one of the most enlightened men of his times. He was compelled to leave the city; but the Roman ecclesiastics were frightened, and withdrew at the same time, fearing the vengeance of the people. One evangelical deacon alone remained to comfort their hearts. At the same time troops from Mentz marched into the city: they spread through the streets, uttering blasphemies, brandishing their swords, and giving themselves up to debauchery.*

Some evangelical Christians fell beneath their blows;† others were seized and thrown into dungeons; the Romish rites were restored; the reading of the Bible was prohibited; and the inhabitants were forbidden to speak of the Gospel, even in the most private meetings. On the entrance of the troops, the deacon had taken refuge in the house of a poor widow. He was denounced to their commanders, who sent a soldier to apprehend him. The humble deacon, hearing the hasty steps of the soldier who sought his life, quietly waited for him, and just as the door of the chamber was opened abruptly, he went forward meekly, and cordially embracing him, said: "I welcome thee, brother; here I am; plunge thy sword into my bosom." The fierce soldier, in astonishment, let his sword fall from his hands, and protected the pious evangelist from any further harm.

Meantime, the inquisitors of the Low Countries, thirsting for blood, scoured the country, searching everywhere for the young Augustines who had escaped from the Antwerp persecution. Esch, Voes, and Lambert were at last discovered, put in chains, and led to Brussels. Egmondanus, Hochstraten, and several other inquisitors, summoned them into their presence. "Do you retract your assertion," asked Hochstraten, "that the priest has not the power to forgive sins, and that it belongs to God alone?" He then proceeded to enumerate other evangelical doctrines which they were called upon to abjure. "No! we will retract nothing,"

So sie doch schändlicher leben denn Huren und Buben. L. Epp. ii. 482.

+ Schlug etliche Todt. Seck. p. 604.

Sey gegrüsst, mein Bruder. Scultet. Ann. i. 173.

140

THE THREE MONKS OF ANTWERP.

exclaimed Esch and Voes firmly; we will not deny the Word of God; we will rather die for the faith."

THE INQUISITOR.-" Confess that you have been seduced by Luther."

THE YOUNG Augustines.- "As the apostles were seduced by Jesus Christ."

THE INQUISITORS."We declare you to be heretics, worthy of being burnt alive, and we give you over to the secular arm."

Lambert kept silence; the prospect of death terrified him; distress and doubt tormented his soul. "I beg four days," Isaid he with a stifled voice. He was led back to prison. As soon as this delay had expired, Esch and Voes were solemnly deprived of their sacerdotal character, and given over to the council of the governor of the Low Countries. The council delivered them, fettered, to the executioner. Hochstraten and three other inquisitors accompanied them to the stake.*

When they came near the scaffold, the youthful martyrs looked at it calmly; their firmness, their piety, their age,+ drew tears even from the inquisitors. When they were bound, the confessors approached them: "Once more we ask you if you will receive the christian faith."

THE MARTYRS." We believe in the Christian Church, but not in your Church."

Half an hour elapsed: the inquisitors hesitated, and hoped that the prospect of so terrible a death would intimidate these youths. But alone tranquil in the midst of the turbulent crowd in the square, they sang psalms, stopping from time to time to declare boldly: "We will die for the name of Jesus Christ."

"Be converted-be converted," cried the inquisitors, "or you will die in the name of the devil."-" No," replied the martyrs, we will die like Christians, and for the truth of the Gospel."

The pile was lighted. While the flames were ascending slowly, a heavenly peace filled their hearts, and one of them

* Facta est hæc res Bruxellæ in publico foro. L. Epp. ii. 361.
+ Nondum triginta annorum. Ibid.

went so far as to say: "I seem to be lying on a bed of roses." The solemn hour was come; death was near: the two martyrs cried with a loud voice: "O Domine Jesu! Fili David! miserere nostri! O Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!" They then began solemnly to repeat the Apostle's Creed. At last the flames reached them, burning the cords that fastened them to the stake, before their breath was gone. One of them, taking advantage of this liberty, fell on his knees in the midst of the fire, and thus worshipping his Master, exclaimed, clasping his hands: "Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!" The flames now surrounded their bodies: they sang the Te Deum; soon their voices were stifled, and nothing but their ashes remained.

This execution had lasted four hours. It was on the 1st of July 1523 that the first martyrs of the Reformation thus laid down their lives for the Gospel.

"The

All good men shuddered when they heard of it. The future filled them with the keenest apprehension. executions have begun," said Erasmus.§-" At last," exclaimed Luther, "Christ is gathering some fruits of our preaching, and has created new martyrs."

