I Will Testify To It With My Blood

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A.D. 1527, Thomas Hermann, a minister of the Gospel and Word of God, was executed. Some persons had been apprehended at Kitzbuehl, and, through the tyranny of the authorities, had been brought to apostatize from the truth. The latter furthermore brought them into a public place before a great multitude of people, where the others reviled them shamefully, and said: “Ah, how finely your teachers and pastors now give their lives for you!” John 10:11; 1 John 3:16. Then the before-mentioned Thomas Hermann made his way through the people, stepped forth and boldly said: “It is the truth which I have taught you, and I will testify to it with my blood.” He was immediately apprehended, tortured, sentenced to the fire, and burned. On his way to the place of execution, he composed and sang a hymn, which is still extant. They could not burn his heart; hence, they threw it into the lake which was near the place of execution. After him sixty-seven of his fellow believers were executed in the same place. The judge of Kitzbuehl, who assisted in condemning and putting to death many of them, and who because of their faith, both before and after, called them heretics was afterwards suffered by God to come to such awful disgrace, that he was himself found to be a heretic, and justly regarded as such by all men; which nevertheless, occurred not at all on account of the faith, but because God permitted him to fall into such disgrace, that he came to reproach and great infamy, also before the world.

The vengeance of God also came upon the town-clerk of Kitzbuehl, who had likewise been instrumental in this shedding of innocent blood, and had declared that he would not lay down his head in peace until he had helped to exterminate these people. For, as he was out riding in a sleigh in the town, and about to make a turn, the horse threw him against a wall, and an oak tree in the street, so that his brains were dashed out, and thus he did not lay down his head in peace, but came to a terrible end, as the brethren Hans Kitzbuehl and Christian Haring have testified concerning it.