St. John of Cologne & the Gorkum Martyrs
On their Feast Day - July 9
Prominently displayed in the Vatican Museum is an 1867 painting by Italian artist Cesare Fracassini. The painting depicts a gruesome scene of martyrdom in which the bodies of three Roman Catholic priests are suspended from barn rafters. The clerics have been led to their death by the torturous act of hanging. Two soldiers are preparing the noose for two Franciscan friars and a Norbertine or Augustinian priest; another soldier uses his sword to stab the lifeless body of another cleric that is lying on the dirty barn floor. In the midst of these heinous executions, the bright sunlight pours through the open barn roof casting colors and shadows on those who would be remembered as the Martyrs of Gorkum. However, the Martyrs of Gorkum painting only depicts six of the nineteen religious who humbly went to their death at the hands of their Dutch executioners. The body most noticeable in the painting is the one at the center; he is a Dominican Friar whose white habit catches the light, his head bowed in what appears to be a reverential pose. The Dominican Friar is Johannes van Hoornaar, or commonly known as St. John of Cologne.
St. John of Cologne and his Gorkum brothers were hung on July 9, 1572, by a group of soldiers and pirates known as the Sea Beggars. The Sea Beggars were ardent Calvinist who coupled their fierce anti-Catholicism with punishing physical violence; they sought to rid the Low Country (The Netherlands) of Catholics. The deaths of the Gorkum Martyrs was not a random act of violence but was the result of a deep and long history of religious animosity between the nobles of Catholic Spain who ruled the Netherlands and Protestant Calvinist rebels who wanted to see their country rid of Catholic rule and religious practices. How can brutal religious persecution and violence happen in a society that both claim Jesus Christ as Lord and King? It is evident from the history of Catholicism and Reformation Protestantism in the Low Countries of the Netherlands that they were on a collision course that terminated in violence.
Johannes van Hoornaar (John of Cologne) was born at a time when the world was in a state of unrest and instability. There is no record of the date of John of Cologne’s birth but according to his religious order, the Dominicans, he received his religious training in Cologne and served parish religious duties in the Dutch province of Hoornaar in Holland. Western Christianity was entering one of its darkest periods as Luther’s Reformation was sweeping across the Empire creating religious and civil strife. Luther was committed not so much to the reform of the Catholic Church but rather committed to the Catholic Church’s destruction. In the preceding years of the Reformation, the Church was corrupt in many of its practices, particularly the scandals of the Borgia papacy. It is not surprising there was widespread anti-clericalism sentiment throughout the Western Catholic world. In a letter penned by Luther to his former philosophy professor at the University of Erfurt he said, “To speak plainly, my firm belief is that the reform of the Church is impossible unless the ecclesiastical laws, the papal regulations, scholastic theology, philosophy and logic as they at present exist, are thoroughly uprooted.” Luther’s reformation unleashed a revolution across the Empire most notably in the Low Countries where John of Cologne lived and Charles V ruled.
Charles the V, the Low Countries, and the Reformation
In 1515 at the age of fifteen Charles V ascended to the Hapsburg Throne and ruled the Low Countries (Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg); the following year he was named King of Spain and ruled of all Spain’s dominions in the New World. In 1519, Pope Clement VII crowned Charles V as Emperor of the German Empire which included lands in Italy. Charles was a powerful ruler, but the vastness of his Kingdom made it difficult to assert authority and control. He was in a very precarious and dangerous position due to turmoil from the Turks in the east, battles with the French in the West, discord with the German princes, and rebellions in Spain. In Germany and most notably in the Low Countries, Protestant sects stood in opposition to Catholicism, preaching a new religion of intolerance of anything Roman. Charles V responded by suppressing Protestantism by formal edict in 1520 declaring Lutheranism as a heresy.
In 1521 the Edict of Worms was issued stating Luther an outlaw worthy of death, his teaching heresy, and that he was a destroyer of evangelical peace, love, and order. In Charles V estimation, Luther should cease his spread of heresy because he was a man possessed by the devil. In 1523, he received Rome's approval to establish a general inquisitor who would investigate and send those suspected of heresy to trial.
