Henri Voes and Jean Van Eschen

Henri Voes and Jean Van Eschen was the first Martyr S Protestants, flarings the 1^er July 1523 with Brussels.

Following the publication of the 95 theses of Martin Luther, several monks of the convent Augustin of Antwerp converted with the doctrines of Luther. François Vander Hulst, the first inquisitor appointed by the Emperor Charles Quint and member of the council of the the Brabant, treated the business by convening the prior of the convent, Jacques Praepositus. Once present this one was stopped and, after a few days of imprisonment, acknowledged and made act of abjuration in the Cathédrale Saint-Michel-and-Gudule in Brussels.

During the imprisonment of the prior, the monks named Lambert Thoren like prior and continued to preach the doctrines of Luther. The inquisitor made them stop. Contrary to the other monks, Thoren, Voes and Van Eschen refused to retract. They were ecclesiastically degraded on the Grand-Place of Brussels. Thoren required new time for consideration. The same afternoon of July 1523, Voes and Van Eschen were put at died on the Bûcher drawn up on the Grand-Place. The execution lasted 4 hours.

Their death marks the beginning of the Inquisition carried out in the Spanish Netherlands. Martin Luther composed its first chorus in their memory, a beautiful Song of the two Martyrs of Christ, burned in Brussels by the sophists of Leuwen ( Ein neu Lied von den zweyen Marterern Christi, zu Brüssel von den Sophisten zu German Löwen verbrannt in ).

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