1523 The first Lutheran martyrs
Despite the imperial death sentence passed on heretic monk Martin Luther, his ideas began to spread throughout western Europe. In 1522 all the brothers of a monastery of his fellow Augustinians in Antwerp announced themselves convinced by Lutheran doctrine — some had resided for a time in Wittenberg and imbibed Lutheran doctrine from its source. The Catholic authorities arrested them and secured recantations from most of the monks, but two of them, Johan Esch and Heinrich Voes, remained obdurate, even under threat of death. On July 1, 1523 these two men were burnt alive in the public square of Brussels. Though the execution was nasty and prolonged, one of the condemned was heard to say “I feel as if extended on a bed of roses.”.
The news of these deaths inspired Martin Luther to write his first hymn, “Ein neues Lied wir heben an”; it is known in English through the 1843 version by John Messenger, “Flung to the Heedless Winds”.
Flung to the heedless winds
Or on the waters cast,
The martyrs’ ashes, watched,
Shall gathered be at last.
And from that scattered dust,
Around us and abroad,
Shall spring a plenteous seed
Of witnesses for God.
The Father hath received
Their latest living breath,
And vain is Satan’s boast
Of victory in their death.
Still, still, though dead, they speak,
And, trumpet-tongued, proclaim
To many a wakening land
The one availing Name.