Nineteen priests and religious men, who were taken by the Calvinists
in Gorcum, after suffering many insults, were hanged on account of
their religion at Bril, on the 9th of July, 1572. Of these, eleven
were Franciscan friars, called Recollects, of the convent of Gorcum,
amongst whom were Nicholas Pick the guardian, and Jerom Werden,
vicar of the same convent. The former was thirty-eight years old,
an eminent preacher, and a man endued with the primitive spirit of
his order, especially the love of holy poverty and mortification. He
feared the least superfluity even in the meanest and most necessary
things, especially in meals; and he would often say: “I fear if
St. Francis were living, he would not approve of this or that.” He
was most zealous to preserve this spirit of poverty and penance in
his house, and he used to call property and superfluity the bane
of a religious state. His constant cheerfulness rendered piety and
penance itself amiable. He often had these words in his mouth:
“We must always serve God with cheerfulness.” He had frequently
expressed an earnest desire to die a martyr, but sincerely confessed
himself altogether unworthy of that honor. The other martyrs were a
Dominican, two Norbertins, one Canon Regular of St. Austin, called
John Oosterwican,[85] three curates, and another secular priest.
The first of these curates was Leonard Vechel, the elder pastor at
Gorcum. He had gained great reputation in his theological studies
at Louvain under the celebrated Ruard Tapper; and in the discharge
of pastoral duties at Gorcum, had joined an uncommon zeal, piety,
eloquence, and learning with such success, that his practice and
conduct in difficult cases was a rule for other curates of the
country, and his decisions were regarded as oracles at the university
itself. For the relief of the poor, especially those that were sick,
he gave his temporal substance with such tenderness and profusion as
to seem desirous, had it been possible, to have given them himself.
He reproved vice without respect to persons; and by his invincible
meekness and patience disarmed and conquered many who had been long
deaf to all his remonstrances, and added only insults to their
obstinacy. Nicholas Poppel was the second pastor at Gorcum, and
though inferior in abilities, was in zeal worthy to be the colleague
of Vechel, and to attain to the same crown with him. The rest of this
happy company had made their lives an apprenticeship to martyrdom.
They were declared martyrs, and beatified by Clement X. in 1674. The
relation of several miracles performed by their intercession and
relics which was sent to Rome in order to their beatification, is
published by the Bollandists.[86] The greatest part of their relics
is kept in the church of the Franciscan friars at Brussels, whither
they were secretly conveyed from Bril. See the accurate history of
their martyrdom written by the learned doctor William Estius, printed
at Douay in 1603. Also Batavia Sacra, part 2, p. 174, and various
memoirs collected by Solier the Bollandist, t. 2, Julij, p. 736.