The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

CHAPTER SEVEN: Persecution Unto Death for Faith Under Queen Elizabeth

I. Terwoort and Pieters Burned for Faith Under Queen Elizabeth

In the latter part of the sixteenth century the Anabaptists, as they were called in derision, began “wonderfully to increase in the land.” Strangely enough they were persecuted by all other Christian bodies. The Anglicans and Presbyterians in England, the Lutherans in Germany, and the Reformed in Switzerland, though differing from one another and refusing intercommunion, regrettably were united in persecuting the Anabaptists, who were everywhere spoken against and harassed by confiscation of goods, imprisonment, banishment, and even death. ¹ CFF2 130.1

After the dreadful St. Bartholomew’s Massacre of the Huguenots in France in 1572, persecution raged in the Netherlands under the Duke of Alva. As a consequence large numbers, including Anabaptists, fled for refuge to other parts of the Continent and to England. But so great was the severity of Elizabeth’s government that Separatists, and particularly the Anabaptists, were marked for expulsion because, along with the “heresies” of their belief, they refused to regard the Church of England as the only true church. As a consequence they were forced to hold their religious meetings in strictest secrecy. CFF2 130.2

In 1575 one such group of Flemish (or Dutch) Anabaptists fled to England to escape the mounting pressures in the Low Countries. But they found neither hospitality nor refuge in Protestant England from a Protestant queen and her advisers. A group of about twenty-seven were arrested on Easter day, April 3, 1575, while assembled for worship in a private house on the outskirts of London, just beyond Aldgate Bars. They were taken before a magistrate and committed to prison. Brought before the commissioner, they presented a carefully drawn Confession of Faith to Queen Elizabeth, which she flatly rejected. CFF2 131.1

Under duress, four recanted and were released. Eleven were condemned and approximately eight were sent back to the Continent to almost certain death, while five were placed in heavy chains in a damp, filthy dungeon in Newgate. There they were segregated from others, lest they contaminate them by their Anabaptist sentiments. One died in prison, and two of the “most obstinate” were sentenced to burn at Smithfield. CFF2 131.2

Their signed Confession—dated, “In our prison in London, the 21st of July, in the year of our Lord, 1575. By me, Hendrik Terwoort, By me, Jan Pieters”—consisting of thirteen articles, makes noble reading. After stating that their hope for everlasting life was in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for their sins, was raised from the dead, and is now seated at the Father’s right hand, they affirmed their belief in the teachings of the Old and New Testaments. Article XII then states: CFF2 131.3

“We believe in the resurrection of the dead, as it is written, Isaiah 26:19, John 11:25, Daniel 12:2, John 5:25, in 1 Corinthians 15:22, 1 Thessalonians 4:16. That we shall rise from the dead in our own bodies, Job 19:25, Isaiah 26:19, 1 Corinthians 15, when the Lord shall come in the clouds with His angels, then shall each one be judged according to his works; Matthew 25:34, Romans 2:6.” ² CFF2 131.4

Such a statement was virtually identical with other Conditionalist Anabaptist statements of the time. CFF2 131.5

John Foxe, the martyrologist, “interceded” in their behalf. Foxe, addressing Elizabeth as the “ornament of the age,” and referring to the group under indictment as a “fanatical” sect, approved the banishment. He only asked that the “sharpness” of the sentence of burning of the two be modified. But he received a “flat denial” from the queen. He also wrote to the prisoners, appealing to them to abandon their errors, but without success. ³ CFF2 131.6

Picture 1: Hendrik Terwoort and Jan Pieters at the Stake
Hendrik Terwoort and Jan Pieters, Flemish Anabaptist Refugees to Protestant England—Burned at the Stake at Smithfield, July 22, 1575, Under Mandate of Elizabeth I for Conditionalist Faith.
Page 132

In the “Forme of Recantation,” those who recanted were compelled to confess that they had been “seduced by the devil, the spirit of error, and by false teachers,” and were forced to affirm that they therewith repudiated their “damnable and detestable heresies,” from henceforth “utterly abandoning and forsaking all and every Anabaptistical error,” including Conditionalism. ⁴ CFF2 132.1

The response of the steadfast to the appeal from Foxe was explicit. After refusing to recant they concluded by saying: CFF2 132.2

“‘Thus they who treat us in this manner, set before us one of two things, temporal or eternal death. Temporal, if we adhere to what our consciences witness to be right and true. Eternal, if we speak contrary to the dictates of conscience. But we have better hope of the Queen’s clemency .... knowing well, that true faith is a special gift of God implanted in man, not by fire and sword, but by the Holy Ghost, and by the preaching of the pure Word of God. CFF2 132.3

“‘And we ought indeed to consider, that afore-time we all have been heretics, and if we had then been put to death, both body and soul must have perished. But we will here make an end.’” ⁵ CFF2 132.4

Since the rest refused to recant, and the queen would not relent, on July 15, in harmony with the supreme penalty exacted in those days for liberty of faith and conscience, Queen Elizabeth I signed the writ for the execution of the two leaders who signed the Confession, commanding the sheriffs of London to burn them alive at Smithfield. ⁶ CFF2 133.1

Thus it was that in “defence of the holy church, her rights, and liberties,” HENDRIK TERWOORT, twenty-five-year-old goldsmith, and JAN PIETERS were, as “incorrigible” heretics, led to the place of execution on July 22, 1575. Before a great crowd they were bound to the stake. Pieters, middle-aged father of nine, whose wife had been martyred in Flanders, simply said, “We dare not be ashamed of this way, for many prophets went the same way.” They were again promised freedom if they would but recant. But they refused, and the torch was applied. ⁷ CFF2 133.2

It was a black affair. These Anabaptists, being Dutch, were not Elizabeth’s subjects. Furthermore, they were refugees and had claimed the queen’s protection as exiles from their own land for religion’s sake. Moreover, they were living peaceably and causing no disturbance. All they could be charged with was that they would not go to the parish churches and that they worshiped God according to their understanding of the Scriptures—and held to Conditionalism. But Elizabeth’s bishops, “Sandys and Whitgift were furious against the Baptists,” and had denounced them as professing sentiments incompatible with the well-being of society. ⁸ So they died for their faith. CFF2 133.3