Saints of the Reformation
The Martyrs:
Esch & Voes
by Mathew Block
O
n July 1, 1523, two Augustinian
monks were burned at the
stake in Brussels. Their crime?
They were Lutheran.
A year earlier, in 1522, Johann
Esch and Heinrich Voes and the other
monks at the Monastery in Antwerp
had declared their adherence to the
teachings of Martin Luther and the
other Evangelical reformers: that
the Scriptures were authoritative
even over church tradition, and that
bishops—including the pope—were
themselves subject to the authority
of Scripture. They further held that
bishops should exercise spiritual
authority—to preach the Word of
God—rather than the prince-like
powers many bishops exercised. They
also rejected the then-common practice
of selling indulgences.
These were dangerous opinions
to hold in the early sixteenth century.
In short order, the Bishop of Cambrai
had all the monks of Antwerp arrested.
The Dominican theologian Jacob van
Hoogstraten and several professors
from the University of Louvain served
as interrogators. Under threat of
execution, all but three of these monks
recanted: Voes, Esch, and a third
named Lampertus Thorn.
These three were brought to
Brussels from their prison in Vilvorde
so that they might be burned at the
stake. When they arrived, Thorn asked
for additional time to consider his
beliefs—and he was granted a reprieve.
Esch and Voes, however, remained
steadfast in their faith, and so they
were led out to the market square to
be executed. Asked one last time to
recant, they answered, “We will die
as Christians and for the truth of the
Gospel.”
As the fire rose around them, they
confessed their faith again and again in
the words of the Apostle’s Creed. Then
they sang the Te Deum until, as one
author puts it, “at last the fire choked
their voices, and there remained of
them nothing but ashes.”
It may seem an ignominious end
for these early Belgian adopters of
the Reformation. Even their former
monastery did not survive: it was
considered corrupted and subsequently
demolished. Voes and Esch’s witness
to the truth of the Reformation was
brought to an abrupt conclusion.
And yet, their message lived
on, encouraging others. Though
he wavered for a time, Thorn later
affirmed the faith that Esch and
Voes had professed with their blood.
Some say Thorn was executed a few
days after Esch and Voes. Others—
including Luther—seem to suggest
he remained imprisoned indefinitely
because of his faith. But even in
that situation, Thorn, together with
Esch and Voes, became a symbol for
steadfastness in the faith. In a letter
to Thorn, Luther writes that “you
and [Esch and Voes] have been a great
comfort to me, and a sweet savour to all
Christendom, and a glorious ornament
to the gospel of Christ.”
It can be hard to think of execution
as a “sweet savour.” And yet it is true:
the death of the saints reminds us that
our God is greater than death—indeed,
that He has defeated death. So it is
that the death of Esch and Voes would
inspire repentance in the lives of their
former brothers at the monastery
in Antwerp. Jacobus Probst, for
example, had recanted in the face of
the Inquisition. He later repented
and threw himself with new vigour
behind the cause of the Reformation,
drawing strength from the witness of
Esch and Voes.
Their story went on to encourage
other Christians too, thanks in part to
a ballad Luther wrote commemorating
Heinrich Voes and Johann Esch are burned
at the stake.
their martyrdom. One English
translation puts part of the song this
way: “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.”
Truly it is said that “the blood of
the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
These Flemish Lutherans’ witness
to Christ, sealed with their blood, is
a testimony both to their faith and
to the God who inspires such faith.
Their blood ultimately points us back
to Christ, whose blood wins salvation
for all who believe in Him—and who
strengthens us to confess His name
even when persecution comes.
May the faith of Johann Esch and
Heinrich Voes continue to encourage
Lutherans today as we remember just
how great a prize has been won for us
by Christ. It is a prize worth more than
any comfort in this world. May we live
in the light of this truth!
THE CANADIAN LUTHERAN March/April 2016
47