Eyn newes lied wir heben an
The Witness of the Martyrs
The chapter introduces the story of two young men, John and Henry, who stood firm in their faith and became martyrs for the Word of God.
We begin a new song, as God our Lord wills. It tells what God has done, to his praise and honor. In Brussels, in the Netherlands, he made his wondrous power known through two young men— the power he had so richly adorned them with through his gifts. The first is rightly called John, so rich in God's favor. His brother in spirit, Henry, was a true and blameless Christian. Having departed from this world, they won the crown.✦ Like God's faithful children, they died for his word.✦ They became his martyrs.
The Sophists' Futile Opposition
The enemies of the gospel attempt to deceive and threaten the young men, but their learning and tricks fail against the steadfastness of the martyrs.
The ancient enemy had them seized and terrified them for a long time with threats. He ordered them to deny God's word and also tried to deceive and bewilder them with cunning. Many sophists from Leuven failed despite all their learning.1 He gathered them for this contest, but the Spirit made fools of them.2 They couldn't accomplish anything. They sang sweetly, they sang harshly, and tried all kinds of tricks; but the young men stood firm as a wall and scorned the sophists. It deeply enraged the old enemy to have been defeated.3 Defeated by such young men, great as he was, he immediately flew into a rage. He plotted to burn them alive.
True Priesthood and Renunciation
Stripped of their monastic status, the young men embrace their true calling, rejecting worldly hypocrisy to follow Christ.
They stripped them of their monastic robes and revoked their ordination as well. The young men were ready for this; they joyfully said, “Amen.” They thanked God their Father that they would be freed from the devil’s masquerade, his games and mockery—4 the false display with which he so completely deceives the world. By his grace, God arranged it so that they became true priests. There they had to offer themselves to him and enter the Christian order: to die completely to the world and cast off hypocrisy; to reach heaven free and pure, and sweep away the whole monastic system;5 and leave human foolishness behind here.6
The Final Testimony
The martyrs are condemned for the confession that God alone is to be trusted, and they face their execution with songs of praise.
A short document was drawn up for them, which they were told to read aloud themselves. It listed every article of what their faith had been. Their greatest error was this: We must believe God alone, for human beings are always lying and deceiving, and so they should not be trusted in anything. For this, the two men had to burn.✦7 They lit two great fires and brought the young men forward. Everyone was amazed that they could face such torment with contempt. They gladly surrendered themselves to it, praising God and singing. The sophists lost heart at this strange new sight, in which God made his presence so clearly known.8
The Triumph of the Word
Despite the lies of their persecutors, the martyrs' witness signals the return of the gospel, which God will surely bring to completion.
Still, they won't stop using their lies to cover up the terrible murder. They dismiss it as a false story, their conscience driving them to claim that God's holy ones slandered them even after death.9 They claim that, in their final agony, the young men changed their minds while they were still alive. Let them lie there forever; they have little honor from it. We should thank God for this: his word has returned. Summer is right at the door, winter has passed, and the tender flowers are appearing—the one who began it all will surely bring it to completion.✦
Read the original Latin
Eyn newes lied wir heben an / des wald Gott vnser herre. Zu syngen was got hat gethan / zu seynem lob vnd ehre. Zu brussel yn dem nidderland / wol durch zwen yunge knaben / Hatt er seyn wunder macht bekant / die er mit seynen gaben. So reichlich hat getzyret.
Der erst recht wol Johannes heyst / so reych an Gottes hulden. Seynn bruder Henrich nach dem geyst / eyn rechter Christ on schulden. Vonn dyßer welt gescheyden synd / sye hand die kron erworben. Recht wie die frumen gottes kind / fur seyn wort synd gestorben. seyn Mertrer synd sye worden.