But the joy Luther felt at the constancy of these two young Christians was troubled by the thought of Lambert. The latter was the most learned of the three; he had succeeded to Probst's station as preacher at Antwerp. Agitated in his dungeon, and alarmed at the prospect of death, he was still more terrified by his conscience, which reproached him with cowardice, and urged him to confess the Gospel. He was soon delivered from his fears, and after boldly proclaiming the truth, died like his brethren.||

A rich harvest sprang from the blood of these martyrs.

⚫ Dit schijnen mij als roosen te zijn. Brandt, Hist. der Reformatie, i. 79.

+ Admoto igne, canere cœperunt symbolum fidei, says Erasmus. Epp. i. 1278.

Da ist der eine im Feuer auf die Knie gefallen. L. Opp. xviii. 481. § Cœpta est carnificina. Epp. i. 1429.

#Quarta post exustus est tertius frater Lambertus. L. Epp. ii. 361.

Brussels turned towards the Gospel.* "Wherever Aleander raises a pile," said Erasmus, "there he seems to have been sowing heretics."+

"Your bonds are mine," said Luther; your dungeons and your burning piles are mine!......We are all with you, and the Lord is at our head!" He then commemorated the death of these young monks in a beautiful hymn, and soon, in Germany and in the Netherlands, in city and country, these strains were heard communicating in every direction an enthusiasm for the faith of these martyrs.

No! no! their ashes shall not die !
But, borne to every land,

Where'er their sainted dust shall fall
Up springs a holy band.

Though Satan by his might may kill,
And stop their powerful voice,
They triumph o'er him in their death,
And still in Christ rejoice.

CHAPTER V.

The New Pope, Clement VII.-The Legate Campeggio-Diet of Nuremberg-Demand of the Legate-Reply of the Diet-A Secular Council projected-Alarm and Exertions of the Pope-Bavaria-League of Ratisbon Severity and Reforms Political Schism-OppositionIntrigues of Rome-Decree of Burgos-Rupture.

ADRIAN Would doubtless have persisted in these violent measures; the inutility of his exertions to arrest the reform, his orthodoxy, his zeal, his austerity, and even his conscientiousness, would have made him a cruel persecutor. But this Providence did not permit. He died on the 14th of

* Ea mors multos fecit Lutheranos. Er. Epp. p. 952; Tum demum cœpit civitas favere Luthero. Ibid. p. 1676. Erasmus to Duke George; Ea civitas antea purissima. Ibid. P. 1430.

+ Ubicumque fumos excitavit nuntius, ibi diceres fuisse factam heresean sementem. Ibid.

Vestra vincula mea sunt, vestri carceres et ignes mei sunt. L. Epp. ii. 464.

CLEMENT VII.-CAMPEGGIO.

143

September 1523, and the Romans, overjoyed at being delivered from this stern foreigner, crowned his physician's door with flowers, and wrote this inscription over it: "To the saviour of his country."

Giulio de Medici, cousin to Leo X., succeeded Adrian VI., under the name of Clement VII. From the day of his election there was no more question of religious reform. The new pope, like many of his predecessors, thought only of upholding the privileges of the papacy, and of employing its re sources for his own aggrandizement.

Anxious to repair Adrian's blunders, Clement sent to Nuremberg a legate of his own character, one of the most skilful prelates of his court, a man of great experience in public business, and acquainted with almost all the princes of Germany. Cardinal Campeggio, for such was his name, after a magnificent reception in the Italian cities on his road, soon perceived the change that had taken place in the empire. When he entered Augsburg, he desired, as was usual, to give his benediction to the people, but they burst into laughter. This was enough: he entered Nuremberg privately, without going to the church of St. Sebaldus, where the clergy awaited him. No priests in sacerdotal ornaments came out to meet him; no cross was solemnly borne before him ;* one would have thought him some private individual passing along the streets of the city. Everything betokened that the reign of the papacy was drawing to an end.

The Diet of Nuremberg resumed its sittings in the month of January 1524. A storm threatened the national government, owing to the firmness of Frederick. The Swabian league, the wealthiest cities of the empire, and particularly Charles V., had sworn his destruction. He was accused of favouring the new heresy. Accordingly it was resolved to remodify this administration without retaining one of its former members. Frederick, overwhelmed with grief, immediately quitted Nuremberg.

The festival of Easter was approaching. Osiander and the evangelical preachers redoubled their zeal. The former openly declared in his sermons that Antichrist entered Rome the

Communi habitu, quod per sylvas et campos ierat per mediam urbem ......sine clero, sine prævia cruce. Cochl. p. 82.