On this special day, 1 July 1523

Not long after the Diet of Worms and the subsequent Edict in 1521, Augustinian monks Johann van den Esschen (Johannes Esch) and Hendrik Vos (Heinrich Voes), sympathetic to Luther and his teachings, were taken captive and branded for execution. On 1 July 1523, van den Esschen and Vos were burned at the stake. They are now touted as the first martyrs of the Reformation, or “purified Christian truth.”
Voes and Esch Burning
Despite the acclaim, their names and stories are very seldom, if ever, told in the scheme of the Reformation. Even less is mentioned of the third man who endured prison and torture along with Vos and van den Esschen, Lampertus Thorn. At his trial Thorn requested four more days to mull over whether he should recant or not. Going forth in the strength God had granted them at their appointed time, van den Esschen and Vos went not merely defiantly to the stake, but with courage and readiness, knowing they would soon be baptised into a new life.

What were these men charged with and sent to their deaths for? They believed and taught the following (though this list does not contain all they charges brought against them):

no on should be deterred from reading the works of Martin Luther;
worldly authorities had no power over conscience;
all Christians are priests;
Christ is not sacrificed again during Mass (or Communion, the Eucharist);
Scripture must be the foundation doctrine and practice (sola scriptura);
Baptism, Communion and Confession are the only sacraments instituted by Christ (rejecting the other four);
Jesus Christ Himself works good deeds through men; men do not contribute except for allowing Christ to use them;
appointing successors to Peter as Pope, or Bishop over all churches, was not the act of Christ;
if the sinner believes he has been absolved, his sins have been forgiven.

For these and other charges, the Roman Catholic hierarchy turned the two men over to the civic courts to handle the official execution orders. Interestingly, these charges were not read to the crowd at the execution site prior to their burning, as was the typical procedure. Apparently they thought the ignorant crowd might consider these men wrongly executed. Eyewitness reports mention the men singing a hymn, praying and admonishing the crowd. Yet another picture of beauty in such a horrific and horrendous act.

These are unsung, generally unknown heroes of the Reformation. For the most part, their story is limited to being told in Ludwig Rabus’s The History of God’s Chosen Witnesses, Confessors, and Martyrs. The problem is that so few even know such a sixteenth century martyrology exists. Due to the limited amount of martyrs, and relatively little persecution, in the Germanic land at the time (there is no comparison between Rabus’s country and John Foxe’s country in the 1550′s), interest in the martyr book fell away quickly. I pray their story can live on, and encourage us Christians today to be strong in our faith. We may not all be called to the fire as these brothers were, but we will endure our own struggles from the world because we bear Christ’s name.

To read more of their story, check out the Lutheran Church’s “They seem like roses to me,” a story of these men and their ordeal.