He was dragged on a hurdle, with his mouth closed with an iron gag, to the market-place.  Here his right hand and foot were burned and twisted off between two red-hot irons.  His tongue was then torn out by the roots, and because he still endeavored to call upon the name of God, the iron gag was again applied.  With his arms and legs fastened together behind his back, he was then hooked by the middle of his body to an iron chain, and made to swing to and fro over a slow fire till he was entirely roasted.  His life lasted almost to the end of these ingenious tortures, but his fortitude lasted as long as his life.

In the next year, Titelmann caused one Robert Ogier, of Ryssel, in Flanders, to be arrested, together with his wife and two sons.  Their crime consisted in not going to mass, and in practising private worship at home.  They confessed the offence, for they protested that they could not endure to see the profanation of their Saviour’s name in the idolatrous sacraments.  They were asked what rites they practised in their own house.  One of the sons, a mere boy, answered, “We fall on our knees, and pray to God that he may enlighten our hearts, and forgive our sins.  We pray for our sovereign, that his reign may be prosperous, and his life peaceful.  We also pray for the magistrates and others in authority, that God may protect and preserve them all.”  The boy’s simple eloquence drew tears even from the eyes of some of his judges; for the inquisitor had placed the case before the civil tribunal.  The father and eldest son were, however, condemned to the flames.  “Oh God!” prayed the youth at the stake, “Eternal Father, accept the sacrifice of our lives, in the name of thy beloved Son.”—­“Thou liest, scoundrel!” fiercely interrupted a monk, who was lighting the fire; “God is not your father; ye are the devil’s children.”  As the flames rose about them, the boy cried out once more, “Look, my father, all heaven is opening, and I see ten hundred thousand angels rejoicing over us.  Let us be glad, for we are dying for the truth.”—­“Thou liest! thou liest!” again screamed the monk; “all hell is opening, and you see ten thousand devils thrusting you into eternal fire.”  Eight days afterwards, the wife of Ogier and his other son were burned; so that there was an end of that family.

Such are a few isolated specimens of the manner of proceeding in a single district of the Netherlands.  The inquisitor Titelmann certainly deserved his terrible reputation.  Men called him Saul the persecutor, and it was well known that he had been originally tainted with the heresy which he had, for so many years, been furiously chastising.  At the epoch which now engages our attention, he felt stimulated by the avowed policy of the government to fresh exertions, by which all his previous achievements should be cast into the shade.  In one day he broke into a house in Ryssel, seized John de Swarte, his wife and four children, together with two newly-married couples, and two other persons, convicted them of reading the Bible, and of praying in their own doors, and had them all immediately burned.