Dutchman Dirk Willems was a religious prisoner who escaped in 1569, but when the guard pursuing him fell through the ice of a river, Willems turned around to save the guard. He was then recaptured and burned at stake.
Dutchman Dirk Willems was a religious prisoner who escaped in 1569, but when the guard pursuing him fell through the ice of a river, Willems turned around to save the guard. He was then recaptured and burned at stake.
Baptists in 1569: rescuing your jailer from certain death due to deeply held religious convictions knowing the King will certainly kill you for your good deed
Baptists in 2024: deeply held religious convictions are now just stand your ground laws, looking to kill anyone for their good deed
I just want to point out Anabaptists and Baptists are two separate groups. Dirk Willems is an Anabaptist martyr while Baptists came later and were more closely related to Calvinism iirc
True yeah, they’re most likely from the English separatists vs European anabaptists though they had very similar theological beliefs and politics at the time
edit: I didn’t know about the calvin influence (cursed be his name), but I found this article fascinating: Martin Davie, “Calvin’s Influence on the Theology of the English Reformation” which is only tangentially related