Der alte feynd sye fangen ließ / erschreckt sye lang mit drewen. Das wort Gotts er sye leucken hieß / mit list auch wolt sye tewben. Von Löuen der Sophisten viel / mit yhrer kunst verloren. Versamlet er zu dysem spiel / der geyst sye macht zu thoren. Sie kundten nichts gewinnen
Sye sungen suß sye sungen sawr / versuchten manche lysten / die knaben stunden wie eyn mawr / verachten die Sophisten. Den alten feynd das seer verdroß / das er war vberwunden. Vonn solchen yungen / er so groß / er wart vol zorn / von stunden. gedacht sye zuuerbrennen.
Sie raubten yhn das kloster kleyd / die weyh sye yhn auch namen. Die knaben waren des bereit / sie sprachen frölich Amen. Sie danckten yhrem vater Got / das sye loß solten werden / des teuffels laruen spiel vnd spot / daryn durch falsche berden. die welt er gar betrenget.
Das schickt Got durch seyn gnadt also / das sye recht priester worden. Sich selbs yhm musten opffern do / vnd gehen ym Christen orden. Der welt gantz abgestorben seyn / die huchley ablegen. Zu hymel komen frey vnd reyn / die muncherey außfegen. Vnd menschen thandt hie lassen.
Man schreib yhn fur ein brieflein kleyn / das hies man sye selbst lesen. Die stuck sye zeychten alle drein / was yhr glaub war gewesen / der hochst yrhtumb dyser war / Man mus allein got glauben / der mensch leugt vnd treugt ymer dar / dez soll man nichts vertrawen des musten sye verbrennen
Zwey grosse fewr sye zundten an / die knaben sie her brachten. Es nam groß wunder yderman / das sye solch peyn verachten. Mit frewden sye sych gaben dreyn / mit Gottes lob vnnd syngen / der muet wart den Sophisten klein / fur dysen newen dyngen / da sych Gott ließ so mercken.
Noch lassen sy yr lugen nicht / den grossen mort zu schmucken. Sie geben fur eyn falsch geticht / yhr gewissen thut sye drucken / die heylgen Gotts auch nach dem todt / von yhn gelestert werden. Sie sagen yn der letzten not / die knaben noch auff erden sych sollen han vmbkeret.
Die laß man liegen ymer hyn / sie habens kleinen fromen. Wir sollen dancken Got daryn / seyn wort yst widderkommen / der Sommer yst hart fur der thur / der winter yst vergangen / die zarten blumen gehn erfur / der das hat angefangen. der wirt es wol volenden.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jas.1.12;Rev.2.10;2Tim.4.8 — Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Rev.2.10 — Do not fear at all the things you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so that you may be tested, and you will have affliction for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 2Tim.4.8 — From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.
- ↩Rev.6.9 — And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had held.
- ↩Rom.3.4 — May it never be! Let God be true, and every human a liar. As it is written: 'That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.'
- ↩Phil.1.6 — I am confident of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Notes
- 1 ↩Literally, they were “lost” or “defeated with their art”; here Kunst means their learned skill or intellectual craft.
- 2 ↩Spiel literally means “game” or “play,” but here it refers to the contest or proceeding against the prisoners.
- 3 ↩“The old enemy” refers to the devil in the surrounding stanza.
- 4 ↩The compressed phrase describes the devil’s deceptive masquerade, spectacle, and mockery; its thought continues into the next printed sentence.
- 5 ↩The polemical term “Möncherei” refers disparagingly to monkery or the institutional monastic system, not simply to individual monks.
- 6 ↩Early New High German “Menschentand” means empty human folly, trifling, or worthless human contrivance.
- 7 ↩The phrase is bitterly ironic: the authorities condemned as error the martyrs’ insistence that God alone must be believed.
- 8 ↩Literally, “as God made himself so perceptible”; rendered as God making his presence clearly known.
- 9 ↩Literally, “their conscience presses them”; the phrase attributes their false account to the pressure of a guilty conscience.
Erfurt Enchiridion (Early Lutheran Hymns) companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing