
is said and has been said,—many things are said
about us, which are not true,—you well know that
it is not for any evil, but that it is only for the sake
of our salvation. Though we are despised here, it
is nevertheless the genuine truth, and there shall
never any other be found; I have sought nothing
else herein.

If I did not want to be saved, I should seek an
easy life as gladly as others; for he that would fear
God must expect all these, tribulation, suffering,
bonds, and imprisonment, and we can nowhere have
a free place; for it is given unto us not only to believe
in God, but also to suffer for his name. Hence,
my dear father and mother, though I must here die
for Christ’s sake, and men say all manner of evil
about me, let it not cause you sorrow: for if they
have called the Lord Beelzebub, how much more
them that believe in him? Hence be not surprised,
and only deal kindly with my little child, which I
bore and gave birth to in great sorrow here in my
bonds, which I love as my own soul, so that I can
939
not write of it without tears, when I think of my
dear husband, of whom I bore it, and that I must
now leave it here. But the Lord knows why he
has so ordered it that I had to leave here a little
orphan child. I commend it to you, and to him who
created and made it; I trust that he will not suffer
it to be wronged, though it is here deprived of father
and mother. The Lord well knows how I bore it,
and for whose sake it was; hence, exercise a parental
care for it, my dear father and you dear
mother; as long as you live show the love which
you bear to me to my dear child; he that loves the
tree, will also love the branches.

O, oh! that the Lord would take it, what a great
joy it would be to me, since I must die. O that it
had been the will of the Lord, that I could yet have
it brought it up, in what great regard I should have
held it for my dear husband’s sake; though I should
have suffered want with it, I should not have parted
with it; but the will of the Lord be done. I am
possibly not fit to offer up a sacrifice to the Lord;
he has perhaps some purpose with me, that he still
suffers me to be confined here. I did not think
that I would remain in confinement here so long.
Hence, dear father, I was much afraid of long imprisonment,
and it has now come upon me, which
greatly grieves me, as I well know that the expense
here is very great, and that I am a great burden to
my sister; for she has great trouble and expense
here, though I know that she does it gladly from
the heart. But, my dear father, I know that her
ability is not great, and yet I do not know how to
thank her fully for it, nor have I ever merited from
her, what she has shown and given me; for she has
shown her love in time of need—one sometimes has
friends indeed, till he needs them. In time of need
one will know his friends. O that I had been taken
away at the first, that you would not have needed
to have any expense on my account. But, my dear
father and mother, I hope that you will not leave
me in need; I hope that you will help my sister in
paying for the board, though I wrote you in the letter,
that it should remain, that you should keep it
for my child.

My father, you might well think that we did not
have much to live on, since we did not have much
when we were married, and our married life did not
last long. Therefore I thought that you should keep
that which was, though it is not much, for my
child; and since you wrote that my sister would
care for me, I thought that you were helping me
therein, though my sister has done her best to help
me, and I know that it is a great burden for her.
And they have given me much, that I should not
go into the dungeon, which I was willing to do,
because it lasts so long, and the expense here is so
great, though one is also not confined without expense,
in the dungeon, in which one also can not
see; hence they do not wish to leave me in want,
nor to let me go into the dungeon because of the
money.

Further, dear father, I inform you that I sent letters
with Hans van der Dam, but I have not yet
received an answer. If I am taken hence, make inquiries
whether there is still anything left; it would
come my child in good stead. I also wrote my
child a testament, to remember me and its father by
it. When it attains to the years of understanding,
and you are still alive, cause it to read the same
sometimes, that it may know why its father and
mother died. Further, dear father, I know nothing
special to write you; but if I should write you no
more, and I should soon enter on my journey,
write me a letter speedily, how it is with you and
my child; and if you should, hear from Hans, have
my brother Passchier write a letter to send to his
father.

Nothing special for this time, but I herewith take
leave and farewell from you my dear father and
mother, and from all my dear brothers and sisters;
and for my sake do not forget my dear child;
always remember me by it. Once more adieu; greet
my lady very heartily, and tell her I thank her
much for all the favor she has shown me; the Lord
will leave no good deed unrewarded. Herewith
farewell; kiss my child for me, and often visit it.
And greet Pleuntjen and Lieven most cordially in
my name, and tell them that I request them to do
the best with the child, for I have the confidence
concerning them that they love it for my sake, for
it is a pledge of love, which I love more than all else
that is upon the earth. I hope now soon to follow
my husband, if it is the Lord’s will. O that I might
have died with him, to obtain the kingdom of God
together with him. Herewith farewell, my dear father
and mother; I commend you to God.

By me, your dear daughter, imprisoned at Antwerp
for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Janneken Munstdorp.





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