1527 was, in many ways, not a good year for the Anabaptists of Europe. George Wagner, of Emmerich, Germany, was charged with the crime that he did not believe that water baptism possessed any saving power. He was bound and thrown into a bonfire on February 8. Melchior Vet was similarly executed at Drache. The former Catholic priest, Michael Sattler had his tongue cut out, twice had his body stabbed and then was pinched five times with red hot tongs before being burnt to death on May 21. He had told his persecutors that “infant baptism is of no avail to salvation; for it is written, we live by faith alone.” At about the same time his wife and two sisters were drowned for their faith. Leonhard Keyser was another former priest in Bavaria. When he was thrown into the fire in August, his body refused to be consumed, so it was pulled out of the ashes, hacked to pieces and thrown into the nearby river. Thomas Herman was martyred that autumn and so were sixty-seven of his fellow church members. Another entire congregation of Anabaptists were consumed by the fires set upon their meeting place. Their persecutors, took pity on a young 16-year-old girl, pulling her from the flames and telling her she could live if she would recant her of profession of faith in Christ alone. When she refused, her executioner took her to a horse-trough where she was drown.
Then on this day, November 20, 1527, Weynken Claes was burned to death in the Hague for her faith in Christ. She was asked, “Do you then, not fear death, which you have never tasted?” Her answer was, “This is true, but I shall never ‘taste’ death, for Christ says, ‘If a man keep my sayings he shall never taste death.’”