Original Source Documents (A New Song Here Shall Be Begun / Hedge services at Ghent, June and July 1566)

The next two selections transport us back in time to the events of the reformation in the Netherlands. The first is a song composed by Martin Luther, honoring the first two martyrs of the Reformation as a whole -- two Augustinian monks from the Lowlands. On July 1, 1523, Henry Vos and John van den Essohen were burned at the stake in Brussels. Shortly thereafter, Luther composed this, the first hymn of the Reformation. The second is an eyewitness account of the hedge-preaching that occurred in...