# Jan Bosch Of Bergh, Or Jan Durps, A. D. 1559.

1559 · Historical source

Source: Martyrs’ Mirror. Original heading: JAN BOSCH OF BERGH, OR JAN DURPS, A. D. 1559.

Source heading; not independently verified

This Jan Bosch, commonly called Jan Durps, was
a pious, honorable man, and a linen-weaver by
trade. He lived at Maestricht, and though the
divine knowledge of the truth was greatly estranged
and obscured, the light of divine grace appeared
unto him, and the true evangelical truth was presented
to him, and he thus joined the church of the
Lord, fulfilling the obedience instituted and commanded
by Christ, the Son of God (Mark 16:16);
and as he for a time gave good heed to his calling,
it was entrusted him of the church, and he was ordained,
that he should take the oversight somewhat
of the church, and minister to her with the word of
the Lord, by reading as well as exhorting; which,
when he, though with much reluctance, had consented,
he faithfully did, putting his talent to usury,
to the best of his ability.

As this tended to the glory of God, and to the
edification of the church, Satan, who is ever the
enemy of everything that is good and God-pleasing,
sought to destroy this good work, and to this end
inspired his ministers to report this good man to
the authorities, as a heretic and Anabaptist. The
authorities, deceived by this spirit, thought they
were doing God service, and proceeded with rashness.
One of the burgomasters, in broad daylight,
went with his constables to the place where Jan
Durps, under his master, was working at the loom:
he apprehended him, and, leading him through the
city, brought him to the Landtskroon (the city hall),
and imprisoned him there. He was immediately
examined by priests and monks, who approached
him in many ways. He plainly confessed his faith
to them, and that he was baptized upon faith in
Christ Jesus; also, what he thought of the sacrament.
All this he confessed according to the Scriptures,
reproving the idolatry which they committed
therewith.

When this petty council and the priests had examined
him, and he had confessed his faith, and
immovably adhered to it, they deemed the case so
grave as to be criminal in its nature; hence they
delivered him to the lords through the Bailiff. These
took him, and put him in prison, in which Jan remained
for a time in confinement. In the meantime
his wife sent him a letter, in which she exhorted
him, to be of good cheer in his sufferings, and to
adhere faithfully to the truth unto death; which he
very thankfully received, comforting, in return, his
wife, and exhorting her, and the friends together,
that they should adhere to the truth, and continue
therein unto the end; he also earnestly requested
the prayers of the faithful. He suffered many tortures,
because they sought to extort from him who,
in the city, were his brethren and fellow-believers.
But the Lord kept his lips, so that not a single
name could be obtained from him, however greatly
he was tortured for it.

The time having arrived, sentence was pronounced
upon him, namely, that he should, according
to the imperial decree, be burnt alive to ashes;
to which he listened with good cheer, and submitted
to it, suffering himself to be bound, and led between
many sergeants armed with sticks and halberds,
which now and then descended upon the head of
some individual approaching Jan too closely, in order
to hear his words; for on his way from the prison
to the Vrijthof, Jan spoke much to the people, telling
them to remember that a man had been among
them, who had told them the truth. He urged
them hard to repent, amend their life, and seek
God’s grace. When he arrived in the Vrijthof,
where the scaffold had been erected, said place was
found to be filled with arquebusiers fully armed,
all the four companies of arquebusiers of the city
having been commanded to appear there with their
arms. Jan artlessly ascended the scaffold too, and
was led into a hut by the executioner, who then set
fire to the same in several places. As Jan stood in
the flames, he cried aloud several times: “O Lord,
into thy hands I commend my spirit”: and was thus
burnt to ashes as a faithful witness of Jesus Christ.
This took place on the 23d of September, in the
year 1559.





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