The Suppression of Protestantism 1523-1566
The suppression of Charles V was effective as the “Netherlands was one of the first parts of Europe to be touched by Protestantism but one of the last to witness the establishment of a Protestant Church.” The Catholic Church’s suppression of Protestant sects between the years 1523-1566 saw more than thirteen hundred people executed in the Netherlands for their beliefs. This was an unusually high number of victims in comparison to other countries as it relates to population size. “In no other part of the Europe would extinguishing of heresy claim nearly so high a toll of victims." It was in this environment of Protestant persecution that the Church of Lutheran, Zwingli (Anabaptist), and Calvin (Reformed Church) began to take root in the Low Countries.
Philip II and William the Silent
In 1555, Charles V abdicated the throne to his son Philip II. Unlike his father, Philip was not a native of the Low Countries but was Spanish “first and last.” Many Netherlanders resented Philip’s rule as he trod upon their local customs; they saw Philip as cold and reserve and grew discontent with him as he chose foreign ministers to the exclusion of those from the native Netherlands. Many Catholics opposed his plans of improving orthodoxy by establishing smaller bishoprics so that his Protestant inquisition would be more efficient. One particular group that grew obstinate and became very vocal was a sect whose membership began to increase in large numbers.
The Calvinist of the Reformed Church became fearful and suspicious of Philip II with deepening distrust. False stories regarding intense persecution circulated among the Dutch Calvinist regarding Philip’s support of the Spanish Inquisition. The clash between Philip and the Dutch Calvinist was inevitable. One of the most powerful nobleman and Governor in the country was William the Silent or often referred to as William of Orange. William, whose parents were Lutheran, grew up in the royal court at Brussels as a Catholic and served faithfully under Charles V. His relationship with Philip II “quickly deteriorated” as he was sympathetic to the Calvinist and their cause.
By the 1560’s The Reformed Church continued to be influential with the Dutch as Catholic Church attendance dwindled in numbers. Traditional Catholic practices such as pilgrimages decreased rapidly as Reformation leaders waged a propaganda war on Catholicism and many of its traditional practices. In the Delft area of the Netherlands, the Marian miracle shrines saw their offerings drop by sixty percent over a fifteen-year period. From 1520 and onward, proceeds from indulgences, the growth of religious orders, as well as legacies left to the Church experienced a rapid decline.
In 1560, only half the population of Dokkum in Friesland attended Easter Communion. A clergyman of that time said, "an almost universal feeling of hatred…in the hearts of the majority of the people against the clerical estate as if we were the cause of rigors and executions carried out for a long time for the sake of religion."
The Iconoclastic Outbreak
The iconoclastic outbreak in 1566 was the flashpoint that flamed anti-Catholic violence in the Netherlands; it was the precursor that fueled the martyrdom of St. John of Cologne and the Gorkum Martyrs. On August 10, a former Augustinian Monk, Jacob de Buzere, led a group of men (after he had preached an anti-Catholic, iconoclastic sermon) to the monastery of St Lawrence, smashing all the religious images inside. Buzere, over the next few days, did the same at various monasteries throughout towns and villages. The “Calvinist Fury” came to Antwerp on August 20, when forty-two Churches and all religious images and paintings destroyed. Churches were despoiled and their libraries burned; Virgin Mary statues that were used for Marian processions were cut to pieces. Over the next four days more than four hundred churches, monasteries, and convents were sacked. Tabernacles were smashed, Sacred Hosts taken out and desecrated, and the bones of saints “disinterred and dragged through the dirt.” Art treasures and libraries were burned; the entire library and all vestments of the Friars Minor in Utrecht were put to flames. The Count of Culemborg went to his church and took his ax to the altar, ordering his servant to eat dinner on the chopped wood; he fed his pet parrot consecrated hosts from the tabernacle.
Philip’s Response and the Sea Beggars
When news reached Philip regarding the mass sacrilege, he grew physically ill and suffered severe convulsions because of his failure to protect the Church from the iconoclastic uprising. Meanwhile, William the Silent gave into the demands of the Calvinist and allowed unlimited Church services in Antwerp. Philip’s response was to “re-establish Habsburg hegemony in the Low Countries” by force by appointing the Duke of Alba as captain-general of Spanish imperial army. The Duke of Alba sought to repress and exploit the menace caused by the Dutch Calvinist and other reformer groups. In 1568, seventeen provinces in the Netherlands sought independence from the Spanish Empire appointing William the Silent as their protector and leader.
