From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Joy of God's Service [IV]   
      
      It is a great honor and glory to serve Thee, and to despise all   
   else for Thy sake; for great grace will be given to those who have   
   willingly entered Thy most holy service. They will discover the   
   sweetest consolations of the Holy Spirit, who for Thy love have   
   renounced all the delights of the flesh. They will win true freedom of   
   mind, who for Thy Name's sake have entered on the narrow way, (Matt.   
   7:14) and set aside all worldly interests.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ, Bk 3 Ch 10   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   JUL 9 – ST NICHOLAS PIECK, OFM, & COMPANIONS   
   (D. 1572), THE 19 MARTYRS OF GORKUM   
      
   On 1 April 1572 a group called the Watergeuzen or Gueux de mer   
   (water-/sea-beggars, i.e. rebels) rebelled against the Spanish   
   Habsburg crown which ruled the Low Countries, and conquered Brielle   
   and later Vlissingen and other places. The town of Gorcum (also Gorkum   
   or Gorinchem) fell into their hands in June, and they captured nine   
   Franciscan friars and two lay brothers, as well as the parish priest,   
   his assistant, and two others. These fifteen endured much abuse and   
   suffering in prison and were then transported to Brielle, being   
   exhibited for money to curious crowds on the way. At Brielle they were   
   joined by four others. At the command of William de la Marck, Lord of   
   Lumey, commander of the Gueux de mer, they were each interrogated and   
   ordered to renounce their belief in the Blessed Sacrament and in papal   
   supremacy. They all remained firm in their faith – even those who had   
   been less than perfect Christians before their arrest. The prince of   
   Orange, William the Silent, ordered those in authority to leave   
   priests and religious unmolested, but Lumey ignored this command and   
   had them all hanged, in a turf-shed on the night of 9 July.   
      
   ‘The hour is now at hand,’ Father Nicholas said, ‘to receive from the   
   hand of the Lord the long desired reward of the struggle, the crown of   
   eternal happiness.’ He encouraged them [his companions] not to fear   
   death nor to lose through cowardice the crown prepared for them and   
   soon to be placed on their brows. Finally he prayed that they would   
   joyfully follow the path on which they saw him leading the way. With   
   these and similar words he joyfully mounted the ladder without ceasing   
   to exhort his companions until strangulation deprived him of the use   
   of his voice” (contemporary account of the martyrdom).   
      
   There were especially two dogmas of the Faith that were attacked by   
   the heretics of the 16th century: the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in   
   the Eucharist and the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff. The Calvinists in   
   Holland persecuted with relentless fury the confessors of the Catholic   
   Faith. The holy martyrs gave their lives particularly in defense of   
   these two fundamental doctrines.   
      
   When the Calvinists, who had set themselves against all ecclesiastical   
   as well as civil authority, took possession of the city of Gorcum,   
   they retained 19 of the clergy as prisoners, though they had promised   
   to let the inhabitants depart from the town without being molested.   
   There were four secular priests among the prisoners, four priests of   
   other religious orders, and 11 Friars Minor of the convent at Gorcum.   
   The latter were the guardian, Father Nicholas Pieck; his vicar, Father   
   Jerome of Weert; Fathers Wilhad, an old man of 90; Theodoric of Emden;   
   Nicaise Jonson, a learned theologian; Godfrey of Mervelan; Anthony of   
   Weert; Anthony of Hornaer; young Father Francis Rod; and 2 lay   
   brothers, Peter van Asche and Cornelius of Dorstat.   
      
   Cast into a filthy prison, they were cruelly treated during the first   
   night by the drunken soldiers. They seemed to vent their hellish rage   
   principally against the guardian, Father Nicholas. Taking the cord   
   which he wore around his waist and putting it around his neck, they   
   dragged him to the door of the prison and threw the cord across it in   
   order to hang him at once. But as a result of pulling the cord back   
   and forth against its weight, the cord tore, and Father Nicholas fell   
   to the earth unconscious. In order to make sure that he was dead or   
   just for the purpose of outrage, the persecutors took a burning candle   
   and burned off his hair and eyebrows, applying the flame also to his   
   nose and open mouth. With a parting laugh of derision, they then left   
   the motionless body in order to torment the others. They struck the   
   face of the aged Father Wilhad with savage blows, but each time he   
   merely said, “Deo gratias! Thanks be to God!”   
      
   After the miscreants had departed, Father Nicholas regained   
   consciousness, for he had only fainted. As soon as he was able to   
   speak again, he encouraged his brethren, declaring that in defense of   
   the Faith he was ready to undergo the same torments again, and even   
   more cruel ones, if it so pleased God, and as often as it pleased God.   
   “For” he said, “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to   
   be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us.”   
      
   On the following day several attempts were made to cause the friars,   
   and in particular their superior, to apostatize. The Calvinists opened   
   a discussion with them about the Blessed Sacrament and the primacy of   
   the pope. But the heretics soon found themselves cornered by the clear   
   proofs advanced by the guardian and his brethren. They hoped to be   
   able at least to deceive one of the lay brothers, but he answered very   
   simply that he was in accord with everything that his guardian had   
   said.   
      
   Meanwhile, the relatives of Father Nicholas, especially his two   
   brothers, were making every effort to obtain his deliverance. But,   
   like a good shepherd, the guardian declared: “I will not leave prison   
   unless my brethren come with me, and even though there were only one   
   detained, and he the lowliest of them all, I would remain here with   
   him.” When his brothers declared that one could renounce the primacy   
   of the pope without denying God, he showed them that he who separates   
   himself from the pope, separates himself from the Church; and that he   
   who renounces the Church, renounces Christ the Lord. And then he spoke   
   with holy zeal: “I would rather endure death for the honor of God than   
   swerve even a hair’s breadth from the Catholic Faith.”   
      
   Eight days later the confessors were taken to Briel, where the   
   Calvinist leader had his headquarters. He had them all hanged there on   
   July 9, 1572. With Christ they shared the disgrace of shameful death,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)