The day Dirk turned (This story is taken from "Coming home"..Stories of Anabaptists in Britain and Ireland)

In 1569, over four hundred and thirty years ago, Dirk Willems turned back. Within a couple of months of his dramatic action he was burned at the stake for heresy. And ever since, his life and death - made visual in Jan Luyken's engraving which freezes at the moment of his turning - have had an astonishing impact. Dirk was a young man from the town of Asperen in the Netherlands.

As a teenager he met some Anabaptists. Their vision of Christian discipleship gripped his imagination, and he was (re)baptised in the neighbouring city of Rotterdam. Returning to Asperen, he - according to the legal document which sentenced him to death - in his house "harbored and admitted secret conventicles and prohibited doctrines." that is, dirk took part in a church that met illicitly in his home where he and others taught a way of being Christian that was unacceptable to the roman catholic church, which backed up by Spanish military might, was trying to hold on to power.

Dirk was arrested and imprisoned. But he managed to escape from the prison -he climbed out of a window and clambered down a rope made of knitted cloths - and he ran for safety. It was early spring; as he approached a still-frozen pond a guard was chasing him. Dirk, who had been eating prison food, made it across the cracking ice. The guard had been eating rather better and broke through the ice. In terror he cried out for help.

Dirk turned back reflexively. At great risk, he reached across the ice to rescue his pursuer, who promptly rearrested dirk. Why did the guard do that? Was the local burgomaster watching, as one account indicates, shouting out that the guard must "consider his oath"? For whatever reason, the guard re-imprisoned dirk in a more secure prison in the tower of the Asperen parish church. This time there was to be no escape.

Dirk was tried for heresy and, according to the official death sentence, was condemned to be burned to death "for an example to others". For good measure, his property was to be confiscated "for the benefit of his royal majesty". The execution was exceptionally painful. The fire, blown by the wind away from his upper body, did its work slowly. People in the neighbouring town of Leerdam are recorded to have heard dirk cry out over seventy times, "O, my Lord, my God."

In Asperen today there is a Dirk Willemsz Straat, along which people can walk in his memory. James C. Juhnke has written a play -Dirk's exodus - making his experience come alive both for readers and in the theatre. The Luyken engraving of his turning has appeared in over 130 publications. But the true effect of dirk's short life is on the lives of countless Christians. Dirk's life has been, in the words of the people who sentenced him to death, "an example to others." and over it all linger the questions -why did dirk turn back? Was it right for him to turn back? Would I have turned back?

(To find out more about Anabaptists, their histrory, beliefs and Anabaptists in the UK today visit