In 1572, Dutch Calvinist pirates, called the Sea Beggars, proved formidable as they attacked the coast cities and were a menace to the Duke of Alba. Elizabeth I expelled six hundred Sea Beggars from England they seized the unimportant Port of Brielle. In their celebration of capturing Brielle, they sacked every Church and torturing thirteen priests to death. By July, the whole north of Holland (except Amsterdam) was in control of the Sea Beggars due to the failure of the Duke of Alba of controlling his sea flank. Not only did the Sea Beggars commit torturous acts on clergy, but they would also allow local people, whose towns they were raiding, to buy immunity and protection from looting. They would press men into their service in exchange for not burning or pillaging their villages.
St. John of Cologne and the Martyrs of Gorkum
On June 26, 1572, the Sea Beggars captured the city of Gorkum. As was their practice, they plundered the city and exacted revenge on the clergy and the Church they despised. The Beggars detained nine Franciscan Friars, two Franciscan Lay Brothers, four parish priests, two Norbertine canons, and an Augustinian canon. They were charged with treason and sent to a local prison for torture and punishment. John of Cologne, hearing of their plight, left the relative safety of his parish, put on a disguise, so that he could administer the sacraments and provide help to them. Soon after John of Cologne was arrested and taken as a prisoner, he was subjected to the cruel torture of his captors. They were ruthlessly interrogated and repeatedly asked to deny the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and the primacy of the papacy. Their refusal to renounce their Catholic faith resulted in continuous cruel and exhausting torture as well as with the threats of being burned at the stake.
On July 6, they were thrown into the hold of a ship and taken to the town of Brielle to stand before the leader of the Sea Beggars and Lord of Lumey, William van de Marck. The torturous punishment of the Sea Beggars leader van de Marck must have been known by the Dutch Catholic clergy and the Gorkum prisoners. The Bishop Mathias Hovius records that there were tales of:
nearby clergy whose skulls were cracked, ears and noses cut off, tongues cut out, heads placed in hot waffle irons, bodies run through, and corpses tossed casually into river by irreverent Protestants. […] William Blois van Treslong, a Netherlandish pirate turned Calvinist zealot who sailed into cities and strung up Catholic clergy, no questions asked, and his partner in terror, William van de Marck…
William van de Marck found them guilty and sentenced all of them to death; they were stripped of their habits and marched naked in front of the townspeople to a deserted monastery on the outskirts of Brielle.28 According to some accounts, the Gorkum prisoners were forced to parody Catholic rituals.29 St. John of Cologne and his brothers entrusted their “ordeal to God and urged one another to persevere to the end.” On July 9, 1572 St. John Cologne and the Gorkum martyrs were brutally hanged; their bodies either mutilated before or after their death and thrown into a ditch.
Conclusion
Martyrdom is the supreme witness of the Christian life since it bears witness to the truths of the faith. The Gorkum Martyrs and their willingness to suffer with Jesus Christ, are the perfect witnesses of charity. Like St. Ignatius of Antioch, who gladly went to his death for Jesus, the Gorkum Martyrs can say the words of St Ignatius: “Neither the pleasures of this world nor the kingdoms of this age will be any use to me. It is better for me to die [in order to unite myself] to Christ Jesus to reign over the ends of the earth.”
Sources
Benedict, Philip. Christs Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism. Ann Abor, MI: Edwards Brothers, 2002.
Boran, F.D.S. Martyrs of Gorkum. New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., vol. 6, Gale, 2003.
Carroll, Stuart. Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe. New York: NY, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Carroll, Warren. The Cleaving of Christendom. Front Royal, VA: Christendom Press, 2000.
Dorcy, O.P., Sister Mary Jean. St. Dominic’s Family. Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, 1983.
Funk, Dr. F.X. Manual of Church History: Volume II. St. Louis: MO, B. Herder Books, 1910.
Gregory, Brad S. Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Harline, Craig and Eddy Put. A Bishop’s Tale: Mathias Hovius Among His Flock in Seventeenth-Century Flanders. New Haven: CT, Yale University Press, 2000.
Johnson, George and Jerome Hannan, and Sister M. Dominica. The Story of the Church: Her Founding, Mission and Progress. Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, 1980.
Leeman, Johan. More Than a Memory: The Discourse of Martyrdom and the Construction of Christian Identity in the History of Christianity. Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2005.
van Nierop, Henk. Treason in the North Quarter: War, Terror, and the Rule of Law in the Dutch Revolt. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
van Oostrom, Frits. A Key to Dutch History: The Cultural Canon of the Netherlands. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2007.