From the Diet of Worms to the Augsburg Confession - James Aitken Wylie

y the devotion of the martyr. It was not in
Wittenberg that the first stake was planted. Charles
V. would have dragged Luther to the pile, nay, he
would have burned the entire Wittenberg school in
one fire, had he had the power; but he could act in
Germany only so far as the princes went with him.
It was otherwise in his hereditary dominions of the
Low Countries; there he could do as he pleased;
and there it was that the storm, after muttering
awhile, at last burst out. At Antwerp the Gospel
had found entrance into the Augustine convent, and
the inmates not only embraced the truth, but in
some instances began to preach it with power. This
drew upon the convent the eyes of the inquisitors
who had been sent into Flanders. The friars were
apprehended, imprisoned, and condemned to death.
One recanted; others managed to escape; but three–
Henry Voes, John Esch, and Lambert Thorn–
braved the fire. They were carried in chains to
Brussels, and burned in the great square of that city
on the 1st of July, 1523. They behaved nobly at the
stake. While the multitude around them were
weeping, they sang songs of joy. Though about to
undergo a terrible death, no sorrow darkened their
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